She highlighted that the Manusmriti itself states that if one does not respect and honour women, prayer had no meaning.
“I really think we are a blessed lot of women in India and the reason for that is our scriptures have always given a very respectable position for women and as Manusmriti itself says that if you don’t respect and honour women, all the pooja path that you made who has no meaning. So I think our ancestors and Vedic scriptures knew very well how to respect women,” she said.
Asian countries do much better at respecting women, she added.
“I can tell you that in fact Asian countries do much better in respecting women in households, in workplaces, in society, in general and I think that is because of the cultural and religious background that we have that our scriptures tell us,” she explained.
She also said that India is much more progressive about women being in leadership roles.
“I really think we are lucky to be in a country like India where India is actually much, much more progressive about women being in leadership roles. I am not saying we need to ignore the violence and the bad things that happen to women at a lower level, but yes at the higher level, in the middle level, we are seeing women growing,” she stated.
The judge was speaking at the inaugural session of a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) on the subject Facing the unseen barriers: Addressing Challenges faced by Women in Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Mathematics (STEM).
Pertinently, Justice Singh advised working women to strengthen the Indian family system’s core values and to live in joint families so as to receive greater support for their careers.
She said that the joint family system should continue since its benefits are far greater than those of nuclear families. She emphasised that the men in joint families promote women since they are older and wiser.
“That way, we share our resources. Sharing is caring, we do not need to be selfish to say ‘I need my time, I need this.’ You can be a little more adjusting and compromising, but the benefits of a joint family system are far more than what in a nuclear family,” she said.
Source: Barandbench
