An often-quoted verse taken from Manusmriti, Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah translates as: Where women are honoured, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonoured, all action no matter how noble remain unrewarded. The numerical shortfall of females in the country’s total population by an estimated nearly five per cent cropped up during debates in some circles some months ago. The context was reports in dailies that females suffered at the hands of males in many ways, notably female foeticide, killing of brides in the khap community, sexual assaults on minors and also denying them presence in the Parliament as well as Legislative Assemblies of States equal to their share in the population, not even 33 per cent as proposed in the country’s topmost law-making body nearly three decades ago. However, while women’s presence in the country’s urban workforce has reportedly witnessed a 20 per cent increase over the past five decades, their presence in the domestic duties sector, said to account for 70 per cent of their population, thanks to their time-honoured duties of child-bearing and care as well as household work.
The rural scenario of a dominant presence of women in agriculture, both pre-harvest and post-harvest, has endured for centuries. The rustics are in a frame of mind to change from patriarchal system unlike the urbanites lost in turmoil as a result of many factors, particularly compulsions of city life marked by both genders jostling with each other.
