A. Harikumar
The south Indian state of Kerala comes across as a paradise for women in the narratives of media and academia. Left liberal groups often pit the state against north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to show how a left dominated political system empowers women and ensures safety to them and creates a progressive society.
However the reality is not so rosy as some perceive, and some others would like it to be. A spate of dowry deaths, incidences of domestic violence and attacks against women reported from the state in the thrid week of June questions the claims of woke groups, and apocryphal notions. They include suicides of Vismaya, a housewife at Kollam, after her husband an assistant motor vehicle inspector brutally tortured for dowry and Piryanka,, daughter in law of a famous Malayalam actor Rajan P Dev unable to bear the alleged torture for dowry by her husband’ Unni P Dev.
Meanwhile at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district, a 21-year-old student Drisya was killed and her sister a 13-year-old child was grieviously injured by a drug peddler, Vineesh Vinod, for rejecting his love proposals. Before the murder, the assailant had set on fire a shopping centre owned by the father of the victim. While influential men who commit atrocities against women manage to get away with it, there are complaints of innocent men getting trapped in cases resulting from the misuse of prevention of domestic violence act. This is the real picture of God’s own country flaunted as an idyll and a progressive utopia rby the Left groups.
Responses
Incidents of violence against women often spark politically polarised reactions in Kerala, which eventually results in denial of justice to victims;. The Malayalam saying “Ammaye Thalliyalam Randu Paksham,” which could be roughly translated as even if one beats own mother, there will be two opposing opinions and a few would support the mother-beater reflects the realities in Kerala.
However, the spurt in atrocities against women in Kerala this month (June) has evoked widespread condemnation across the state. Kerala’s mainstream media which normally toes the line of their political godfathers while reporting atrocities against women in the state, have taken up the issue. They have also given due importance to such incidences commensurating with the degree and gravity of the crimes. The widespread outrage in social media could be one of the reasons why media took up the recent crimes seriously.
While outrightly condemning crimes against women, the Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it is not manly to beat one’s wife and not womanly to suffer atrocities stoically. He asserted that the culprits will be brought to book, However in a typical left response, Pinarayi added that while incidents of dowry deaths and atrocities against women are reported from some parts of the country and Kerala shouldn’t become one such place. His strategy is even while condemning crimes against women, an impression should be created that crimes against women recorded in Kerala were one-off incidents unlike other states, where it is rampant.
Invoking Kerala pride to hide crime rate
Kerala politicians, esp the left,often invoke Kerala pride to cover up the sky-high crime rates here, including crimes against women. The usual justification is the state has very high literacy and awareness levels and a people friendly police, so even minor offences are registered as crimes in police stations causing the numbers to shoot up. However, facts don’t corrobrate such tall claims. According to the methodology of Principal Offence Rule (POR) adopted by National Crime Records Bureau {NCRB} from 2016, only grave crimes are counted while compiling the National Crime Records {NCR) statistics. So NCRB records showing high crime rate in Kerala don’t include minor offences.
Let’s look into Kerala’s crime statistics. Media reports quoting crime records bureau of Kerala Police say between 2016 and 2021, as many as 66 women have been killed for dowry in Kerala. According to NCRB’s Crime in India 2019 report, the rate of rape cases (per one lakh population) in Kerala which is 11.1 is the second highest in India after Rajasthan’s 15.9. Similarly, the report adds that Kerala tops the country in rate of rape against scheduled caste women
The total number of rapes registered by the police in Kerala between 2007-17 is a whopping 16,755. It’s not just women who are victims of crimes in Kerala. General crime rate in the state is also very high. But politicians in the state don’t accept this reality or strive for a meaningful solution.
Duplicity
As Vismaya’s dowry death fuelled widespread protests in Kerala, political leaders have joined the outcry,. However, the social media was quick to call out the duplicities of some political leaders. The moral indignation and promise to act expressed by the state PWD minister Muhammad Riyas were debunked by a section of social media users. They pointed out that the former wife of the minister had filed a case against him for domestic violence and a court had ordered protection for her. CPI (M) isn’t the only party with leaders against whom complaints had been filed for domestic violence. Similar allegations had been raised against Congress leader T. Siddque also in the past.
The outrage expressed by political and cultural leaders in the state whenever reports of atrocities against women rock the state is nothing more than viture signalling. The parents of two gril children who were raped savagely and murdered in coldblood at Walayar in Palakkad are yet to get justice. Incidentally, the mother of the victims who contested against Pinarayi in the last assembly polls had forefieted her deposit. Despite claims of empowering women, Kerala never had a woman chief minister. Important portfolios like finance and home have never been given to women and representation of women in the state assembly still remains poor.
Putting false narratives
The false narratives on women empowerment in Kerala created for political gains in the bane of the state. The matrilienal system once followed by some castes in the state, esp Nairs, have been misunderstood by many outsiders as matriarchial sytem. The truth is among Nairs, women were not all-powerful as some half-baked foreign experts think. The matrlinearl system meant that instead of father the elder maternal uncle headed and controlled the family. Women were subserviant to him. Such false narratives have affected Kerala’s women empowerment.
Though it is true in some aspects of development, Kerala women are relatively better than their counterparts in other Indian states, Kerala is a far cry from being a soceity with equal rights for both genders. The tactfully drafted narratives of Kerala being a pradise for women many bring in political gains for the left, but will blindside the government from seeing the real issues. Ignoring real issues will fester the social wounds. The cat may close its eyes and blame the world for being dark, but that won’t be the reality.