-Ayush Kumar Singh (State Head, New Delhi)
"Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra devata" this ancient sanskrit chant from Manusmriti means - where women are worshiped (respected), their divinity prevails and shines! This shlok indeed describes the position of women in Indian society. After the recent brutality against the woman in Kolkata.In which a 31 year old postgraduate trainee student from RG Karr Medical College was brutally raped and murdered. There are protests and hartals all over India for delivering justice to the deceased PGT. Also a sort of misguided slogans and propaganda are being spread into the mass media that even after 78 years of independence, India has notachieved the freedom of women and freedom from the patriarchal stereotype of the society.The reason I am referring to this as a false propaganda is that when you see the history of India from ancient till present day,India has always stood with women and placed women above men in the social strata. Women played the most important role in the Indian social structure. In ancient India, women were considered symbols of spirituality and had equal status to men during the Indus Valley civilization and Vedic period. Mother Goddess was worshiped in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization of India. In Rig Vedic India, women had a high social position and an excellent standard of living. Even women were given the opportunity to reach higher levels of intellectual and spiritual achievement. The education of young girls was seen as an important requirement for marriage. According to references in Vedic literature, a groom choosing system was prevalent in the Kshatriya society, known as "Swayamvara", this gave brides a special freedom to choose their life partners. Also  The dowry system was not prevalent in ancient India. Both the great wars  Mahabharat and Ramayan were the result of vengeance for the dishonour of women. Also in deccan the Satvahana dynasty was the only empire in the world To name their rulers after the name of their mothers such as Gautami- Putra- Satkarni, Vashishti- Putra- Satkarni and it was a matriarchal empire. Talking of the.Medieval period Razia Sultan was the sole muslim  woman emperor at that time. Also, Nur Jahan of the Mughal Empire and Chand Bibi of the Ahmednagar Kingdom were also prominent during their time and they managed the affairs of the kingdom more than the ruler himself. Also the women like Annei Basant, Gandhi, Sarojini, Naidu, Aruna Asaf Ali and many others played Prominent roles in the Indian independence movement. After independence, India got its third Prime Minister as a woman who was also called Iron Lady, also the current President of India is also a woman, whereas none of the Presidents of the USA was a woman. Recently, Geeta Gopinath became the first woman chief invested at IMF and the Manu Bhaker won 2 bronze medals in the Paris Olympics this is the face of the new Viksit, Vishwa Guru Bharat of the 21st century. I also owe the fact that India is also land for the most number of crimes against women and the recent horrific incident in Kolkata, Manipur that took place nearly a year ago have stirred our conscience and the culprits must me charged and an example be set forth so that no one have the courage to repeat these crimes. But these cases cannot stain the rich and clean history of India. Nothing can achieve utopia, but we can always work towards the betterment of our society each and every day. Our vision should always be optimistic and we should try to eliminate the wrongs of the system and not defy or denounce the whole system. This cannot be achieved alone by any government or effective justice system but can only be achieved by sensitising the masses and moralising each and every person on earth. The sole method by which crime in a society can be reduced is by developing morality in mind and inculcating respect towards women and other sections of society, this can only be done by educating the masses. Therefore every Indian should be educated and inculcated with morals that are the real heritage of India.