In India, the female gender, in some ways, has been treated like second-class citizens. This statement is because a high percentage of women in the Indian community have little access to education, health status, and limited access to marital rights. Women again face gender-based violations and gender inequality. Gender-based discrimination has been one of the significant social issues affecting women in India. There have been several developments in the update of social position and the overall status of women in India. This paper analyses the general situation of women in the Indian community.
The Indian government has primarily prohibited the issues of gender-based discrimination, especially sex discrimination. For this reason, the Indian government has put in place various measures to protect women from gender-based discrimination. The Indian constitution has highlighted women’s rights and, in this way, reduces the elements of women’s discrimination in various aspects. The Indian body has promoted women’s rights through; equality, dignity, and freedom from sexual discrimination. In addition, major special agencies within the government govern women’s rights (Brown et al., 2022).
The major gender-based issues that the majority of women in India undergo include; exposure to girls or rather girl subjection to early marriages, teenage pregnancies to the young teens, domestic child work, especially the girl child, poor education for the girls and women, and poor health among the female gender. In India, the boy child has been granted more freedom than the opposite gender. For this reason, females, or girls, tend to have enormous limitations in release and from making sound decisions on the issues affecting their personal life regarding marriage, educational choices, and social relations (Rai & Nehru, 2018).
Literacy and education among the female gender in the Indian community have been underperforming due to boy children being highly prioritized in educational matters. Due to this reason female gender has been ranked to have high literacy levels compared to the male gender.
Women and girls in India face period poverty in high percentages compared to the male gender. Women lack access to health essentials such as sanitary pads, poor menstrual education, poor hygiene, and a lack of hygienic facilities that have excellent importance on menstrual management. For this reason, a large percentage of the female gender has poor health status. Job discrimination is again evident in the country. Women have been provided fewer work opportunities than the male gender. The male has been highly prioritized and thus leaving the female gender behind in terms of social and economic development (Stephens et al., 2020).
Over time, the states of female gender rights have been improving through the constitutional changes that are taking place in the Indian government. Again, with the aid of nationalism in the nation, women’s rights have to change through technological development policies, neo-liberal policies, and globalization policies. Through the mentioned policies, there has been a positive deviation in women participating in the public sphere. Women have shown positive potential in various fields, such as business, international platforms, leadership positions, and multi-national careers, such as fashion and design.
The Indian government has enhanced judicial protection of women’s rights to reduce gender-based discrimination. The government has adopted various legislations that include addressing workplace sexual harassment. Sexual place harassment is gender-based discrimination that, in one way or another, prevents women from attaining equality and the right to life. The government again has enacted efforts through the Maternity Amendments to ensure that women are well taken care of during pregnancy; through this act, the women employees have the right to pay even while on their rest (Shastri et al., 2021).
Historical events in India have been evident, particularly on issues that have significantly undermined women’s potential in various dimensions. Domestic Violence and the Indian Women’s Movement were historical events in the Indian community. The main aim of this movement was to create awareness of the female gender, mainly to focus on the issues affecting their gender instead of helping the male gender against the familiar foe. The conference of the Women’s Movement was another historic event. This event’s primary purpose or objective was to share experiences among the female gender to analyze issues concerning their gender and, as a result, build strong alliances and strategies for change and female gender strengthening in various dimensions (Singh & Pattanaik, 2018).
Azad Foundation is one of the Indian professional feminist organizations. This organization functions for resource-poor women, especially those in urban areas. This organization gives disadvantaged women in urban areas privileges to earn a livelihood like other professionals. The foundation was founded in Delhi but has expanded its activities to other urban areas such as Jaipur and Kolkata. SEWA organization, again in India, is one of the female labor force organizations. Through this union or organization, women in India have been in an excellent position to be employed. Through the merits of employment, women working under this organization have been in an excellent position to achieve better healthcare services, child care, and banking services through SEWA bank, thus improving economic development among women.
Having discussed the outstanding issues that negatively affect the female gender in the Indian community, women again enjoy other rights that their opposite gender enjoys. Women in India enjoy voting rights in choosing the best suitable leaders. Section 498 of the Indian constitution again enables the female gender or enhances the protection of the female gender from domestic violence. This section of the constitution states that the accused must receive punishment as by the law. Imprisonment is one of the punishments for the accused.
In conclusion, women, having been neglected in various dimensions in the Indian community, have a high potential to be influential through self-determination. As well as raising their voices on issues they have a feeling of being undermined. As discussed, women’s movements can aid in formulating laws and rights that further protect the female gender.
REFERENCES
Brown, R., Mansour, H., & O’Connell, S. D. (2022). Does Local Female Political Representation Empower Women to Run for Higher Office? Evidence from State and National Legislatures in India. The World Bank Economic Review, 36(1), 198–218.
Rai, A., & Nehru, J. (2018). POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIA: STATUS AND CHALLENGES. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IJHSS), 7, 9-18.
Shastri, S., Shastri, S., Pareek, A., & Sharma, R. S. (2021). Exploring women entrepreneurs’ motivations and challenges from an institutional perspective: evidence from a patriarchal state in India. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy.
Singh, P., & Pattanaik, F. (2018). The economic status of women in India: the paradox of paid–unpaid work and poverty. International Journal of Social Economics.
Stephens, E. H., Heisler, C. A., Temkin, S. M., & Miller, P. (2020). The current status of women in surgery: how to affect the future. JAMA surgery, 155(9), 876-885.
write