[Reader-list] Giving money to any individual student based on faith, caste, is it correct in rule of laws, in democra

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Subhrodip

I agree with you on one particular thing here. Any such scheme, be it giving
girls some money if they come to school, or the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, is
actually based on a mindset which is patriarchial. The female is being
patronized in such cases. But one must remember that the dominating
situation within our society is indeed patriarchial.

Even today, if a girl marries against her father's wishes in most of the
families in India, there would be a huge 'hungama'. And girls doing love
marriages are even killed for 'honour' if you were to go to Punjab and
Haryana, even if they travel abroad!

At such a moment of time, when we would like our women to also grow well and
come up in life, and we want to ensure a better sex ratio in our society
(increase the no. of females per males), it is inevitable that such schemes
have to be conjured up, so that we can hope that if not today, the educated
females of today can tomorrow , on becoming mothers, at least help in
creating a society which is not patriarchial (or even matriarchial) but an
equal society.

We cannot bring this change through a Leftist blood-filled revolution,
neither can we bring this change through a Rightist market based revolution.
This has to be based on social aspects and we have to do this unfortunately.
I agree that this change should be brought in so that 30 years from now, our
females wouldn't be submissive as they are today.

Of course, as I remember having read in one of my courses, we are moving
towards a decisive stage when women would be so powerful that one day, men
of India would require a National Commission on Men (like NCM on minorities,
women, tribals and so on) as they would get most of the rights. And to prove
themselves masculine each and every day, they would have to slog it out. For
the idea was that a female in India would not have to do extraordinary
things everyday to prove her feminity, but a male would have to work both at
office and home to prove his masculinity, in addition to of course, getting
more as salary than the female he wants to marry with.

For the moment, we can forget such predictions and support such schemes.

Regards

Rakesh