The place of women in India has altered over the decades.
Gender
equality and women’s empowerment are two sides of the same coin .Both have
multiple dimensions that together yield a wide variety of indicators Great
changes have been made in ensuring equality for women in Indian society. From
a universal viewpoint India accounts for 19% of all live births and 27% of all
maternal deaths! The deaths of adolescent girls in India surpass those of young
boys by over 300,000 each year and every 6th infant death is particularly due
to gender prejudice. The child mortality rate, defined as the number of deaths
to children age 14 years per 1,000 children reaching age 1 year,is 61% higher
for girls than for boys. Patna High Court (HC) Chief Justice Rekha M Doshit said
that mere enactment of laws will not help end gender discrimination. What is
really needed to ensure gender equality in our society is the change in the
mindset of people. Only an attitudinal change can help establish a society free
from gender partiality.
For decades it was understood that the different features,
roles and status accorded to women and men in society are determined by sex,
that they are natural and therefore not changeable. It is ordinary to find
girls and women misery from high mortality rates.
Osmania University Women's Study Centre director
Sajeeda Adeeb, in her talk, said that India has seen gender inequality from its
early history due to its socio-economic and religious practices that resulted
in a wide gap between the position of men and women in the society.
However, contradictions and gaps in protecting certain basic rights of
women continue to exist. The Government has dynamically both through law and
policy wanted to improve the status of women. Keeping in mind the regional
variations, religious, caste and class-based differences that have a ultimate impact
on women in India; we draw some broad generalisations on the major socio- economic
developments that have impacted women in the country. Many decades hence, women
in India continue to fight back for basic rights such as minimum wages, equal
wages and property rights, in spite of several protective legislations.
The escalating
presence of women in the work force and in trade unions has sharpened the order
for gender equality and non-discrimination at work. The challenge to policymakers
is to make available a level workplace/environment for women and to form enabling
mechanisms within which women’s voices can be expressed and heard.
(Quote
credit - Sajeeda Adeeb , Chief Justice Rekha M Doshit from Laws alone cannot end gender bias: TNN Jan 10, 201)
Muzayna Naqeeb
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