Every year we organize many programs for the payment of duty and one of them is International Women’s Day celebrated on 8th March. Every year some announcements are made, some programs are decided and some plans are made. This time also they will be very similar, but in the last years something like this has started happening, which is going to create uneasiness for those who celebrate the ceremony like a formal ceremony. I remember one such occasion, when I felt this uneasiness during a Women’s Day event. A few years ago I had the opportunity to attend the main program in the Department of Women’s Studies of a university which, as I feared, was too boring and tiring. One after the other the professor speakers were reminding the students sitting in front that in our country women are considered as goddesses and it is believed that where women are worshiped, gods reside there. Suddenly there was some whispering in a corner and some girls stood up. What one of them said sarcastically meant that she was not interested in worshiping herself as a goddess, she just wanted her basic human rights as a person. It was natural that there was an uneasy silence in the auditorium.
Something similar is being seen in Pakistan for the last several years. Every year women’s groups celebrate International Women’s Day and stun the patriarchal society with their themes and slogans. They do not understand how to compete with them with words? For instance, his theme sentence last year was ‘Mera Jism Mera Haq’. The helplessness of his followers sitting on television channels was visible. While grinding his teeth, he used to get down on abusive words. Similarly, all the religious organizations saw the only way to answer them is to climb their procession with sticks and sticks. Something similar is likely to happen this time as well.
In a patriarchal society, I can understand from my own experience how much a man can find it difficult to leave even a little space for a woman. Today, when women have been accepted in combat roles in all the three wings of the army, then it will be difficult for the new generation to guess what experiences women who were recruited in the police had to go through for the first time. In the mid-1970s, when I was starting my job, for the first time, women policemen started appearing in police stations in Uttar Pradesh. His presence aroused curiosity as well as disbelief. Although there were few women in the IPS, but they were not taken lightly then in the posts of constable or sub-inspector. Most of his colleagues were not convinced of their potential or usefulness, except for the general public they came in contact with. The communities they came from also did not see women’s employment in the police as a respectable option. Teaching or nursing was his first choice.
It was also no less interesting that many women policemen used to come on duty with their newborn baby. Naturally, this would create many problems in the field and generally it would go against him. Even though the picture of a female policeman handling children and doing duty today garners sympathy and praise on social media, in those days only sarcasm and annoyance used to come to her account. Today, when we are used to seeing them in khaki clothes and they have better support even in families, then it is a bit difficult for us to imagine the troubles of those days. It is no less encouraging that women in khaki have proved themselves even in such difficult times.
This journey of women’s participation in the police was not only a struggle like any other organisation, but it also had some additional problems attached to it. The police is a force and there are certain expectations attached to it from the person in the leadership role. Many subordinates act on the orders of a commander. Initially, in a male dominated society, the very idea of conducting themselves on the orders of a woman made male policemen uncomfortable. The women commanders were also not very confident about their role, so at times very interesting situations would arise. As per the common prevailing belief in the society, a successful police officer must be ‘hard’. Sometimes a woman police officer had to make some changes in her body language in order to be ‘hard’, which seemed unusual. Now that her leadership role has been largely accepted, normally a woman does not have to go through such experiences.
Despite all the changes of mind, this journey is not an easy one. Every milestone has been achieved only after struggles. After years of struggle, women have secured permanent commissions and combat roles in the armed forces with the help of the Supreme Court. We should remember that in the Constituent Assembly immediately after independence, even after trying hard, Dr. Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru could not get it passed. After a long battle of six decades, now a proposal of this code bill, in which the daughter was to get equal rights in the father’s property with the brother, could take the form of law. There are many such changes, which may seem small, but can make a big difference in the level of prices, slowly but gradually.
The most difficult step is to give full authority to the woman over her body and progress is being made in this direction as well. It should also be remembered that changes are generally slow in South Asia and the reaction of fundamentalists to themes like Mera Jism Mera Haq in Pakistani society is reflective of this trend.
(These are the author’s own views)