For better or for worse, gender roles play a very important role in how girls and boys fare in school and how they fare later, as men and women in the modern workplace. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, said, ‘You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women’. The worth of a civilization can be judged from the position that it gives to women. Of the several factors that justify the greatness of India’s ancient culture, one of the greatest is the honoured place ascribed to women. Manu, the great law-giver, said long ago, ‘where women are honoured there reside the gods’.
According to ancient Hindu scriptures no religious rite can be performed with perfection by a man without the participation of his wife. Wife’s participation is essential to any religious rite. Married men along with their wives are allowed to perform sacred rites on the occasion of various important festivals. Wives are thus befittingly called ‘Ardhangani’ (betterhalf). They are given not only important but equal position with men. Yet, the gender inequality is a devastating reality and a cause of concern for the Indian society which is highly prejudiced against the female gender.
Basically a male dominated society, decision making at family and political level is almost single handedly handled by the men. The greatest obstacles affecting girls are Dowry, Neglect, Abuse, Sex Trafficking, labour, Infanticide and Sex-Selective Abortion. There is no denying the fact that women in India have made a considerable progress in the last fifty years but yet they have to struggle against many handicaps and social evils in the male dominated society. The Hindu Code Bill has given the daughter and the son equal share of the property. The Marriage Act no longer regards woman as the property of man.
Marriage is now considered to be a personal affair and if a partner feels dissatisfied she or he has the right of divorce. But passing of law is one thing and its absorption in the collective thinking of society is quite a different matter. There’s a curious irony that every year March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day with growing enthusiasm, even as the status of women in Indian society remains static, if it hasn’t deteriorated. Of course in a nation which has developed a unique capability for celebrating ritual, there is no shortage of politically correct speeches on the day, like Political leaders stressed hat women rights are the edifice on which human rights stand; Air India operated a flight with an all-women crew and a few special women empowerment schemes were announced on the day. But beyond tokenism and displays of lachrymose sentimentality, the ground reality is this: the national male-female ratio is an alarming 1000:933; only 54. 16 per cent of the women are literate; close to 15,000 women succumb to dowry torture annually and 130,000 women face the worst forms of assault upon their mental and physical well being every year.
Educationists and social scientists are increasingly veering around to the view that persistent gender biases are rooted in India’s failed education system. And it’s pertinent to note that literacy is less than synonymous with education. The gender disparity in education translates into other deprivations such as food, sanitation facilities, safe drinking water, shelter and information. Education is the tool that can help break the pattern of gender discrimination and bring lasting change for women in society.
The most basic skills in literacy and arithmetic open up opportunities for better-paying jobs for women. Women can’t defend themselves against physical and sexual abuse until they have the authority to speak against it without fear. Knowledge gives that authority. Women who have been educated are half as likely to undergo harmful cultural practices. There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a great revolution in the history of women. The evidence is everywhere; the voice of women is increasingly heard in Parliament, courts and in the streets.
While women in the West had to fight for over a century to get some of their basic rights, like the right to vote, the Constitution of India gave women equal rights with men from the beginning. Unfortunately, women in this country are mostly unaware of their rights because of illiteracy and the oppressive tradition. Names like Kalpana Chawla: The Indian born, who fought her way up into NASA and was the first woman in space, and Indira Gandhi: The Iron Woman of India was the Prime Minister of the Nation, Beauty Queens like Aishwarya Rai and Susmita Sen, and Mother Teresa are not representative of the condition of Indian women.
