By Shruti Sunderraman
A lot has been talked about all that’s wrong with the condition of women in India, but hardly anyone really informs them about the rights they can exercise. ‘Enhance naari power’ has been the representational slogan of every political party, with no real information forthcoming on how to do this.
Now a new video by YouTube channel Vitamin Stree tries to fill this gap, by comparing women’s rights in India to the other parts of the world. Created by Mumbai-based production house Supari Studios (that owns Vitamin Stree), the video takes you through a history of women’s rights in India across sectors – law, government, workforce, education, safety. It emphasises how, on paper, women’s right look really good in the country, but their enforcement fails massively.
It does tend to rattle off one act after another without mentioning anything beyond their names, making it sound rather jargony, but it remains pretty informative.
However, it misses out on a few crucial sections from the Indian Penal Code (IPC), like section 375 (that punishes rape) and 498A (that protects women from domestic violence). We also would’ve liked to hear about useful mandates like the Vishakha Guidelines, or The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Perhaps the details of how women can use these laws is beyond a short video, but we’d love to see them do a follow-up. For example, if a woman is stalked, which law can she turn to help her?
The cutest part is a kid who tries to explain women’s rights in education. While talking about how GST affects women (ugh, that bleddy sanitary napkin taxation) but how sindoor isn’t taxed, the kid goes all “What is sindoor?”. Question of the year, kid.
Watch the full video below.
P.S. Can we have more of that kid in your future videos, please?