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Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Anthropology WOMEN IN INDIA their chances of education and work outside the home WOMEN IN INDIA their chances of education and work outside the home Time demands that we break this silence We are fighting so that we have equality We are fighting so that we have dignity We are fighting so that we have happiness We are fighting so that we have peace We are fighting so that we have justice We are fighting for Women's liberation religion, caste, ethnicity, and tradition. (Women's Rights song, Desai & Patel pg 86) Women have long been fighting for equal rights in every sphere of society. Those in the Western world have been luckier, they can go to school, vote, and work, whereas there are still Women in developing countries which cannot. The Song above is an example of Women in a developing country, fighting for their own rights. It's origin is from India. Indian Women have had an extremely difficult time developing under the oppression of a male-dominated society, class and caste systems, and religion. Women's place in society has been extremely fixed in nature, and has kept Women at a low rung on the ‘status-ladder'. Traditional beliefs on whether women should be educated or whether they should work outside the home have also aided in their suppression. Still, although the Indian Women's workforce is still relatively new, it has had some real successes (as well as failures) along the way, and some of the organizations involve are beginning to make a true difference in Women's lifestyles. "It is not the characteristic of the true Hindu or Mohammedan Woman to desire to be independent of a Man" (Billington pg 22). Women's status in India has generally been poor since colonial times. Prithvi Nath Tikoo identifies that, "the treatment of Woman in ancient Indian culture was, however, different. Here the concept of male chauvinism did not start as early as it did in other countries. This sort of mentality took roots in this country (India) years after the Aryans came and settled here" (Tikoo, pg 5). Here it is identified that the maltreatment of Women did not truly begin until India was colonized, and Tikoo also goes on to say that Christianity gave Hindu leaders (among others) the justification that they needed to make the claim that Women should be kept in the "guardianship" of males. The main handicap of Women in India, and truly world-wide, has been that of childbirth. The "bondage of reproduction", as Tikoo words it, had left Women reliant on Men for food, protection and shelter (Tikoo pg 3). Tikoo also notes a "Curse of Woman" in India which have lowered their place in society which is that of early marriage. In India, "Hindu religious leaders all decreed that a girl should be married soon after the beginning of puberty" (Tikoo pg 23), and that the age of ten is considered puberty. For Hindu girls, this means that they have little chance at education past this age, and truly many do not even receive education before. One reason for this is that many prospective in-laws would not want an educated girl, since they believed that she would not want to be a virtual servant then (Tikoo pg 26). The plight of Women becomes very apparent in the sphere of marriage. Women are expected to marry, and many call it the "aim of her existence" (Billington pg 22). There is a general belief of parents that if their daughter does not marry, she will go to hell, and any Woman in this society which does not marry is not seen as a real Woman. At this point she is forced to go into the workforce. Other statistics from India are shocking. Seven out of ten non-school going children are female, females are infinitely more likely than males to drop-out of school, and the literacy rate for Women is guessed to be eighteen percent of the female population (Tikoo pg 123). Traditional Beliefs About Women and Working "A housewife is much more important and indispensable in the house then anywhere outside it" (Tikoo pg 121) As seen above, many Indians traditionally do not want Women to work (ie. In-Laws). Many female children do not go far in education because of this view, as well as the custom of child marriage, leaving them with few practical skills later in life. In general, females are not encouraged to be educated, and few learn of education`s positive benefits. Tikoo gives an example of another phenomenon, "where the son and a daughter are studying in some school or college, it is always the daughter who is asked to perform all of the culinary operations. . ." (Tikoo pg 120). This is an example of how Women are expected to remain in their traditional roles, even though they are working or becoming educated. In Kaur's survey as to when Women should work the top answers were: 1. Only when it is economically needed 2. Only as long as they're still married 3. Only when it does not result in neglect of the family. There is a common fear among many that if an Indian Woman works outside the home, their families will suffer from neglect (Tikoo pg 120), since all household duties are thought to be the responsibility of Women and Women alone. Still, in modern India, when a child is sick, it is the Woman which is expected to take the time of work to take care of them, and even working women are expected to still maintain all of their household duties. Because of this fear of neglecting their family, as well as other reasons, many Women still show preference to working at home, rather than outside of it. "Even in the Western countries, educated married Women's taking up job is not an old phenomenon" (Kaur pg 46) It has been traditionally thought throughout time that Women did not work outside the home, unless it was economically needed, yet, around the world, a middle-class working women's movement has been taking place. In a place such as India, the conditions of the masses has been hardly satisfactory, let alone that of Women, forcing many to enter the work force. Traditionally, Indian Women also did not work unless forced to economically, but in recent times, some Women have begun to realize that work "gives them personal status and independent social standing" (Kaur pg 48). This has meant that Women from all class have begun to enter the workforce, instead of it being predominantly those from the lower strata, yet most of these working Women are still from the city, rather than rural areas. The tendency to work is now more predominant among middle class Women, although every Hindu caste wants to chance to work. Another major change today is that younger adults, as well as younger generations, want to work, and it is the older generations of Women which still wish to stay at home. In Kaur's survey, employed Women were asked what professions they were in. The results were: Most Common Labour Groups for Indian Women Professional, Technical workers 17.0 % Service Workers (including Armed Forces) 15.7 % Crafts, Production, Process workers, and Labourers (not classified elsewhere) 12.0 % Managerial, Administrative, Clerical Work 5.5 % Kaur also interviewed many Women (employed and unemployed) to see what professions they wanted to go into. They are ranked in order (from 1 - 10) as: This shows that most Women want a job in a teaching position, and this is not surprising since one of the first ‘female' positions established in India was that of the schoolmistress, or teacher. This position was set up by Christian missionaries in their attempt to educate the ‘savages' of India (Billington pg 32). Thus, it can be seen that many Indian Women are forced to work, due to economic stress, while others still wish to enter the workforce to achieve a type of independence. Yet, the traditional view of Women's duties has worked against this want to work outside the home. This has created an environment for Indian Women to work in which is violent, and negative. In response, many organizations have been created to assist Women in the workforce. Women's Workforce: It's Failures and Successes "Women employed in various income generating activities. . . by liberal Women's organizations have complained that they are used as cheap labour" (Desai & Patel pg 52). Kaur recognizes that since Women have a special circumstance in India, special measures must be taken to solve it. Although the purposes and objectives of Men and Women's education should be the same, it must be recognized that Women have inherent responsibilities to the household, thus their education and careers must be realized in different ways. Today in India, both boys and girls are beginning to be taught and treated more similarly in the school setting, and hopefully this will have great affects on equality in the future. Yet, the superiority of males is still persistent and is recognized by many. Though, many Women are beginning to realize that higher education means more income, thus, there have been many Women's organizations which have attempted to bring more Women into the workforce. This have been met with both successes and with failures. There have been several groups formed which have planned the making and selling of things such as crafts and food. These are run by upper caste Women and they often receive government funding in the name of ‘philanthropic activities'. Organizations such as these employ Women, but do not always treat them well, often times these Women work ten to twelve hour shifts of intensive labour. Since this type of group is in the informal sector, the Women which work there are not protected by any labour laws. One example of such an organization is "Lijjat Papad" (Desai & Patel pg 51). Before Women would be hired into this group they had to agree to accept whatever wages are given to them, and they also have to agree never to complain about the organization. Later, this group was closed down because the Women workers got together and complained about it. Although there are some Women's work organizations which are complete failures, there have been many recent programs which have been successful. An example of this is "Annapurna" (Desai & Patel pg 52), which means ‘provider of food'. This group is a Women's cooperative which provides lunch and dinner service to industrial workers, and the Women involved are mostly from the poor and working classes. It was started up by a loan from the national bank, and greatly benefits the Women involved. Another successful program which has been set up to help working Women is a voluntary organization which runs a day-care facility for Women construction workers (Desai & Patel pg 52). This group started in Delhi in 1969, and now has 45 centres in Delhi, 25 in Bombay, and 3 in Poona. This organization is funded by aid agencies and the contractors of construction sites. This is an excellent example of an organization which helps Women to go to work, and still be responsible for their child-rearing duties. In addition, since 1975, there have been several groups which have been formed to help Women receive loans, especially those wishing to own their own business. One example of this is "The Mahila SEWA Saharki Cooperative Bank", set up by two groups; SEWA and Ahmedabad (Desai & Patel pg 53). This is a cooperative bank, totally managed by Women, and is an alternative to the exploitative male-run banks common in India. One extremely successful group is the "Working Women's Forum of India". This group began in 1978, with over 800 Women involved at the time. They describe themselves as a "mass movement of over 4,50,000 (sic) poor Women workers engaged in 167 different occupations spread over 15 cultural contexts organized into neighbourhood groups if 8 to 10 members" (www.workingwomensforum.org). Their main goal is to stop the oppression over Indian Women, in regards to class, caste, and gender. They offer the following services to Indian Women: Reproductive & Child Health Programs They argue the advantages of this program, and say that it does not require large-scale investment, or educational elites, rather this is a grassroots program designed for the sole purpose of helping Women. This organization outlines it's objectives and strategies as follows: * To unionise women workers of the informal sector on trade lines, providing a social platform * To improve their living and working conditions and create visibility to their various economic roles * To devise an innovative union structure aiming to reach out to large number of women workers at the grassroots within a short time span and ensure their participation at all levels from planning to implementation * To remain women intensive in nature and address the struggles of poor women workers against caste, class and gender oppression in the community and work place * To adopt effective and needs specific programme strategies, in the areas of credit, employment, health, family welfare and support services; and * To adopt participatory training strategies towards unionisation, conscientization (sic) and empowerment of women workers. The women of the Forum have been able to formulate a successful grassroot methodology and a way of life as mentioned below : * Identification of their own pressing problems (i.e., gender, caste, class issues at the grassroots) and finding their own solutions to combat the same * Democratic methods of selection / training of working class women, which helps them take responsibility at all levels of the organisational structure ; * Continuous empowerment of all the members of the Forum which provides them a fair knowledge of legal, economic and human rights issues in addition to orientation in effective communication skills." (www.workingwomensforum.org, pg obj.htm) There have also been many legislative programs set-up by the government to assist working Women in India. One example of this is the Equal Renumeration Act No 25 of 1976, which decreed that all people, Men and Women, should be treated (and paid) equally, and not judged on the basis of sex (Desai & Patel pg 42). This legislation, although it had good intentions in nature, failed, since it was available against the state only. There have also been other legislation brought into existence which have helped the Women's working movement. For example, to stop the problems caused by child marriages, the age of consent was changed to twenty-one for Men and eighteen for Women. The Indian Constitution also attempts to abolish discrimination. (Tikoo, pg 104). There have been many programs and legislation brought into being which have attempted to hep the Indian Women's working movement, but the struggle is far from over. These programs are not only not enough, but too few. Although Indian Women have been entering the workforce in recent years, they have been met with serious opposition. Often Indian girls do not have the chance at education, unless their father somehow deems it important, which rarely happens. An Indian girls life is geared towards marriage, there is no expectation for her to train herself, or to ever work – in fact she is told not to work. These Women are subject not only to their fathers, but after marriage, are subject to their husbands and mother-in-laws. They are given little freedom in choices, and often find it difficult to enter the workforce from this point, but still there are some which do. Women which do manage to enter the workforce, often do so because they need it economically, and not because they really desire it. Whether they desire to be in the workforce or not, these Women face criticism from others, they are believed to be neglecting their families and inherent responsibilities. They are not looked upon with great respect by other Women. They are seen to have failed in their life`s ambitions. Where can the Indian Women go from here? Several grassroots projects have been designed to attempt to help these Women, but there is a lot to be done. First, education must be brought not only to girls and Women so that they have the skills to find jobs, but also to the general community. If the general population of India agreed that it is alright for Women to work, their conditions would improve a thousand-fold. Kaur found that it is the younger generations which believe that Women should be allowed to work outside the home, so perhaps in the future we will see a great change in Indian Women's lives. Perhaps they will one day have the tools to head towards independence. Bibliography: Tikoo, Prithvi Nath. Indian Women: a Brief Socio-Cultural Survey. BR Publishing Corperation, Delhi: 1985 Desai, Neera & Vibhuti Patel. Indian Women. Sangam Books, London: 1985 Kaur, Inderjeet. Status of Hindu Women in India. Chugh Publications, Allahabad (India): 1983 Billington, M.F. Woman in India. Amarko Book Agency, New Delhi: 1973 Forbes, Geraldine. The New Cambridge History of India: Woman in Modern India. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1996 Yasas, F.M. & Vera Mehta. Exploring Feminist Visions. Good Impressions, Bombay: 1990 Desai, Neera. Woman in Modern India. Vora & Co. Publishers, Bombay:1977 Leslie, I.J. The Perfect Wife. Oxford University Press, Delhi: 1989 The Working Women's Forum www.workingwomensforum.org Word Count: 2885
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