Beyond Tehelka scandal: It's time to put more women in charge

A high-profile editor known for crusades against high-level corruption is suddenly a villain for allegedly perpetrating a sexual crime against a junior employee. Stories in the media suggest that he may not be the only editor to exhibit predatory sexual behaviour – though this is a well-guarded secret. An important politician is under a cloud for allegedly snooping on a friend’s daughter. There are, in fact, several score politicians accused not only of sexual harassment, but also rape. A Supreme Court judge has been accused by a lawyer of having made attempts to sexually harass her. Another legal intern too made similar complaints. It does not matter if we do not have names in these cases. The purpose is not to act holier-than-thou or utter sanctimonious words at such gender outrage. Words have no meaning anymore, for the reality is clear. We need to act. [caption id=“attachment_1241765” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] Patriarchy and male attitudes have reached their nadir, and the only reason why these things have become everyday occurrences is that there are simply too many men in positions of power in almost every sphere of life. If this is not changed, no amount of gender sensitisation classes and anti-rape laws and Supreme Court judgments is going to make a difference. Setting up sexual harassment committees in workplaces, as mandated by the Supreme Court’s Visakha judgment, may be a good thing to do, but how many workplaces have really managed to change behaviours with these committees? And if most instances of molestation take place at home, with male relatives and even parents abusing both boys and girls, Visakha committees may be dealing with human sideshows in predatory behaviour. The Twitter world is spewing venom at Shoma Chaudhury for having termed the editor’s sexual assault as an “untoward incident” and the offending editor has not covered himself with glory by merely “recusing” himself from work for six months due to a “bad lapse of judgment” and “an awful misreading of the situation”. Quite apart from the fact the sexual assault is not just a bad lapse of judgment, the larger question to ask is this: why is it that even women in power are not able to act decisively when such things occur? Why is it that women choose not to go the whole hog in seeking justice? For example, the lawyer who complained against the retired Supreme Court judge has not so far initiated legal action against him. While it is perfectly reasonable for any woman to seek justice in her own way, I suspect that underlying it all is the realisation that seeking justice will ultimately harm the complainant herself in a system that is grossly biased against women. Perhaps the only thing that will turn things around is a shift in the power structure itself. Quite simply, whether it is parliament or corporate boards or ordinary workplaces, women are not going to be empowered unless they have the power of numbers behind them. They need to constitute at least half of every power structure. At the very least, parliament needs to pass the long-mothballed 33 percent reservation of women – and perhaps make it even 50 percent. Corporate boards need to be mandated to be 50 percent women. Cabinets should have at least 50 percent women, even if they are not that qualified as yet. Commonsense and native wisdom ought to be the only qualification for a cabinet post for women. Whether all this is done through quotas or affirmative action or any other route, crimes against women will not come down without a powershift, where half the people in power in any institution are comprised of women. It is time to put women in charge, for men are failing to comprehend reality quickly enough in a changing world.