Opinion A handbook for Nitish Kumar population control: Worthy cause, unbecoming words

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s remarks about population control on Tuesday, made while speaking about the caste survey report in the state Assembly, are a disheartening reminder that when it comes to gender rights, the Indian political space, even today, hasn’t evolved the vocabulary for its discourse. No doubt the CM was making an important point when he drew a link between the education of women and their empowerment through reproductive autonomy as an important step towards population control. But the CM undermined his message by using crudely graphic language that, additionally, suggested an unscientific method of family planning and seemed to place the burden of responsibility on women. This from a leader, who through policies like the 2006 Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana — and even the controversial 2016 prohibition law that many women welcomed — is arguably one of the first Indian politicians to recognise that empowering women is the right thing to do — and it’s also good politics.

Even as the national conversation on women’s representation in the public space has made encouraging progress — evidenced, for example, in the near-unanimous support for the Women’s Reservation Bill in the special session of Parliament in September — the continued use of sexist language in the political sphere is disheartening. Also disappointing is a tendency towards dismissiveness when objections are raised to such language — in the present instance, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav shrugged off the row as indicative of people’s “hesitancy” over the topic of sex education. It reveals an insensitivity to issues of gender, adding to the hostility that women in politics already struggle against and undercuts efforts to level the playing field. Nothing blurs party lines like misogyny — as seen in the examples of women leaders, from J Jayalalitha to Renuka Chowdhury, Mamata Banerjee to Mayawati and Smriti Irani, who have been subjected to demeaning language, both inside and outside the House.

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While he has apologised and retracted his remarks following an uproar, the Bihar CM needs to do more. Perhaps, he can start by asking his office to get a copy of the 30-page handbook on combating gender stereotypes issued by the Supreme Court. It has a rich range of examples of how sexist and crude references to women are such a seamless part of daily discourse and why that needs to change. Because words matter and, as the handbook, issued by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, says, stereotypical language “may reinforce ideas contrary to our constitutional ethos” because words transmit the “ultimate intention of the lawmaker or the judge to the nation.” That’s why Nitish Kumar should reflect on his mistake and reframe his speech. That will be bold — and salutary.