Soon after getting a diploma in electrical engineering some two decades ago, Surekha Yadav embarked on a similar mission like other fresh graduates: job hunting.
Over the days, she came across vacancy announcements and after matching her skills and qualification, she settled for the post of railway driver.
It was an odd choice, especially for an Indian woman, as the profession of steering the train was heavily dominated by men. But at a time when the pool of jobs was limited, the option was better than winding up jobless.
Next, she took the Railway Recruitment Board’s examination, which she passed easily. Now the only thing that was keeping Yadav away from her new job was practical classes, where she had to put the theory she had learnt on handling trains into practice.
It was then she was confronted with the chilling truth in her country: unbridled gender discrimination.
Her male trainer told her he would not allow her to attend the classes because she was a woman. He simply said: “I’m sorry.”
But Yadav did not lift her hands in abject defeat. Instead, she waited outside the classroom everyday until her instructor allowed her to join the rest of the group.
Since that time, she has elevated herself from the ranks of assistant driver in mail and goods trains to motorwoman, and now clutches the rudder of local trains that jostles and rolls across India’s financial capital Mumbai.
Her patience to silently protest her male instructor’s chauvinism not only landed her a job but also crowned her as the first woman railway driver in India—a title which instantly turned her into a poster child for women empowerment in a male-dominated country.
India has had many women like Yadav who have penetrated into male bastions and proved their mettle. Be it in politics, business or adventure sports, Indian woman have made their presence felt in various sectors and in many cases excelled in them as well.
Take for instance, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, CEO of Pepsi Co Indra Nooyi or Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu, who recently became the first Indian woman to reach the South Pole—all of these women have brushed their shoulders with male compatriots and risen above them.
But on the contrary, India also has the ‘Other India’, where people cringe at the thought of sending a female child to a better school, while heartily opening wallets to spend on sons’ education. Here, parents compel their daughters to take lessons on cooking and sewing so that they can become “good housewives” and nothing more; and girls are discouraged from travelling alone, for fears of being molested, if not raped.
Recently published World Economic Forum 2009 report has placed India at a low 114th position in the global gender gap index among 134 countries all because of these reasons.
The report said the country has not been able to make significant improvements in economically empowering women, and providing them equal educational opportunities and health benefits.
This is a bitter truth for the largest democracy and one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world. But the other line of thinking deems the report should not cause an air of concern as crucial changes toward gender equality are already taking place.
For instance, the head of state in India today is a woman. For the first time in the country’s history, the person who disciplines parliamentarians—or Speaker—is also a woman. Then there is Sonia Gandhi, leader of Congress, who led her party to a grand victory in national and many state elections. And the country also has Nirupama Rao, who became the second woman to hold the much coveted post of foreign secretary in July last year.
In rural India, another kind of revolution is underway. In these areas, where jobs are scarce, self help groups that provide microloans to the female population are emerging as popular vehicle for women empowerment. These groups numbering 4.7 million—and encompassing around 59 million rural families—provide average seed money of 74,000 rupees (US$1,606) to each group so that they can start their own business or make investments in other productive areas. In cash-strapped rural India, money usually gives women the power to have a greater say in patriarchal families, enabling them to take part in decision-making processes.
The country’s booming economy is also working as a catalyst in empowering the female population, which is enlarging the jobs pool and opening doors of corporate houses for more and more women.
Vinnie Mehta, executive director of IT hardware body MAIT, recently said: “The growth of the information technology and electronics industries have been a great blessing in terms of creating job opportunities for the fairer sex in India.”
This rise in employment opportunities in urban areas is prompting more and more women from suburban areas to leave the confines of their families and move to cities, where they take most crucial decisions of their lives, including marriage, on their own. In many cases, they choose their own grooms or even cohabit with their boyfriends until they are ready to tie the knot. These are shockers for families but their life in cities and well-paid jobs are making them more outgoing and independent.
Lately, it seems, even the government and courts have begun to accept changing social realities.
The state government of Maharashtra, India’s richest state, last year approved a proposal for an amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code that would legalise a live-in relationship and give the deserted woman the right to seek maintenance.
The panel had called for the term ‘wife’ to be redefined so that courts could treat a woman who lives with a man for a “reasonable period” as his legitimate wife.
In a ruling last year, the Supreme Court also validated long-term live-in relationships as marriages. A bench of the court also declared that children born out of such a relationship would no longer be called illegitimate.
These are landmark rulings and decisions in a country where couples dating in public places are harassed and violent protests are staged against the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
In one of the Indian websites, a netizen who went by the name of Richa wrote: “Change cannot happen in one day! It takes time and it is thankfully happening. I salute the women of substance in India. It is anodyne to see them coming to the fore. Hats off! One must try to be the change instead of cursing the system for its loopholes! Though at the same time, the loopholes must not be ignored.”
Back in Mumbai, Motorwoman Yadav is driving her trains without facing any harassment from male colleagues. The 44-year-old mother of two was recently quoted as saying: “I have had nothing but support from male colleagues.”With a report from The Straits Times
