***FREEDOM***
                                      _____________________________

India with its 69th Independence have grown into a society that has come to the realization that in clutches of communities across the country, guaranteed fundamental rights mean very little in the face of centuries old customs and traditions. Being a multitudinous society with caste, religion, ethnicity and gender as some of the important dimensions influencing politics and the development the primary identity for both male and female Indians their citizenship that per definition entails the promise of equality within a democratic state.

Even as India strides into its 69th year of independence, sections of our society remain marginalized, and it isn't for the lack of constitutional rights. On the contrary, the robust Indian legal framework encompasses and empowers every individual on the nation's soil with basic rights to protect them. But laws and legislation can do little to change mindsets. And while India may have still have a long way to go on that front, precedents have already been set.

 When government petitioned to Supreme Court urging to review its decision. On unique campaigns such as 'Gay for a day'. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow immolation known as Sati.

The women labour constitutes an important segment of the labour force in India and their participation in the labour force is gradually increasing in the labour market. The path towards total gender empowerment is full of potholes. Over the years women have made great strides in many areas with notable progress in reducing some gender gaps.

There have been innumerable debates about gender in India over the years. Much of it includes women’s positing in society, their education, health, economic position, gender equality etc. What one can conclude from such discussions is that women have always held a certain paradoxical position in our developing country?? On other hand, the country has seen an increased percentage of literacy among women, and women are allowed to enter into professional fields, while on the other hand the practices of female infanticide, poor health conditions and lack of education still under continuous process.

Even the patriarchal ideology of home being women’s real domain and marriage being her ultimate destiny hasn’t changed much. The matrimonial advertisements, demanding girls of the same caste, with fair skin and slim figure, or much popular fair and lovely ads, are indicators of the slow changing social norms. If one looks at the status of women then and now, one has to look at two sides of the coin; one side which is promising, and one side which is bleak.

Women of India slowly started recognizing her true potential. She has started questioning the rules laid down by the society. As a result, she has started breaking barriers and earned a respectable position in the world. Today Indian women have excelled in each and every field from social work to visiting space station. There is no arena, which remains unconquered by Indian women. Whether it is politics, sports, entertainment, literature, technology everywhere, its women power all along. The Modern Indian woman, does not let social constraints to keep her behind, but prioritizes her education or her career before anything else women are making their presence felt in every sphere of life. But still Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. Change is so slow, it makes you cynical, and it makes you despair.

Despite progress, the very fact that women, along with being achievers, also are expected to fulfill their roles as wives or mothers, prioritizing home against anything else. This point of view hasn’t changed much. There is still a large section of women who are uneducated, and married off before the age of 18.  Only 13.9% women are employed in the urban sector, and 29% in the domestic and agriculture sector, where too a majority of women are exploited by the men. The sex ratio of India shows that the Indian society is still prejudiced against female, and a lot is yet to be achieved in this context.

Thus, if on one hand women are climbing the ladder of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering the violence afflicted on her by her own family members. As compared with past women in modern times have achieved a lot but in reality they have to still travel a long way. Women may have left the secured domains of their home, but a harsh, cruel, exploitative world awaits them, where women have to prove their talent against the world who see women as merely vassals of producing children. The Indian women has to make her way through all the socialized prejudices against her, and the men yet have to allow and accept the women to be equal participants in the country’s way forward.

 And as long as this battle continues, there is reason to be optimistic that, someday, a mother will truly stop fearing for her daughter’s safety as she climbs a bus to go to work; or a woman won’t wonder if the dress she wore to a party was too provocative to men; or a father will not stay up till his daughter returns from a visit to the ice cream corner just down the road. That is when the perspective will change and the shiny, happy glow will appear real.

Till then, all other economic and political progress for women is just a thin veil that barely covers the disquiet beneath: Because India is supposed to be better than this

Till then for woman the Q is “glass is half full or half empty?”

“Women’s freedom” actually mean? Are women really independent? By gaining the freedom to compete equally with men, do women no longer need protection?

Or does that independence mean that women accept the responsibility for their own safety?

 Seeing the world-wide rate of increasing violence against women, one wonders if it is actually possible that women’s freedom and protection co-exist.

Is it actually possible for women to be free when they are living within an environment of fear and exploitation?