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Mizzima: Women in India, How Free?



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Women in India, How Free? How Equal?

New Delhi, January 20, 2001
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)
(Report commissioned by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in
India, 2001)

    Unlike most other countries, men outnumber women in India. Today,
out of India?s total population of one billion, close to 481 million are
women. India?s female population is larger than the combined total
populations of Canada, USA and the Russian Federation. However, only 50%
of Indian women are literate as compared to 65.5% men. Far fewer girls
than boys go to school. Even when girls are enrolled, many of them drop
out of school. Women?s work is undervalued and unrecognized. Women work
longer hours than men, and carry the major share of household and
community work, which is unpaid and invisible. Girls and women face
nutritional discrimination within the family, eating last and least.
Women are under-represented in governance and decision making positions.
Women face violence inside and outside the family throughout their
lives.

These are findings in a recently-released report ?Women in India, How
Free? How Equal? authored by Kalyani Menon-Sen and A K Shiva Kumar. The
analytical report commissioned by the UN System in India had tried to
address a question: ?To what extent are women in India free to choose
what they want to do and free to be what they want to be??

India today has much to celebrate. The Constitution of India is just
over fifty years old. Indian women have far greater visibility and voice
than they did fifty years ago ? they have entered into and created
impacts in every sphere of public activity. The Constitution of India
guarantees freedom and equality for all Indian women. Women?s right to
equality and non-discrimination are defined as justifiable fundamental
rights.

Still, there are huge gaps between Constitutional guarantees and the
daily realities of women?s lives.

In the words of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, ?India, with its present
population of 1 billion, has to account for some 25 million ?mission
women?. Some of these women are never born, and the rest die because
they do not have the opportunity to survive. The female to male ratio
has become worse, not better, in the last 100 years. The adverse female
to male ratio can be explained only by the fact that women in India are
still second-class citizens.

Female infant mortality rates are higher than male infant mortality
rates. This difference is more pronounced in rural areas than in urban
areas. Female infanticide ? killing of girl infants - is still prevalent
in many parts of India. Women?s groups and grassroots NGOs report that
the supposedly ?primitive? practice of female infanticide is still
flourishing, with the methods including lacing their feed with
pesticides, forcing down a few grains of poppy seed or rice husk to slit
their tender gullets, or stuffing their mouths with black salt or urea.
In some regions, babies are fed the juice or paste of poisonous oleander
berries. Others are simply starved to death. The worst betrayal is when
poison is rubbed on the mother?s breast, so that the baby girl is
poisoned as she suckles.

Millions of Indian women simply lack the freedom to go out of the house
in search of the health services they need. Of people in rural areas,
less than 10% are fortunate enough to live in villages with any kind of
hospital, whether government or private. Statistics show that close to
300 Indian women die every day during childbirth or of pregnancy-related
causes and close to 245 million Indian women lack the basic capability
to read and write. In 1991, the Census also recorded more than 52
million girls who were neither going to school nor participating in the
paid workforce. Most of these so-called ?nowhere children? are girls who
work within the home or in the unorganized sector.

How safe is the workplace for women? For majority of Indian women, the
home is their primary workplace. But, many women have no title to their
homes, and are constantly at the mercy of husbands, in-laws, landlords
and municipal authorities. For women who work outside the home, half of
the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990 related to
molestation and harassment at the workplace. A survey conducted for the
National Commission for Women in July 1998 found that 32% of the women
covered in the survey reported discrimination in salaries, leave,
promotions, work distribution and working hours. Although women in India
gained voting rights at Independence, women?s participation in political
life has been declining steadily since Independence. Increasing violence
in public life is the reason most often quoted to explain this decline.
The representation of women in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament)
has basically remained stagnant, after a high of 8.09% in 1984. In the
1999 elections, out of a total of 4,000 candidates, only 280 (6.5%) were
women. Many women candidates complained they were fielded in ?losing?
constituencies where the party was in a weak position and male
candidates were reluctant to contest.

Violence against women appears to be a ?high growth sector?. The
National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth rate of
crimes against women would be higher than the population growth rate by
2010. Between 1990 and 1980, there was an increase of nearly 74% in
crimes against women, with rape, molestation and torture by husbands and
in-laws showing the highest rate of growth. Police records show that a
woman is molested in the country every 26 minutes. A rape occurs every
34 minutes. Every 42 minutes, an incident of sexual harassment takes
place.

In majority of cases, violence against women is perpetrated by a member
of the family or a close acquaintance, rather than by ?outsiders?.
Violence against women within families is often justified and condoned
as being necessary to establish men?s authority over women, to
?discipline? them and to punish them for derelictions of duty. This view
is held not only by men, but often by women themselves.

The authors point out that gender equality is not just a women?s issue.
It?s a people?s issue. ?The feminist slogan All issues are women?s
issues has an equally important corollary ? Women?s issues are
everyone?s issues. These two slogans encapsulate a possible strategy for
change?, suggested the report.



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<b><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+2>Women in India, How Free? How Equal?</font></font></b>
<p><font color="#3333FF"><font size=+1>New Delhi, January 20, 2001</font></font>
<br><font color="#3333FF"><font size=+1>Mizzima News Group <a href="http://www.mizzima.com";>(www.mizzima.com)</a></font></font>
<br><b><i><font color="#3333FF">(Report commissioned by the Office of the
UN Resident Coordinator in India, 2001)</font></i></b>
<p><font color="#3333FF">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Unlike most other countries,
men outnumber women in India. Today, out of India?s total population of
one billion, close to 481 million are women. India?s female population
is larger than the combined total populations of Canada, USA and the Russian
Federation. However, only 50% of Indian women are literate as compared
to 65.5% men. Far fewer girls than boys go to school. Even when girls are
enrolled, many of them drop out of school. Women?s work is undervalued
and unrecognized. Women work longer hours than men, and carry the major
share of household and community work, which is unpaid and invisible. Girls
and women face nutritional discrimination within the family, eating last
and least. Women are under-represented in governance and decision making
positions. Women face violence inside and outside the family throughout
their lives.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">These are findings in a recently-released report
?Women in India, How Free? How Equal? authored by Kalyani Menon-Sen and
A K Shiva Kumar. The analytical report commissioned by the UN System in
India had tried to address a question: ?To what extent are women in India
free to choose what they want to do and free to be what they want to be??</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">India today has much to celebrate. The Constitution
of India is just over fifty years old. Indian women have far greater visibility
and voice than they did fifty years ago ? they have entered into and created
impacts in every sphere of public activity. The Constitution of India guarantees
freedom and equality for all Indian women. Women?s right to equality and
non-discrimination are defined as justifiable fundamental rights.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">Still, there are huge gaps between Constitutional
guarantees and the daily realities of women?s lives.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">In the words of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, ?India,
with its present population of 1 billion, has to account for some 25 million
?mission women?. Some of these women are never born, and the rest die because
they do not have the opportunity to survive. The female to male ratio has
become worse, not better, in the last 100 years. The adverse female to
male ratio can be explained only by the fact that women in India are still
second-class citizens.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">Female infant mortality rates are higher than
male infant mortality rates. This difference is more pronounced in rural
areas than in urban areas. Female infanticide ? killing of girl infants
- is still prevalent in many parts of India. Women?s groups and grassroots
NGOs report that the supposedly ?primitive? practice of female infanticide
is still flourishing, with the methods including lacing their feed with
pesticides, forcing down a few grains of poppy seed or rice husk to slit
their tender gullets, or stuffing their mouths with black salt or urea.
In some regions, babies are fed the juice or paste of poisonous oleander
berries. Others are simply starved to death. The worst betrayal is when
poison is rubbed on the mother?s breast, so that the baby girl is poisoned
as she suckles.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">Millions of Indian women simply lack the freedom
to go out of the house in search of the health services they need. Of people
in rural areas, less than 10% are fortunate enough to live in villages
with any kind of hospital, whether government or private. Statistics show
that close to 300 Indian women die every day during childbirth or of pregnancy-related
causes and close to 245 million Indian women lack the basic capability
to read and write. In 1991, the Census also recorded more than 52 million
girls who were neither going to school nor participating in the paid workforce.
Most of these so-called ?nowhere children? are girls who work within the
home or in the unorganized sector.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">How safe is the workplace for women? For majority
of Indian women, the home is their primary workplace. But, many women have
no title to their homes, and are constantly at the mercy of husbands, in-laws,
landlords and municipal authorities. For women who work outside the home,
half of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990 related
to molestation and harassment at the workplace. A survey conducted for
the National Commission for Women in July 1998 found that 32% of the women
covered in the survey reported discrimination in salaries, leave, promotions,
work distribution and working hours. Although women in India gained voting
rights at Independence, women?s participation in political life has been
declining steadily since Independence. Increasing violence in public life
is the reason most often quoted to explain this decline. The representation
of women in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) has basically remained
stagnant, after a high of 8.09% in 1984. In the 1999 elections, out of
a total of 4,000 candidates, only 280 (6.5%) were women. Many women candidates
complained they were fielded in ?losing? constituencies where the party
was in a weak position and male candidates were reluctant to contest.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">Violence against women appears to be a ?high growth
sector?. The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth
rate of crimes against women would be higher than the population growth
rate by 2010. Between 1990 and 1980, there was an increase of nearly 74%
in crimes against women, with rape, molestation and torture by husbands
and in-laws showing the highest rate of growth. Police records show that
a woman is molested in the country every 26 minutes. A rape occurs every
34 minutes. Every 42 minutes, an incident of sexual harassment takes place.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">In majority of cases, violence against women is
perpetrated by a member of the family or a close acquaintance, rather than
by ?outsiders?. Violence against women within families is often justified
and condoned as being necessary to establish men?s authority over women,
to ?discipline? them and to punish them for derelictions of duty. This
view is held not only by men, but often by women themselves.</font>
<p><font color="#3333FF">The authors point out that gender equality is
not just a women?s issue. It?s a people?s issue. ?The feminist slogan <b><i>All
issues are women?s issues</i></b> has an equally important corollary ?
<b><i>Women?s
issues are everyone?s issues</i></b>. These two slogans encapsulate a possible
strategy for change?, suggested the report.</font>
<p>&nbsp;</html>

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