Major developments occurred in 2023, which bear accounting. Ranging from major wins at beauty pageants to representations to struggles for equal rights, major national and international events that unfolded this year were nothing less than dramatic. Here’s a list of 10 such headlines:
Women wrestlers’ protest
The year began with protests that rocked the nation. An array of women wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Anshu Malik, along with allies like Bajrang Punia, who’ve won laurels for the nation in Olympic games to other international events staged a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, calling out the BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh for sexual harassment. The Delhi Police didn’t even register an FIR (First Information Report) until forced by the apex court of the country. This not only cements the fact that spaces of all kinds remain extremely unsafe for women but also signals that no matter their influence, it’s far too difficult for women to be heard in this nation.
WEF’s (World Economic Forum) Gender Pay Gap Report 2023
The benchmarking report, which profiled 146 countries, revealed that “at the current rate of progress, it will take 131 years to reach full [gender pay] parity.” Furthermore, it noted that the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the efforts to bridge the gap. India stands far behind in the ranking, managing to secure 127th spot. Women’s representation in politics, principally local governance, is just over 40 per cent in the country, while “economic participation and opportunity” is 36.7 per cent with “relatively low overall rankings on the Health and Survival subindex [attributed to its] skewed sex ratios at birth.”
Made in Heaven 2 (or Hell)
While Season 2 of the Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti-created series, co-written along with Alankrita Shrivastava, which streamed on Amazon Prime, accommodated major representation gaps in Indian cinema by casting a transwoman (Dr Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, who was also included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2022) to play the role of a trans person (Meher Chaudhry), ran into several controversies. Often celebrated for championing complex characters and tackling issues facing Indian society, the creators were accused of plagiarising Yashica Dutt’s real-life story documented in her memoir Coming Out as Dalit (Aleph, 2019). Though the fight for credit got uglier on the internet with inputs from academics like Sumit Baudh, it channelised a discourse on multiple issues ranging from calling out the impunity of creators to appropriating someone’s story without credit.
Women’s Reservation Bill 2023
The 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), first platformed in 1996 was debated this year as well. It needs no reiterating that Indian women’s representation in the parliament is relatively much lower than in several countries. The key features this year, however, were that “one-third [of] seats [are] to be reserved for women” and those seats will “be rotated after every delimitation exercise”. It’s only left to be seen how it pushes towards equality in the parliament, for as the saying goes inclusion is not a seat at the table but the inherent attribute of feeling safe to voice one’s opinion and playing a major role in decision-making, not tokenism.
Marriage equality
While the above legislation was given assent, queer people’s demand for marriage equality in India suffered a major setback. The five-judge bench concluded that there was “no fundamental right to marry,” deferring the matter stating that the “court’s intervention would encroach on the legislative domain and breach the doctrine of separation of powers.”
Nepal’s move to recognise sexual minorities’ right to marry
While the judgement in India was a bummer for queer people, Nepal showed the way to accommodate gender and sexual minorities’ right to marry. Technically, the recognition of the 27-year-old Surendra Pandey and 37-year-old transwoman Maya’s marital union is similar to heterosexual marriage, but it’s nonetheless empowering for it presents possibilities for queer and trans people to register their marital unions. While Taiwan was the first to legalise queer marriages in Asia, and Nepal the first in South Asia, in other Asian countries this issue is being hotly debated because the assent to allow queer people to form familial unions constitutionally challenges society’s caste-heteropatriarchal structures, which it so eagerly wants to preserve.
The first Women’s Premiere League
Modelled on the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under former Indian men’s cricket captain Sourav Ganguly’s leadership put plans to organise the first Women’s Premiere League. Five franchises — Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and UP Warriorz — were formed and the contest was played in March in which Mumbai Indians led by Harmanpreet Kaur defeated Delhi Capitals to be crowned inaugural winners.
Representation at this year’s Miss Universe contest
Beauty pageants have been criticised for promoting a certain image and aesthetics of beauty, which has been challenged over the years. However, what was special in this year’s Miss Universe contest is the representation of transwoman and plus-sized models. Miss Netherlands Rikkie Kollé made history by becoming the first transwoman to represent her country in the pageant. Then, Miss Nepal Jane Dipika Garrett made history by becoming the first plus-size model in the contest, securing a spot in the top 20.
Mister Global Winner — a first for India
In a historic win, 19-year-old Hyderabadi Jason Dylan Bretfelean was crowned this year’s Mister Global winner in Mahasarakham, Thailand. It’s a first for the country. Not only that but Dylan Bretfelean also became the youngest-ever contested to be declared winner.
Pranshu’s death to online trolling
A 16-year-old self-taught artist Pranshu died by suicide to online trolling. They fashioned a saree in a reel which they put around Diwali. Trolls passed extremely queerphobic comments, leading to their suicide. In fact, such vile commentary continues even after their death, signalling a need for socialising the intervention of support systems. It’s not unsurprising to witness how society is afraid of the possibilities that queer and trans lives offer; however, it’s baffling that despite major judgments noting the need for ensuring to keep discrimination in check, queer people continue to die. One can only hope that this history doesn’t repeat itself in 2024.
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