The recent findings of a study undertaken by the biologists of University of Kent perhaps point to the harsh realities as to how the laws of nature are evolving in response to historical injustice meted out by the male section to the female section of humanity in the forms of discrimination, harassment, torture and violence.
The researchers found that the Y chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes in human species and which is essential for reproduction of male sex, is getting reduced both in terms of size and quality. The scientists claim as the chromosome gradually ceases to lose vigour and sustain it would lead to gradual decay of male section of the global community in the future.
The evolution of nature in this way indicates in part that it is retaliating against the prevailing unnatural and artificially fabricated patriarchal society and political and socio-economic domination of male section of societies over female section leading to unequal sex-ratio, foeticide, girl infanticide and cases of gender violence in family and public sphere.
Apart from theoretical contributions from feminist scholars, gender inequalities, discrimination and violence have not received much attention in case studies which mostly get obscured within the larger umbrella of human rights violations and communal violence.
In the West, women for long were considered part of the private sphere (family) and treated as emotional beings without possessing rationality and the capacity to contribute to the public sphere (society). She was considered eligible for reproduction and not for production. She was kept outside the domain of knowledge until the feminist movements brought women to the public sphere. However, the divisions between the public man and private woman still persist as the patriarchal knowledge system that was generated much earlier during the dawn of the modern civilization still exists.
Similarly, India has been witnessing a patriarchal society since long Sati Pratha (Tradition) a superstition, was associated with gender violence. According to the practice of Sati, when a husband died for any reasons be it diseases or any mishap, his wife (widow) was forced by the traditions to go for self-immolation on the funeral pyre of her husband even if she was not psychologically prepared to sacrifice her life and go through so much of pain. Her life was considered to end with the end of life of her husband. Raja Ram Mohan Roy is known as the father of Modern India because he fought against such a mediaeval dogma and influenced the then British authorities to ban such a heinous practice.
The patriarchal structure of Indian society was not limited to practice of Sati. Widows in India were not allowed to remarry. Girl Children without mental and physical maturity were forced to marry under a long held practice known as Child Marriage System. All these practices were banned by the laws of the post-independence modern Indian state.
Notwithstanding the laws of gender equality that have been inscribed into the Constitution of India, the society still grapples with issues pertaining to gender inequalities and violence. India has gradually witnessed the laws relating to crimes against women getting strengthened from time to time for instance, the definition of rape in India has been widened to include non-penetrative acts and the age threshold for rape trials has been lowered so that 16-year adults can be tried. However, people commit such crimes with impunity and disregard for the constitutional provisions and parliamentary laws decreeing protection of women.
Cases pertaining to gender insensitivity and violence are increasing among people in different aspects of life ranging from cruelty by husbands and relatives to illegal determination of sex onto sexual harassment at work place, abductions, assaults, and rapes. The sordid statistics of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) while raised deep concerns indicating a rising patriarchal structure in the Indian society with surge in crimes against women, more serious concerns emerge from the data published in the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) reports according to which more than a hundred fifty sitting MPs and MLAs have cases related to crime against women.
The crude realities of such a patriarchal state and social structure have further deteriorated following the brutal and macabre acts of raping and murdering the female doctor at RG Kar Medical College by some perpetrators in Kolkata on August 9. West Bengal is on the verge of state emergency as politicisation of the issue driving a rampage over a nexus between political establishment and suspected culprits raised its ugly head.
Nature is perhaps retaliating the patriarchal state and social structures by slowly eating into the vitality and existence of Y chromosome that could fundamentally alter the human reproduction process and raise uncertainties around the evolution of human species. While the scientific community acknowledge that the nature could evolve with new sex-determining systems, possibilities could not be ruled out that there could be the emergence of entirely new human species.