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Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

are working too. (16.5% urban women belonged to the labour force in 1993-94; Manpower Profile, Notes
India, 1998: 129) As such, they are not only aware of their economic, social and political rights but
they also use these rights to save themselves from being humiliated and exploited. The average
age of girls at marriage in cities is also higher than the corresponding age in villages.
However, in the labour market, women are still in a disadvantaged situation. The labour market
discriminates against women and is opposed to equality of opportunity—understood in a
comprehensive sense to include equality of employment, training and promotional opportunities.
In this sense, change is not possible in the sex segregated labour market whose structures ensure
that the career patterns of women will normally be marked by discontinuity, unlike the normal
male career patterns which assume continuity. Because of the constraints of the sex segregated
labour market, women tend to cluster in a limited range of occupations, which have low status
and are poorly paid. Women normally prefer teaching, nursing, social work, secretarial and clerical
jobs—all of which have low status and low remuneration. Even those women who have
sur-mounted the hurdles to professional education are disadvantaged as they find it difficult to
harmonise competing demands of a professional career and home.
Generally speaking, it is difficult for a woman to remain single or to combine marriage with
career. Apart from the general expectation that all wives must be housewives, it has been noted
that women are called upon to sacrifice their career when the need arises, thereby subordinating
their own career to that of their husbands. This often creates frustration among women, leading
even to psychotic illness in a few cases. Rural women, however, do not have to face such problems.
It has been further found that in the cities of India, high level education among girls is significantly
associated with smaller family size. Though education of women has raised the age of marriage
and lowered birth rate, it has not brought about any radical change in the traditional pattern of
arranged marriages with dowry. Margaret Cormack (1961: 109) found in her study of 500 university
students that girls were ready to go to college and mix with boys but they wanted their parents to
arrange their marriage. Women want new opportunities but demand old securities as well. They
enjoy their newly found freedom but at the same time wish to carry on with old values.
Divorce and remarriage are new phenomena we find among urban women. Today, women take
more initiative to break their marriages legally if they find adjustment after marriage impossible.
In Delhi alone, 20 couples file cases every week seeking divorce from their spouses. About 2,000
divorce cases were filed in Delhi courts in five months between January and May, 1999 (The
Hindustan Times, June 12, 1999). Surprisingly, a large number of divorces are sought by women on
the grounds of incompatibility and mental torture.
Politically also, urban women are more active today. The number of women contesting elections
has increased at every level. They hold important political positions and also possess independent
political ideologies. It may, thus, be concluded that while rural women continue to be dependent
on men both economically and socially, urban women are comparatively independent and enjoy
greater freedom.
Thus, it may be said that though we may accept the views of scholars like Ashis Nandy (1975) who
have talked about new aspects of urban social organisation which have replaced traditional ties,
yet we cannot reject the prevalence of traditional aspects in the functioning of family, caste,
kinship, and religion in urban settings.
Stratification and Social Mobility in Urban Communities
Indian social stratification is characterised by caste and class. Urbanisation and industrialisation
have induced mobility in the stratification sfstem. D’Souza (1978), however, has maintained that
the role of industrialisation in bringing change in caste and social mobility has been overemphasised.
Urban areas do provide more opportunities for social mobility, but do castes in towns and cities
succeed in raising their social status? James Free-man in his study of an urbanised Hindu village
in 1974 and Shyamlal in his study of Bhangis near Jodhpur in Rajasthan in 1975 did not perceive
mobility in caste system. On the contrary, lower castes in urban areas showed strong inclination
to maintain their traditional privileges and obligations. The other view is that in this age, one’s

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