Sramana 2016 01

Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey, Rahulkumar Singh, Omprakash Singh
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

Page 65

58 : Śramaņa, Vol 67, No. 1, January-March 2016 workers (sūdras) were not allowed to listen to sacred scriptures. 8 Tīrthankara Mahāvīra gave full freedom to one and all, including women and the sūdras, to observe common religious practices. He gave an equal opportunity to everybody, irrespective of his class, caste, or birth, or sex, to practice religion according to one's capacity. On the other hand, Mahāvīra liberally initiated the nuns in his order, which is double in number when compared with the monks. In his order, there were only 14,000 monks but there were 36,000 nuns. In the same way, the numbers of laywomen is 3,18,000, which is more than the number of 1,59,000 laymen.""He propounded that the difference, which we see in the world is due to the past karmas and each soul through one's pious efforts can change ones destiny. In this century, it is getting more and more proved that all forms of oppression against women are based on ignorance and an error. In earlier centuries, denial of opportunities to education, access to knowledge and economic empowerment deliberately done by the patriarchal system clearly kept women -almost half of the total population - within the four walls, but now the floodgates have been opened and they have all the opportunities to get educated and take up all kinds of responsibilities.
In conclusion one can say that mankind and womankind are parts of a composite humanity and are equal with no difference. It is getting proved now that the world consists of two parts, without one the other is incomplete, defective and deficient. It has been rightly said that God - neither a female nor a male, judges human actions. God never asks, "Art thou a woman or art thou a man?" A productive partnership-based critical appreciation of the complexities in gender relation can alone reorganize the structures of the society and change the individual mindset and the institutional psyche. We should try to create a new world in the new millennium so that the present and future generations may enjoy a richer and harmonious life without making the same mistakes again. According to my view, the very notion of the concept of Human Rights is imperfect, very limited and really violent which violates