Empowered India
When we begin to value those who do physical work from IE [via Neeraj]
"Look closely at the men who hang from the back of the scavenger trucks in our metropolis. Clothes smeared with dirt—face blackened with garbage. These men, bare foot and barehanded, pick up wet garbage from dustbins, load these trucks and travel with the garbage to its final destination. They do not have the ignominy of carrying human refuse on their head, but the risks to their health is just as real."
...
"To me, empowerment means liberating India of this convenient social exploitation. It is a disgrace to me and my social conscience. It is a disgrace to the system I have built. It is a disgrace to the words government and democracy. Earlier, the "untouchables" had names and faces. Today, they still exist - but they have been granted Constitutional anonymity.
Now I want to talk to you about the other untouchables—our women. When I first started traveling outside India, I realized that most women on streets in India, while going about their daily work, walk with their eyes downcast. Everywhere else in the world, they look straight ahead. However educated she may be, if she is alone on a road, if she is traveling in a train, wherever she might be—the Indian woman looks down. It is a necessary defence against Indian men."
"Look closely at the men who hang from the back of the scavenger trucks in our metropolis. Clothes smeared with dirt—face blackened with garbage. These men, bare foot and barehanded, pick up wet garbage from dustbins, load these trucks and travel with the garbage to its final destination. They do not have the ignominy of carrying human refuse on their head, but the risks to their health is just as real."
...
"To me, empowerment means liberating India of this convenient social exploitation. It is a disgrace to me and my social conscience. It is a disgrace to the system I have built. It is a disgrace to the words government and democracy. Earlier, the "untouchables" had names and faces. Today, they still exist - but they have been granted Constitutional anonymity.
Now I want to talk to you about the other untouchables—our women. When I first started traveling outside India, I realized that most women on streets in India, while going about their daily work, walk with their eyes downcast. Everywhere else in the world, they look straight ahead. However educated she may be, if she is alone on a road, if she is traveling in a train, wherever she might be—the Indian woman looks down. It is a necessary defence against Indian men."
Comments
the author does pose an interestin problem about the divide in India being larger than in most developed countries. I think this is a signature of any developing country. Think about it, India is considered so progressive mainly because of its IT industry and this happened in the last 20 years, I think it will take some time before the benefits percolate down to the rest fo the country and we have a lot of examples of this happening.
Post a Comment