IF HEALTH IS LOST...........?

Health is currently a privilege in India. Not a right. Maternal & child health neglected even after countless plans, programmes & political proclamations. Every year, nearly 60,000 women die in pregnancy & childbirth, while approximately 1.7 million children less than five years of age also die. In absolute numbers, India outranks all other countries in both regards. Sadly, most deaths can be prevented with available technologies. Many diseases such as tuberculosis & pneumonia kill thousands every year. While infectious diseases are very much a concern, chronic diseases are now rapidly catching up. India has become the capital of diabetes, high blood pressure & heart diseases. Health targets in plan after plan have not been achieved, yet there has been no systematic analysis of why health systems fail to achieve these targets.

     The fundamental reason why our health targets are not achieved & will not also be achieved, unless we radically change our strategies, is that we set targets without setting strategies; without understanding what is preventing progress; & without putting adequate human & financial resources toward achieving targets.

     First we equate the number of buildings to available health services. The Planning Commission & Central & State governments only count the number of health centers, without bothering to find out what is happening at these centers. Many are without staffs, electricity, a telephone, water medicines or an ambulance. No wonder these centers do not have patients - mothers or children to take care of. Surveys have shown the inadequacy of our health infrastructure & that health workers are not staying where they are posted. There are good reasons why health staff do not stay in villages. But health departments have not bothered to study this problem or remedy it. Not only are workers not staying, studies have also shown that they are frequently absent without reason. Such unaccountability is treated as routine & not discussed in health policy forums.

    The second reason for a lack of service is underfunding & poor management of medicines, leading to a lack of availability. How can an army fight without ammunition? The lack of medicines forces poor patients to buy medicines from private pharmacy shops, which can be expensive. Often times, the quality of medicines available from these shops & government health centers is poor due to government's weak oversight on pharmacies & poor procurement policies. Patients do not want to go to clinics where they do not get medicines or where they are of poor quality.

    MANAGERS

    

    While planning & funding are major problems, the root of the health problem in India is the lack of adequate numbers of well-trained managers. Many national health programmes cover millions of beneficiaries, yet they are managed by just two or three technical managers who are general & specialist doctors.

    Most of the time these individuals are without any public health or management training. They learn this on the job. This is also true for health secretaries & ministers - they all learn on the job. We are obsessed with training an eight standard-passed village health worker with six to seven modules - but there is no training or even orientation for top policymakers & managers in the health department before they take up such important managerial & policymaking jobs. Why isn't health systems management made compulsory  before an officer takes up the job of director or secretory in the health department?

    THE WAY OUT

    Fortunately things can rapidly change in the next few years, if government & society pay a little more attention to health. During the last five years, the govt. has put in significant resources into the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). At the same time, many States are also using local solutions to various problems. Preparations are underway for the 12th five year plan (FYP), & thus we should be looking at what radical changes are needed in the public health system.

    Budgets for health services will need to increase by a factor of three to five times. The national govt. is committed to take health funding from less than one percent to two to three percent of the GDP. This is critical. The govt. must chart out how the Center & State will increase these budgets over the next five years. This will also require advocacy on behalf of the health community. And we must also be more smart in how to spend the money that is already available. Money remains unspent in health because the regulations around spending are so complicated & confining that doctors & health works can not spend the money. Many times money does not arrive in time for it to be useful.

    Health care is provided by humans. Not by buildings & physical infrastructures. We need to get doctors & nurses to go to remote & rural areas & work there. This means paying them much higher wages, providing much better housing & other amenities & making the working environment conducive to their lives.

    Appreciation of the doctors & nurses who work in remote areas will ensure that younger doctors go to rural areas & serve the poor. Another solution could be to contract private providers, where govt. providers are unavailable & unwilling to provide services. Gujarat did just this through its much acclaimed "Chiranjeevi Scheme". Here, the govt. pays private doctors a fixed fee for conducting child birth services for poor woman in their private hospitals. "Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana" also provides financial access to care in private & public services to the poor throughout the country. This is truly innovative & revolutionary.

    TECHNOLOGY & DRUGS

    While improving health system is critically important, we can not afford to wait until such changes are made before also improving the technological base for health systems. This means better machines & newer drugs & vaccines. For example, new vaccines & diagnostic techniques that can prevent or diagnose early some of the diseases among children & woman are currently available in the private sector, but these technologies remain out of reach for the poor. The health department must have a division of technology assessment that is responsible for identifying & rigorously evaluating potentially useful & cost effective technologies for adoption in national health programmes in India.

    All this can happen if there is a high level of political commitment & the Prime Minister & Chief Ministers take personal interest in health improvements.

    Of course, more resources need much better management in order to deliver results. Health departments must have an adequate number of qualified programme managers & health planners to ensure better programme design & effective implementation which can be proved as a big step towards universal access to health, because if health is lost then something is lost.

AN AFTERNOON STORY...

most of the time we come across to see that those who have all the amenities generally do not have the optimum curiosity while those who live in deficiency & jeopardy are always eager to know about the things around & if such people are being equipped with even a bit of instruments may do wonders for both the society & individual as well.

It was an afternoon & i was in my way to home when a "learning mobile van" came & stopped in the market & by the no time a guild of beggars (of the age group not more than 14 yrs.) encapsulated the van from all around. One of the social activist came out of the van & started interacting with these children...it was quite unprecedented to see the resplendent curious eyes of those children the way they were heading the every single utterances of that person. Suddenly i saw that some of the children were trying to touch the instruments (perhaps alien to them) in the van. Some children were watching those instruments so desperately as they wished to grab them in no time. By seeing their curios approach i also stood beneath them, just to experience the entire episode. A small child in filthy clothes asked one of the activists in the van by pointing towards an instrument - "saab ye kya hai" (sir what is this?). That activist handed over the instrument to the child & explained him about its functioning...i was astonished to see that he used the instrument in such a beautiful manner as if he was an expert & was an adroit to handle it...& that too after having just a single demo !

After seeing this event, i was floundering in my thoughts that what a learning potential this child had ! May he also be equipped with all the needed amenities of life ! After-a-while i went close to those children & asked one of them the reason behind their gathering around the van then he replied that these people talk good to us, we like the info they thwart to us, & above all we are quite fascinated with the instruments they bring with them like the mobile phones, handy cams, i-pods, etc....till now i have come to know how to record my voice & then play that at the same time..its really chilling ..i like these very much..may these uncles come everyday !- said the enchanted boy. Then asked them whether they go for school or not ?...the answer was quite a disappointing one...No !...reason !...the same traditional finance...

As i was interacting with these children, i saw on the other side of the road ...some well-dressed school children were waiting for their bus at the bus stop...i realized that none of them had even tried to come near the van..i asked one of the boy at the bus stop the reason that why had he not gone near the van ? & i was shocked with his answer - "these are just wastage of time & nothing else" he answered. Then i told him that he should go there, perhaps! he can enhance some knowledge ! He replied -"i don't have that much time"...& he passed me by talking to somebody on his cell-phone.

BAAPU : WHEN YOU GOT MORE PAIN ?

   To pay grief on the death anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi, every govt. employee has been ordained to stand-up in silence at-least for 2 minutes unless they will be a victim of violence guised in the form of some disciplinary actions against the violators.

   Every year on this very day a common dictum is reiterated with a handsome magnitude of clamor "de di humein azadi bina khadag bina dhaal" and in the same scenario the reckoning of nuclear power & other mass destructive weapons (MDWs) are well praised in parallel. Countrymen are being falsely motivated that not even a single drop of vital fluid has been cost to get the so called freedom, it seems as the Britishers have given it in the form of a gift to us in a spruced plate. Everyone knows that Britishers had send the bust of the son of the Hero of 1857-revolution as a breakfast to Bahadurshah Jafar, everyone knows that every mountain transformed into volcano & every rubble became ember after the martyrdom of Mangal Pande, everyone knows this freedom has been gained at the cost of the lives of Laxmi Bai, Tantya tope, Nana-Ji, Jhalkari Bai & many more offspring of this nation.

   Those who say that our freedom is a sole product of non-violence might not have visited "Jaliya-wala Baagh" the land doused with the innocent blood. Such people deny the daunting jobs performed by the Udham Singh who followed general Dyre up-to London to have a revenge of the massacre, Madan-Lal Dhingra who advocated in favor of Govt of India in the bench of London, Khudiram Bose who sacrificed his entire family. These people might be unaware of the magnitude of suffocation felt by Bhagat Singh, Rajguru & Sukhdev when their throats were knotted by those slavery ropes. Those who just fulfill the formal rituals of delivering hyperbolic speeches to pay homage to the martyrs of freedom perhaps forgotten that epic when Azad Hind Fauz was approaching towards Manipur from Burma & every soldier had to investiturate every single inch of land with their blood because their final destination was Delhi where they had to hoist the national flag of their own country.

   By the time of Rajghat ceremony, doordarshan will might have flashed the slogan "sunday ho ya monday roz khao ande". After putting one or two flowers on the Rajghat & after delivering a moral tribute in front of the camera, a number of V.I.Ps including some ascendant politicians, will proceed for having their lunch in which some fish & chickens have been already prepared by renowned cooking expertise. The liquor to which Mohandas Gandhi wished to annihilate just prior to the hours of freedom is a well established industry under the purview of govt. policies after the freedom & is a source of one of the major inflows to the revenue.

   Baapu ! you are revered at the paradox in this country & truth & non-violence are nothing but the synonyms of your name, you are requested to speak once more again, but you can't speak bcz you are clinically dead now, your vocal chord is no more in functioning, perhaps you might have not been able to see all these corrupt atmosphere where one makes his confronters silent on the edge of canons, though you might not  have remained silent for a long time but when you have uttered against all these, you would have been exiled.

   Please tell me when you felt more pain ? in 1948 when your chest received those three bullets or when you see the gruesome murder of your principles?, when you see a father selling his daughter to provide financial stability to the family?, when kitty- parties by the elites are cheered with imported scotch by the money of those poor who kept faith over their ballot?, when you see the people dying for cold & hunger....please Baapu speak ! when you got more pain ?

HONOR KILLING IN INDIA

   Bevacizumab the latest "Life Saving Drug" for cancer patients discovered by the medicinal researchers.... Kuwaiti prime minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah arrived in Baghdad- the first visit by a Kuwaiti prime minister since the 1991 Gulf war.... Russian parliament agrees with United States to ratify new START treaty......two Koreas restore hot line despite tension..........these are some of the recent news which strongly pave the way towards the World-Peace & human welfare but it doesn't ensure that everything is on the right track, the good has always been accompanied with the bad, so is here, out of a plenty non-social & inhumane issues "honor killing" subsists with an effective magnitude in the society.
 
   When you take your morning news-paper from the doorstep & settle down to read, you will find that incidents pertaining to honor killings in India are either in the headlines or in the pages thereafter every-day. Stringent Indian laws on honor killing s fail to curb the increasing trend. Interestingly, honor killings happen, irrespective of a person's religion or social-status. Every year over 5000 brides are killed for dowry in India. In 2009, approximately 955 cases were registered as honor killings (imagine what the unofficial statistics must be really like). The worst affected region in India is Mijaffarnagar (U.P.), with 25% of honor killing in official police reports.

   Indian laws do not treat honor killing in a specific or separate clause. To explain it simply, honor killing is when a person is killed by his/her family members or relatives because it is believed that the victim has brought dishonor, shame or humiliation to the family or the community which may include-
1. Refusing to marry someone chosen by their family.
2. Having an affair.
3. Demanding a divorce, even in an abusive relationship.
4. Talking or flirting with an unrelated male.
5. Not following a strict dress-code............& many more.

   Typically the police investigate the honor killings but we still live in a society where we have learned to segregate people on the basis of social status, economic standards, religion & caste. Community mentality reside over trifle stuffs - an individual is identified by his caste and status rather than by anything else. The extent of orthodox in the Indian society is still a paradox and has become reluctant to those who think of the modernization resulting in the bifurcation of the society. Khap Panchayat is one such reluctant community which prohibits a person from marrying another one from the same village (more specifically from the same gotras). As news stories prove, anyone who tries to break these rules are penalized through social boycotts and fines. They may also be killed (honor killing) or compelled to commit suicide in extreme cases. A handful of people who constitute the Khap Panchayat decide and control the lives of people, especially young couples, in the community. Khap Panchayats draw their strength from people who support them given their neutral, expedient dispute settlement, as compared to the years of delays in the courts. The govt. of India has failed to take any concrete steps against the Khap Panchayats.

   One would wonder if things have significantly changed in India post independence, which was about six decades ago. We got attention towards scientific, economic, technological and infrastructural advancements the country has shown over the years. Alas ! the package doesn't sound interesting, especially, after knowing well "what lies beneath" (remind of a woman who loves wearing expensive make-up on her face without realizing that she needs to pay more attention to her health to stay healthy and thus naturally beautiful). It's sad to see that nothing much has changed socially, in-fact, decades back, society was divided only on the basis of caste, but today multiple factors are responsible for the social disparity. In modern India, it's hard to find a person who would see himself only as an "Indian". What has emerged after all those years of hard work, sacrifices and bloodsheds during the pre-independence era, is a totally chaotic modern society where people discriminate on the basis of race, color, culture, gender, status, religion and economic standards, which is worser than being divided only on the basis of caste, as earlier.

   Though, the Indian govt. has decided to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to ensure that honor killings are treated as a separate offence so as to provide deterrent punishment to the perpetrators, the problem is that investigation of this offence may not make any progress because the victim's family is usually responsible for it, and therefore, keep the actual facts concealed and without the evidence, nothing can be done by the courts to deliver a fair judgement. The only way to annihilate this demonic curse is to propagate the awareness in the public about the issue, to transform their basic-instincts regarding the vehement principles & embrace the vitality of life, to diffuse the aroma of peace in the society and most of the all to make them understand that there is no honor in killing.

MEDIA'S RESPONSIBILITY IN CONDUCTING FREE & FARE ELECTIONS IN INDIA

“Satyameva Jayate”, these two words are the inscription of the national emblem of India which symbolizes the governance in India, adapted from the pristine pillar of Ashoka, depicts that truth alone triumphs. Congenial to this, concept of media is also based on the principle of truth i.e. it supposes to deliver truth and only truth. So! If, both (govt. and media) reside on the concept of truth, then where do the false exist? The answer is embedded in the working methods of these two.

The word “media” reflects the connecting link between any two ends i.e. it involves flow of information from one end to another, here it envisages two collective terms (print media and electronic media) and both are supposed to be the most significant source of information available to both i.e. elite as well as common guild of society.

Media is a brand vehicle: Media provides a unique platform where one can get a reliable brand for the product so that it can be trusted by the mass. The most applicable tool of media is that it transforms rubble to palace, clay to gold, novice to expert, etc. The quality which makes it unique is that it can work in the reverse order as well i.e. it is adroit in converting palace to rubble, gold to clay and so on. By utilizing this unique feature of media, an appellant can avail justice while an innocent may be charged as a culpable, and it is this uniqueness of media which sometimes implants a stigma to its reliability.

Media makes govt.: Media makes a psychological impact on public and public being the basic unit of government, determines the establishment of governance in the country. No. doubt, media can create a freak in favor of one political guild and can ruin the repute of the other at the same time.

Role of media in elections: Media provides the complete profile of all the political parties taking part in the elections. Media conducts a 360 degree analysis of the entire process of election right from the announcement of various important dates and deadlines by the Election Commission including the dates for voter registration, the filing of nominations till the counting and declaration of the results, so that, even the most common person may come across to know about the right political party and right candidate of his choice, and hence, gives value to his vote. During the entire procedure of election, media is incessantly involved in the process as a watchdog and point out even the subtle details in front of the public.

Besides fulfilling just a mere duty to provide the details of election procedure, media should involve in propagating the healthy environment for the elections by conducting sensible discourses, procuring reliable data, encouraging the public to cast their vote and not to cast their caste. So! As media transforms its duty into the responsibility, we get the government of our choice.

WESTERN CULTURE PROMOTES DIVORCE

The living planet which we inhabit is an archive of various cultures, civilizations, work-ethics, and life-styles. Besides having such a diversified environment, the one thing which conglomerates the entire humanity is the different forms of emotions - the emotion of love, the emotion of grief, the emotion of joy.....and so on.... These forms of emotions are common in every culture with varying flavors. These emotions are the building-blocks of various relations and relation of a husband and a wife is one such important one in this series. A man and a woman become husband and wife respectively by following a common ritual (though in different formats) world-wide called "Marriage". However, there is also a rival word "Divorce" which provides an element of social-discourse to the issue.

Divorce (or the dissolution of marriage) is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties. In most countries divorce  requires the sanction of a court or other authority in a legal process. The legal process for divorce may also involve issues of spousal support, child custody, child support, distribution of property and division of debt. In most western countries, a divorce does not declare a marriage null and void as in an annulment, but it does cancel the married status of the parties. Where monogamy is law, this allows each former partner to marry another. Where polygamy is legal, divorce allows the women to marry another. Divorce laws vary considerably around the world. Divorce is not permitted in some countries, such as in Malta and in the Philippines, though an annulment is permitted. From 1971 to 1996, four European countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, & the Republic of Ireland) legalized divorce.

The subject of divorce as a social phenomenon is an important research topic in sociology. In many developed countries, divorced rates increased markedly during the 20th century. Among the nations in which divorce has become commonplace are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Australia. India and Sri-Lanka are the two countries that have the lowest divorce rates around 1% and 1.5% respectively. In this part of Asia, divorce is still very rare, although, it is more common in South-East Asia. In India, for example, arranged marriage is still fairly prominent although not as common as it once was. Divorce is not declared as acceptable as it is in other countries and therefore many either make a problem or remain in unhappy marriages.

On an All-India level, the Special Marriage Act was passed in 1954 and the Hindu Marriage Act, in 1955 which legally permitted divorce to Hindus. Divorce can be sought by husband or wife on certain grounds, including : adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years, religious conversion, mental abnormality, venereal disease and leprosy. Divorce causes great stigma among Hindus, especially those of the higher castes, and thus it is not common in this population. For consensual divorce, there is six months cooling off period after filling the consent terms in court before the divorce is granted. There are different laws for granting divorce in many communities.

In Islamic law and marital jurisprudence, divorce is accepted and referred to as talaq. Khula is the right of a woman in Islam to divorce or separate from her husband. The triple talaq is a mechanism for divorce which exists in sunni sect of Islam while rejected by the shia sect. Talaq (conflict) deals with the relationship between religious and secular systems for terminating the marriage in the conflict of laws.

An annual study in the United States by the Anthropological Issues & Behavioral Organization, estimates the main proximal causes of divorce based on survey of matrimonial lawyers. The main causes concluded in 2009 were :

1. Extra-marital affairs - 27%
2. Emotional/physical abuse - 13%
3. Mid-life crisis - 13%
4. Addictions, e.g. alcoholism & gambling - 6%

A recent survey found that 93% of divorce cases were petitioned by women, very few of which were contested. 53% of divorces were of marriages that had lasted 10-15 years, with 40% ending after 5-10 years. The first five years are relatively divorce free and if a marriage survives more than 20 years it is unlikely to end in divorce.
The age at which a person gets married is also believed to influence the likelihood of divorce, delaying marriage may provide more opportunity or experience in choosing a compatible partner.

As a social institution, marriage provides benefits not only to society as a whole, but also to the people that make up households that include marriage. Social scientists and family experts largely agree that there are many reasons that marriage helps societies, families and individuals stay stronger and healthier.
Here are ten of the many reasons marriage is valued :

1. Within marriages, there is generally less domestic violence toward women and children alike than there is in single parent or cohabitating households.
2. Children with married parents are not only less likely to be the victims of violent crimes, but are also less likely to commit crime or to be incarcerated (the latter applies specially to boys).
3. Children of married parents are more likely to graduate from college and to acquire better jobs.
4. Married ones are tend to be more ambitious, earning more than their single counterparts do even when other life circumstances (education, experience, etc.) are very similar.
5. Married men are less likely to engage in reckless behaviors, which may be attributed to the facts that they have a wife and /or children who depend on them and care for them. This may be one of the reasons for the next entry.
6. Married ones enjoy greater life expectancy than single ones do.
7. Mothers who are married tend to suffer from depression less often than single or cohabitating mothers do.
8. It is widely accepted that married adults, both men and women, tend to be healthier than their single, cohabitating or divorced counterparts are, and that children of married parents enjoy better health on average.
9. Children who grow up with married parents are more likely to stay married themselves, while children of divorced parents are nearly twice as likely to divorce.
10. Marriage may help recede poverty, especially in regard to women and children. A high rate of divorced women, other single parents and their children live in poverty.

The chronology of divorce is an axiom of its negative impact (except in some relevant cases) on the society and its culture should not be allowed to propagate like a cancerous cell. In the current scenario, it is being seen that the culture of divorce is being adopted by the people like a fashion and this must be cursed on every aspect. There are other things to adopt as a fashion, rather to play with such a beautiful relation.

A German philosopher has aptly said "Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate."

EMPOWERING WOMEN : REBUILDING THE SOCIETY

A women is a female human, more specifically an adult one, as defined in the dictionaries. "The half-world" - this is the current sobriquet for women and the highly discussed one in various guilds of social importance ranging from local to international platforms. More or less, this is almost one of the highly expected topics in essay writing competitions or in some counterpart exams. Freelancers always feel comfortable in putting their contributions on this, because they are an expert now and have discovered some sprucing innovative words to write about women and their issues. It was always very easy to say or to write few words or few resplendent lines on women so as very difficult to prove them real. An extempore question arises "why women are such a highly discussed one?", a philosophical inference to this curiosity points that smoke is the result of fire, so as women are guised as smoke and fire belongs to their plight. To elaborate this philosophical sentence a precis about the status of the women, since the inception of society up to date, is inevitable.

Status of women has been undergone multidimensional changes with the passage of time, strikingly in an alternate fashion. They enjoyed a revered status in pre-vedic period, as a pariah during post-vedic/medieval period and again emerged strongly in the twentieth century which is still on its journey to be completed.

Pre-vedic period was the golden era for the women because at that time they were devoid of any sort of restrictions or benighted customs, they were scholars, diligent, politician, etc, without being discriminated on the gender basis, however, some non-social impediments started arousing by the end of pre-vedic period and at the inception of post-vedic period. The first most accused has been claimed to be the doctrine of "Manusmiriti" which advocated the deprived and jeopardized living for the women followed by the Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal Empire who further added the suppression of women's rights in the society. The benighted customs like sati, child marriage, ban on widow remarriage, Devdassis, purdah, etc, were quite prevalent in the medieval period.

The deterioration of women's status persisted and remained isolated for a long time when social reformers started campaigning for their social upliftmnet during the British Rule. Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, Jyotirao Phule. were the names of such social reformers who made strong contributions in breaking the shackles of static and prevalent customs responsible for the deterioration of women's status in the society and further incepted the doctrine of their empowerment and reformation to set their status not less than any other human species.

Women in India now participate in all activities such as politics, sports, education, media, art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc. Indira Gandhi who served as prime minister of India for an aggregate period of 15 years is the world's longest serving women prime minister and the influence of women in politics is at its apex in the present context strongly supported by the incumbent president of India Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, incumbent speaker of Lok-Sabha Meira Kumar, incumbent railway minister Mamta Benerji and leader of UPA Sonia Gandhi. Besides these names of women holding major authorities in the politics, the other fields also have women ascendants like Indira Nooyi CEO of Pepsico, Chanda Kochar CEO of ICICI bank, Shikha Sharma of Axis bank and so on.

The constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equality (Article 14), no discrimination by the state (Article 15(1)), equality of opportunity (Article 16), and equal pay for equal work (Article 39 (d)). In addition
it allows special provisions to be made by the state in favor of women and children (Article 15(3)), renounces practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A)(e)) and also allows for the provisions to be made by the state for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief (Article 42)

In 1990s, grants from foreign donor agencies enabled the formation of new women oriented NGOs. Self-help groups and NGOs such as Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) have played a major role in women's rights in India. Many women have emerged as leaders of local movement for example Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Govt. of India declared 2001 as year of women empowerment. National policy for the empowerment of women was also passed in 2001. In 2010 march 9, one day after international women's day, Rajya Sabha passed women's reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation to women in parliament and state legislative bodies.

Besides all these beautiful data, the status of women is still not that to which it is meant for. There are still a lot to do for their empowerment. The cases of child marriage, deteriorating maternity rate, anemic pregnancies, eve teasing, molestation, harassment, rape, exploitation, trafficking and so many more are such an inventory of
non-social impediments which are still prevailing in an alarming rate.

The worst myth so far is that man is superior and women is inferior in terms of physical power, more muscles, taller stature, broader shoulders. His prowess is proven in the brave progress he has made down the ages, hunting for food, cultivating for better living, conquering territories for more power. In short, pages of History remember him as the ruler, achiever, and savior with great physical and intellectual strength. He is seen to be born to govern, to protect and dominate. On the other hand, women seen as a lesser version with tender make-up of physique and delicate features have been alloted a shaded place in the back-ground, a safe shelter in home looking after the appetites and needs of the mighty man, delivering his pregnancies and bringing them up, has been her primary if not the only duty.

Man and women being complimentary physically, emotionally, and morally and there is no scope for comparison. One has no existence without the other. They are interdependent. Together their life is whole and meaningful. Each has their own duties, roles and responsibilities.

Beautifully lyrical sloka from Atharvaveda clearly states that women leads the man - "The son God follows the
first illuminated and enlightened goddess Usha (Dawn) in the same manner as men emulate and follow women".