Status of women in India

Status Of Women In India : Jawaharlal Nehru once stated that the status of women could determine a nation’s worth. The ancient Indian culture deprived women of rights and equality with men. As a result of their deprivation, eminent people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda started a movement against women’s struggle with subjugation and inequality.

Mahatma Gandhi induced the revival of women’s position through active participation in the Freedom Movement. Since Independence, the status of women in India has slowly gained momentum.

Through social evils like the Female Infanticide, Sati system, Child Marriage, and Dowry system, a nation’s overall growth decline. The true liberation for women is possible only when people change their conservative attitudes towards women.

Status of women in India

History

Going back to our ancient roots, we have seen how important women are to society, not just biologically but also as a cultural influence and in that context, women have always held a very significant place in our country. That history has a blend of both good and bad factors, but it has always been significant.

From the ancient times, we have seen the mention of women in our Vedas and ancient scriptures where they have been allotted important places for e.g, no yajna was complete unless accompanied by women. The texts Mahabharat and Ramayana greatly reflect the place women had at different points of time. As mentioned earlier, India has a very diverse geography and geography is often very influential in dictating culture, we can see women holding different places in society from household activities in Rajasthan to Traders in Sikkim and North East India, and in between, we see women involved in various professions and competing alongside men in a multitude of fields such as Technology, Law, Administration, Teaching etc. Apart from conventional careers, we have women excelling in sports where P.T. Usha, Sania Mirza, Karnam Malleshwari etc.  who have represented and inspired many budding sportswomen in India. Moving on we can see that women have been a great influence on art and entertainment industry since the very beginning, and we have had cultural icons in various schools of art ranging from Meera to Lata Mangeshkar.

Women in Free India

Gender equality

Women today are eager to take up professions and work. Thus, they enjoy equal respect and dignity in the family. Women in free India also enjoy equal pay for equal work in comparison to men. Also, there are provisions of maternity leave for them. Furthermore, females are provided equality of opportunity under Article 16 of the Constitution of India.

Educational Status

The girls in urban areas are almost at par in education with the boys. But there is a less educated female population in rural areas. This has also affected the social and economic development of rural India. The poor (hygienic facilities) facilities at school and lack of female staff have affected education. Kerala and Mizoram have a universal literacy rate.

Women and Politics

The maximum figure of female politicians in the world is from India. Women have occupied significant positions i.e. of President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and other high offices. “Indira Gandhi”, is the first female who held the office of the Prime Minister for 15 years.

Evils Against Women

The violence against women in India includes kitchen fires for want of dowry, sexual assaults, cases of rape, prostitution, throwing of acid. Also, evils of child marriages are also widespread even today. Female infanticide, indecent behavior, and honor killings add to the misery of the women. Also, sex-selective abortion is a deep-rooted evil leading to inequality in sex ratio.

Conclusion

There has been a steady transformation in the status of the women in comparison to earlier periods. Women of today take part completely in areas such as politics, status, military sectors, economic, service, and technology sectors. Moreover, they have contributed wholly in sports too. Thus, they have occupied a dignified position in family and society.