International Men’s Day 2021: Gender Equality is the Goal. Not Female Dominance.
When we think of gender equality, we immediately start to think of protecting and promoting women’s rights. This immediate thought in itself reflects the inequality of gender in our thoughts and beliefs.
Women have historically suffered from subordination of men. They have been restricted to lead their lives on their own terms. The women today are fighting this centuries old grievance, with the help of governments, system, institutions and society. In this path of feminism, people often forget the sight of what they were fighting for in the first place, i.e. gender equality.
November 19th is celebrated as International Men’s Day globally. The day is aimed at recognizing the contribution of men in bringing positive value to the world, their families and communities. The theme of the International Men’s Day 2021 is “Better relations between men and women.”
Often the cases have come into highlight where women appear to be harassed, they utilize the means they have to expose their exploiters, their exploiters are tried and convicted by the media and society, and later it turns out that it was the women who were in the wrong. On this International Men’s Day, let us look at some of these cases.
Sarvjeet and Jasleen Kaur Case
Nearly four years ago, Jasleen Kaur, a young woman from Delhi, posted on her Facebook page accusing Sarvjeet Singh of sexually harassing her in the middle of the road. She also attached a photo of the man in a lengthy post describing the event. In the flow of events, Sarvjeet was condemned by the media and society. Even celebrities from Bollywood and Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal voiced out their opinions about the heinous act that he allegedly committed, without knowing the facts of the matter. As a result of this fiasco, Sarvjeet lost his reputation, his job and even his father who suffered from depression at the plight of his son.
Sarvjeet was arrested and was later released on bail. When the police investigated, an eyewitness testified that Jasleen’s accusation was false. He also testified that the woman had spoken ill of him. The case was pending for a long time because the accused woman did not appear in any court hearing related to this case, and she went abroad for her higher studies. Recently Sarvjeet Singh was acquitted by the courts.
Zomato Delivery Boy case in Bengaluru
Earlier this year, a video was posted on Instagram from Bengaluru, where an influencer named Hitesha accused a Zomato delivery man named Kamaraj of assaulting her after an argument over a late delivery. Soon after the video was posted, viewers started to comment and condemn the delivery boy, who was then arrested and was let go from his job.
When questioned, the delivery boy revealed that it wasn’t him who assaulted the girl. In fact, it was him who was assaulted by Hitesha who hit him with her sandals. And when he tried to defend himself, she hurt her own face which caused the bruise. It is alleged that the intent behind such an act of Hitesha was to garner sympathy and gain extra followers on social media. When the delivery boy filed a complaint against her, Hitesha Chandranee flee from Bengaluru.
Lucknow Girl Assaults the Cab Driver
Few months ago, an incident gained a lot of footage under the hashtag #arrrestlucknowgirl. Here, a young girl from Lucknow was crossing the signal when the police gave hand signal green to the vehicles. A cab driver stopped the car when the signal was red. The young girl made the cab driver come out and started beating him, and the crowd was just watching the incident. The woman even took the driver’s cell phone and broke it. No one came forward to ask the reason behind the clash. The cab driver also did not defend himself just because the opposite gender is female. One stranger came to help the cab driver, but the girl started to blast him as well. Over the incident, the cab driver was arrested.
In light of these cases, an old tweet by the late actor Siddharth Shukla is highly relevant. In 2019, he tweeted, “Gender equality is a human fight, not a female fight! In today’s day, instead of talking & focusing more on playing the women card, let’s talk & regulate equality..because we need it more and men and women are equal!! We feel so glad & proud to see Sid speaking up on this issue!’
Gender equality is a human fight not a female fight!In today’s day, instead of talking & focusing more on playing the women card,let’s talk & regulate equality..because we need it more and men and women are equal!!We feel so glad & proud to see Sid speaking up on this issue! pic.twitter.com/l43Ac22zQk
— Sidharth Shukla (@sidharth_shukla) December 23, 2019
