Gender Equity

The Silence of Ignorance and Knowledge And All The Chaos In Between:

Let’s talk about Gender Equity !

On occasion of International Women’s Day 2026, I have been given the opportunity to present a talk on the women saints of Maharashtra. 

International Women’s Day 2026 has been celebrated every year on March 8th since 1911.

1911-2026. That’s 115 years. 

I have lived 60 years on this planet in the body of a woman. That’s a little over half the number of years of this important milestone. 60 years is a pretty good amount of time to accumulate personal lessons on what it takes to be a woman. It is also sufficient time to observe and know a great number of women around oneself. Several from close quarters and many others from variable distance. Some from tales passed down through people who had known them.

When these years are spent in almost equal measure in an eastern culture and a western society, and meaningful time in both rural and urban areas, it brings some rare perspectives to the table.

I have seen 3 generations of women in my family since my birth. When I was born, both my grandmothers were already widowed. Both were uneducated and never worked outside of home. One lived in a big city and the other in a village. In the next generation, a greater number of women went to school and found jobs. My mother was one of the few in the family who got a medical degree. By the time I was born, college education for women was no longer considered an option. We were expected to get a degree. My father in particular groomed me and my sister to pursue medical profession with the consideration that it was one that guaranteed the most independence. A doctor could have her own practice in India at the time and not have to work for someone. That was his thought. 

My father was one of those few men who understood that women deserved independence and equal status. This was not the case in most other homes I knew. In our home my father cooked the meals. In my aunts’ homes, the women woke up in the wee hours of the morning to cook breakfast and lunch for the family before heading to work, then return in the evening, stopping on the way for groceries to cook dinner. I never saw the men set the table or clean up after meals. Dishes and laundry were the sole responsibility of the woman, irrespective of whether she had a job outside of home. Unless of course the family could afford to hire someone for the cleaning duties. Helping the kids with their homework and packing and unpacking their lunch and school bags was also the woman’s responsibility. The men had the luxury to enter the kitchen when tea was ready in the morning, read the newspaper as they sipped tea, pick the packed lunch as they headed to work, sit on the couch and turn on the TV when they returned home, leave the couch only when dinner was on the table, then watch TV again before retiring for the night. 

The education and employment brought some degree of confidence and financial stability to that generation of women but in return they worked harder than their uneducated, unemployed counterparts. They essentially had two bosses, one at home and one at work. 

Patriarchy has roots that run deep. It doesn’t matter whether you live in an eastern society or western. I saw it in the early days of my marriage, I see it in the homes of my extended family and friends, I see it from time to time at work, I see it manifest bluntly on a daily basis in the sociopolitical scene. 

What is interesting is that there is a silence where there is excessive ignorance and ironically, also where there is full awareness of gender discrimination. In my observation of women who are uneducated and/or unemployed, they are often voiceless to resist abuse. Abuse occurs in many forms. Physical, psychological and emotional, financial, social, professional. A large number of abused women never find their own voice or way to get out of the situation. 

And then there is a section where the women just know that they are born to be free and they live freely. They don’t speak a word about freedom. They don’t negotiate. They just exercise their rights. Without a word. Very rarely they may have to lecture someone who doesn’t understand and tell them to get out of their way. But largely they navigate through life without feeling obligated to negotiate. 

Between the polar opposites of the deafening silence of the ignorant and the audible silence of the aware ones, lies a spectrum of chaos. This chaos is filled with resistance, activism, debates, dialogues, education, critical analysis, fights for survival, in various degrees, and at personal levels and/or social levels. Chaos has its value. Had it not been for this chaos many women would still not be getting college degrees or earning the right to vote. Many women would not have a right to inheritance. Many couldn’t have opened a bank account or bought a house. Many couldn’t have driven a car or flown a plane. Many couldn’t have run for office or sat on the Supreme Court. Many would still be taking home a lesser salary for the same work as their male coworkers. Many couldn’t have sought legal separation and settlement from an abusive spouse. Today, several of the women who don’t feel the need to articulate physical, emotional, intellectual, professional, social, political and economic freedom, but simply exercise it, are often taking it for granted. They stop to think and bother to speak up only after they face resistance. But the work has been done for them by those who who came before them. 

It is useful to understand that not all women are alike in their thinking and actions. There are silent ones and the noisy ones. Not all the silent ones are passive nor all loud ones are always right. The common denominator for each of them remains their gender and the injustice that comes their way primarily based on this gender. It is clear that any sustainable and meaningful experience of gender equality is unlikely to happen without putting up a fight. It will have to be wrestled out of the hands of a historically patriarchal society. Each woman must know that it’s a choice before her: to suffer or stand up and fight.

International Women’s Day is a good way to bring focus to this form of discrimination. But it is important to see where we stand after 115 years. Activist-politician Clara Zetkin was the one who had proposed marking the day to celebrate women’s achievements. It was approved in 1910 at the International Socialist women’s conference in Copenhagen and implemented in 1911. Later it was endorsed by the UN in 1977. After 115 years it has not eliminated the problem of gender discrimination from a single country. Some countries like Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway are doing much better than others in this regard. But overall we have a long way to go. 

Raising awareness begins within ourselves. Then within our household. Then extended family and friends. An important question to ask is not only whether I am exercising my complete freedom but also whether I am facilitating another woman to exercise hers? Ironically women are often the ones to exploit other women. If empowering yourself translates into exercising undue and unsolicited power over others, then know that you are the problem. If you are helping a man do wrong to another woman, or tolerating his behavior, you are complicit with the wrong actions. If you are tolerating a woman do wrong to another woman, here too you are complicit and will be held accountable. Silence is the privilege of God. If you need to exercise physical freedom for yourself at any point, you need to speak up for others. You need to speak up for universal equality where human rights are concerned. Hence gender equality must be understood under a broader lens. The take home message on International Women’s Day is that you speak up for a woman who is being wronged, and you speak out against a woman who wrongs. The goals of marking International Women’s Day, besides celebrating women’s achievements are to acknowledge and promote gender equality and to stop violence and abuse of women. When you focus on these goals it is important to not lose sight of the possibility that violence and abuse of women is sometimes propagated by women and although discrimination tends to occur more frequently towards women, it can occur towards any gender. Awareness has no gender. Take shelter in awareness. 

This brings us to consider one more form of freedom that is commonly overlooked, forgotten or neglected. Like men, even a woman is entitled to it. And that is Spiritual freedom. This is an entirely different beast. Here patriarchy is sometimes but not the commonest obstacle. The enemy blocking your path is within you. In many ways it is much more formidable and deceptive than the enemy outside. To enjoy spiritual freedom one is constantly trying to silence the chaos of the talkative mind and boastful ego. Other freedoms begin to seem much easier to assert than this one. In many ways, the power that comes from physical and intellectual freedom proves to be a major disadvantage for achieving spiritual freedom. Because along the way, the ego gets strengthened and now you are fighting to defeat it. All along it learned not to accept defeat from others. Now you are making it sing a different tune. It’s not easy. It keeps asserting itself constantly. 

There were always women in every era who successfully achieved spiritual freedom and spearheaded movements to enlighten others. Taking examples from Maharashtra there are a number of names that come to mind. 

In the thirteenth century there was Muktabai, the fourth and youngest of siblings amongst Dnyaaneshwar and two other brothers. At the age of 8 or 9 she recited the taatiche abhang to remind her enlightened brother of his purpose in life. Also before she turned 10, she assumed the role of the spiritual guide for a very aged and accomplished yogi by the name of Changdev. She showed the audacity to point out the egoism in a recognized saint of the time like Namdev and became instrumental in his subsequent spiritual growth. In a lifespan of merely 18 years she left behind a legacy that shines bright by itself in the midst of the star power of her illustrious brother and number of other male saints. 

A contemporary of Muktabai and perhaps a bit older and more long lived than her was Sant Janabai. She lived in Pandharpur as a maid in the household of Sant Namdev. Her life is marked with remarkable devotion (bhakti) and surrender to Vitthala. A popular incident from her life involves her meeting with Sant Kabir in the village of Gopalpur on the outskirts of Pandharpur. Kabir had made the long pilgrimage from northern India to meet Janabai upon hearing about her greatness. As he entered Gopalpur he saw Janabai heatedly having an argument with another woman over govarya ( cakes dried out of cording). The fight was about which govarya belonged to which woman. Kabir was almost on the verge of disillusionment about Janabai’s reputation when he bothered to enquire how Janabai could be confident about which govarya were hers. For Janabai the answer was simple. For Kabir it was hard to believe. Janabai told him that with the grace of her Guru Namdev she had immersed herself into Vitthal and the name of Vitthal was automatically embodied in her tasks. The doubt in Kabir’s mind ended when he put his ear to the individual govarya and heard the sound of Vitthala coming out of Janabai’s govarya. Such was the power of her devotion. The fight with the other woman was simply staged with the intention to teach her the difference between work done with and without devotion. 

Janabai has left behind a rich legacy of literature in the form of nearly 350 abhangas that carry her distinct mark. Most of these are included in the Namdev Gatha. She received spiritual guidance from Sant Namdev and her samadhi lies along that of Namdev at the entrance of the Vitthala Temple in Pandharpur. Her spiritual achievements have been cited in several abhangas composed by her comtemporaries and successors. 

Another woman saint of the same period was Soyrabai, the wife of Sant Chokha Mela. Born in a family of Mahars, the lowest caste of those times, her life was subject to the harshest conditions. The mahars were unpaid laborers who had to do all sorts of dirty jobs like moving dead animals, cleaning gutters and other jobs that nobody else would be willing to do. They even had to survive on the flesh of dead animals as the only source of food. The hardships were instrumental for them to seek redemption from God. The suffering helped nurture bhakti( earnest devotion) towards Vitthala. Yet even on that front, social barriers existed and denied them access to temples. With successful efforts from contemporary saints like Dnyaaneshwar and Namdev, when finally the doors of the temple were opened to all castes, Soyrabai’s joy knew no bounds. One of her best known abhangas is Avagha Ranga Ek Zara. This was her spontaneous recounting of the day when she came face to face with the idol of Vitthala, the deity who she had spent an entire lifetime worshiping in the heart. Indeed this short abhanga holds the entire essence of her life. It is also perhaps one of the most beautiful and accurate descriptions of the actual moment of self realization with a unique personal touch of the poetess. Uneducated, unprivileged, undermined at every turn, this is the woman who churned out the highest wisdom that echoes the wisdom of the Upanishads. 

Yet another name that counts amongst the list of women saints of Maharashtra is Kanhopatra who was born to a courtesan and had no desire to have the same fate as the women she was raised with. She turned to God as a refuge and laid down her life in surrender, to stand up for what she believed in rather than give in to force. 30 of her abhangas have survived and 23 of them are included in the varkari sant Gatha. Two popular ones amongst them are Nako Devraya Anta ata pahu and Patit tu pavana. 

Gopabai is a lesser known name outside of Mangalvedhe, the town of Soyrabai and Kanhopatra. The timeline about her existence is debated. Some say 14th century, others date it to the 17th century. 

The town was facing dire effects of continuous famines. Locals had to travel long distances to get water for themselves, their animals and for their crops. During one such difficult time there was a yogi staying on the outskirts of the town. People approached him for blessings and guidance to overcome famine and water shortages. Through his yogic powers he was able to locate a potential source of water on the outskirts of the town. However there was a price to pay. There was a rather shocking requisite to access this water. The solution was suggested by the yogi, can be deemed contentious today, but in those days it was not questioned. Nevertheless it wasn’t easy even for those villagers to go forward with it. A human sacrifice from a new mother would yield water at that site.

There was a pious young woman in town, the daughter-in-law of a wealthy farmer. She had recently given birth to her first baby. Her name was Gopabai. No one had the heart to ask her for such extreme sacrifice. When the word reached her ears, she came forward and volunteered to sacrifice herself and her baby for the cause of the welfare of the entire town. She persuaded her family that it was a small sacrifice if just two lives could prevent the death and suffering of many.

Her father-in-law provided for the digging and construction of the stone well at the site indicated by the yogi. At the bottom of this well, under one of the side walls, a special chamber/ tunnel was built to set up home for Gopabai and her baby. Once the construction was completed an auspicious time was picked for her to enter the well.  As she held her baby in the arms and began to walk, with every step she descended, water appeared from the bottom and began to rise up slowly. Gradually she disappeared under the waters and the villagers saw the entire well filled with water out of nowhere. It was a bittersweet moment. One noble soul’s sacrifice helped quench the thirst and hunger of many for generations. 

I saw the well in person when I visited Mangalvedhe a few years back. Even after so many centuries it remains in good condition. There was some water at the bottom and the entrance to Gopabai’s chamber was visible from above. Apparently in recent years when drought caused complete drying of the well, the villagers were able to go down and explore inside the chamber. I was told it is a huge and elaborate chamber that extends several hundred yards underground. All basic amenities for a household are found intact there. But no trace of Gopabai. She lives as a legend.  She is ranked alongside the other saints that are associated with Mangalvedhe. Sant Gopabai is how she is remembered for her sacrifice for the people.  

These women saints, each in their unique way, taught us to rise above the identity of our physical body and to look at a higher truth. Their biographies remain valuable guideposts for the women of today who believe in an higher truth and seek to make progress in the spiritual dimension.

There are many remarkable women today whose life stories are equally inspiring and worthy of study. Not all delve into a spiritual dimension and for those who do, it becomes challenging to share personal anecdotes because of the peril it invites to strengthen the ego. Those are the ones who practice audible silence that I mentioned earlier. They are aware of freedom and totally live free. But choose to remain immersed in silent awareness. You may have to probe them to hear their story. 

A special mention is needed for a special breed of men. These are men who are not part of the patriarchal culture. They are a minority but they do exist in every generation and every part of the world. They genuinely see women as equal partners. Women’s fight for equality would be even tougher if not for these men who are ready to stand up for their cause. I know many such men who deserve gratitude, respect and recognition for being who they are and seeing women for what they are, above and beyond the gonadal attributes. 

Having said that, no woman should wait for a man to support her in exercising her rights and independence. Neither should she bargain for rights that do not include spiritual freedom.

Happy Upcoming International Women’s Day to all !!