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The Double Standard: Bhadralok Image

WINDOW ON ASIA

Shahed- Latif
A longtime Indian rest dent of Bangkok once told me that tn his next life. If there la any he would like to be born either •a a Thai male of a rich well to do family or an upper claaa (at least upper middle) Indian woman Although he la a man in thia life, his future gender preference is geared to the particular pl*" and situation of birth. To me the choices seemed to be rather odd with >» apparent almllartty between the two. However, aa he explained to me. the end result from either of the options la the same
The two alternative choices would lead to the same easy life style of no work but fun and frolics all the time The young Thal adult of a rich lam Uy with his sports car. girl friends and evening parties la really the envy of the hard working Chlneae or expatriatea living in Bangkok On the other hand, the lifestyles of the rich housewives of the subcontinent are well known to us with no work and all fund making them pretty dull sometimes This is because houseworks are done by half a dozen ser vants and the children are reared by the ayahs As a re suit, the days are spent either at the beauty parlours or for shopping, and the evenings arc for parties. Indeed a fairly busy schedule particularly during the year-end season of Anglo saxon vintage when there could be more than one party to attend during the same evening.
In Thailand, women const! tute the vital work force Their
participation rale In the labour force Is one of the highest tn the world. From huge business empires and construction works to small noddle shops arv often managed very ably by Thal women Men, therefore, often lake It easy They can af ford to do so because women arv efficient, bright and hard working At the same time, they do enjoy male company and guidance, as appropriate
Not that this pattern la univer sal In Thailand but the hang over from the past matriarchal society still persists and It has been good for Thailand since women take better care of money when family welfare is involved. Men often tend to waste money in drinking and gambling But such waste from women at the coot of family is Indeed very rarer anywhere in the world To women, the children and the family come first
Under the circumstances each successive Thal genera tion particularly now and In the future, would bring forth the cadres of young en trepreneurs and professionals, behind whom are the mothers as the prime motivators dedi eating their lives to home as well as outside business ven tures
Our own bhadralok percep tions leave women behind In the dark reaches of the inner house, the AndarmahaL during daylight hours, only allowing them to come out after dusk for family celebrations Beauty care takes more and house work less time as and when
fortunes could be acquired and the families (lucky tew) mow up the social ladder
Housewives: Sphere*
Activity
There are atleast 10.000 if not more housewives In the city of Dhaka who have studied beyond high school If not col lege graduates already With very little training, virtually all of them could become suitable school teachers As a result, all the city schools and sometimes colleges can run on a double shift basis Overnight
Quality of health services can be substantially improved with participation of Idle house wives In medicare activities If not curative care, preventive health care and. above all family planning services could be very usefully rendered by the enlightened housewives Take of example. 100 housewives together launch an organised programme to ensure the use of oral contraceptive pills by 10,000 married women. If can be done at no extra cost to the government as well as foreign aid Many such things should be done bul there Is no will to
the student enrollment would be doubled A very common sight of Dhaka on any school day Is the virtual army of mothers taking their kids to school tn the morning and returning home in the afternoon At no extra rickshaw fare may of the mothers might work as well In those schools Thus ed ucation of our next generation becomes a common endeavour of parents and teachers both. Wc arc fully aware of the dismal state of education at pre sent, and the increasing in voivement of the mothers in tlmalcly In the classrooms might bring about definite Improvement to the prevailing atmosphere
But why schools only? Our ’ hospitals and clinics arc short of nurses and paramedics
do so
Apart from education and health services, women can contribute Immensely 1n the promotion of labour Intensive manufacturing enterprises for export where handworks are particularly rewarded. Em broidery. knitted goods, sweaters, and oullovcrs or garments - all handmade — and Indeed tare In the western world today. If designs and equipment on the one hand and finishing, packaging and marketing services on the other are provided through central business organisations then household business enterprises managed by women would become significant ai foreign exchange earners for the country A beginning has been made In this direction tn
the area of hand embroidery There are scopes of many more Items Ube that
But if the women are out of the house hire then who will look after the house, partlcu lady the daily meals when hus bands return from work at the end of the day Here, a novel system has emerged in Thailand There are private enter prises who In small mini vans or motor cycles deliver home cooked food on time everyday, like the newspapers in the morning, and collect the bills at the end of the month I was told by my Thai neighbours that food cost under such sys tern is almost at par with that for home cooked meals and the taste is equally good, sometimes even better
Relief from Drudgery
During evening rush hours, the Bangkok pavements are full of women selling cooked curries and other delicacies kept In large pots Housewives returning from work buy them packed In clean polyethylene bags. Only the rice Is boiled at home tn rice cookers which takes only ten minutes. Thus the age old tradition of family dinners Is also fully retained and the women are relieved of the routine drudgery
Once our educated women are drawn Into the mainstream of economic growth, very dramatic developments could be foreseen Not only the family incomes will be augmented but the quality of life should vastly improve Children will be bet ter taken care of Instead of the feared neglect commonly apprehended by us. Above all. It
is social progress of unprece
Any bhadralok no doubt I am one of them, would tmme dlately agree to what hare been stated so far. Among his friends women emancipation and equal rights are hot sub jects But we the Incredible bhadrafoks have double Stan dards In public the bhadralok image of a progressive tndtvld ual must be maintained but back home, in relation to wife the very personnel standards are different. Inspite of the publicly held Image of being broadminded, « is difficult for us to imagine that during the mid morning tea break, the wives are having a good time with the male teachers as friends and colleagues. Women apart from being wives are persons as well and they could have male friends as well Yes. fine srith me, tf tt is not my wile — this seems to be the common bhadralok sentiment which of course Is hardly revealed at any time Somehow, insplte of all the education, travel abroad and exposure to western media, wc are MID Uv Ing tn the Victorian age of the past Our double standards are deepseated in our complex sentiments, never for once bothering that we are proving to be useless to the modern times of unprecedented gender developments.
Basically the 19th century baou Image of bhadrafoks still persist in an trreslstable man ner while we keep the womeri tied within the household, we daydream of the idle Thai male with no work and all play mak ing him the fun boy