Page 16 - A Gender-Sensitive Indian Foreign Policy- Why? and How?
P. 16

Indian Council
                                                                                        of World Affairs



                           If we are to have external credibility, then India’s politics and
                           policies internally must be gender sensitive too.


                        (extending spousal benefits and support, for instance) and Scheduled Castes
                        and Tribes as well as other underrepresented caste groups.

                        A third internal element relates beyond the foreign policy establishment to
                        the country being represented - in our case, India. If we are to have external
                        credibility, then India’s politics and policies internally must be gender
                        sensitive too. Some elements of this:

                             •  Yes, we have read down Section 377 of the IPC, but that was
                                only the beginning. The way that the Transgender Act of
                                2019 was passed, without taking on board the concerns of
                                community representatives suggests that the state completely
                                reflects society’s discriminatory attitudes towards gender
                                and sexual minorities - that they cannot have expertise in the
                                matter of their own lives.

                             •  Since the gang-rape in Delhi in 2012, it has become de rigeur
                                for politicians to speak about sexual and gender-based
                                violence. Statements call for strict action and severe penalties,
                                and preventive measures include the invasion of privacy
                                through CCTVs and restraints on female mobility in the name
                                of protection. Women, like gender and sexual minorities, are
                                infantilised in this discourse - unable to decide for themselves
                                and determine their best interests.

                             •  Even as politicians shout themselves hoarse about saving
                                daughters and protecting sisters, they cannot bring
                                themselves to censure their peers for hateful, misogynistic
                                speech or worse, to bar them for being charge-sheeted for
                                violence. Our best defences for this are “she could be lying” or
                                “it is our culture.”

                                                    The reality is that our failure to create a
                                                      gender-sensitive political culture, leave
                                                       alone a gender sensitive society completely
                                                           undermines any aspiration speakers
                                                            at this seminar might express for a
                                                             gender-sensitive foreign policy. We
                                                               shroud our failings by extending
                                                                  towards our international

         16                                                        window display the same
                                                                   culture of silence and denial




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