Indian Women Problems and Concerns

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Introduction

The problems affecting “Gender Equality” are as old as humanity. Since the beginning of civilization women have been treated as subordinate to men in terms of status, mobility and roles and obligations. Religion, culture and social norms have played a significant role in the development of social attitudes towards women.

The Bible says the lord god created Eve out of the rib cage of Adam, giving thereby a derivative nature to her existence. There is an equally charming myth associated with the creation of woman, by the supreme creator Brahma. Brahma first created man, and in his generosity, wished to give man a companion he borrowed several components form the beautiful creation of nature and made women out of them. Hence the reference of woman as 'Prakriti. Brahma presented woman to his earlier creation man, saying, 'She will serve you, life long and if you cannot live with her, neither can you live without her'. Both myths indicate that woman is either an 'after thought' of a male god or play mate created for man as a psychic compensation for his innate loneliness. If these myths gave woman her ritually prescribed status, all histories of the world expose the desperate marginality of women, be it in ancient Athens or the world of Manu.

Women's place in every community is vital to the well being of that society. In spite of the fact that women form an integral part of development in its social, cultural, economic and political dimensions, they still remain subjects of inequality and oppression. Nowhere in the world at present complete equality of men and women is being implemented. While gender equality is a cherished dream, gender inequality remains a stark reality in Indian society. The situation has remained almost the same over the ages. There are historical reasons for it. This inequality is deeply entrenched in the patriarchal structure of Indian society from early times to almost the present. This structure has been created and consolidated by religious and social sanction as well as economic conditions. The caste and gender hierarchy so characteristic of Brahmanical social system from early times was further consolidated in the feudal age. The advent of Islam made no worthwhile change in the existing social system. The socio religious protest movements in medieval times, generally clubbed together as the Bhakti Movement, were rather feeble attempts which could not effect significant changes in the dynamics of the prevalent social relationship. Modern legislation both before and after independence, did provide a legal frame work for reforms and protection of gender related rights, but social attitudes and responses were not very decisively influenced by these measures. As such gender inequality continues to be a major social challenge.

No serious efforts are being done at the part of the state and society to change the status of women effectively. The government policies to uplift and empower women, mainly in developing countries, have proved ineffective. In case of India, so far, no policy frame work with the objective to empower women, has worked effectively. An alarming pace of female foeticides has distorted the sex ratio, especially in North India. In fact, genesis of modern sex determination technology has not only targeted the girl child before birth but has also spoiled women's health conditions because of repetitive and sometimes forceful (i.e., against the will of women and also against the law of nature) abortions of female child in mother's womb. It has led to serious health complications for the women, especially under the conditions where they are already in a state of malnutrition. There is an urgent need to evaluate the basic cause for the failure of public policies, so that women are not taken as men's tool or burden but as equal partner in socio-economic development of humanity.

It is an established fact that expansion of human capabilities depend mainly on the ability to live long, to escape from preventable diseases, to work outside the family without any fear, to participate in decision making in collaborative manners which influence the quality of life, the individual can enjoy. But, all these parameters of human development are governed by the patriarchal formulations. At every place of work the women are seen as tool of sexual activities and they have been working in constant state of psycho-fear, which not only affects their performance but also restricts their sphere of activities. Factually, prostitution of women is probably the oldest phenomenon of human society and in most of the western societies the sex activities are legalized. The economic activities constitute the basis of human development and quality of life, but women are dragged to work in unsafe working conditions.

The trends in gender relationships indicate that in India with the ongoing process of transformations in socio-economic conditions of society, the urban women have been facing serious threats particularly in the form of sexual assaults and revenge activities of men as compared to their counterparts living in tribal and semi-tribal societies. Though the women in tribal regions are disproportionately overburdened of economic activities yet, they hardly face the atrocities like dowry deaths, female foeticides and widow curses. It is true that their accessibility to life value is limited but in these societies the criminality against women is less as compared to urban areas. However, issues such as selling of girls and women have come to light in these areas. But they occur mainly because of poverty. Though they bear indigenous reasons, they are inflicted by external agencies.

The age of globalization has come with the new phase of opportunities for upper sections and for people belonging to lower sections of society, it has led to their marginalization and exploitation. The market oriented developmental strategies has pushed larger segment of women backward. The way in which socio-economic transformations are taking place at this stage has resulted in majority of women, who were originally engaged in traditional economic settings, becoming socially and economically disempowered. Since, the new economic reforms imposed by the market forces provide no safety networks for the working conditions of women, discrimination and exploitation against them is growing with unprecedented pace. They are not safe at working place, society and also within the family. The most devastating implication of globalization for women is that the 'feminization of poverty' and 'feminization of labour' has increased. The poor women are becoming poorer and because of their vulnerability they fall the victims of unethical and hazardous labour options. Because of lack of resources needed for personality development at their disposal, women's upbringing is affected adversely, which ultimately restrict their role in overall development of humanity. The criminality against women in working places is increasing and they have been living under almost permanent state of fear psychosis in society.