Source: wbur.org |
The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a Hindu nationalist party which was founded in
1980 and is led by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi, alongside many of the members of his party have lifelong links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right wing, Hindu nationalist organisation, which desires India to be defined as a Hindu nation and is considered as the unofficial parent of the BJP.
Due to these
ties with the RSS, the BJP advocates the ideology of a traditionally Hindu
nation so that India can ultimately be defined in the terms of the Hindu
values.
Whilst many
aspects and criticisms source from this, such aslimited benefits towards
Punjabi communities, and the treatment of Muslims across India, a key issue
that stems from the BJPs’ advocations is the lack of empowerment towards women.
For years,
the BJP has claimed to have women’s’ best interests at heart in terms of their
rights and place in society. However, a look at their campaigns can quickly
reveal the truth in that everything that the BJP are willing to do for a woman
will ultimately benefit the man.
Launched in
2016, the Ujjwala Yojana scheme aimed to provide free cooking gas connections
to poor families across rural areas. The scheme quickly fell through and the
free connections that were promised quickly required payment which most
families benefitting at first simply could not afford. With the one-time
subsidy being cruel enough, the initial publicity surrounding the scheme is
just as horrifying.
Source:transformingindia.mygov.in |
Posters for the scheme showed images of young girls sitting by the stove with no evidence of any other future for herself. Other images included multiple generations of women clinging to the gas cylinders as if it was their sole source of happiness. The images reinforced the idea that this campaign was only meant for women, in turn implying that men have no direct link to the cooking of the food and are simply required to just enjoy the food that is made for them.
The images weren’t officially claimed by the government but drive anywhere in Dehli and you will find it hard to miss perfectly airbrushed billboards of the prime minister – they clearly have the control over what images represent them.
Ultimately,
all that the Ujjwala Yojana scheme was able to amount to was showing that when
the BJP make the promise to invest in women, they simply fail to follow
through.
Another
example of this is the is the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme translating to
“Save Girls, Teach Girls”. The campaign aimed to create opportunity for girls
using education services, whilst also generating awareness towards female
foeticide in India in a bid to save the declining child sex ratio. Many
promises were made but when it came down to it, only 24% of the funds were
actually distributed to the states, whilst over half of the funds were spent on
publicity for Modi and his involvement.
Under Modi’s
government, women are even controlled in their pregnancies, especially the
amount of pregnancies that are desired of them.
The Hindu
right remains unmoved in its mission to ensure that India remains as a Hindu
majority, with the magic number increasing from three, to five and then ten
children per family, according to the wishes of party leaders.
The government are so insistent on producing more Hindu children, yet basic benefits are limited to the first birth for each woman, meaning that 86% of pregnant women are excluded.
Is it not
obvious now that Modi is using women as a vehicle to create the right-wing Hindu
India that he so deeply desires?
Thank you for reading!
Aman
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