Elusive gender equality

Gender equality has always been a serious issue in our country and while the Constitution in Article 14 and 15 has recognized gender equality as a fundamental right, as these articles state that each and every citizen of this country irrespective of their gender, caste, race, sex etc shall be given equal protection of law and no discrimination shall be made on grounds of these notions to any citizen of this country. But even today, women are not fully recognized equal to men or are being deprived of certain basic rights. As an example, I would like to highlight the example of the 'Vaishnavite Xattras' where till this date there is a prohibition on the entry of females into the main premises of the temple while males belonging to the Hindu religion can enter the temple without any caution and this notion has been going on since age-old times.

Similar to this issue, in 1965 a ban was imposed against the entry of women above the age of 10 and below the age of 50 to offer worship at the Sabrimala shrine of the Sabrimala temple in Kerala. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India in its judgement to the Indian Young Lawyers Association vs State of Kerala case (which challenged the Constitutionality of this ban) removed this ban on the ground that this ban violates Article 14, 15, 17 and most of all it violates the right of a women to profess, propagate and practice a religion as mentioned in Article 25 of the Constitution. That was a landmark judgement which upheld the rights and liberties of women.

But, unfortunately nothing similar has happened with regards to the existing social evil in the 'Vaishnavite Xattras' of Assam. Even no one has ever raised their voice against this inevitable notion that lies in the core of Assamese culture and belief. In fact, people still blindly hold on to this notion as a tradition.

Dibyojyoti Brahma,

Cotton University.