UPSC Mains 2021 GS Paper 2 Q17: model answer

India has sent women scientists to lead its Mars and Moon missions, and women have topped its civil services examination. Yet in NFHS-5 (2019–21), about 45% of women and 44% of men said a husband is justified in beating his wife in at least one situation. Achievement at the top has not changed attitudes at home.

Why schemes are not enough

Education and empowerment schemes change women's capacities. Patriarchy lives in men's expectations, family customs, workplaces and media. Those need their own interventions.

Interventions

• Engage men and boys: gender-equality programmes in schools for boys; campaigns like 'MARD' and community programmes where men discuss violence and care.
• School curriculum: textbooks that show men cooking and women leading; gender modules from early grades.
• Family law in practice: equal inheritance (Vineeta Sharma, 2020) enforced through land registration; joint titles for houses under PMAY.
• Workplaces: enforce the POSH Act, 2013; paternity leave to share care; childcare at work under the labour codes.
• Media and advertising: regulate stereotyping; show women in nontraditional roles; ASCI's guidelines against harmful gender stereotypes.
• Political representation: implement women's reservation; women leaders change norms in villages, as studies of women sarpanches found.
• Religious and community leaders: work with them on dowry and child marriage.
• Feminism's image: present gender equality as fairness for everyone, not a fight against men.
• Data and accountability: gender audits in public bodies; the gender budget.
• Safety in public spaces: lighting, safe transport and quick police response, so women can work and move freely.

Changing the meaning of 'respect'

Movements like the Kerala women's wall (2019) and #MeToo (2018) showed that public debate shifts norms faster than pamphlets.

Conclusion

Patriarchy is learned, so it can be unlearned. The decisive change will come when boys are raised differently, and when equal sharing at home becomes normal rather than heroic.