Introduction
The press, the guardian of democracy, the upholder of man’s freedom and voice of the people play a remarkable role against the social evils. It has been proposed its main goal as to safeguard the women’s rights by protesting against violence in various forms. There are number of incidents which took place in Tamilnadu, where the press played crucial roles with a view to ensure women’s rights in the state.
The start of social reforms for women from the second quarter of 19th century had helped to make them come forward and participate in very many ways both directly and otherwise, formally and informally with support and backup activities, while much of this has gone unrecognized the vast increase in women’s participation following the clarian call of Gandhi is well documented.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the position of women was horrible due to polygamy, Sati, child marriage, constant state of widowhood, patriarchal joint family and the property structure, Devadasi system, female infanticide, dowry system and sexual harassment of women at work places were the most devastating ills that had crippled women in the past.
Child marriage is one of the worse evil prevalent in Tamilnadu. Though the Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1929, this evil took a few more years to disappear from Madras Province. This pernicious practice among all communities in the province has a very deleterious effect on girls. It also cut short their life span, that this practice was not prevalent in the province at an alarming level is a comforting one.
According to the 1921 census report 21.50 percent of Hindu girls in the province were married between the ages of 10 and 15 where as 64 percent of Hindu girls of the same age group in the Bombay Presidency were married. Bombay province has the dubious distinction of the highest percentage of child marriage. The usual age of marriage of Brahmin girls at the close of the 19th century was between 7 and 10. The plight of married children was very pathetic. The child marriage crushed the girl in marriage out of shape made them bleed profusely and in some cases crippled them totally despite surgery. Early marriage led to early maternity and early maternity affected the girls concerned in a very bad way.
Fair minded social reformers like Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi and Ramaswamy Periyar had the uphill task of creating public opinion against the evil through their journals Sudharma and Kudi Arasu.
The great Brahmin leader Raja Gopalachari opposed the Bill that Muthulakshmi Reddi had moved in the Madras Legislative Council seeking abolition of child marriage in 1929 was distressing. Periyar used his journal Kudi Arasu and newspapers like Swadesamitran to mobilize public opinion infavour of the Bill. Finally the Bill was passed and it became an Act in 1929.
Apart from crippling the girls health this evil of child marriage left in the State a very large number of widows, because most of the child marriages were between ill-sorted couples. In most cases, the husbands happened to be much senior to their wives by age and this huge disparity in age between the spouses resulted in leaving the wife a widow at an early age. There had also been instances when some thoughtless parents, in their obsession to see their daughter married, united her in wedlock with an almost Bed-ridden old man, and there by forced her to suffer the rigours of widowhood at an early age. Such widows had been doomed to die as widows, because second marriage for a Hindu woman was an abominable taboo among Hindus of the past and widowhood was more a curse than a misfortune.
Widows in Hindu households in the past were treated worse than pet animals in the family. Not only in Tamilnadu but also the whole of the country had been treating widows in inhuman ways till the late half of the 20th century. Gandhi also wrote articles in his journal Navjeevan about widow remarriage. Periyar did want to put an end to this evil also. Through his journal they were creating awareness about the widow remarriage.
The term devadasi means a servant of god. The girls who had been dedicated to the deity of one temple or other were made Devadasi before their puberty.
It was again the indomitable Muthulakshmi Reddi who had taken on her shoulders the task of ameliorating the conditions of the devadasis. Another women social reformer Moovalar Ramamirtham who had been an active member of Ramaswamy Periyar’s self respect Movement, extended her whole hearted support to Muthulakshmi Raddi in her fight against the devadasi system. The journals Sudharma and Kudi Arasu continued to campaign in support of Muthulakshmi Reddi’s effort to get the evil system abolished. Finally because of the undounted will and ceaseless efforts of Muthulakshmi Reddi the Devadasi Abolition Act was passed in 1947.
Dowry system is an insult to the modern society of not only Tamilnadu but also the whole of the country. It reduces the status of both man and woman. Most of the educated men, like their uneducated brothers, demand dowry and thus the dowry system insults education and culture. Poor people are unable to meet the ever growing demands of prospective grooms and their parents, and consequently many beautiful and accomplished girls remain unmarried. Greed for money and wealth thus perpetuates as evil.
For the indomitable work of media the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, making the dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. But today also this system has become a social evil.
Conclusion
In this way the press and journals helped for the upliftment of the society and not only in certain period, today also the media making a lot of changes in the society.
– Dr. J. Rejila
Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Women’s Christian College, Nagercoil.
References
1. Jegadesh Prasad Sharma, Women empowerment and Globalisation.
2. Krishna Chandra Pradhan, Women and Social changes.
3. Asok Kumar Gupta, Women’s political participation.
4. Srivastava, Women media and ICI in UN politics.
5. R. Hari, Women human rights.
6. Aditya Jha, Womens right and social changes.
7. Kudiarasu, February 15, 1939.
8. Sudharma, Vol. II, 1932.
9. Viduthalai, February 15, 1939.