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Women
are central in the Indian society. An understanding
of women's situation in India is a great step
toward an understanding of the whole people's
situation. In addition, women are the keys to
the development of India. If the women's situation
is improved, the situation of all Indians will
improve. Therefore, women can be said to be
the window into India's interior world, and
into the issues that overwhelm the nation. |
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This is due to the somewhat paradoxical fact
that Indian women, although they make up a complex and
diverse group and live under totally different conditions
as individuals, in a fundamental way share common experiences
and interests. Whatever their position in the social
structure, whatever additional abuse they are suffering
from, such as the apartheid-like ethnic discrimination
imposed through the caste-system, Indian women will
all find themselves being oppressed as women.
The
Indian constitution grants women equal rights with men,
but strong patriarchal traditions persist, with women’s
lives shaped by customs that are centuries old. In most
Indian families, a daughter is viewed as a liability,
and she is conditioned to believe that she is inferior
and subordinate to men. Sons are idolized and celebrated.
May you be the mother of a hundred sons is a common
Hindu wedding blessing.
The
origin of the Indian idea of appropriate female behavior
can be traced to the rules laid down by Manu in 200
B.C.: "by a young girl, by a young woman, or
even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently,
even in her own house". "In childhood a
female must be subject to her father, in youth to
her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a
woman must never be independent."
A
study of women in the Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP),
based in 20 villages in four districts in Maharashtra
state was introduced in this way:
The
primary issue all women in the SSP were struggling
with was that of everyday survival. Insufficient incomes
and the lack of employment were reported to be their
most pressing concerns. Survival is a constant preoccupation
and at its most basic, survival means food (Chambers
1983). The most common problems were the lack of basic
amenities such as food, water, fuel, fodder and health
facilities. In addition, the deterioration of the
natural environment and the fact that many of their
traditional occupations were no longer viable were
conditions that were making it increasingly hard for
women to continue sustaining their families, as they
had done in the past.
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