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Despite Modi's Digital India dreams, a village in Mathura wants to fine girls for using mobile phones

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DailyBiteMay 04, 2017 | 20:54

Despite Modi's Digital India dreams, a village in Mathura wants to fine girls for using mobile phones

India is a bizarre country. And we live in even stranger times. We live in an age when the government seems to believe that our bodies are not completely our own. We live in times when gau-rakshak lynchings are not met with strict measures but with a surcharge of 10 per cent on stamp duty for cow protection.

We live in times when women’s safety and crime rate, is somehow, and no one has any idea how, related to women speaking on cell phones while walking. Yes. The panchayat of Mathura's Madora village has decided to impose a hefty fine of Rs 21,000 on girls using mobile phones on streets to “reduce” the crime rate.

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Yes, this is the same country in which Narendra "Digital India" Modi is the esteemed prime minister, where cashlessness is a virtue and digital scans of your fingers and iris matter more than yourselves.

Only a week ago, Aligarh mayor Shakuntala Bharati and BJP MLA, Sanjeev Raja, speaking at an event at Uday Singh Inter College at Barah Dwari, said that young girls did not need mobile phones and they should be prohibited from possessing the devices.

The BJP leaders further added that the excessive use of mobile phones was one of the reasons why "Aligarh girls were going in the wrong direction". So, the panchayat’s decision only echoes the sentiments of the ruling party.

This progressive new approach will be quite successful, because as opposed to nabbing criminals, and putting them in jail, it will bring windfall gains to the village in tems of money, while successfully fighting crime.

According to the panchayat, the use of mobile phones is an “evil” and any girl seen using them outside her home would be fined. The decision was taken by the former village pradhan Mohammed Gaffar.

“The girls in our village are not much educated. We fear they might be led to a ‘wrong path’ and so to prevent it, restrictions are being imposed on girls to not use mobile phones in public or while walking through the village lanes,” said Gaffar.

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Photo: Reuters

While the diktat exists for women, there was no mention of penalising men. That comes as no surprise, because while cell phones are evil, men, thanks to their natural advantage of being born male, are unaffected by these evil powers.

Of course, it is an altogether different matter that this is not at all something they have the constitutional rights to do, not that something like that has stopped any government body in India. According to a Hindustan Times report, superintendent of police Arun Kumar Singh said, “We will take action against any such complaint wherein a girl is restrained or is penalised for using a mobile phone and no panchayat would be allowed to dictate the rights of women.”

Perhaps the SP forgets that it has previously been proven (time and again) that panchayats are the natural source of culture, wisdom and order in several parts of north India. Had it not been for them, who would have taught us the negative effects of chowmien or jeans on Indian women? Without panchayats, we would also have had to deal with so much intra-gotra marriage.

Thank god for them and their honour-killings to protect women from their own will.

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But that’s not all that this progressive panchayat has been up to. According to Gaffar, anyone found indulging in cow slaughter or cow theft would have to shell out Rs 2 lakh, while those found selling liquor would have to pay Rs 1.11 lakh in fines. Apart from these hefty fines, other punishment, too, shall be decided by the panchayat.

What would we do without them?

Last updated: May 04, 2017 | 20:54
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