Hyderabad: Women’s health and laws which protect them require more focus and right interpretation, stated advocate and columnist Flavia Agnes at the Hyderabad Literary Fest.
Advocating strong resistance to the Juvenile Justice Act, Ms Agnes said, “We have enacted a strict law but will it ensure that crimes do not take place? After the Delhi gang rape, the number of rape cases in police stations has increased.
In 2014, the number rose by 8,000 from the figures in 2013; and in 2015, it was 3,000 more than the number in 2014. Hence it is not that after hearing or seeing such incidents, a deterrent is in evidence in the society.” At the same time, law must apply to all.
The panelists were keen that issues regarding women’s health, their nutrition levels and the challenges faced by them in work atmospheres must be addressed so that the benefits reached all. These points were also important for the well-being of women, the panelists said.
No state bashing at minority discussion
The ‘Minding the Minority’ session at the Hyderabad Literary Festival saw issues of the minorities being raised but the panelists restrained themselves from their usual agenda of government bashing or targeting of Hindu right-wing groups.
Panelists spoke of how there are minorities within the minority communities, like liberal Muslims or feminist divorced Christian women. Their issues or achievements are largely ignored, it was felt.
Flavia Agnes, well-known lawyer and women’s rights activist, spoke of how the minority rhetoric usually revolved only around Hindu-Muslim divide while other minorities like Christians, Parsis and Jews were largely ignored.
She spoke of how some Christian groups were becoming fundamentalists to assert their identity. Christian men were many a time portrayed in Indian cinema as alcoholic liberals. In reality, there were many Christian men who were conservative and shunned alcohol, the activist said.
Tabish Khair, who recently released the book The New Xenophobia, spoke of how he was in such a minority within the minority. He said, an educated Muslim from a small village in Jharkhand, he became an English novelist and settled abroad. “People are religious in different ways and we cannot let people tell us what we are and how should we be,” he said.
