Security and empowerment

Intellectual indulgence in present times often concludes in lofty ideals of empowering women and talks of equal opportunities to them, bringing down the barricades of a regressive society constricted with the narrow ideas of patriarchy. As much as education is favoured, the preference for training women and girls in self-defence has gained significant popularity but what often goes missed is that gender equality and women empowerment do not come with the one-sided effort of focusing on women and girls for making their social conditions better. When it is the society which is the reason for their oppressive state, it is the society that must be addressed and society consists more than women. It happens to be in opposition with the diktats of patriarchy but sensitising men and boys from an impressionable age to the notion of equality and respecting the choices and decisions of another individual. The unfortunate incident of the state-level Taekwondo player being shot dead by a man she refused to marry is testimony to the fact that irrespective of commendable efforts made on an individual basis, society in general has a long way to go in accepting that women are complete entities and definitely not an object of acquisition. The athlete in her mid-twenties who fell victim to the wrath of a rejected man had previously complained against him to the police for threatening and assaulting her. Given that the pattern of abusive tendency was out for all to see, a method of preventive step as a social intervention is the unheard of necessity. Taking legal recourse to such matters that are more rampant than imaginable may provide a short-term relief, but for the long run, the matter is left compounded. A social malady has to have a social antidote, more than a small-time legal fix.