Women in India

In 2012 a terrible event shocked the whole world. A girl, a 23 year old student became a victim of a horrible crime. Six men raped her one by one and then used an iron rod to tear her vagina. They left her to die on the road. Naked. Wounded.Exposed. Devastated. The terrifying fact that no one even turned back to look at her. One woman gets raped every 22 minutes in India. One child gets raped in every 76 minutes.Only one in every four accused in the crime gets convicted. I‘d like to give you a brief breakdown of my presentation, so here you can see my structure... First I am going to tell you some facts about India, you might know to understand the actual situation better. India-officially the Republic of India- is a country in South Asia. Here you can see the national Indian flag. Since 1947 India is an independent country. Before it was an English colony. About 1.2 billion people live in India, what makes it to the second-most populous country of the world after China. Another fact about India is that there are 10-20% more men than women. As you can see in this diagram there are about 62 million boys born while there are only 54 million girls born in the same time.  How can you explain this? I will come back to this point later. In India religion is very important in daily life. About 80% of the Indians are Hindus. India is also said to be the fourth most dangerous country for women and there are huge differences between rural and urban India.  According to studies, women enjoyed equal status and rights in the early ancient India.They had the right of education and even could choose their husband by themselves. However in approximately 500 B.C., the status of women began to decline. During  the medieval period women conditions were really bad. They had no rights and were sexually exploited. Polygamy was practised for some political reasons. Women had to deal with some cruel practises.  Firstly there was the burning of widows. Secondly there were mass suicides of the female members after a lost war so that they couldn‘t get kidnapped by the enemy. Another historial practice for oppressing women was to disguise them. The last practice was to trade with women. According India’s constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men. They even do participate fully in areas like sport, politics, education etc. Nevertheless India is still a male dominated society. Because of lack of acceptance from most of the men, Indian women suffer immensely. Women are responsible for baring children, yet they are malnourished  and in poor health. Women are also overworked in the field and complete the all of the domestic work. Most Indian women are uneducated.  Although the country’s constitution says women have equal status to men, women are powerless and are mistreated inside and outside the home. 

The main point is the religion. As I told you before, most people in India are Hindu’s.In Hinduism there is a special role for women. According to one of their legal codes, women belong to men. They should be protected by men because they are seen as the bad gender. Also they should birth boys, because they are more valuable than girls and they promise a better future to the family.  Another fact is, that they should lead the household and care about the kids. In ancient India Hindu’s  women had even less rights for example they should start to eat when the man has finished, they shouldn’t sit if the man stands, they should suffer mistreatment by their husbands. Today these rules are abolished, but the understanding of one’s role stayed. 
In rural India women’s status is even more worse than in urban India. In rural India life takes place in the extended families. In the family women have to do the chores and take care about the children. The daughters have to learn those things in their childhood while the boys can go to school. With the wedding, women move into their husbands house and have to establish themselves to the mother-in-law. At the beginning they are at the first-line and they have to work hard to receive the credit. With the birth of the first boy the women rises in the families estimation. You can also see that the traditional thinking is still presented in the culture of the women living in India by wearing traditional clothing as the  Sari. Besides they have the Bindi, which if you wonder isn’t a symbol for marital status, but just for beauty. The actual symbol for martial status is the Sindoor what is a red or orange-red coloured cosmetic powder which is worn by married women along the parting of their hair. In urban India women are also obliged to care about the family, but they have far more rights than women in rural areas of India. Women focus on their career and they have much more self-confidence because of their education. Also men changed their opinion towards women, they greet women, who work and contribute to the family income. In spite of the rising number of studying girls and boys the literacy rate in India is still very low. Especially in rural areas of India  girls, who go to school are still in the minority. In urban India the relation of girls and boys studying is almost equal and pretty high. 
Here you can see the parliamentary seats in India divided into Men and Women. The red column represents the percentage of male members and the blue one represents the percentage of the female members. Obviously there are more male members than female members. 
At this map you can see the crime rate against women in India of 2012. The darker parts represent a higher crime rate than the lighter parts. the first thing I’m going to explain to you is acid throwing. This crime is pretty bad,but used very often. Acid is cheap, easily available, and the quickest way to destroy a woman`s life .Women belonging to any class, caste, creed or religion can be victims of this cruel form of violence and disfigurement. This crime intended to kill or maim permanently and act as a lesson to put a woman in her place. Reasons for acid attacks are women who dared to refuse a man`s proposal of marriage or asked for a divorce. Next crime is Child marriage. Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues to this day. Historically, child brides would live with their parents until they reach puberty. Although child marriage was outlawed in 1860, it is still a common practice. Next point is domestic violence. Cultural and household stress factors lead to the prevalence of domestic violence. There are three forms of domestic violence. Firstly there is physical violence next one is emotional abuse and the third one is sexual assault. These create serious health problems like depression,fear, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders etc. Furthermore there is the dowry . Indian families have to buy husbands for their daughters. But because many families can’t affort a high dowry they have togive the young girls, who are between 14 and 22 to “bad” husbands because theyaccept a low dowry. Dowry made some young wives the victims of murder by theirhusbands, a practice known as “bride burning” or “dowry death.” In urban India the dowry tradition has weakened. In India,the male-female sex ratio is skewed dramatically in favour of males. Many experts suggest the higher number of males in India can be attributed to sex-selective abortions. The abortion rate of girls is very high. As you cansee at this diagram there are just about … girls for a thousand boys Rape andsexual harassment in India are one of India`s most common crimes against women and by the UN’s human-rights chief as a “national problem”. Sources show that rape cases in India have doubled between 1990 and 2008. As I told you before awomen in India gets raped every 22 minutes, what is a terrifying fact. There is also a high crime rate of women, who are sexual harassed at work or even in thepublic. Trafficking,also a terrible crime, which is done to women in India. These women are either forced into prostitution, domestic work or child labour (Kinderarbeit) There arelots of social problems in India, which worsen the situation of women.  believed women who dressed provocatively deserved to get raped. womens life expectance is very low, lots of diseases, abortion is very bad little knowledge about contraception girls aren‘t allowed to relieve themselves in the open sanitations, women have to payfor going to toilet Now I amgoing to present you the NCW, the national commission for women in India. Itwas established in January 1992 under the provisions of the Indian Constitution. The NCW represents the rights of women in India and provides avoice for their issues and concerns. The subjects they care about are dowry,politics, religion, equal representation for women in jobs, and theexploitation of women for labour. They have also discussed police abuses against women. The commission regularly publishes a monthly newsletter, in Hindi and English.