"Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Be proud to be a woman!!

Status of women in India:


This article is mainly intended to show the status of women in an Indian context and not to humiliate anyone.

A girl child often faces discrimination right from her childhood through out her life span. She is often given a low status compared to her male counterparts. Her low status is reflected in the denial of fundamental needs and rights and in such harmful attitudes and practices as a preference for sons, early marriage, domestic abuse, incest, sexual exploitation, discrimination, less food and less access to education.

There are several scholars who argue that women enjoyed the same status as that of men in early Vedic period. Rig Vedic verses suggest that the women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their husband. Upanishads and Rig-Veda mention women seers like Gargi and Maitreyi. Some kingdoms also had the practice of Nagarvadhu, literally means Bride of the City. Women competed to win the title of a Nagarvadhu, and it was not considered a taboo. The most beautiful woman was chosen as the Nagarvadhu.

The question is how and when did the status of women decline?

The decline in the status of women can be traced back to post Vedic and medieval period.The status of women began to decline in post vedic and medieval period. The sacred Manu Dharma Shastra shows ambiguity in terms of the status of women. Some of the quotes show respect and others show humiliation.

Eg: Even though the husband be of bad character and seeks pleasure elsewhere he must be of bad character and seeks pleasure elsewhere he must be constantly worshipped (Manu Smriti 5.154)
"A wife who has committed faults may be beaten with a rope or a split bamboo (Manu Smriti 8.299)

This is a clear indication of domestic violence which was recommended in the sacred texts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, the same text has also said certain great things about women like:

“Where women verily are honored, there the gods rejoice. Where, however, they are not honored, there all sacred rites prove useless" (3.56)
"In whatever house a woman not duly honored pronounces and imprecation, that house, with all that belong to it shall utterly perish" (9.45)One thing about these sayings is that a woman needs to be respected and honored but only if she is of good character, then how come certain restrictions has not been laid out for men? Men should be respected even he can seek pleasure elsewhere…why not women?? What we need to understand is that we have a choice to reject Manu Smriti or other books if they are not in the spirit of our aspirations, equality and justice. We do not have to follow a particular book or guru or path. We have a choice to take the good from all and reject the bad.
Even denial to education for women can be traced back to ancient days where sages/rishis prevented women from studying scriptures. This gradually made path for the denial of basic education to women who considered unimportant for someone who will marry and rear a family.

The Mahabharata mentions the gifts sent with a bride in the form of gold, silver, cows and horses. But nowhere in its 100,000 verses does this epic history of India recount incidents of torture inflicted upon women if they failed to bring adequate presents from their parents. While the current-day dowry is a compulsion and thus a curse for women's dignity, dowry in the past was voluntary in nature, remained under her control and insured her personal security in the marriage.

The principle of gender equality is contained in the Indian Constitution, legal system and government policies. However, there is still a wide gap between these principles and the reality of the status of women in many communities across India. This is shown by low female literacy rates and high maternal mortality rates, particularly in rural areas. Attitudes need to change at the level of the family. Parents need to ensure that girls as well as boys receive health care, education, training, opportunities and access to resources.
Women in contemporary India: There is a great upsurge in awareness about women's rights among all sections of society. The developmental programmes and policies give emphasis to improving women's social status. In spite urbanization and industrialization our culture and economy are predominantly agrarian, rural based. So empowering women, who are backbone of our agrarian economy, is a sure path to achieve major economic gains. Our development efforts have yielded creditable benefits for women in doubling their life expectancy over the last fifty years, and considerably reducing female infant mortality and child mortality rates. (Book extracts)

Horrifying facts:

•60% of the women in India are anemic.
•More women than men die before the age of 35.
•India, with a population of 989 million, is the world’s second most populous country. Of that number, 120 million are women who live in poverty.
•India’s maternal mortality rates in rural areas are among the highest in the world.
•In India, one woman dies every five minutes from a pregnancy-related cause.
•1 woman was murdered due to dowry every 66 minutes ( 2002 censes )
•Over 40% of married Indian women face physical abuse by their husband ( 2002 censes )