‘Women can’t get justice through charity’

GAYA: Calling the proverbial fragility of women as a myth, Delhi-based lawyer Arvind Jain on Saturday said women were not born weak, they are made to feel week by a patriarchal system that has perfected the art of manipulating social behaviour and psychological thought process to instill some kind of unhealthy complex and make them toe the line prescribed by a male-dominated set up.“Even education and economic self-dependence has not made much difference to women’s position in decision making both at home and outside,” said Jain.
Delivering a special lecture on ‘Women issues’ at the Renaissance auditorium on Saturday evening, Jain said, “Women cannot get justice through male charity. They will have to earn it the hard way, may be grab it against all odds. The injustice to women begins in the conception stage itself and continues even after her death as even inheritance laws have provisions that distinctly favour her husband’s heirs provided the women was issueless.”
A lawyer by profession, Jain said several laws including the amended rape and inheritance laws were discriminatory against women and undue importance to ‘consent’ in matters of sexual offence including unnatural sex take away from one hand, the rights given by the other hand post-Nirbhaya.
“The basic flaw was that women have almost no role in framing, executing and interpreting law. Having representation as low as around 2% in the judiciary and nearly 7% in the legislature, women get a raw deal everywhere. Only woman knows where law pinches and as such her equal participation at every level was a must,” he added.
In his remarks, Renaissance chairman Sanjay Sahay said the journey ahead for women was full of road blocks and they will have to remove the hurdles themselves as they cannot expect men to pave way for them.