The progress of the status of women in present-day India, the changes and the contradictions

Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime minister of India from 1947 to his death in 1964 said one day “You can judge the situation of a country by observing the status of women”. India claims to be the largest democracy in the world but it’s a territory of extreme contrasts between tradition and modernity. Its the status of women that best illustrates these contradictions. According to a 2018 ranking, India is the most dangerous country for women ahead of Afghanistan or Syria. But how far is it dangerous? Are we towards an improvement of the condition of women compared to previous centuries in India?

India has become an increasingly male-dominated society. The number of girls born is at an all-time low. There is a huge unnatural gender imbalance because millions of girls who would have been born are missing or have been killed in later life. To better understand this phenomenon, we need to examine the role played by men and women in families, in society, in religion. Men still occupy the top positions and hold most of the power. They are considered the primary providers in contrary to women who are restricted to domestic roles. To sum up, men earn money whereas women are thought to cost money. In the Buddhist religion, women are defined only by their status of (as) wives and mothers, and therefore have no real freedom.

A girl is synonymous of debt and a heavy burden largely because of the dowry issue. When a daughter gets married, her family must give the husband’s family property or money before the wedding. Marriage in India is a gift ceremony in which a father recognizes his daughter and offers her to the groom’s family. Once the ceremony is over, she definitely leaves her house to live in her husband’s house, although she knows little or nothing about him. In the event of a divorce, the woman will be rejected by her family because they will be ashamed of her and she will be once again dependent on them. That’s why the vast majority of women would rather endure violence from their husbands than divorce. Dowry has been declared illegal but the tradition still endures. In 2014, 8,455 women died due to the practice of dowry, or 30 women a day, making this practice one of the worst causes of feminicide in the world.

Having a son is therefore essential in the eyes of certain families, thus leading to selection at birth and this “lack” of girls within the country, accentuated by the Indian policy of birth control. Indeed, women and girls of childbearing age thus are very anxious because they must give birth to at least one boy who can look after the family name. Having boys is financially far more attractive and that’s resulting in a rising number of gender-selected abortions because some women abort illegally by learning the sex of their child.

Otherwise, women can be expelled from their families, beaten or even killed. Other exchange their daughter for a boy because giving birth to a little girl is shameful. In the case of keeping the child, it is not uncommon for baby girls to be killed afterwards, by drowning, suffocation or poisoning. It is called a gendercide. In most of the cases, family members disguise murder by pretending to be a home accident. However, this phenomenon may eventually leave many Indian men without partners. Doctor Rajiv Gupta said in an interview that every day he receives parents who are willing to do just about anything

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