Not a pleasant time to be a woman in India: Shobhaa De

The society's attitude towards women has visibly changed with time and now is not a very pleasant time to be a woman in India, says author Shobhaa De.

"From the time I was a middle class daughter to the time I began playing the role of a mother I find that at present it is rather difficult time being a woman," said De on the sidelines of the ongoing Penguin Books Spring Fever Festival.

"It is not a very pleasant time to be a woman in India. You have to be constantly walking with your elbows out and looking over your shoulders to see who is trying to brush past you, who will make a comment which is nasty, dirty and disgusting," said the novelist.

Reference of the Nirbhaya gangrape case, the author says, "Not that it wasn't happening before. But today they can do it and get away with it. Today, also when I step out, I have to face eave teasing and dirty comments. If that can happen to me at 65, I definitely have a reason to be concerned about my daughter.

"It is kind of foolish in today's age to be telling your daughter to cover up when she wears short skirts, because its not what she wants to hear or what she should be told. But there is no other way, we have to be cope and deal with it in a way we can," she said.

However she believes that there is an effort required from women's side also to tackle the patriarchal attitude of the society.

"It would become a different place to live, if women remember that they are women and they do not try to clone the male behaviour be it their leadership qualities or any other aspect," she said.

"What I have observed over the years is that women who acquire power feel obliged to clone the male behaviour and they become honorary men," added the author.

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