Women are denied what they deserve

In India, women are not given the nutrition they deserve. They are not given the education they deserve. They are not given the recognition at the workplace which they deserve,” said National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam. She was speaking at a colloquium on ‘Mainstreaming the Indian Muslim Women – the Way Forward’ organised by the Centre for Women’s Studies of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) , Gachibowli, in collaboration with the NCW.

The issue was with the non-inclusion of women in various aspects of life. The NCW chairperson said that gender imbalance existed across the board and stressed on the need for value education in the country. “Integrity, honesty and talent are qualities which all religions talk about. Schools have forgotten to teach these. They foster competition but do not teach children how to work in teams,” she said.

“Muslim women, like all other women, want to be employable and economically independent. The country cannot progress if women, who account for roughly half of India’s population, are left behind,” Lalitha explained. Delivering her keynote address, Prof. Amina Kishore opined that it was unfair to hold a patriarchal system in Islam or the Muslim clergy alone being responsible for problems of women.

She said that the “language between genders needs to change” even as she pointed out that the feminism in the “western construct” did not suit India. The others who spoke were activist Rubeena Mazhar, Dr Rafath Seema, Congress leader Khaleeq-ur-Rahman and Dr Ameena Tahseen.