Gender inequality has become one of the major problems in India. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap, India was ranked 140th among 156 countries, becoming the third worst performer in South Asia. Women in India are seen as a burden in most of the families. India, in order to change its status from developing to developed, should fund more on education and rural infrastructure.
According to Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, in the secondary education level, the average dropout rate of girls was 17.3% and 4.74% at the elementary level in the year 2018-19. Indian parents are developing a sense of insecurity for their daughters to face the society because of the ongoing atrocities.
The Roots of Gender Inequality:
Historically, men have always shown superiority than women in all spheres of life. Women are always confined to household activities and are encouraged to be homebound and shy. Social evils like sati, child marriages, etc, have oppressed their situation even more. Almost every sect in India shown some discrimination to women. Even though Buddhism opened its doors for women, in the succeeding years they were seen as objects of lust.
Buddha is reported to have said to Ananda, his favourite disciple:
“If women were not admitted into the monasteries, Buddhism would have continued for one thousand years, but because this admission has been granted, it would last only five hundred years.”
The head of the family (man) restricted women in his family from doing any activities which would expose her to the society. Women all over the world were victims of gender inequality and were blocked from economic, political and social activities which adversely affect the whole society. The foundation stone for gender inequality was laid by rich people in the society in order to show their dominance. This was followed by the succeeding generations and became a national problem at present. The varna system established by brahmins gave less importance to women in the society.
Indian women received their voting rights only after independence, and the constitution promised them equality on various grounds. India ranks 20th from the bottom in terms of representation of women in parliament. Though the Indian constitution promised gender equality, at present there are various cases that reveal gender inequality. The queer community in India is the most oppressed community struggling with unemployment and social discrimination.
Women in the present society are using their gender as an excuse and assaulting men by taking advantage of the loopholes of law. It has to be remembered that the constitution has promised equality to every citizen of India irrespective of race, gender and caste, but never gave special rights to women. The conjecture that women are never wrong has developed in the society and goes on increasing.
