India cannot shed its image of being a country unsafe for women if women are not empowered and the mothers are not educated, said Yashodhara Raje Scindia, a member of the Committee on Empowerment of Women.
Speaking at a discussion on the rise in sexual assaults against girls and the role civil society can play, she said "it is the environment that we have been brought up in that makes the Indian women vulnerable. Since we are supposed to be dependent on her male family members all throughout her life, the Indian household power structure by nature is patriarchal.
"The economic structure, especially with the crisis around the world, gives rise to tensions within the households, resulting in displacement of women who are the dependent lot here and it gives rise to incidents like a father selling off his daughter for money," said Scindia.
The discussion organised by the Assocham Ladies League, which also released a study report Rising Youth Tolerance had speakers like senior advocate from the Supreme Court, Pinky Anand, women's rights activist Urvsahi Butalia, and Director of India International Centre Kavita Sharma as panellists.
Commending the role the media and the civil society have been playing in exposing the state of affairs, Pinky Anand said that just bringing in a law will not prevent violence against women which, in most cases, are domestic and it can only be brought out with the help of the civil society which has to be alert to take up any case and deal with it sternly.
