Status of Women in Contemporary Indian Society

Reviews the amendments of the 1868 Indian Act, highlighting the conflicts of superiority of rights to Indian men over women. Discusses the avoidance of violence and discrimination against women within communities and the need for an equal relationship between genders

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

The Caste system has aroused much controversy than any other feature of India’s society. Every day, Dalits are butchered, assaulted, abused, raped, lynched, shot or openly mutilated without considering any consequences of the offenders. The deaths of pregnant women who are not able to pay the bribes at government hospitals, some boys with eyes raised completely out for falling in love with a girl of a superior caste, and horrid stories of employees boiled to death because of spewing out arguments with the boss are continuously reported in mainstream newspapers. After years of democracy, the social structure stands to practice the caste system disregarding abolishment laws. Every international or national effort to abolish caste differentiation and segregation has been proven ineffective. The caste system of India is a deeply inculcated social problem requiring immense commitment domestically and internationally in understanding what has stopped the measures to get rid of this ancient system and what measures are needed to complete elimination of the system.

Upper caste women may undergo dramatically different experiences than lower caste women. For example, lower caste women do not practice sati, because it is mostly prevalent among upper caste women. Thus, they may not comprehend how sati may function as a tool of control of female sexuality. On the other hand, upper caste women may not comprehend the experiences of widow-remarriage as practiced by lower caste women. Granted that, Mohanty makes a great point by asserting that it is impossible to analyze and treat Indian women as an ahistorical and monolithic group of people. Indian women are heterogeneous, and significant attention must be given to the components of race, class, imperialism. Furthermore, given their background, many of Western feminists in India were supporters of the colonial government and saw themselves as agents of the civilizing mission. They believed that Indian women were incapable of speaking for themselves, and thus were also incapable of liberating themselves. They disregarded that Indian women were victims of both British imperialism and the patriarchal Indian society, and thus the oppression they faced greatly differed from that of Western women. If anything, western women participated in their

Throughout our experience, we have encountered so many challenges when it comes to gender in the society. Gender is being used as a basis for stratifying people in the society. In this article, the racial caste system that used to exist in the United State is depicted. In that the black women were denied the access to justice because of their status. They were perceived to be people who do not have any right within the society and no one could believed them when they were raped by the white men because all the court judges were white men according to this article. The women were classified to be from poor background and they should remain at a low class in the society.

The caste system has been extremely stable in India for over two thousand years. It is only since the more modern, independent state of India was formed that the system has come under any scrutiny at all. It is presently outlawed, but many of the practices, attitudes and traditions remain ingrained in Hindu society (University of Wyoming, 1997).

As a result of these reviews, the ongoing reconstruction of the social status and roles of Hindu women has brought about many new changes in Hinduism. Some of these changes include changes in education, health measures, problems of early marriages, the positions of widows, and the representation of women in governing bodies (Desai, et al., 1995). For example, within Hinduism now,

Gender inequality is displayed in many countries around the globe. In India, the society begins gendering as soon as a child is born. In most cases, the birth of a daughter is unwelcome but that of a son is celebrated. The boys are brought up bold and outgoing while the girls are expected to be at home and do chores. While the other discriminations like economic or social discriminations are present outside the home, but gender discrimination is present outside and inside households. In a familial setup, the father is the head of the family and decision maker. The mother generally performs the ‘home making’. Even if the woman is employed, she is expected to do the domestic chores, in addition to her job. Even though she earns, she does not have the freedom to plan her salary or decide anything.

In a critical analysis, India has been subjected and thrown into the fire as many continue to thrive this uphill battle of inequality and gender relation issues. Although inequality is a largely debatable issue, especially when convoluted

In the world today, there are also many countries that consider women to be in a lower social class than men. In fact, on January 22 last year, the Indian Times released this statement: “A kangaroo court last Sunday decided that the victim be raped by 10 men as she had committed a crime by having an affair outside the community. The tribal heads had found that the sin of the 20-year-old can be only undone if she gets raped by 10 tribal men.” Gender inequality is not just seen in India, but also around the world. They are denied any power or any string that ties them to being a valued human life. In Saudi Arabia, women are denied a driver's license. In China, female babies are being killed because of the “one-child” policy and their preference

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

An analysis of example can be derived from the aforementioned discriminatory sexist roles in India that prior to globalization highly favored the male population verses the female population. The female population in India has previously been less than second class citizens. Indian women's cultural roles have been previously defined by traditional customs that are centuries old and no longer apply in this day and age. Previous to globalization, Indian women were to take total domestic responsibility. They were not allowed formal education as the majority of teachers and pupils were male, and the chances of a female remaining chaste was slim in those settings, and related to tradition, females

The low status of women and girls is due to cultural beliefs and the material cost they represent to their families. Vanaja Dhruvarajan says that there is a belief regarding the nature of men and women: "Men are ritually pure, physically strong, and emotionally mature; women, on the other hand, are ritually pollutable, physically weak, and lack strong willpower" (30). Because of these

This caste system also allows patriarchal rule, which greatly limits the roles of women in, the Indian society.

The oppression of women is based on false assumption and preconceived notions by the male domination world, has been obvious and responsible for paving the way for serious gender issues to emerge. Due to the narrow realms of activity in society, deprived from essential human rights, restricted educations scope, open to unhealthy physical and mental abuse, this society has not given women the opportunity to rise to their full potential. The impact of gender discrimination has not only affected the future of the women today but it has resulted in the slow progress of human mind in general.