WOMEN

EMPOWERMENT

In societies such as India, women are looked upon with contempt. They are more often than not treated as second grade citizens even though they constitute about half of the total population. Prettiness and skin colour are two basic and important criteria for a woman to get acceptance and honour in the society.

But unfortunately not all the women are endowed with these two qualities. It is exactly because of this that a large number of women are still condemned to lead a life of misery and subjugation. The role of the women hence so far remained limited to producing children, looking after them, serving the husband and satisfying his sexual desires.

Physically and physiologically too women are different. When a girl, climbing the ladder of her age, attains womanhood she begins to appear distinctly apart from the boys of her age group. It is precisely during this period that girl begins to realize the gender differences and differentiation.

In a typical Indian household, boys are allowed to indulge in all such activities that demand physical strength and endurance. They are even encouraged to take part in fields like sports and the pursuit of a career, whereas a girl has to face all types of prohibitions. Instead, she is expected and even prodded to do common household chores.

During this growth phase, girls come face – to - face with another serious reality of their life. It is menstrual cycles. From the time of mesarch (first menses in a girl’s life), she has to accept this fact that she will have to live with this monthly business at least as long as her reproductive life lasts. Thus, from the onset of puberty till the twilight years of middle age a woman becomes ‘untouchable’ during those five days of the month.

Next comes child bearing. God has given women this unique capacity for bearing children. This has an evolutionary significance also, as bearing children was, and still is, an essential condition to ensure continuity of a race. Females bear children to ensure propagation of their species. Among human beings, reproduction takes place in small groups termed families in social terms. And a large number of these families together constitute society.

Society has set a number of strict norms for the process of reproduction. Allotting women a second grade status is one of them. Thus in a family a major part of women’s life is passed simply in producing and rearing children. She hardly gets any time for her own growth and development. Such examples are replete where even highly talented women sacrificed their ambition for the sake of healthy upbringing of her children.

In the bygone era, families used to be big ones with the parents producing many offspring, in fact, the more children a family had, the more influential it was in the society and this was an accepted norm. During that period, the life of a woman would be consumed in just producing children and maintaining her brood. Mumtaz Mahal, the queen consort of the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, is a well-known example from recent history. Even though she was the queen of the whole India, she produced fourteen children during her married life that spanned over eighteen years before her death. One can easily imagine her turmoil. But that happened in an era when there were no contraceptives available.

We are lucky to live in the 21st century. Science has made tremendous progress and childbirths can be controlled in a more effective way than ever. Women are more in control of their life as they have a number of options to choose from for effective management of their reproductive health. Besides this, the concept of small families and double income no kids (DINK) families too has become a norm these days.

But still, we hear phrases like women empowerment. Sometimes it appears that women empowerment is an alien concept; something that has come from outer space and is being imposed upon us. However, in order to grasp its deeper meaning one has to take a look at the women’s position in a society such as ours in a wider perspective. A large number of women have achieved great success despite all the hurdles, both physical and mental as well as social.

They are holding high offices in government and public sector enterprises. They are blazing the sports fields with high-octane performance, just as we witnessed during the just concluded New Delhi Commonwealth Games. But at the subtle level they are still more attached to their families and children, as the discus throw gold medallist Krishna Poonia revealed after winning the gold medal that she had to endure long separation from her son during the training period. Hats off to her undaunting spirit and devotion.

Then according to news from Delhi published in a newspaper, a lady ACP fainted in the office of her boss, a male DCP, when the latter scolded her badly. And in another news item, also from Delhi, should be enough to shake the conscience of all vigilant citizens: a woman threw her newborn baby girl out of a hospital window. No woman would have the courage to do such an abhorrent task unless she is under tremendous pressure from her family. These examples show that women, despite all the progress they have made in all walks of life, are still treated as second grade citizens and our society does not want more baby girls born. What is more startling is that women themselves have become enemies of women. In light of all this, women empowerment is indeed the need of the hour.

As discussed earlier, today’s women have more effective contraceptive options at their disposal to better manage their reproductive health and keep themselves free from the burden of unnecessary child bearing. But large-scale illiteracy prevalent among a large section of women is the biggest hurdle in their choosing and adopting an effective contraceptive. At the end of the day, they have to depend on the males for this vital aspect of married life.

Some social, Govt. organizations (Like HLL Life care) and NGOs are active in different parts of India and the world which help such women in choosing the right kind of contraceptive. Their experience also shows that these women need proper guidance all the time. So what is urgently needed is an effective contraceptive that a woman can use easily without any external help.

Most of the contraceptives available these days are chemical / hormonal formulations, which need to be taken daily. Any miss then can disturb the entire cycle. Besides, they have several side effects also.

To do away with all these unwanted things, a compound - based contraceptive pill was developed in India. The active compound, Centchroman in the pill is a non-steroidal, non-hormonal molecule; hence it is free from all the adverse side effects. The biggest plus point of that pill is that it has to be taken once a week only. For first three months Saheli has to be taken twice a week and from fourth month onwards it must be once a week.

It has the unique distinction of being the world’s first non-steroidal oral contraceptive pill. Being non –steroidal, it does not have the short-term side effects like nausea, vomiting, weight gain etc., which are commonly reported with the other oral contraceptive pills. The only side effect reported with the pill is the delay in the menstrual cycles in around 8% of the cases. Besides its use as a safe contraceptive for long term use, it is also shown to be beneficial for treating dysfunctional uterine bleeding, osteoporosis and pre menstrual syndrome and as a drug for lowering lipid levels in the blood.

Centchroman offers a unique combination of weak estrogenic and potent anti estrogenic properties. Due to this subtle mix of estrogenic and anti estrogenic action it inhibits the fertilized ovum from implanting and thus prevents pregnancy, but at the same time, it does not appear to disturb the other estrogen effects.

Use of Centchroman as a contraceptive has been extensively evaluated in more than 2000 women of the reproductive age groups who wanted to space their children. Intensive monitoring by clinical examination, hematology and biochemical tests as well as laparoscopy and ultra sonographic examinations of ovaries and uterus have shown the drug to be quite safe. Babies born to use failure cases have shown normal milestones. The contraceptive effect is readily reversible and subsequent pregnancy and its outcome is normal. It scores over steroidal contraceptive pills because it does not disturb the endocrine system and the normal ovulatory cycle is maintained.

The main USP of the product is about the complete freedom from the side effects with the ease and convenience of the dosage. Moreover, it does not cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness and break through bleeding and has no adverse effect on lipid profile and platelet function as is seen with steroidal contraceptives. Though, the product targets literate women in the age group of 20-45 years, illiterate women too can avail of all of its goodness through slight training and guidance.