(Emily Zych) The Two India’s: An Attempt to Fill in the Time Gap "A Look into the Hampering Lack of Women’s Rights in India"

India, a country where over a billion people call home, is divided amongst culture, ideologies and time.  The cultural landscape of India is rapidly changing from one dictated by poverty to one controlled by opposing viewpoints on progress and modernization.  Some argue for India’s transition to a modernized world; advocating for gender equality, the impeachment of those who have acted against the law, and for the commencement of expansive political and cultural reform.  In contrast, there are those who fear the disappearance of traditional Hindu culture and attempt to preserve it through the assimilation of Western culture; oppressing women in the process http://www.worldbeforeher.com/.  The problem with those at each end of spectrum is they attempt to either move forward or backward in a blatant disregard for each other’s cause; leaving their movement in a state of paralysis.  If the two India’s fail to reach a reconciliation soon they will continue living centuries apart with no hope of reaching the present.

Many of the issues relating to the divide in India’s culture stem from the county’s shocking lack of women’s rights.  India is a nation which ranks 84th out of 113 countries on the Economist’s women’s economic rankings.  This has much to do with the multitude of social challenges women face due to india’s strict social scheme; a scheme which prevents social advancement and subsequently economic growth for women.  According to a United Nations report the position of women’s rights remains unequal even when discrimination in regards to sex is strictly prohibited in the Indian constitution.  Women are subjected to deeply rooted cultural biases which view them as a family burden due to dowries; valuing men over women.  http://www.unfpa.org/gender/docs/sexselection/UNFPA_Publication-39764.pdf.  Sex-selective abortions are common in India, even when gender screening for said purpose was banned in 1996.  Orphanages are filled to their capacity with unwanted daughters, while many turn to unseemly methods of “disposal.”  Every year all 600,000 female fetuses are aborted in India and as a result it has greatly affected its gender ratio. 

In contrast to this, India has won international acclaim for protecting the reproductive rights of its women.  Last year India was invited to co-chair a summit on family planning in London, as the country is praised with its progressive approach, but the reality is remarkably different than what is expressed in the papers. Many Indian wives are expected of their husbands and parents in-law to produce one male or more.  When abortion is no longer an option women are forced to continue having children until they have a boy, this often results in poor families with eight or nine children they cannot support.  Many women undertake secretive sterilizations at a young age in order to control their reproductive futures. This act of desperation by Indian women only highlights the lack of gender equality enforcement by the government.  The social and reproductive rights of these women have been impeded upon by the facet of the population who refuses to look to the future, leaving women trapped in a viscous cycle of oppression with no way out.

This oppression is recognized in not only the family sphere, but in regards to violent sexual acts committed upon women.  The rape and following suicide of a new Delhi university student in December of 2012 is a sign that India must stand up and enforce the repercussions justified to those who commit sexual acts of violence.  A senior executive of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rachel Vogelstein, commented on the student’s death: “The fact that she was a middle-class girl striving for a middle class life rang a chord with a lot of Indians.  Here is a girl living a modern life and subjected to such barbaric treatment.”  This girl’s brutal attack and suicide should be seen by the government as a potent symbol of the devastating Indian divide.  The government must address India’s modernizing society. 

Part of the problem is India’s lack of regulation on crime, but this seems to be taking a turn for the better in some respects.  Between 2006 and 2011 rape complaints in India rose by twenty-five percent; meaning, there was a greater willingness among women to report crimes and for police to accept them.  However, many women still don’t report crimes due to cultural stigmas, fearing it will bring shame upon their families.  Gender-based crimes have risen in India over a several year period; a 7.1% rise since 2010.    Another fault can be found in India’s vagueness in regards to crimes against women.  Human Rights Watch blame the lack of training for police and doctors fuels the problem.   Under the Penal Code molestation, rape, sexual harassment, kidnapping and abduction, torture and homicide for dowry all count as crimes against women.  Unfortunately, many who commit these violent acts are charged with “intent to outrage her modesty,” an offense which bears a minimal penalty that is rarely seen enforced.  India’s criminal justice system is drowning in rape cases.

Vogelstein believes, “It’s really a constellation of factors hindering women’s right, including gender sex selection, literary, child marriage, and violence” which fuels this divide.  The lack of women’s rights in India also stems from the low level of females in politics; as only 10% of of parliament members are women.

India is attempting to make the road towards women’s rights by establishing the first court to handle only crimes against women.  A 650 page report by Prime Minister Manmohan which deals with ways in which to strengthen laws dealing with sexual assault against women has been improved and implemented.

The lack of rights given to Indian women is at the core of the two India’s dispute.  It is now more vital than ever for the Indian government to provide equal rights in order to bridge the gap, bring India out of the dark ages, and propel it into the 21st century.