Gender Disperity: Indian Domestic Setting

Author- Divya Bharti, Rajiv Gnadhi National University of Law

Email- divyabharti@rgnul.ac.in

Co-author- Nikhil Saran, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law

Email- nikhilsaran@rgnul.ac.in

GENDER DISPERITY: INDIAN DOMESTIC SETTING

ABSTRACT

Unequal treatment among individuals based on their gender is quite prevalent in India since ancient times. India being a male chauvinist society, male has always dominated the society in all spheres of life which has led to gender discrimination. Women have never been given equal representation in the society. Gender discrimination continues to be an enormous problem which has relegated women to secondary status within household and workplace. This drastically affects women's health, financial status, education, and political involvement. The status of women is a complex, multidimensional concept. On one hand women is regarded as a goddess, as a human personification of divine power but on the other hand she is not even respected as a person. Gender inequality has adverse effect on development goals as it reduces economic growth. It hampers the overall well being because blocking women from participation in social, political and economic activities can adversely affect the whole society. India displays gender inequality in education, employment and health. Our aim behind acknowledging this issue today is because the problem originating from gender inequality have taken deep roots into the Indian society and requires immediate attention so as to uplift status of women. This paper is the outcome of a secondary data on gender disparity with special reference to Indian context to complete this, annual reports, various books, journals and periodicals have been consulted, several reports on this particular area have been considered, and internet searching has also been done.

The basic aim of this paper is to look around to find the actual condition of the women in Indian society- if it is as it is claimed by the advocates of improvement or if there are still some subtle aspects which require immediate emphasis. The paper will try to project the spheres of society where men are considered superior to women and given, thus, a higher status neglecting women. As we all are aware of the fact that women in India, on one hand, are given the status of goddess and on the other hand, are exploited by the society considering them nothing but just a sexual object of men.

This paper analyses the gender disparity and list out the problem related to gender disparity and its effect on Indian domestic setting. Gender disparity covers many issues under its ambit- domestic violence before and after marriage, female feticide, child marriage, marital rape, girl child abuse, widow abuse, dowry and bride burning and other emerging issues like status of surrogate mother with technological advancement. Gender disparity also has a legal perspective like discrimination in property rights in the two sexes. Indian society is all about power of gender and males being the gender of power. This paper will touch up on all this issues and analyze their effect on Indian domestic setting.

INTRODUCTION

The overall development of any country requires optimum utilization of its resources including her human resources which includes both men and women. All the developed nations have moved from the state of male domination toward the state of equality. Women in all such nations have shifted from being the property of their father or husband to the state where they now enjoy equal rights as are exercised by the males. And this is what can become the key of development and progress in any country.

Gender inequality is a social process by which people are treated differently and disadvantageously, under similar circumstances, on the basis of gender.^[1]

According to UN-HABITAT, “women and girls still experience a higher degree of insecurity and vulnerability to violence (both in public and private realms), which limits their socioeconomic opportunities and access to city services, in comparison to their male counterparts.” ^[2] It is evident that Indian women are still not considered at par with men in both social and family life. The educated women even today are in acquiescence with the tradition of male domination.

Gender inequality is now so much integrated with our daily life that it has become an urgent need for the society to take major steps towards recognizing and honoring equality to women without any discrimination based on gender. Many Indian women face threats to life at every stage - violence, inadequate healthcare, inequality, neglect, bad diet, lack of attention to personal health and well-being. With more than 24,000 reported cases in 2011, rape registered a 9.2% rise over the previous year. More than half (54.7%) of the victims were aged between 18 and 30. Most disturbingly, according to police records, the offenders were known to their victims in more than 94% of the cases. Neighbours accounted for a third of the offenders, while parents and other relatives were also involved. Delhi, the national capital, accounted for over 17% of the total number of rape cases in the country. These findings point to life-long neglect of women in India. It also proves that a strong preference for sons over daughters - leading to sex selective abortions - is just a part of the story. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has estimated that more than 100m women are "missing" worldwide - women who would have been around had they received similar healthcare, medicine and nutrition as men.^[3] 

A number of different aspects such as sex, gender and gender roles bring gender into play and each of these aspects play a significant role when different problems encountered by men are addressed. Gender is the socially learned behaviors that are attached to the sexes^[4], which creates “Gender Roles.”Gender Roles originates from gender i.e., the socially learned behavior attached to the sexes. The attitudes and behaviors that are expected of males and females in a given culture of society are called gender roles. It is these gender roles that cause gender inequality among men and women and these gender roles are basically learned and taught in the families. Although it is not the families to be blamed but it has been coming from the history of how evolution caused us to segregate male and female to such an extent considering men way too superior to women. As an outcome of this segregation of the genders has caused today the affect of gender inequality in every sphere of life be it in family, households or workplace.