Has Westernization increased the threat to women’s safety and dignity? by Disha Chaudhry

Title: Has Westernization increased the threat to women’s safety and dignity?

Westernization is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet, religion, philosophy, and values. It is a complex economic, political, cultural, and geographic process in which the mobility of capital, organizations, ideas, discourses, and peoples has taken a global or transnational form. It is a two-sided process, in which Western influences and interests themselves are joined by a wish of at least parts of the affected society to change towards a more Westernized society, in the hope of attaining Western life or some aspects of it.

India is a secular country where the people have the freedom to practice any religion and also to convert into another religion of their choice. So, all the cultures are freely accepted and respected by the Indians. But, the influence of western culture started in India during the 19th century when the British established their colony in the country.

In the weeks since a woman was viciously gang-raped on a New Delhi bus, the limited views or interests of India’s mostly male, mostly rural politicians have been on full display. Senior politicians blamed the rape on Western culture, on Westernized women, on modern city life, even on bad karma. The government’s mishandling of the popular outrage made the situation worse: Police in New Delhi used tear gas and water cannons on female protesters, many of them college students.

As the entire country monitored the health of the young woman—who died in a Singapore hospital on Dec. 29—Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said something that made sense. “The emergence of women in public spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security. There can be no meaningful development without the active participation of half the population, and this simply cannot take place if their security and safety are not assured.”

With women’s lifestyles slowly coming to a similar pattern as a man’s lifestyle, one can see women wearing lesser clothes than a normal Indian woman would usually wear, she would be seen at times and places which could not be safe for their own good, due to newer entertainment forms such as – night clubs, malls, lounges/bars, cheerleaders appearing in cricket shows to create more “buzz” , the country is seeing the change of women’s status in society. Women are no longer the ones who are meant to live on this planet to serve for their husband, they now have an equal say to every decision that is made in the household. They are allowed to walk around freely as men do, with no question asked. In a society like India, this would not truly be accepted by all classes, man or woman.

Some women sometimes internalize the western culture to such a deep level they eventually believe they are amidst a western culture. Some women like these go schizophrenic. Since they feel disconnected from their real world and imagine themselves in a culture all together, they eventually do not understand what the difference is between reality and illusion.

Therefore, women need not to afraid of westernization. It is the way one deals with it in the culture they actually live in. Each society has its own norms and presumptions which need to be accepted by all unless one does not mind being socially castrated. Change is inevitable though, but each society takes its own time.

s (not� d u P� � eople to climb out of destitution, and by ensuring children's health and education.

One in three of the world's malnourished children is in India, more even than in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a United Nations study. Despite significant economic progress in the past decade, India is home to about 25 percent of the world's hungry poor. The International Food Policy Research Institute report has sharply criticized India for not moving fast enough to reduce malnourishment, and has said that its nutritional indicators are far worse than its economic indicators merit. 37% of people in India live below the poverty line.

In other words, the average income in India was not much different from South Korea in 1947, but South Korea became a developed country by the 2000s. At the same time, India was left as one of the world's poorer countries.

If we look back in history, the economic policies made a big difference to the impact of poverty we deal with today. Between the year 1947 and 1990 many licenses were applied in situations where a set up and running of a business needed to be done.  This was a result of India’s decision to have a planned economy, where all aspects of the economy are controlled by the state and licenses were given to a select few, therefore, corruption flourished under this system. Businesses had to bribe government officials even for routine activities, which was in effect a tax on business.

India had started out in the 1950s high growth rates, openness to trade and investment, a promotional state, social expenditure awareness and macro stability but ended the 1980s with: low growth rates, closure to trade and investment, a license-obsessed, restrictive state, inability to sustain social expenditures and macro instability, indeed being a crisis situation.

Eradication of poverty in India is generally only considered to be a long-term goal. Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. It is incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programs have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth is not at all even.

The following policies could be taken up to ensure maximum reduction or alleviation of poverty in our country. They are:

1.      Extending property rights protection to the poor is one of the most important poverty reduction strategy a nation can implement. Securing property rights to land, the largest asset for our country, which is vital to people’s economic freedom.

2.     Improving human capital, in the form of health, is needed for economic growth. UN economists argue that good infrastructure, such as roads and information networks, helps market reforms to work. It was the technology of the steam engine that originally began the dramatic decreases in poverty levels. Such technology also helps bring economic freedom by making financial services accessible to the poor.

3.     Economic growth has the indirect potential to alleviate poverty, as a result of a simultaneous increase in employment opportunities and increase labor productivity. In India, most of the chronically poor are wage earners in formal employment, because their jobs are insecure and low paid and offer no chance to accumulate wealth to avoid risks. This appears to be the result of a negative relationship between employment creation and increased productivity, when a simultaneous positive increase is required to reduce poverty.

4.     Raising farm incomes is described as the core of the antipoverty effort as three quarters of our country today are farmers. Estimates show that growth in the agricultural productivity of small farmers is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a country’s population as growth generated in nonagricultural sectors. Improving water management is an effective way to help reduce poverty among farmers. Also, there should be better facilities for marketing the agricultural produce throughout India.

5.     Welfare State Aid: Aid in its simplest form is a basic income grant, a form of social security periodically providing citizens with money.

6.    Industrial Decentralization: In India, a prominent problem is that all the industries are centralized or located in specific areas of the country. Decentralization of industries is necessary for the economic growth of the country and industrial units should also be set up in rural areas of the country for generating rural employment.

7.     Instilling awareness of family planning to inculcate the awareness about the importance of family planning in the minds of people. High population leads to poverty.