Vice President Hamid Ansari on Friday expressed concern at the declining sex-ratio in the country and said the society was often resorting to “tokenism” to “camouflage” the bitter societal realities. The “only silver lining”, said the Vice President, was being provided by the two North Eastern states of Meghalaya and Mizoram when it came to gender equality.
“It is a matter of concern that the sex ratio in the age group 0-6 years continues to decline since 1961 and stands at 914 in Census 2011. Among our own States, the only silver lining is provided by Mizoram and Meghalaya having child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 at 971 and 970 respectively,” he said.
Ansari was addressing the 19th convocation of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), one of the premier educational institutions of North East and is situated in Shillong.
“The principle of gender equality, and of affirmative action to ensure it, is writ large in the Constitution and has been reinforced by the Supreme Court rulings. Societal reality however is not in consonance with it. Socially constructed roles of men and women define a person’s role in society, economy and household. As a result and in order to camouflage reality, we resort to tokenism and often parade exception as the rule,” said Ansari.
Ansari, who made his first visit to Meghalaya on Friday, referring to the World Development Report 2012, released by the World Bank ten days ago, said the report argues that gender equality is a critical determinant of development outcomes and makes for smart economics.
The World Development Report for the first time, said Ansari, calls for limiting gender discrimination in the society.
“Besides calling for action in addressing human capital issues, closing earning and productivity gaps between women and men, and giving women greater voice within households and societies, the report for the first time seeks limiting the perpetuation of gender inequality across generations,” he said.
The Vice President also referred to a recent project by IIM Bangalore based on a large-scale household survey in Karnataka state on women’s access to and ownership of assets which had revealed that apart from some jewellery, women hold little or no assets.
Gender works its debilitating impact over lifetimes and generations, and impedes a person’s access to human capital formation, full range of citizenship functions, economic opportunities, social emancipation and political participation, he added.