Women in India

 "यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता" - Vedas

Meaning:  God resides, where women are worshipped

It is the general attitude of the indian society towards women. But, since vedas (which witnessed Gargi, Lopamudra, Maitreyi, Gosha and other rishikas), the situation of women has been deteriorating in India. 

In order to understand the situation of women, lets see different aspects such as Gender, Patriarchy, Reasons for Patriarchy, Patriarchy Vis-a-Vis Work, Violence against women, e.t.c.,

Gender: It is a neutral concept, where different roles are designated for both male and female based on the culture of particular society.  Due to this phenomenon, Either male or Female has to follow that identities generated by the culture of that society. If not, there would be coercive social controls like ridicule, humour, violence, social boycotting, e.t.c.,

Lets see how gender is impacting the situation of women in India:-

Sexual Division of Labour:- Though this sexual division of labour was useful for the neolithic man during hunting & gathering stage, Now, it outlived its utility. Even though, wife is educated enough, husband and In-Laws are not allowing the women to work and try to socialise her for domestic roles and make her work for caring of children and elders and cooking and maintenance of house. 

This sexual division of labour varies from caste to caste, religion to religion, class to class e.t.c., For example, if a women comes from high caste, she has to stay at home and take care of household as aforesaid and has to protect the familial pride. But in case of the lower caste and daily wage earning family, she has to go to either farm work or domestic servant or any other chores.

Dual Burden:-  Even though, a woman is working for 8-10 hours a day, she has to do her duty at house too. She has to take up utensils and cook food and maintain the house clean. It is causing heavy burden on women. There are many incidents , where husband doesnt share any household activities, even though she works.

Pink Colored Jobs:-  With the perception of gender, women are cornered to certain types of posts and it is like informal reservation of certain employment to women. For example: Nursing industry in hospital, Primary Teachers, Receptionists and other jobs, where one can find the abundance of the women.

Glass Ceiling Effect:- It is the best classical example of how women is cornered based on her gender. Even though, a women is competent enough, based on gender perspective, women are looked upon as emotional, irrational and thinks they unable to take decisions as their male counterparts. Due to this gender stereotyping phenomenon in the minds of the corporations and companies, Many women don't climb the ladder because of the transparent ceiling made by gender stereotyping. For example, Supreme Court of India, which has only eight judges in 72 years of independence.  Another examples is barring of entry of women in territorial army(TA) in India. 

Violence Against Women:- With gender stereotyping, people tend to think, Men think women are meek, week, submissive and docile. So, based on these perceptions, men justifying themselves in perpetuating the violence on women. Example:- Muzaffarpur Shelter home rape cases, where nearly 40 women are raped and one is murdered and buried alive. 

These are some of the consequences of gender stereotyping. there are many example and cases of gender stereotyping. 

What are factors still perpetuating the gender stereotyping in India? :-

Patriarchy, Caste Norms, Religious Norms, Symbolism, Media, Knowledge System are some of the factors responsible for perpetuating the gender stereotyping. 

Caste Norms:- In India, there are more than 3,000 castes/ Jatis. Each caste has different norms and different stereotyping norms for the women. As we discussed above, it can be easily differentiated how the role of kshatriya women and role of shudra women are emanating from the gender stereotyping.

Caste is not only differentiating the gender roles, it is also perpetuating the violence against the women. Higher caste Men take it as the license to outrage the modesty of women or rape a women. The classic example is Poolan Devi, who is raped by several high caste people in the village. 

It is okay to kill woman and choice of her mate for upholding the purity of caste based on diktaks of Khap Panchayats. Even though Supreme Court barred khap panchayats in giving such verdicts in Arumugam Sevai Case and Shakti Vahini Case, there are many incidents of killing of women and her mate can be seen in India. The main reason for this situation is entrenched caste norms and its influence on the psychic of people.

Media:- Media plays important role in creating the symbolism of women. It perpetuates the exting the knowledge system of society.  According to manu smriti, there is dual duties of women -- one, Submissive Wife and second, Devoted Mother. this knowledge system is almost common in all religions and castes in India. Media plays influential in perpetuating this role. For example, In movies, a women is portrayed as the Goddess, who sacrifice everything in order to uphold these two duties. Even in advertisements too, it is women washing clothes and utensils with washing SOAP and DETERGENT POWDER but not MEN. Why? 

Apart from Goddess symbolism, Media also portrays women as pleasure symbol. For example, Many movies that put compulsory Item Songs in the middle of movie irrespective of Script because, it is important for them to portray woman as sexual symbol for their monetary margins. 

In this way, media is portraying women as both goddess and sexual symbol. Thats why, conference of national commission of women says that if women accepts their identity as the goddess, they tend to sacrifice everything, even though such sacrifice is dehumanizing. Thats why, It pleaded women to think themselves as women and human but not as Goddess. 

Patriarchy:- Patri, Male + Archy, Rule. It is rule by male through lineage or clan system in the caste. 

90% of Caste, which is unique to India and ubiquitously present, follows Patriarchy. Even though There is matriarchy among the Khasis, Jaintia and Nairs and other tribes and castes, the inheritance alone follows the Matrilineage and the rest authority lies in the Males of those families. 

Lets See, how patriarchy works with women:- 

At Family Level :- Sexual division of Labour as we discussed above, Socialisation for domestic works, e.t.c., Patriarchy at family level is also causing the health conditions like Anaemia, e.t.c., In India, nearly 51% women are anaemic as per global nutrition report. Why? The reason lies in patriarchy, according to which, women are generally tend to eat at last after completion of In-Laws, Husband and Children. Sometimes, they are left with no food and sleep with empty stomach. 

At family Level, due to the gender stereotyping. there is sexual selection at birth. 

" Nearly half a billion murders are committed since independence in the name of the selection. Just, 3,000 cases are filed Sofar. " -- Supreme Court Observation. 

Due to this sex selection at birth there are only 911 female for 1000 males at the age group of 0-6 years as per 2011 census. Some district like Jhajjar has as low as 700 female against 1000 male in the same age group. 

Patriarchy At Farming and Informal Sector:- 

At farming level, There is substantial rise in women participation.  Does it Signifies WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?  Nope. It is not. Because of reduction in the farm employment, It is easy to employe the more women because, they have low education, low skill, low bargaining power. SO, they can be paid low and without proper working conditions. 

The Irony is even though 44% of Farm sector employment comes from the Women, they holds less than 9% ownership of the land. 

It is same case with Informal Sector, where there is inequality in remuneration, lack of proper working conditions, lack of any social security and sometimes, there is lack of physical security. Due to high depravation conditions of women, they are sometimes lured or forced for sexual gratification of male ownership. 

Patriarchy at Industrial Sector:- It is the sector, where one can easily observe the lowest level of women participation. Even at the technological advancements, it is believed that women dont have physical strength to carryout the mechanical work. 

Patriarchy at Service Sector:- Even though service sector hold one of the largest female presence, They are many issues like glass ceiling effect, pink coloured jobs, sexual harassment, e.t.c., 

These are some of the manifestation of the patriarchy at different sectors. Now, lets see how how these issues culminating and affecting the women employment and empowerment. 

Before looking at them, Lets see GLOBAL GENDER GAP REPORT prepared by World Economic Forum(WEF), according to which india ranks in 108 out of 144 countries. This report is prepared based on four important factors such as Health, Economic Participation,  Education and Political Participation. 

Lets look into employment and political sectors, which are main pillars for the women empowerment.

Employment -- According to National Sample Survey(NSS), 2016 survey there is decline in the number of women employed from 25.9% to 21.6%. When GDP is growing at on average 7% per annum, the proportion of women employed has been declining. 

It is because of several factors such as: Familial Responsibility, Child Caring and Rearing, Low or inadequate skill, Insensitive In-Laws and Husband towards the working women, Dual burden of both Office and House, Lack of proper physical infrastructure is threatening the security of women at public places, Large distance between house and employment, Lack entrepreneur atmosphere for women, Low lendings for women by banks, Sexual harassment at work place, e.t.c., 
For example, Cellular companie like IDEA, Vodafone, Airtel and others in Andhra Pradesh doesnt open a Post-Paid account for unemployed Housewives. 

In this atmosphere, it is difficult for any women to join employment, especially in the country, where unemployment rate and competition is raising. 

Political Participation -- Political participation is important tool in making the women empowered because, it creates the atmosphere of women led policies and growth. But India, even after 72 years of Independence, couldnt witness 15% representation in either parliament or state legislature. What irony is Some states like Nagaland and Mizoram doesnt even have single Women MLA. 

Inorder to fix the gap, Reservation for women in Parliament and State legislature is proposed for fixed time limit. But, Nothing tangible results are seen sofar. 

For women empowerment, one-third reservation for women is made mandatory at local bodies level. It became successful in harnessing the voice of women at local level but it is also largely plagued by many issues like Panchayat Pati Syndrome(where husband make her wife to contest as proxy and he plays major role), Insubordination of many officers and local body officials to demands of women leaders and other issues. 

Thats why, there is an urgent need to make the 50% reservation for women at local bodies Level for harnessing and garnering more voice of the women and for their empowerment in developmental direction. 

Then, What is empowerment?:-

According to world bank, Women Empowerment is based on the following basic pillars: Sense of Self Worth, Accessibility to Resources, Ability to control one's own life, Autonomy in decision making, Ability to give the direction to social change in society.  If these five criteria is satisfied, women is said to be empowered. 

By this definition, India is far behind in any of the basic pillar. Thats why, India shall strive hard for achieving the women empowerment through various govt, national, international, Civil Society, NGO and others interventions. And mainly, there shall be change in the perspective of the Gender Stereotyping while judging the women. 

The Main Limitation for achieving the Women Empowerment is Violence, which is mainly manifested against women in india in the following ways: i. Sexual Harassment at Public Space, ii. Sexual Harassment at working place, iii. Domestic Violence, iv. Dowry Harassment. 

Sexual Harassment of Women at Public Places:- Even though there are many provisions such as Section 375, 376, 302, 304B and many other provisions in IPC, recent amendment to criminal law, 2013 provides the special punishments for voyeurism, acid attacks, stalking and other many other crimes against women, Still women are facing many crimes in the form of rape, human trafficking, forced prostitution many other violences due to several factors such as -- Gender stereotyping and symbolising women as sexual pleasure, Breakdown of family system and levels of morality in society, Inadequate Social and Physical security for women like even though criminal law prescribes the special fast track courts to deal with rape cases, little has been achieved in that direction, inadequate police patrolling at sensitive areas, Insensitivity of Police and Judicial officials and many other reasons. 

Sexual Harassment at Workplace:- On the guidelines of the Vishaka Judgement of Supreme Court, Govt has created Sexual harassment at workplace(Prevention)Act, 2013 with stringent provisions, according to which, a company shall constitute Internal Complaints Committee(ICC), having 50% women members. ICC shall give its decision within 90 days of time. The onus of proving innocence lies on accused. Even though these provisions looks sufficient, in reality there is under reporting of the cases due to the fear of suffering from consequence, fear of lose of job, e.t.c., According to an Independent survey, nearly 40% of women, who faces these type of problems doesn't report at all. 

One of the main criticism of this law is its application in case of Informal Sector. Incase of Informal sector, it is Local Complaints Committee(LCC), headed by District Magistrate. The onus of constituting LCC having 50% female membership lies with D.M. In many cases, D.Ms don't constitute the LCC. 

Domestic Violence:-

According to NCRB data, nearly 40% of violence against the women is committed by either husband or relatives at house. Thatswhy, Govt enacted Domestic Violence(Prohibition) Act, 2013, which provides the Right to Maintenance, Right to Protection, Right to Secure Housing and Right to child custody. Recent amendment says a case against women can also be filed in case of her involvement in either physical or emotional or verbal or financial or any other means of harassment.  Section 498A of IPC too deals with domestic violence, especially in case of dowry. Even though govt provides these provisions, Women is continuously facing the violence due to several factors such as Dowry, Changing role of women and voice of empowerment in globalised era, Patriarchal attitude, Gender stereotyping e.t.c.,

According National Family Health Survey(NFHS)-III, 69% of women respondents says violence is normal. This trend shows the internalisation of violence due to entrenched patriarchal mindset and gender stereotyping roles. 

Dowry is one of the prime reason for the violence against woman. Under reportage, fear of losing family pride at society, lack of evidences in many cases, Insensitivity of police and judicial official and some other related factors are prime reasons for the increasing levels of dowry menace in the country. In order to deal with dowry related cases, Section 304B, Section 406, Section 498 A of IPC are constituted. But the dowry related cases continue to unabated due to patriarchal attitude of caste based society, which itself is perpetuating the Dowry.

In this way, a woman in India is facing a Multi-Dimensional Problems, which is impacting the women at physical, mental, financial, social and political levels. These impediments are becoming the stumbling blocks in the empowerment of woman India. According to mckinsey global institute, If gender inequality is reduced and optimum efficiency in the participation of women is achieved, India can increase its GDP by nearly 60%.  Thats why, i can say Women empowerment is not only economic necessity but an urgent Social Need for overall growth of country as well as improvement in moral consciousness of the society.