Naari Shakti | Report Card Series | Ep3

Many promises for women’s safety, upliftment and empowerment have been made by the BJP regime and its allies. However, the realities concerning women have been grim. There has been a steady increase in atrocities against women over the last 10 years with Dalits and Muslims facing heightened criminalisation owing to their identities. Several ministers of the BJP and its allies have been accused of severe cases of sexual harassment including rape and murder. Rapes in Unnao, Hathras and the felicitation of the rapists of Bilkis Bano by members of the BJP appear to be at odds with the homilies uttered by the Prime Minister. Silence from the top signifies a tacit sanction of the crimes. Moreover, with much fanfare and media hype, the prime minister, Mr. Narendra Modi has made tall claims concerning women’s economic empowerment. Once again, the realities are different. There has been a rise in unpaid household work among women and most of the funds for the flagship ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme seem to have been spent on advertisements. To learn more on the realities concerning the professed ‘naari shakti’, watch this video based on a report prepared by the civil society group Bahutva Karnataka. Directed by: Rajendran Narayanan LINKS • Nari shakti Bahutva Karnataka report: https://bahutvakarnataka.wordpress.com/guaranteechecks/#narishakti • PM Indepdence Day speech 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOwD2S3oHjU Hathras Case https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/hathras-gangrape-murder-case-up-court-convicts-main-accused-acquits-3-others-8475386/ • Bilkis Bano https://www.thenewsminute.com/news/supreme-court-finds-gujarat-govt-acted-in-tandem-with-bilkis-banos-rapist • CK Raulji on the rapists of Bilkis Bano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71K_FSkcMV0 • Sulli deals bail https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/creators-bulli-bai-sulli-deals-apps-bail-delhi-court-humanitarian-grounds-1930817-2022-03-29 • Women’s self employment by Akshit Arora https://www.theindiaforum.in/forum/making-sense-recent-developments-indian-labour-market • 20% bank accounts inoperative: https://thewire.in/government/20-of-banks-accounts-opened-under-jan-dhan-yojana-are-inoperative-finance-ministry • Multiple Indicator Survey on 50% rural households using clean fuel https://mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/MultipleIndicatorSurveyinIndiaf.pdf • Ujwala Yojana refer to this CAG document -- https://cag.gov.in/uploads/download_audit_report/2019/Report_No_14_of_2019_Performance_Audit_of_Pradhan_Mantri_Ujjwala_Yojana_Ministry_of_Petroleum_and_Natural_Gas_0.pdf • Evaluation of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao - Underutilisation of funds https://news.careers360.com/beti-bachao-beti-padhao-scheme-over-50-percent-money-spent-media-campaigns-ads-budget • 8% of the BBBP scheme used for media. https://www.thenewsminute.com/news/58-funds-beti-bachao-beti-padhao-allocated-7-yrs-went-towards-ads-160569 • Parliamentary committee report: https://loksabhadocs.nic.in/lsscommittee/Empowerment%20of%20Women/17_Empowerment_of_Women_5.pdf