Even though we’re in modern times and the roles of women in society have changed, India, like many other countries, still have ancient customs that break the rights of women. Some of these traditions are: devadasi, dowry, child marriage, sati, and “bride burning”. Devadsi’s are forced by their families since they were very little to go to a temple and marry to God, also work as God’s slaves. They don’t get an education; therefore rely on dancing to get the money they need to live and to sustain their families. As they get older the profession worsens and they can’t get any money or a job so they end up begging outside the temple. A group of temple prostitutes are fighting to ban this custom. Dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. If the demands of dowry aren’t met, the bride is subject to torture, and often even killed. Did you know? More than 7,000 women will be murdered by their family and in-laws in fights over dowries. According to UNICEF, 47% of Indian’s women of age 20-24 were married before the legal age of 18. The report also showed that 40% of the world’s child marriages occur in India. Early marriage followed by multiple pregnancies can affect the health of a woman for the rest of her life. Sati is a funeral practice in which a recently widowed Hindu woman either voluntarily or by force would kill herself by burning on her husband’s funeral. It’s rare and has been outlawed in India since 1829, but some women are still forced to do it. A similar custom is “bride burning”; it’s one of the most popular ways of murder, where a person burns the women by pouring kerosene on her and then lighting a match. Some men, or in-laws, do it because of dowry or because they just want to remarry. This custom was also abolished on 1829. Other ways women’s rights are violated is when women choose to abort when expecting daughters but carry their pregnancies till the end when expecting sons. When a female is born it is considered to be a disaster, but when a male is born they celebrate it. Women in politics fall in the lowest quartile, with only 9.1% women in the parliament, and still the women that are in politics aren’t even the ones who make the decisions; their husband’s control them. They chose women to be in government because it is a requirement, not because they think we have great things to offer.
Learning all of this information about women’s rights in India was very impacting, to me. What I wrote doesn’t even cover half of the rights that are broken each day. This is only India, imagine the whole world! We might think that we are in modern times and that things have changed, we read things that happened hundreds of years ago and argue about how they could have done that, but we are ignorant because we don’t realize that those same things are happening TODAY. I think that the things that are happening in India are terrible, and the fact that women aren’t completely well educated and can’t defend themselves because they don’t know what their rights are is TERRIBLE. Next time we read or hear about things that are happening around us let’s pay more attention. We have the technology and the freedom to research information about our rights, let’s get informed and make this world a better place. According to police record:
- A woman is molested in the country every 26 minutes
- A rape occurs every 34 minutes
- An incident of sexual harassment takes place every 42 minutes
- A woman is kidnapped every 43 minutes
- A woman is killed every 93 minutes
- In India a “bride burning” takes place approximately once every two hours, to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry
- Marital rape is not considered an offence unless the ‘wife’ is less than twelve years old even though marriage with a minor itself is a crime
Last year (2008) in a study of 109 Indian judges…
- 48% believed that there were certain occasions when it was justifiable for a husband to slap his wife
- 68% believed that “provocative” clothes are an invitation to sexual assault
- 19% believed that a woman who says “no” to sexual intercourse actually means “yes”
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