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Stereotype role of women in the Indian family
Millions of women across India are required to subjugate their lives and voluntarily give up their individual liberties, for the benefit of their husbands, families, society and community. All request a better life for the children. It is true that with growing literacy among women, their conditions have marginally improved in certain states such as Kerala and West Bengal. However the ugly reality is that women in India are aggressively victimized starting from birth. Female foeticide (gender-selective abortions) is rampant, albeit against Indian law. In much of India, girls represent a "liability" since they entail the payment of a dowry* as a precondition for their marriage – which is also legally against the law. Dowry is one of the main reasons for female foeticide. Girls are denied the same nutritional care as boys and are also denied the same opportunities in their education.
Violence against women, at homes and outside, continues to be a serious problem.
According to the National Crimes Report Bureau, 150,000 crimes against women are registered annually out of which nearly 50,000 are related to domestic violence.
In Indian society, women’s suppression is rooted in the very fabric of traditions, religious doctrine and practices, within the educational and legal systems, and within families. It is considered a duty of a wife and mother to eat only after (what is left remaining) the men-folk and others have eaten. In poor households, usually this means very little (if at all) quantity, and of very poor quality. At the same time, it is women who bear the primary responsibility for actions needed to end hunger: education, nutrition, health and family income.
Also, the parents’ reluctance to educate daughters has its roots in the situation of women. When a girl is educated, then her husband should have a higher level of education than her and this means there is a tendency that he will demand more dowry.
If she is educated, then she becomes more difficult to control within the house, as her chances to employment outside the house is better. This would threaten the core-value of the family that women are meant to be at home, be the care-giver and remain the 'un-paid' worker all her life.
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Crew:
Zerina – Coordinator
Harini – Executive
Marijke – Executive
Teaching staff:
Sylvia – English
Amar – English
Elizabeth
– Fashion Design
Susmita
– Teacher Training
Lisa
– Auroville Liaison
Contact:
Zerina:
zerina@auroville.org.in
Harini:
harini@auroville.org.in
Marijke:
margeen@auroville.org.in
Situated in Tamil Nadu in South India, near Pondicherry, Auroville is an experimental laboratory in the evolution of mankind. One of the many aims of Auroville is to promote development in the local bioregion – be it environment, technology, material and social change, leading towards a change in consciousness.
Read more here ... >>
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*Dowry is the payment in cash or/and kind by the bride’s family to the bridegroom’s family along with the giving away of the bride in Indian marriage 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 that 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. The practice of dowry abuse is rising in India. 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. According to Government figures there were a total of 5,377 dowry deaths in 1993, an increase of 12% from 1992. 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. The burning of women whose dowries were not considered sufficient by their husband or in-laws, are mostly reported as accidental burns in the kitchen or are disguised as suicide.
For us, at L.E.C we think that dowry like other issues is also an attitudinal problem: As part of the weekly group discussions that we have in L.E.C regarding social issues, when talking about dowry and role of the mother-in-law and husband in harassing the girl for not bringing in sufficient dowry, it was a big surprise for the teacher and staff like to know that the girls themselves want to demand for dowry from their own parents – that their parents HAVE to buy for them a colour TV, motorbike, fridge, etc. So it is no longer the ‘evil’ mother-in-law only to be blamed, but also the attitude of the girls, who are also responsible for perpetuating this vicious practice of dowry. So, if the intervention cannot be done to address this attitudinal issue, we feel it cannot be resolved looking at it just purely as a social issue. Hence our focus during these sessions is on a lot of self-reflection and analysis.
Proliferating unscrupulous sex determination tests could help the family to avoid paying a large dowry. According to UNICEF, the problem is getting worse as scientific methods of detecting the sex of a baby and of performing abortions are improving. These methods are becoming increasing available in rural areas of India, fuelling fears that the trend towards the abortion of female foetus, is on the increase. And if it is decided to keep the baby, India’s maternal mortality is the second highest in the world. According to a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India’ s population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India. In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males. More than 10 million girls in India have gone “missing” due to sex selection and abortion in the last one decade; this despite the government having banned foetal sex selection technologies in 1994 itself.
For more information on this: see the references on page ... >> |
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