WEIGHED DOWN BY A DIFFERENT KIND OF DOUBLE BURDEN
- A face-to-face session with
K.B.GEETHA, SECRETARY, WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE
BLIND
some POINTS TO PONDER on the status of VISUALLY CHALLENGED WOMEN
By
Latha
Ramakrishnan
Writer-Translator, Treasurer, Welfare Foundation of the
Blind
Recently we have celebrated the Centennial of
Women’s Day. It is indeed a noteworthy day. And, no doubt Women’s social status
has increased down the years. But, is it wholesome? The question persists. For,
woman is still treated as a secondary citizen and a consumer object by the
Mass-Media which can do a significant lot towards changing the social outlook
and attitudes regarding women and their uplift. Day in and Day out we get these
‘run on the mill’ roles of women – the ever vulnerable and gullible; the
all-sacrificing and the all loving. And, we get the other extremes too, the
avenging women and the arrogant modern women. When it comes to the Literary World
we have quite a number of men posing themselves to be the harbingers and active
supporters of women’s emancipation but who consciously and constantly dictate
the dos and don’ts of women, never allowing them space to think for themselves
and act on their own.
This unenviable situation is all the more
persistent in the case of visually challenged women. The Media do not pay them
attention except only very rarely, when suddenly they feel the need to pose as
socially conscious and sensitive. The visually challenged men get jobs and even
sighted life-partners and are considered as the bread-winners of their
respective families and in their work-spots but the same is not the case with
visually challenged women. There are quite a number of visually challenged
women studying in colleges but there are just one or two hostels for them even
in the cities. If they stay in the usual Hostels for women they have to
struggle a lot facing hostility and sarcasm from their room-mates or fellow
women in the hostel. Even those sighted women who are endowed with a friendly
disposition and a helping nature cannot be of much help to their visually
challenged counterparts, caught up as they are in the vicious cycle of the
competitive world.
When things remain so, leaving much to be desired,
where lies the solution?
“It is not enough if we get opportunities for
higher education. We should get sufficient job opportunities and also the
society should be sensitized and made aware of the plights and potentials of
the visually challenged”, says Ms.Geetha, an enterprising young woman in her
thirties who despite her visual impairment has a Diploma in Music teaching and
a Degree in Music from the University
of Chennai
She is not all that pessimistic about the uplift of
the visually challenged women down the years but she feels sad to note that in
the Legislative Assemblies of the State and Central Government there are no
visually challenged representatives.
“Even when we speak of the reservation within the
33% reservation for women we only think of the caste-based and class-based
marginalized groups but do not give a thought about the differently-abled which
is indeed sad”, Geetha points out. Women’s Groups which strive for the uplift
of women have never cared to focus on the differently-abled women, especially
the visually challenged which hurts us, says Geetha in an emotionally charged
voice.
A bright girl Geetha has a flair for writing and
she knows Tamil, English and Hindi too. She is grateful to her family
comprising her father, mother, elder sister and her son for their unconditional
encouragement and support but all the same Geetha wants to stand on her own
legs, sharing the financial burden of her family and also be a contributing
citizen to the society. She has a flair for writing and she wants to write
articles and books highlighting the plights and potentials of women in general
and the visually challenged in particular. “So, you are a full-time writer. I
too want to be one such”, said she. Let some publisher or FM channel or even
AIR come forward to give this enterprising young girl a new lease of life.
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