India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once had said that one could tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women. This was absolutely a true remark to judge how a section society treats another important section. India got its first woman PM, Indira Gandhi, some 40 years back and the first woman president, Pratibha Patil, only in 2007.

People may celebrate this by terming it as the woman’s empowerment in the country. The major question is that PM is constitutionally a strong post than the post of President and India had its first woman PM way back in 1960s, no one can see the foremost change in the condition of a common woman in the country.

Still, at least 245 million women in the country cannot read or write that is making India a country with the world’s largest number of illiterate women in a single country. India has the sex ratio of 933 females per 1,000 males that is one of the worst sex ratio in the world. Women engaged in the organised workforce accounts for mere 4 percent of total work force.

The recent incident of sexual harassment has showed the picture of the same old story once again. Sexual harassment has become the nuisance in buses and trains. Now, it has entered airplane aisles.

According to the report, a sky marshal commando Kumar Krishan, assigned to protect the passengers, allegedly made a pass at a 23-year-old woman. This happened when the J&K CM was also there on-board.

As the 50-odd other passengers started protesting, the J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad ordered to arrest the sky marshal. It is tough to change people’s mindset as one cannot force the males to give due respect to females in society. Government has taken several steps to restrict the incidents of sexual harassments of women.

According to the report, the government has proposed legislation to protect working women from the incidents of sexual harassment at the workplace. The government may table the bill in the current session of Parliament.

The Bill would provide legal support to the Vishakha guidelines that was actually laid down by the apex court. It would bring the women working in unorganised sector in the country within the preview of the bill. But, the question is still the same, would it change the male-dominated mindset in the society?

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