The release of a controversial video showing Girdhari Lal Sahu, the spouse of Uttarakhand’s Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Rekha Arya, has resulted in a wave of public outrage. Sahu in the video can be heard telling a few men that “Bihari girls” are up for marriage at the ridiculous amount of ₹25,000.
Such remarks, along with being heavily criticized as misogynistic and reductive, have not only offended a particular community but also considerably raised the concern over the trivialization of human trafficking and gender-based exploitation.
Systemic Dehumanization
The idea that women can be bought for a certain amount of money symbolizes a very strong “toxic mentality” indeed that thinks of female lives as things rather than persons. The comment that there are price tags on the girls of marriageable age from Bihar inadvertently helps to gloss over the dark aspect of the situation, in which cross-state trafficking takes place and the traffickers sometimes call it “arranged marriages.”
This storytelling only adds to the already existing and wrong stereotypes about the poverty of certain regions, claiming that the latter is the reason why the women are being sold.
The use of such expressions by a person who is so closely connected to the welfare and leadership of a state, unfortunately, sets back the clock on women’s rights and societal dignity by many years.
Institutional Accountability
The Bihar State Women’s Commission (BSWC), after the controversial statements, has really gone strong with their argument and referred to it as “mental bankruptcy,” besides sending a formal notice to Sahu.
The political consequences have been pretty much the same; opposition leaders have dubbed these utterances as an insult directed at the dignity of the people in Bihar. Though, later on, Sahu did apologize, reasoning that his words had been misinterpreted; the whole affair has indeed triggered a larger discourse on the issue of the accountability of the politicians.
A demand for a formal reply from the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand has made it clear that demeaning remarks made by men towards women are not to be regarded as mere “personal opinion” when they influence the social fabric of the country.
A recent media graduate, Bhumi Vashisht is currently making a significant contribution as a committed content writer. She brings new ideas to the media sector and is an expert at creating strategic content and captivating tales, having working in the field from past four months.
