Are Naga Women Suppressed? That they need 33% reservation? I don’t feel so.
The Indian government made the idea of 33% reservation for women because they know their women are a suppressed lot. India wants the world to know that it is trying to elevate the status of women in India. The Indian women are suppressed because they are aborted during pregnancy. The Indian women are suppressed because the male child is loved more than the female child. The Indian women are suppressed because the parents don’t feel they need to go to school. The Indian women are suppressed because they have restricted friends. The Indian women are suppressed because they are blamed even though they may be the victims. The Indian women are suppressed because they have to pay dowry. The Indian women are suppressed because they are blamed for any calamity that befalls her husband’s home. The Indian women are suppressed because they are blamed for childlessness. The Indian women are suppressed because they cannot raise a finger against the head of the home. The Indian women are suppressed because they have to show that they are a widow. The Indian women are suppressed from the womb to the tomb.
The above list is long and will go on. But, it’s time to ponder whether our mothers and sisters in Nagaland are living in a better place or not. The Indian women need 33% reservation, no doubt about that. But do we also need to put our women in the same oppressed level of the women in India? If we make a graph of the suppressed women in Nagaland and India, the graph of Nagaland would be a mole-hill, and the graph of Indian a mountain.
E. Chishi
Dimapur
