Homely Girls:

April 04/2011: Many a north Indian newspaper carries matrimonial advertisements in multiple pages. It’s all about grooms looking for brides or brides offering themselves for marriage. Words like ‘wheatish complexioned, convent educated and homely’ usually indicates, to the knowledgeable, that the bride is pretty common looking and is not finding a groom that easy.

What with Women’s Lib of the late Sixties and Seventies taking its toll in the West, we in India somehow got stuck somewhere that these winds of sweeping change did not manage to touch us. They flew by for sure. Maybe little portions got held back between tall structures of Bombay, Delhi, Gurgaon or even Bangalore and Madras. That is why some women’s activists are seen sporting sling bags and a particular kind of salwar-kameez on the streets. Yet they too did not show the audacity of their western counterparts in shedding certain segments of their attire to prove a point. Clearly showing that breaking the social boundaries was not really easy for these ladies of high virtues and so they stayed put where they were during their grandma’s times.

This may imply that, like the demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in the State and Union legislatures, a change in man’s attitude alone will be able to emancipate the average educated, highly politicised and ambitious Indian woman. However, emancipation, unlike shedding a piece of garment, is not really limited to a constrained form of reservation in the political seat distribution segment only. It should be a matter of great concern for all of us. At least those who desire to be positive participants in creating a better social order in this nation got to get worried.

Imagine a scenario. Our daughter, niece, sister or wife is keen on obtaining higher education living in a state of mind called Orissa. People may get fooled with facts and statements. Our legal system allows crooked and litigant women to file cases claiming millions as damages from others while not paying a single rupee as Court stamp fee. The state government claims it is extending help via various means of transport and supply of clothes to girl students to entice them for studying better and to a higher level. All this for creating a more equitable society, we guess. While guessing, we are accosted with realities that seem very harsh. For instance, the recent ruling by the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa in connexion with the Ravenshaw University Women’s Hostel imbroglio is a point to ponder. The Court has ruled that the famed (or Defamed) East Hostel may be given to Men and not Women.  This East Hostel, purportedly, has an unique history that has disturbed the sleep of many Principals of the former Ravenshaw College, an educational institute that holds the banner of educating many illustrious figures, both past and present, of the state. It is claimed that this Univ, out of a total of 6759 students, has 2781 men and 3978 women. There are available 871 beds for men and an equal number for women. However, the numbers from women requiring hostel facilities are much more. There are 1200 women students in the hostels at present. That means an excess of 329. On the other hand, men in residence in the hostels are exact in number to the beds available. Keeping this in view, the Univ management had decided to allocate the East Hostel for women residents. In their characteristic style, the Cuttacki men went on a wild spree breaking and destroying college properties in revolt against the decision to give a safer and comfortable home to their fellow women students. The violence being intense, it culminated in the formation of a ‘Peace Committee’ by the High Court. One of the members of this committee was a retired judicial officer. The committee, after much head wrecking, decided that the East Hostel be allotted for use by men.

To settle the tug of war, The High Court, again after much deliberations, recently ruled (basing on the suggestion of the committee) that the East Hostel be given to men and a new hostel be built for women. We assume the Hon’ble Court is very well aware that building a new hostel for women is not within the financial powers of the Univ’s management. The state government cannot be hauled up for not complying with the Court order. It is not as if the Court has specifically asked someone, say, for example, the Secretary of the department of Higher Education to take necessary steps. No names means no responsibility in the system of governance. Therefore, it could easily be said that what the Court has opined is give men the space to stretch while depriving women the comfort of a cubby hole.

Would anyone of us really decide in such a manner if one of those women was our daughter or niece or sister or wife? The question is not to be mistaken as an affront to the judgement of the High Court. It is a social issue. Level headed attitudes and their implementation in the correct spirit alone will bring about gender equality and balance. On the other hand, giving out wrong messages could disturb the already weakened social fabric of this state.