Woman in India.

Mariage is very important in the Indian society. This is a religious act where the woman’s chastity is a fundamental virtue. It’s sacred because it’s the union of two persons who will form a new family. But many types of marriage exist in India:

- First, in the 30’s, girls were married at the age of the puberty, so they are about 10 years old. In 1892, a low named “Age of consent bill” pushes the marriage age of young girl at 13 yo.

- You have marriage among casts. Parents negotiate and decide together, mostly for the price of the dot. The dot is all benefits in kind and cash deposited by the girl’s family to the boy’s one. It can be a social elevation for the girl. Sometimes the dot is so high that it’s represent 70% of the economic capital of the family. Poor family can be indebted lifelong. Arranged marriage represent the majority of marital union in India.

- In addition you have the marriage decided at birth. Children are married at the age of 8 Y.O, the girl stay at home until the puberty. This type is punishable by law but persist in the North India.

-  Some intermarriage take place in the South India, because the families want to perverse their social and economic achievements obtained with the time.

-Marriage for love is very unusual, even if there is more and more every years. About marriage between different casts of religions, it’s just some exceptions.

Marriage is an irrevocable act who link the wife to her husband until the death. This explain the Sati. Sati is a rite where the wife is burned on her husband’s stake. It was abolished in 1829 but you can still see it in India nowadays. Moreover you can guess that to get divorced is very difficult to accept in India. In 1958, there was a real hope for Indian woman with the low who gave the same right to the wife and the husband to get divorced for cruelty. But cruelty can be defined by the man like the refusal of his wife to carry out her conjugal duty. Consequently, this cruelty is unfavorable for woman because most of the time, marriage is forced so the wife doesn’t know her husband before and he can be really older than her. In this context is understandable that young woman doesn’t want to carry out her conjugal duty. Nevertheless if women don’t do it, they risk a divorce where they will be left with absolutely nothing and dined by her partner’s family and even her own family. It’s explained by the economic dependence of woman to their husband. Despite this low, woman are always captive by the system.

It’s only in 2006 that woman rights are represented. The president of Indian Union, Abdul Kalama, approves the bill on domestic violence. This bill contains several writings who place man and woman on an equal footing within the couple:

-the husband will not be able to force his wife to have no wanted sexual intercourses anymore.

-prohibition of bigamy

-prohibition of children’s marriage

-prohibition of marriage forced

-divorce without faults is recognized

 Of course, these innovations within the family and all traditional images have not delighted everybody. But the Indian society starts to make progress in spite of traditionalists’ wishes. In 2007

-14 % of marriages are finished by a divorce while they were 5% in 1980

-In cities, middles age of woman’s marriage is between 26 and 30 yo.

-25% of woman living in a city chose her partner, it was just unthinkable few years ago.

-a fifth of woman has her own income in cities

There still is a big difference between the city and countryside, people living in city are more open-minding, in the countryside they keep their old traditions.

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