By her yardstick….Pratap Bhanu Mehta
The ethical maturity of our society will be judged by how women fare in it
The ethical maturity of our society will be judged by how women fare in it
Societies in rapid transition need to be acutely conscious of two things. Politics is supremely important. But if the obsession with politics remains confined to the surface drama of the ebb and flow of personalities, unconnected to the deep underlying social challenges, it can be counterproductive. It can dissipate energies, and constantly lead us to confuse the urgent with the important. We also risk misrecognising what makes strong societies. Societies are shaped by relations of political power. But fundamentally by the character of their social bonds, the ethical relationships amongst citizens. Politics can be successful, or dance lightly on the surface, if society undertakes the hard labour of making sure that the underlying social transformation is getting its ethical bearings right. If politics crowds out attention to the creation of propitious social environments, we will be in trouble.
The most scandalous example of this is our inattention to the single most important challenge: the transformation of gender relations. This is the bedrock of all social development. Societies that expand freedom for women, create greater opportunities for participation, and provide a safe and enabling environment, flourish. Societies that lose the plot on this issue will flounder.
It is in this context that we need to be reminded that the damning indictment of India that should really worry us is not just the S&Ps downgrading. It is a Thomson Reuters Foundation global poll of experts that found India to be amongst the five most dangerous places to be a woman, in the distinguished company of Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan and Somalia. In the WEFs reports on the Gender Gap, India is almost always near the bottom.
These searing indictments were noted. But response is muted. There is the usual defensiveness: the methodology of these reports is flawed (which in some respects it is), or worse, this is a Western plot to malign India. In some quarters, there was the reaction: so what is new? We dont need the reports to tell us the grim reality. There is enormous awareness of the risks Indian society poses to women. Admittedly, the reality is now increasingly complex. Rapid change is transforming the complexity of a range of issues: from female infanticide to household nutrition discrimination. There are significant gains as well: the enrolment of women in higher education is now unprecedented. Labour force participation seems to be declining, though some evidence presented by Ejaz Ghani suggests entrepreneurship is rising. But Indias record on trafficking in particular remains abysmal. These complex changes require more careful discussion.
But at a broader level, the challenge is this: these issues cannot be addressed at a societal level if politics crowds them out, or abridges their social complexity. To be fair, the Indian state has at least acknowledged some of these issues. But these cannot be addressed by abstract administrative or legal fixes. There is the story of a senior government official negotiating a World Bank loan on behalf of government. The WB was particularly concerned about womens participation in the scheme. At which point, this official is reported to have said: Dont worry. Tell us how much gender you want, we will give it to you. Government can introduce enabling laws, it can spend the money, and it can tick off all the administrative boxes. But these are not the same as inducing profound ethical or social change.
But this issue is also tricky. Most of our politics is focused on the distribution of state largesse or large legislative changes. But the capillaries that nourish society are formed by countless small decisions. Making cities safe, for example, is not just a matter of policing. It depends on architecture, designs of roads, the distribution of people across space, the ability to generate vibrant street life. The sense of alienation from politics is not because of its large failures; it is because it seems to provide no conduit for mobilising common sense or Indias extraordinary creativity into small decisions that will affect us far more than grand administrative proclamations.
But at an even deeper level, these kinds of social transformations can be managed only when there is a synergy between three sites for the reproduction of moral values: the family, civil society and state. One the great legacies of the national movement, and particularly Gandhi, was that he grasped the fundamental fact that unless these move in tandem, all social change will be shortlived. India had vibrant social reform movements in many areas that paved the way for a reconfiguring of social values. But the interesting question is this: are these movements of social transformation now in danger of being crowded out by two tendencies on the one hand a focus on the administrative rationality of the state, on the other hand a kind of professionalisation of the NGO world? This professionalisation is in some respects good, particularly the analytical abilities it brings. However, its emotive and authoritative power to transform the character of ethical relationships in society is quite limited. So this rapid change happens by default, without moral purpose or ethical direction.
Indias record on women may be exaggerated. But we cannot hide from the fact that that is the yardstick by which the ethical maturity of our society should ultimately be judged. But in our culture, any reminder of ethical labour elicits a big yawn. So consider this instrumentalist argument. Indian industry, including services, keeps complaining of a shortage of skills, despite record expansion in graduation rates. Doubtless, this has to do with poor quality education. But there is another factor at work. Female enrolment rates are very high, but the rate of labour force participation is barely inching up. Proportionately, few of your most accomplished women graduates are coming on the job market. In short, some of the best human capital we are producing is not coming on the job market. Some of this has to do with cultural pressures. But a lot has to do with surrounding structures: unsafe cities, inflexible working conditions that impose unnecessarily hard choices between work and family. Is a genuinely creative conversation possible on these issues?
Indian politics is becoming a circus trying hard to stymie profound social changes. Politics is important. But we also need to redirect energies to thinking about the deep undercurrents that will shape us. The gender revolution is the most important.
The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/by-her-yardstick/965069/0