For tomorrow’s sake.
Indian women remain officially excluded from frontline combat roles. But led by Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, half a dozen women BSF personnel deployed at the international border in Akhnoor, found themselves defending two forward posts during Op Sindoor. Seizing this opportunity, they battled heavy Pak fire for three days and nights, leaving their post only after forcing the enemy to retreat. The first co-ed batch has also graduated from NDA. These developments mark women overcoming some of the most entrenched resistance in society’s prestige roles.
What’s weird is how widely women are still waiting for their ‘firsts’. India has never had a woman CJI. Many Indian cities are yet to see a woman cabbie, in many others there are few women behind the wheel at all. If their representation remains sparse across vast civilian spaces, it is not because of formal rules or regulations. These can be as gender evolved as in Scandinavia, but also a total chimera. Because our social norms remain of a medieval variety. Statistics ministry’s new Time Use Survey says this starkly. Female participation in ‘food and meals management and preparation’ is 76%, male 6%. So, though women’s literacy has expanded to 77% from 9% at Independence, their domestic shackles haven’t loosened much.
This is why India’s 37% female labour force participation shamefully lags Japan’s 55%, China’s 60% and Vietnam’s 63%. However much this hurts the nation’s growth, the drag on individuals is more acutely painful. Young women don’t just have to find a job in a tough job market, they have to beg their family to let them do it. And now, AI is about to remake the jobscape. The only way for India to ride this sea change is to let women navigate it on strong, independent terms. As for meals, the men better cook their fair share.