Bhubaneswar, June 8: Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva feels that women have more facilities today but are far from secure. In Bhubaneswar for an event to observe former chief minister Nandini Satpathy’s 83rd birth anniversary, Alva shared her views in an informal chat with The Telegraph.
Talking about her journey, she said: “In a society with systems and structure that are male-dominated and male-oriented, it is not easy for anybody. In politics, too, it was a struggle for survival for me.”
The 71-year old leader, who had held several crucial portfolios in the Union government, feels that over the years things have changed for women and yet not all has been for good. “There has been a positive change in many areas. With education and awareness through mass media as tools, initiatives and legislations by various governments, supportive structures like self-help groups and NGOs, social networking systems and, importantly, reservations, women’s conditions have improved,” said Alva.
At the same time, despite thousands of laws against rape and murder, ghastly incidents continue to happen, says Alva. “Implementation of laws is the key to women’s security. Delay of justice is the biggest hurdle,” she said.
“Education and science are also combining somewhere to work against women’s safety. Foeticide continues as even high literacy areas continue to have low female sex ratio. Somewhere media is also responsible in re-enforcing traditional mindsets through soap operas or films where they show women should quietly agree to everything in-laws or elders or a husband says to emerge the ideal lady,” she added.
She said the break-up of joint families worries her. This is a de-stabilising process since the concept of joint families, where everybody is responsible for the other and takes care of the other, was a social secure system. “Working mothers is again a positive change but then that is also causing destabilisation in families in the upbringing of children and the care of elderly in the family,” she said.
Another of her concerns is the development of rural and tribal areas. “Large populations are moving to urban centres. This is causing imbalance in societies of both areas. But we can use science and technology for the development of rural areas. One inspiring change is the deserts of Rajasthan, which have turned green with the farming of many items with help of the Indira Gandhi canal,” she said.
Alva said the youth of the country shows promise by taking part in peaceful demonstrations and making demands so that the government had to respond. “We have to harness this power for change. But this development has to have a human face to create an inclusive society with justice for all,” she said.
Recollecting her memories of Nandini Satpathy, the only woman chief minister of Odisha, Alva said they were extremely close during the seventies. “She was already a seasoned politician when I first met her. I have very fond memories of our association,” she reminisced.
While delivering a lecture in memory of Satpathy later in the evening, she said: “Placing women in the context of development is, as is taught in undergraduate economics, a conceptual problem of national income accounting. A nurse, working in a hospital, earns a certain monthly income that is part of gross domestic product or national income. What of the wife who cares for and nurses her ailing husband or children? The work is the same, perhaps even heavier. Yet, the woman’s income vanishes, and her work in the home is termed ‘unpaid labour of love’ not accounted for in GDP or national income. This is true also of women who work on family farms and enterprises and perform the difficult tasks of human survival for the family — fetching fuel, fodder and water. While economists can continue to debate this as a “conceptual problem”, we, as women, see this as our ‘invisibilisation’ and virtual de-recognition of our contribution to family, society and economy.
