Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 22 (Sociology)
Book Name – Indian Society & Culture (Nadeem Hasnain)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Demographic Profile
2. Status of Women: Continuity and Change
3. Status of Muslim Women
4. Major Problems
5. Atrocities and Discrimination
6. Discrimination and Atrocities through the Life Cycle
7. Constitutional Provisions, Special Laws and Women’s Empowerment
8. Women’s Empowerment
9. Institutional Framework
10. Proactive Institutions for Empowerment
11. Human Development Perspective
12. Women and Media
13. Feminism and Feminist Movement
13.1. Indian Scenario
14. Women’s Studies
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LANGUAGE
Women and Society in India: Different Facets
Chapter – 19
Table of Contents
Demographic Profile
- Women constitute half of the earth, but India has a disproportionate sex ratio, with female population being relatively lower than males.
- The growing gender gap is evident from the 2001 census data on the declining sex ratio for children up to six years of age and trends in women’s employment and work.
- In 2000, the global sex ratio was 986 females per 1000 males, while in India, it was only 933 according to the 2001 census estimates.
- States and Union Territories like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Daman and Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli show extremely adverse sex ratios, dropping as low as 874 and 709.
- In Rajasthan, the sex ratio has remained adverse despite fluctuations, while in West Bengal, the sex ratio improved from 917 in 1991 to 934 in 2001.
- The Census 2001 highlights that the number of states and Union Territories with a sex ratio below the national average increased, covering around 60% of the population, up from 54%.
- Only Kerala (1058) and Pondicherry (1001) have sex ratios comparable to developed countries like Japan (1041).
- The sex ratio in India improved slightly between 1991 and 2001, but this improvement is deceptive due to the decline in the sex ratio for children aged 0-6, which fell from 945 to 927.
- This indicates the phenomenon of the ‘invisible girl child’ emerging, especially in states like Punjab (793), Haryana(829), Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
- The juvenile sex ratio has decreased much faster than the overall sex ratio after 1981, with a dramatic decline in the number of girls in the youngest age group.
- The root cause of this issue is the underlying bias against the female gender.
- Sociocultural factors contributing to the adverse sex ratio include extreme forms of patriarchy that deny reproductive rights to women, leading to son preference and female foeticide.
- The misuse of modern technologies such as ultrasound, scanning, and amniocentesis is a significant cause of declining female population, despite legal bans.
- The son preference is further exhibited through nutritional and medical neglect of the female child.
- The increasing practice of dowry and religious superstitions also contribute to the preference for sons.
- These social perceptions portray girls as liabilities economically and socially, leading to practices like purchasing girls from poor sections of other states and keeping them as wives or bonded labor in regions like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Status of Women: Continuity and Change
- Inequality between men and women is a major disparity in societies, especially in India.
- Assessment of the status of women must consider social frameworks, as social structures, cultural norms, and value systems shape expectations about men’s and women’s roles in society.
- The status of women in India is culture, region, and age-specific.
- There’s a gap between the status and roles given to women by the constitution and laws and those imposed by social traditions.
- Women are socialized to be obedient, sacrificing daughters, wives, and daughters-in-law under patriarchal institutions and values.
- Socialization discourages women from challenging discrimination, subordination, exploitation, and subjugation.
- Male protectiveness often inhibits the development of women’s personality and individuality.
- The status of women is influenced by socio-economic, cultural, political, religious, and geographical factors.
- The most common family structure, the joint family, consists of patrilineally related males who share property, budget, and residence.
- Despite changes due to industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, joint family norms still prevail, limiting women’s decision-making and making them subordinate to their mother-in-law.
- A woman’s status in the family depends on her husband’s contribution to the family economy and the dowry brought by her.
- The caste system influences the cultural autonomy and status of women.
- Ideology of ritual purity maintains control over women through practices like commensality, marriage, caste commitment, occupation, and lifestyle.
- Women face disinheritance from property, purdah (seclusion), and are socialized into customs that limit their mobility and rights.
- Marriage ensures security for women but often limits their self-worth to marriage and family, especially as mothers of sons.
- These strictures are more strongly enforced in upper castes, where women have less cultural autonomy than those in lower castes or tribal societies.
- Lower castes and tribal societies tend to offer better rights for women, such as visibility, mobility, and freedom in choosing life partners.
- Sanskritization is a process where lower castes emulate higher caste norms, eroding women’s autonomy in the process.
- There is a strong preference for sons in most of Indian society, stemming from the patrilineal family system.
- The National Family Health Survey (1992-93) indicates that male children have advantages in immunization, breastfeeding, disease treatment, and nutrition, with son preference strongest in northern and central India.
- Discrimination against women is less severe in tribal populations.
- Practices like female infanticide and foeticide reflect the low status of women in some regions.
- Widowhood is considered a social curse, especially among upper-caste Hindus, though remarriage is more common among lower castes, tribal populations, and Muslims.
- Widows are often seen as inauspicious, and their participation in auspicious ceremonies is often discouraged.
- The condition of widows remains poor, with many abandoned by their families and forced to beg or engage in petty trades, particularly in Banaras and Mathura.
- The National Committee on the Status of Women in India (1988) reports on the marginalization of widows, highlighting their destitution and abandonment.