“It is a tribute to the power of our democracy that a daughter born in a poor house in a remote tribal area can reach the highest constitutional position in India. That I attained the post of President is not my personal achievement, it is the achievement of every poor person in India,” President Droupadi Murmu had said in July this year after being sworn in as the first tribal to hold the highest constitutional post in the country. By choosing to tour the infrastructure-starved Northeast twice in less than a month, she has sent out a message that she sympathises with the poor and the less privileged. President Murmu also appears to connect well with the people of the region dominated by tribal communities, understand and see their plight, having faced similar hardships and circumstances. During her two-day visit to Nagaland, she stressed on the importance of providing holistic education to the youth and empowerment of women. Many could be disappointed for avoidance of the Naga political issue, one topic all Central leaders who visit the state are expected to talk about whether or not such talks will make a difference. However, she touched upon on two pertinent matters -- education and women empowerment – that no society can ignore. The assertion that the state’s high female literacy rate is an indication of Naga society’s respect for women is true to some extent but not in entirety. A closer look at Naga society will tell that education has failed to change most traditional practices that obstruct gender equality and empowerment.
When a woman foregoes her family identity on marriage and loses everything including children and family wealth upon divorce, can’t inherit ancestral property, and is deprived of many other basic human rights, we know that “women empowerment” is just a catchline. When cases of crimes against women do not decrease, we know that gender equality is a distant dream. According to the National Crime Records Bureau report, a total of 4,28,278 cases of crime against women were registered in India during 2021 (3,71,503 cases in 2020), which means 49 cases were lodged every single hour, while the number of rape cases during the same period was 31,677, which was an average of 86 daily. To empower someone in the true sense, crime, discrimination and forces that hinder growth should be done away with. It is the criminals who should be punished as per the law and not the victims hushed up to save the so called family “prestige” and expect to live a normal life with the trauma. Women empowerment is hollow in the face of gender-based violence and bias. We are moving in the right direction but there is much further to go before we can achieve true empowerment of India’s women.