In Kerala, women still need permission to compete

                                                 

                                                           

By Sangeeth Sebastian

Kerala takes a lot of pride in its progressive ways. The State’s upper-caste Hindu community, the Nairs, are matrilineal, meaning they bequeath their family home
to women, not men. Even as early as 1920s the State’s erstwhile royal family
of Travancore rewarded women who went to college with an invitation for tea at the palace. The State has one of the highest female literacy rates (92 per cent) in the entire country (only two-thirds of women can read and write in India).

Yet, all this empowerment has failed to bring about any change in the State’s patriarchal mindset which continues to regulate how a woman should conduct herself in public even now. Surprisingly, the proponents of the latest patriarchal drivel are not men, but a women’s magazine called Vanita dubbed as “India’s largest selling publication” for women.

                                                            

‘Photo Queen,’ a competition which the magazine runs for its young women readers insists on written parental permission complete with signatures as a pre-condition to participate in the contest from its adult contestants in the age group of 18 to 25 years. The winner will get her photograph featured, no not on the cover, but as a headshot in one of the opening pages of the magazine along with a brief description of the candidate’s interests and hobbies.
 “It’s a shame that a women’s magazine is spreading such a regressive attitude in this day and age,” says Pravathi Nair who works with an IT firm in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. “There is nothing wrong in informing your parents about participating in a competition, but asking adult women to get written permission first is like insulting their abilities to take independent decisions,” says Nair. “What if a woman is married? Will she have to get a written permission from her husband? ” asks Nair.

The moral policing mentality of Kerala’s media is nothing new. The recent “Kiss
of Love” protest which swept across the country was sparked by a State-based television channel after it aired what it claimed as exclusive footage of “immoral activity” (read dating) at a café in Kozhikode. The café was subsequently vandalised by right-wing Hindu groups.

Sahitya Akademi award winning writer Paul Zacharia blames this mentality on the “wrong religious doctrines and educational system” which the state has been following for ages. “It is the (religious) doctrines of Christians and Muslims that paved the way for moral policing culture in the State. Now, the Hindus, whose doctrines were more liberal, too have started sharing the ideas of Christians and Muslims,” he says.

By insisting on a written permission along with a participant’s bio-data as a mandatory criterion for the photo competition, the magazine ensures that its women contestants confirm to the State’s regressive patriarchal norms.

It may be well within the right of a magazine to decide how and on what basis it should allow women participants to take part in a competition which it conducts, but for a publication that advertises itself as a “friend and a guide” to women, the guidance Vanita offers to its readers is hardly a progressive one.