Recently when Disha’s rape case was trending on all social media and further became a National news, this thought came across my mind . The thing that came to me is no random one ,in fact its a very powerful but misunderstood or ignored one.Yes, I am talking about ‘WOMEN EMPOWERMENT’.

From almost a decade old NIRBAYA case(2012) to recent KATHURA rape case (2018) and now DISHA case(2019) , one phrase comes up with a great force and goes away without any notice  and that is Women Empowerment.

When the Nation got an alert of DISHA case , youngsters started candle walks to attain justice where as parents of these youth hold their hearts tight in their hands fearing something would happened to their child and started trying hard to stop their girls from going out of their sight and worse ,out for anything (like for Education Institutions far from home , Jobs and even to a mile away neighbourhood ). And its clearly no wonder when parents and elders react that way because all they do is out of love ,care and mainly fear.

However one thing that is making women and girl child vulnerable to all these inhuman and brutal crimes is ‘lack of social exposure’ to women which makes them unware of how to react in emergencies and aforesaid situations . And  when I say lack of social exposure is one of the main reasons for women being in peril situations ,it is no assumption because Disha case is a live example of crimes due to lack of awareness , lack of social exposure etc..

Another reason for women being traumatised during warmful situations and their lack of communication with family and relatives even if they have some scope is ‘ the fear of being scolded and restricted by parents and relatives from going out any further .’This reason sounds foolish but this is what stopped  Dr. Priyanka from contacting her parents .

In India , a rape victim is given no respect. Lets forget about society even victim’s now family will not give her any aid which further traumatises the victim and its no wonder when she thinks death is far better than living.And this is one  of the main reasons for domestic and in family sexual abuse on women and girl child.

So ,now do you think Women and girl child empowerment will be possible under these circumstances? I think the very meaning of women empowerment is misunderstood because in our society for a women being Prevented from facing disasters means stopping her from doing anything she aspires especially which involves movement (in other words caging her at home) and Empowerment means marrying her into a well off family who will ensure that she is safely caged again.

Thus , for reference sake let us know what Women empowerment actually means “Women empowerment refers to the ability for women to enjoy their right to control and benefit from the resources, assets, income and their own time, as well as the ability to manage risk and improve their economic status and well being.”So let us all work for women empowerment not by caging her at homes but by enabling her to face her own demons. This can only be done when she is given rights equally as are given to others and when her family and friends are by her side when she needs them.

I think ‘Empowerment should be enabler but not a provider’ because whether it is parents or in-laws who are protecting her at home can’t protect her through out her life because one day she has face the world without them and because she is not a non-living sculpture to be protected in museums(one museum here is parents house and the other is in-laws house).

Like men , women have also got one life to live . And living that life without a purpose of its own by just following a routine of cooking , cleaning , rearing and satisfying sexual needs of her husband is equally miserable as being raped and killed by some psychopaths. However , the only difference is in the latter case ‘life is taken away by death’ and in the former case ‘ life is taken by taking away her right to live with self -identity’ because people generally refer to a women either as daughter of some man or as daughter -in-law of some man or as wife of some man. Thus , taking away someone’s identity irrespective of gender is equally a crime as taking away someone’s life.