Socio-Economic Status of Women

It is easy to narrate the condition of women in society but difficult to understand. To assess the status of women in India one has to start with social framework and structure, cultural norms and traditional values. Our society is composed of many institutions and compulsions like value system, family and relationship, marriage institution, religious traditions. All these institutions set the base of position and status of a woman in the society. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that India is full of hypocrites who often talks about evil practices against women like dowry, widowhood, forced marriages, wife beating, infanticide, illiteracy and many more. It is easier to jot down the points, but these terminologies are well known by everyone but what about the things that went unnoticed. So, these points are not sufficient enough to define the socio-economic condition of women in the society because the reality lies beyond these points.

If we will look into a conservative orthodox family we will find that they have closed their doors permanently for changes. A lady with loud make up, heavy sari and jewelry reflects the status of the family, she also likes it, she is happy to have a royal life, she never feels any kind of discrimination although she is never allowed to take her personal decisions, and she never goes outside alone. But it is not her fault if she doesn’t understand the biased behavior.. this is what she has been taught from her childhood and this is what she is seeing since generations. According to her there is no discrimination, and even if she is being exploited she will never come out and complain because she was never allowed to speak independently and she was always suppressed by the male members of her family. She has lived in such an environment that even her dreams are controlled and she mostly dreams of getting married to a prince…… It is the responsibility of a man to tell her about her rights, to give her a chance to speak. She must know that life is beyond her dresses, jewelry and marriage.

Moving to housewife of a literate middle class family. Such families pretend that they have really moved on even one can easily observe changes… but a housewife remains a housewife. A housewife is a woman who is generally not employed outside the home. Her main occupation is to run, manage and care for the family, cleaning, cooking, maintain records of the family needs in the day-to-day life, educating her children, getting them ready for school. She makes her husband ready for office, she makes the bed, keep the clothes ready….. yet she is “UNEMPLOYED”. It is surprisingly true. The question is how can we call a woman doing such great things unemployed just because the husband is earning and paying fees and bills? Her contribution in the family is totally neglected and she is never valued. She is literate, she has sense still she never complains because she loves her family a lot. Her politeness, motherhood, her soft heart stop her from adopting an aggressive attitude. She starts believing that she doesn’t contribute anything and she is just a housewife. For smooth functioning of a family as an institution the role of a housewife is equally important. She is not just a housewife rather she is a homemaker. She deserves respect, love, care, concern, equal participation in the important family decisions. Condition of a working woman becomes even worse because she has to look at her family as well as workplace. When both man and woman are working, it is the responsibility of both to look after the household works.

Domestic violence is a crime as per the “Protection of Women Domestic Violence Act 2005”. It has many forms like- physical violence, emotional abuse, sexual assault. Many cases are also registered against it and many remained unsolved or unnoticed. In 2013, the country registered 1, 18,866 cases of domestic violence. Still wife beating is practiced openly. Many a times it is seen that the victim herself withdrew the case because of family pressure. For most of the time the victim refuses to complain even after convincing her a lot. We blame her afterwards.. It is easy to give statements like “the one who tolerates is more responsible than the one who exploits. Yes it is true.. But no one love to be beaten up. She tolerates because she is afraid of the consequences. Today few intelligent people will teach her the law and she will complain but tomorrow they will not stand behind her, thereafter she will be pressurized from her own parents, society to withdraw the case against her husband…. Oh! My god it’s a sin!! However, many women have stepped out of their house against domestic violence and they found a new way of living but their journey was not easy and everyone don’t have that much of guts to move on all alone. All what she needs is the support of her family.

The condition of women is more miserable in rural India. There are various aspects like poverty, violence, economic exploitation (no equal pay for equal work), educational deprivation… and so on.

This was not the condition of women before, she was not so weak and exploited. The historical background of Indian society reveals that a woman was given a high status. She occupied an honored place as a mother, wife and sister. Gradually, things started degrading. Due to social, economic and political factors women lost their honor. Evil customs like sati, purdah, enforced widowhood, child marriage trapped women in the worse system. One can not believe that it is same country that worship women in the form of goddess, that says “yatra naryastu poojanyte tatra ramante dewta” which means where women are valued god reside there. “Matri devo bhawah” meaning mother is goddess.

Nonetheless, Government has planned several schemes for empowering women but in order to improve their condition in real sense it is important to understand their mentality because they are never exposed to something like equality. It is important to know the background. Schemes will not work until and unless they will understand that they are being exploited. We need to open up their minds without hurting their sentiments. However, in the recent years changes are seen. Men and women are working together in urban areas, awareness for education of girls has also increased and they are performing well on every field… but on the other hand they are becoming victims of sexual harassment at work places, eve teasing, rape.. etc. is this what she deserves??? Is she has born to suffer???

There are yet more questions that describes the social status of women:-

1.      Why lord Vishnu holds the “Chakra” while Lakshmi seats near his feat?

2.      Why Ram asked Sita for Agnipariksha?

3.      Why women were considered as Shudras and forbidden to read Vedas?

4.      Why a widow is considered as inauspicious but a widower is not?

5.      Why terms like feminism and women empowerment is confined only to some urban educated girls?

According to Manu, “In childhood a woman must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband and when her lord is dead, to her sons. A woman must never be independent.”

People still believe on this thought…. How can we expect an overall change in such a situation?????