The lost heroines in the world of hostile men

The hullabaloo about empowerment among the chattering classes are very far removed from the concept of Bhanwaris & Musharrats of this world. For them employment really means the ability to survive against the harsh milieu. It is perhaps a pipedream but it has empowered them with a will to fight against feudal & patriarchal society consisting of a hostile men, on a far serious note when justice seems to be completely elusive & distant.
The notion of empowerment for the majority of women in India(consisting of rural & suburban
areas) doesnt mean a seat in parliament, but at best a few crumbs at the panchayat level, that may ensure that they get a fair hearing. The issue of women's empowerment seems to have fallen by the wayside despite all the hype over UPA'S aam aadmi agenda. There is hypebole over women's reservation bill, which we are bound to see when it comes up again in parliament,
but the real tools of empowerment like literacy, employment, matrimonial choices, family planning & prevention of women trafficking(for instance, lacs of women are brought into flesh business every year), are hardly taken points anymore. The Reservation Bill has the lip service
which have been paid incessantly to gender sensitisation, gender equality, gender budgeting, gender equality & our policymakers feel that they have fulfilled there duty to women. But for many forgotten women like Bhanwari & Musharrat, these rarefied words make no sense. THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED THAT BEING A WOMAN MEANS THE MOST MARGINALISED IN ANY SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRATA. The Reservation bill has become such a hoary old chestnut that debating its finer points has become an academic exercise. The foolish arguement that women's reservation bill will only empower the biwi-beti brigade stands exposed. Party bosses like those of RJD or DMK need no reservation to ensure that their women are automatically elevated to positions of clout with no particular talent other than lineage with them. Though it sounds impeccably impossible but in its new improved incarnation, UPA government maybe, just live it to its middle name-progressive & put just little power in hands of women for whom survival itself is a daily challenge. And the women's Karavan(organized byan NGO) which demands the implementation of women's reservation bill, have become very scant hope of become the kind of juggernaut that will become a real change in gender equations.