Social Evils Exploiting Indian Women

Dowry custom has been a curse for India. Now it poses a challenge which seems difficult to meet. It has proved to be a greatest curse for the poor classes of India. Poor people have to incur heavy debts to provide their daughter with a handsome dowry. Daughter whose parents are very poor consider them as a burden on their family and think it’s better to suicides. The dowry system is also an evil since it perpetuates the myth of male superiority.

A girl from a poor family finds it very difficult to find a good boy without paying a high price and parents of highly educated boy demands more dowry both in cash and kind. In a way, they fix the rate of dowry according to the education of a boy.

Thus, whether a parent can pay or not, it has become a compulsory present at the time of marriage. Dowry has ruined life of many girls because their parents could not afford to give sufficient dowry. Sometimes the girls commit suicide when their in-laws persecute them to bring more and more money from their parents. Sometimes the greedy husbands along with their parents also kill their wives, when they are not given huge dowry.

Lack of Women Education In India

India is the second largest country in the world so far as population is concerned. But as far as education is concerned it is a backward country. Women comprise approximately half of the population in the world. But the hegemonic masculine ideology made them bear a lot as they were not given the equivalent opportunities in different parts of the world.

Women’s Education in Ancient Times

In the ancient times, women were given less education than men. The main reason for this cause was set social norms. However, in Vedic period women had access to education, but gradually they had lost this right of being educated. Women education in ancient times prevailed during the early Vedic period. Women enjoyed equivalent position and rights in the early Vedic era. However, after 50 B.C., the position of women started to decline.

Modern Era

In the recent times, government has established a number of institutions for the education of women. These institutions are concerned with the development of women in India. Despite the significance of women education unfortunately only 39% of women are literate against 64% of the men. 

Discrimination of women in India

Discrimination means when we treat people differently because of characteristics that are not related to their merit or the requirements of the job. These include race, color, Gender, religion, disability and sexual orientation and social origin.

Discrimination is prevalent so much in our societies, workplaces and homes, often it goes unrecognized. In India, discrimination towards women is from a long time and have affected women over their lives. Although the constitution has granted equal rights to women but gender disparities remains. There are very limited opportunities for women to access such as for education, at workplace, and job. Women are mostly disadvantaged at work and underestimated at work place. Discrimination against women has contributed to gender wage differentials, with Indian women on average earning Less of what male  earns for the same occupation and level of qualification.

Age, Disability, Equal Pay/Compensation,  National Origin, Pregnancy, Race/Color, Religion,  Gender are most forms or areas of discrimination. And it’s the weakest that are discriminated universally. When we seek out to find the weakest our search ends with women and children. When it comes to India its women and children more specifically girl children that are discriminated often and to a greater extent.

Sexual harassment

In today's world we are proud to recognize the equality that has been acknowledged between age, gender,sex and race. Women are  treated as equals with men. Today, women are  liberated from their traditional roles as housewives. In the developing countries, thousands of females are forced into prostitution for the sole purpose of benefiting men .Sexual exploitation, which includes sex tourism and sexual violence such as rape and sexual harassment has escalated throughout the 20th century and has become an enormous concern. Half of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990 related to molestation and harassment at the workplace

Today, slavery is defined as a "social and economic relationship in which a person is controlled through violence  and economically exploited…sex trafficking is a modern day form of slavery. The government does not help women who are in prostitution as it generates a lot of profit which help in paying off country debt. The governments convince themselves, and the public, that they help facilitate women's employment opportunities and statistics by legitimizing prostitution.