The popular perception about the BJP’s idea of gender has been one of limiting women to culturally defined roles. But with an increased emphasis on initiatives like Triple Talaq ban, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Ujjwala, the BJP has managed to address and cultivate a female vote bank.
With Triple Talaq, Ujjwala and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, has the BJP appropriated the gender agenda politically?
There is no one ‘gender agenda’ in any country. So, it should not surprise anybody that the BJP like all other political formations has its own gender agenda, and one that does not require to be appropriated from any other party.
What is this agenda? Very simply, it is one that does not rock the boat of traditional sex roles; and makes the government the saviour of the helpless, traditional woman.
The LPG benefit scheme Ujjwala for instance, involves the redistribution of LPG benefits within the poorer population. Since women happen to do the cooking in most homes, it is a boon in absolute terms to them. But does it change their relative position within the family and vis-à-vis men? Nope.
Here are other sharp perspectives on the question BJP’s political appropriation on the agenda of gender :
Subhashini Ali: leader of the CPI (M).
Madhu Kishwar: Indian academic and writer
Priyanka Chaturvedi: national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress
Zakia Soman: activist and founding member of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
The beti bachao beti padhao campaign has a more complex message, and the impact of the PM extolling the virtues of girl children in a misogynistic, patriarchal milieu cannot be overstated. But who is to be saved? The daughter, and moreover one who will grow up to be a bride for somebody else’s bride-starved family, as PM Modi specified.
And finally, and most explicit in this chivalrous gender agenda – triple talaq. While the unstated target of the first two are the unborn girl child and the coughing housewife, here it is the helpless victims of Islam as the Hindu right sees it. Golden opportunity for the (enlightened Hindu) saviour.
Of the countless other flesh-and-blood women, fighting patriarchy within the home, farm, factory, or office, the government has little imagination except the lurid ones routinely expressed about independent women by our male politicians across the spectrum. The government’s gender agenda can fit comfortably with this imagination so the left brain of this agenda can save the abala nari while the right is painting her as a shameless hussy.
Sunalini Kumar is a Political Scientist, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.