India treats its women horribly

A glaring gender discrimination among Hindus has existed in India over the centuries. It is evident that there exists deep rooted prejudices against women in India. The women in India are treated with less respect that the cows that roam its streets. In India, studies have found that more than 40 per cent of married women reported being kicked, slapped or sexually abused for reasons such as their husbands’ dissatisfaction with their cooking or cleaning, jealousy, and a variety of other motives such as disputes over dowries.

Dowries

Dowry or Dahej is the payment of something of value by the bride's family to the bridegroom' s family along with the giving away of the bride ( called Kanyadaan) in Indian marriages. The concept of dowry originated in upper caste families as the wedding gift to the bride from her family. The dowry was later given to help with marriage expenses and became a form of insurance in the case her in-laws mistreated her. Although the dowry was legally prohibited in 1961, it continues to be highly institutionalized. The groom often demands a dowry consisting of a large sum of money, farm animals, furniture, and electronics. Cultural practices such as the payment of dowry tend to subordinate women in Indian society.

The practice of dowry abuse is rising in India. The most severe cases of abuses relating to dowries is “bride burning”, the burning of women whose dowries were not considered sufficient by their husband or in-laws. Most of these incidents are reported as accidental burns in the kitchen or are disguised as suicide.

When the dowry amount is not considered sufficient or is not forthcoming, the bride is often harassed, abused and made miserable. This abuse can escalate to the point where the husband or his family burn the bride, often by pouring kerosene on her and lighting it, usually killing her. The official records of these incidents are low because they are often reported as accidents or suicides by the family. In Delhi, a woman is burned to death almost every twelve hours . The number of dowry murders is increasing. In 1988, 2,209 women were killed in dowry related incidents and in 1990, 4,835 were killed . It is important to reiterate that these are official records, which are immensely under reported. The lack of official registration of this crime is apparent in Delhi, where ninety percent of cases of women burnt were recorded as accidents, five percent as suicide and only the remaining five percent were shown as murder. Compare that with deaths in the kitchens of Canada. When was the last time a woman in Canada died from burns in a kitchen? More than 7,000 women in India are murdered by their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries per year.

The 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry, "as consideration for the marriage". where "dowry" is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal. Asking or giving of dowry can be punished by an imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to Rs. 5000. It replaced several pieces of anti-dowry legislation that had been enacted by various Indian states. Despite the existence of rigorous laws to prevent dowry-deaths under a 1986 amendment to the Indian Penal Code, convictions are rare, and judges (usually men) are often uninterested and susceptible to bribery.

Plight of Widows in India

The Sati (Su-thi , a.k.a. suttee) is the ancient traditional Hindu practice of a widow cremating herself alive on her husband's funeral pyre. Sati was prevalent among certain sects of society in India, who either took the vow or deemed it a great honor to die on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

The practice of Sati was banned by Lord William Bentick in 1829 but despite that, in 1987, Roop Kanwar, a young widow went the route of Sati in the state of Rajasthan, stirring a social debate on the topic. People who assisted her in suicide were arrested. But Roop Kanwar was idolized and attained the status of a deity. 1996 The Indian Court upheld her suicide as a social tradition and freed the relatives who assisted Roop Kanwar in her suicide. 2002 Kuttu Bai, a 65 year widow commited Sati in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Whereas a widower in India can remarry as many times as he likes, a widow cannot remarry irrespective of her age. In Hindu society widows are still often shunned and even prohibited from re-marrying. In fact, they may be blamed for their husband’s death by their in-laws or face domestic abuse after their husbands have died. With few economic prospects and often little help from extended or immediate family members, many widows have chosen to flock to the Hindu holy city of Vrindavan in Northern India where they will spend the rest of their lives begging on the streets. Vrindavan is known by Hindus around the world as a holy city, but within India it has acquired the name of “the city of widows”.

Consider the story of Shanta Bai. When she was 5 years old, her shoulders drooped under the weight of her bridal garland. But according to Giri, a widows' advocate, the little girl could hardly have imagined what burdens lay ahead. Her uncle had pocketed Rs.300 ($6.55) by marrying her off to a 36 year old. The husband died four years later, leaving Bai a 9-year-old widow. Now 85, Bai hobbles down the streets of Vrindavan, her gnarled fingers cupping a broken bowl, begging for her living while she waits for death to claim her.

Bai is one the estimated 33 million widows in India, the country with the largest widow population in the world. Among them, at least 20,000, like Bai, sit on the banks of the river Ganges and beg for alms. Vrindavan and Varanasi, holy cities in the north of India and two of the country's most sought-after pilgrim centers, have become home to the husbandless.

Forced arranged marriages

Let me say from the beginning that arranged marriages can be a good thing if the women are not abused by their husbands or their husband’s families. But in a great many instances, the women suffer as a result of forced arranged marriages. For many of these unfortunate women, such marriages have been a prolonged journey of emotional and physical trauma.

Often when women in India enter into an age where they can legally be married, they are told by their parents or other relatives that their husbands will be chosen for them. They are told that they have no say in the matter. Let me give you an example of an arranged marriage that didn’t work.

The young Hindu woman, Neha, was 18 and living in Southampton, Britain when her father told her that because her mother walked out of the marriage with him, no one would marry Neha because her mothers ‘shameful’ conduct had tarnished Neha and for this reason, he was arranging a marriage between her and an 29-year-old Hindu man living in British Columbia.

During their seven-year marriage, Neha had two daughters with her husband. They are 13 and 10. Later, she was expecting a third when her husband decided she should get an abortion. Though outraged, as it went against her beliefs, Neha agreed. When she discovered that her husband was having an affair and had also knowingly infected her with herpes, Neha collected her kids and walked out. Her new husband expected Neha to be a dutiful wife. He, on the other hand, partied and went clubbing alone. He was not the kind of man she wanted to marry but found herself obligated to marry the him because her father told her to marry the man.

She built a new life and career and lived a peaceful existence for eight years. But during that time, her family never stopped shaming her for the stigma of the divorce that she had supposedly brought on the family. Her father, brother and sister again pressured her into marrying another man of their choice from their native country, India. Believing she had to follow the wishes of her family, Neha again sacrificed herself at the altar to discover, just weeks later, that the second marriage was a sham ---- a game played by her family to give Canadian immigration status to her new husband, who was her sister's nephew-in-law. Neha was told to process his immigration application on her immediate return to Canada. After much trauma and a nervous breakdown, Neha ended her second marriage by cutting all ties with her family and new husband. It has been three years since then and Neha has returned to a relatively quiet life in B.C. with her two daughters. She manages to ignore the abuses, threats and phone calls from her family and second husband who still think she will "come to her senses" and sponsor him.

Parental fear that their children will seek partners outside their own ethnic or cultural community has lead to a growing number of forced marriages in Canada. Young women and young men are commonly forced to marry a spouse from India. They are sent, often using deception, to a wedding elsewhere or a bride or groom is brought to this country. Emotional blackmail, threats of dire consequences and the spectre of spinsterhood are common tools used to coerce girls into forced marriages.
The British Parliament in July 2007 also passed a law giving courts the power to issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders to stop a forced marriage.

Other abuses against women in India

Families are far less likely to educate girls than boys, and far more likely to pull them out of school, either to help out at home or from fear of violence. In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in atrocities against women in India, in terms of rapes and assaults. Fear of violence suppresses the aspirations of most of the women in India. Female infanticide and sex-selective abortions are additional forms of violence that reflect the devaluing of females in Indian society. While women in India are guaranteed equality under the constitution, legal protection has little effect in the face of prevailing patriarchal traditions. Women lack power to decide who they will marry, and are often married off as children. Legal loopholes are used to deny women inheritance rights.

Traditionally, women bear primary responsibility for the well-being of their families. Yet they are systematically denied access to the resources they need to fulfill their responsibility, which includes education, health care services, job training, and access and freedom to use family planning services. India, with a population of a billion, is the world’s second most populous country. Of that number, over 120 million are women who live in poverty. Around the world, women make up just over 51% of the population. Men in Indian outnumber women, unlike in most other countries where the reverse is the case. In 1991 for example, in India, there were only 927 women for every 1000 men. The reason for this imbalance was that many women in India died before reaching adulthood.

The Indian Constitution

The Indian Constitution is without a doubt, one of the most progressive in the world, and it actually guarantees equal rights for men and women. The Constitution is firmly grounded in the principles of liberty, fraternity, equality and justice. It emphasizes the importance of greater freedoms for all and contains a number of provisions for the empowerment of women. Women’s right to equality and non-discrimination are defined as justiciable fundamental rights. The Constitution explicitly clarifies that affirmative action programmes for women are not incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of sex. Specific freedoms that are essential for women.s equality - freedom of assembly and of movement, equality of opportunity and labour rights are given separate mention. The Constitution of India pledges to secure to all the people; justice, social, economic and political; equality of status, opportunity and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality. All this is cited as evidence to support the contention that Indian women are free and equal members of society.

It would appear that the rights of women in India are for the most part, ignored by the male population. The women in India are still second class citizens. It is proof that, at every stage in their lives beginning from before birth, women are deprived of their rights and entitlements.

Are things improving for women in India?

Not long ago, an Indian woman, even a working Indian woman, would almost always have moved from her parents’ house to her husband’s. Perhaps her only freedom would be during college, when she might live on campus or take a room for a year or two at what is known here as the working women’s hostel.

That trajectory has begun to loosen, as a surging economy creates new jobs, prompts young professionals to leave home and live on their own and slowly, perhaps unwittingly, nudges a traditional society to accept new freedoms for women. The new opening has hardly rubbed away old restrictions. As they wrestle with new uncertainties and new choices, many young Indian women are embracing the changes tentatively, tinkering for the time being with the customs of the past. The changes are sharpest in the lives of women who have found a footing in the new economy and who are for the most part middle-class, college-educated professionals exploring jobs that simply did not exist a generation ago.

High-technology workers and fashion designers, aerobics instructors and radio D.J.’s, these women in their 20s are living independently for the first time, far from their families. Many are deferring marriage for a year or two, maybe more, while they make money and live lives that most of their mothers could not have dreamed of. Bangalore, also known as Bengaluru, the capital of India’s technology and back-office business, is the epicenter of these changes. Once a quiet, leafy city favored by retirees, it now crawls with young people, (men and women alike) with more than half of its 4.3 million residents under the age of 30, according to the 2001 census.

India is not the only country that abuses women and girls; there are others also. But perhaps by the time half of this century will have passed, the Indian men of the future will look back at India’s history of the treatment of its women and girls and collectively yell out, SHAME! Currently, that word doesn’t have any significance to most of the men in India.