why-legislation-and-education-fail-radhika-yadavs-of-india

Crimes against women are categorised for convenience. From female foeticide, acid attack, rape to dowry death or honour killing. The reasons though are never singular for each of the crimes committed.

 

Radhika Yadav, 25, an ambitious tennis coach was fatally shot by her father Deepak Yadav, 49, in Gurugram, in their own house, on July 11. She was shot in her back while she was preparing breakfast for the family.

 

The baffling crime does not fit into any of the generalised categories. Albeit, it exposes the paradox called the modern Indian woman.

 

Being urban, educated, smart and financially independent — the attributes that any young urban woman would aspire for — became Radhika’s failing. Gender sensitive legislation, laws and financial privilege could not grant Radhika the sheer right to survive, to live. A hardworking, gutsy sportswoman that Radhika was, who carved a place for herself in a highly competitive environment; why did she fail to protect her own life?

 

Her death leaves many questions on the progress made by Indian women. 

 

Progress to regress

 

The present-day reality of a progressive woman is rife with contradictions. Her influences — both insidious and overt — are feeding realities that are not based on gender equality. Coping with the daily reality of sexual harassment, catcalls and molestation in buses, metros, platforms and autos, offices and homes; discrimination in wages and domestic responsibilities; women’s legislative and legal rights to equality make little sense on the ground.   

 

Radhika was living a global lifestyle at her workplace, her dreams and aspirations had a cosmopolitan outlook, which was constantly conflicting with the parochial mind-set at home.

 

A state-level tennis player and founder of a tennis academy, she was earning enough to make her father feel insecure — of losing control over her. The patriarch, who facilitated her dreams in a modern set-up, would not let go of his controlling power over her. A complete silence of Radhika’s mother indicates the way patriarchal forces are fed by the tacit support of family and society. 

 

Paradoxically, at 18, a woman is deemed politically mature to elect legislative representatives yet denied any agency in making choices about her own life by the society she lives in. At every step society reinforces her status as secondary and dependent — each column demands her to fill her status as either daughter of or wife of a man.

 

Radhika wanted to outgrow the controlling shadows of her father. She refused to shut down the academy she had worked hard to establish. She loved to have a presence on social media; freedom of expression is guaranteed to her by the law. Her father was not legally entitled to interfere in her personal life. But India lives in two time zones — our past continues to overlap with our present – our modern cities pulsate on parochial heartbeat.

 

Could Radhika’s father resort to such violence if her brother made a successful career?

 

Honour or shame?

 

That the honour earned by a young woman could be treated as a matter of shame by her own family member stems from a rotten mind-set, often touted as the strength of the Indian family system. No number of layers of justifications will suppress the stench of patriarchy emanating from it. The entitlement to control family, especially female members come from the narrow mind-set people carry into their smart, global lifestyle. It is reinforced by the folks of similar outlook.

 

Also read: Time to stop custodial brutalities

 

Deepak Yadav admitted that taunts from villagers that he lived off his daughter’s income and questions around her character disturbed him deeply. Character is narrowed down to considerations of caste and clan affiliations alone. As though planning a premeditated murder of one’s own daughter is not murdering of human character and setting a horrible example before society.

 

A shocking reminder is — such crimes are touted as honourable — not just in regions like UP, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana, where gender equality is still a remote dream. In progressive states of the south like Kerala and Tamil Nadu and Telangana, similar crimes are committed by the literate and the affluent.

 

Education is promoted as a strong tool of change; it fails to uproot conservatism and chauvinism, which continues to remain the foundation of society. The 2020 honour killing of Kevin P. Joseph in Kerala, involving the Kottayam-based Chacko family of powerful politicians is one such example. Kevin, a Dalit Christian, was murdered by his fiancée, Neenu Chacko's family, who were upper-caste and politically strong. After she failed to get any hearing from the police and local administration, Neenu’s life was saved only due to significant media attention.

 

These are not isolated cases. The many permutations of caste, clan, status and religion that reek of the medieval mind-set come into play when women dare to make a choice, irrespective of their educational and financial standing. Honour killing is a reality and it pervades urban, so-called progressive spaces.

 

Parents need counselling

 

Deepak Yadav represents a large majority of society where men are not prepared to accept the new reality that a woman can be smarter and might earn more than a man — as a daughter or as a wife. Their rigidity to adapt stems from strong patriarchal support.

 

Parents from the older generation who fail to understand the virtual world the young live in and their need to be present on social media breed such extreme fears, as displayed by the crime committed by Deepak Yadav. Ignorance may be wrapped under conservatism; it only widens the chasm between the young and old — modern and conservative. Perhaps, it is time parents need counselling in understanding their children’s needs according to the changing times.

 

Loss of a young, promising life by a deliberate crime committed by a parent is extremely saddening. It is also a sad reminder that change cannot be imposed. The well-meaning laws are drafted to help women's march for equality but till society treats her as an equal and respects her choices, no number of legislations can enter a home and save a woman’s life.

 

Inside the four walls, members of the household need to embrace change and accept women as equals. Eveleen Reed, the well-known feminist anthropologist had once made a pertinent observation. She said, while the primitive man was hunting and gathering, the primitive woman was not cooking in a kitchen, as is made out to be. She too was hunting and gathering. She is capable of fending for herself. Patriarchy is a mind game designed to postpone her rightful equality.

 

By Vandana Shukla