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Unit 10: Women's Empowerment

not work. Through the process of Sanskritization a number of lower castes have been trying to Notes
climb upward in the status hierarchy by emulating the life style, norms and behaviour patterns of
higher castes. Consequently the autonomy of their women folk, too, gets eroded. This is the price
a lower caste has to pay for achieving upward social mobility.
Emanating from the normative structure of the family where the male the maintains the continuity
of the lineage, there is a strong preference for sons in most sections of Indian society. On nearly all
these measures and in most states, male children have a decisive advantage over female children.
Son preference is observed to be particularly strong in northern and central India and somewhat
weaker in the southern and western region (Mutharayappa, Choe, Arnold and Roy, 1997). In
tribal populations, the discrimination against women is not severe. The practice of female infanticide
and foeticide also caste aspersion on the status of women.

The National Family Health Survey (1992-93) has assessed son preference in 19 populous
states on aspects such as immunisation rates, period of breast feeding, prevalence of three
common childhood diseases and likelihood of treatment, prevalence of chronic under-
nutrition among children under age 4, and infant and child mortality rates.

Widowhood has also been a ‘social curse’ in most segments of our population’ and has been most
pronounced among the upper caste Hindus. Among the lower castes, tribal population and Muslims
widow remarriage has been a popular practice. Report of the National Committee on the Status of
Women in India (1988) says that the social attitudes towards widows differ at different socio-
economic levels but a change in the life style of women after widowhood is characteristic of most
sections of Indian Society. Traditionally, widows have been considered in auspicious and their
participation in auspicious ceremonies are still considered undesirable in substantial section of the
society. Inspite of marginal changes in attitudes, the condition of widows continues to be a blot on
our society. The committee came across a large number of widows in a state of distitution in
Banaras and Mathura: they had been unshamedly abandoned by their families and were eking out
an existence through begging or various petty trades.
Status of Muslim women is not much different from the rest of the population. Though Islam as
ideology talks about gender equality and gender justice, the predominantly patriarchal society
has taken away what Islam gave to women. Like Hindu women, Muslim women too have little
role to play in the decision making process at the family level. Moreover their mobility, specially
among the higher social groups, is restricted because of the practice of purdah and that is why
their share in the workforce is much lower as compared to others. The overwhelming majority is
educationally backward. Their share in productive assets is also low. Though, contrary to popular
perception, percentage of polygamy is very low (lower than Buddhists, Jains and Hindus as
documented by several reports, surveys and studies) the Muslim males enjoy unfettered rights
regarding divorce and get away by paying maintenance after divorce for a short period of time.
But Muslim woman is entitled to get her meher (dower) in case of divorce. She also enjoys the right
to give divorce to her husband. In the midst of reports of the so called triple talaaq (pronouncing
talaaq by husband thrice in one sitting) among the lower socio-economic strata, it is ignored that
the problem and the consequent result of it are still not rampant among them. Moreover, one
hardly comes across a case of ‘bride burning’ among them. This may be explained by the fact that
getting divorce among them is much easier and the male can contract another marriage (atleast in
theory) without getting divorce from the first wife. As far as widowhood is concerned, there is
hardly any problem of widow remarriage. Perhaps that is why the sight of a young marriageable

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