Gender Equality in india

To understand this social situation, think of the women whom you meet or deal with on a daily basis. This can be your mother, sister, wife, friend, girl friend, colleague, classmate, teacher, boss, or anyone whom you see daily. Now think of their lifestyle, and think had their life been different if they belonged to the other gender, that is, your gender.

(Courtesy: India Today)

You would instantly realize how equal or unequal both the genders are in India.

One thing which is common in most of the women you now will be the pressure and restrictions they have to deal with. Like curfew time at home, restrictions related to dressing up appropriately, restrictions in choosing a career, etc. Men, usually don’t have to face such limitations.

Now what makes men equal to women in this unequal situation (which seems to be privileged for men) is the fact that men have their own set of pressures and restrictions. They are pressurized to keep their manhood intact. They are constantly reminded of being strong and tough just like a woman is constantly reminded of being beautiful and delicate.

If we go by the myth of creation, God cursed both Adam and Eve equally. Adam was cursed to toil for his and his family’s living and Eve was cursed to bear pain while giving birth to a child. But in India, Hindu scriptures are predominant and that makes matter worse for the weaker gender –women.

In Manusmriti, women are given very low status. They have been called the source of all the problems of man. In fact, Manusmriti as a Hindu scripture, gives men all rights to have control over all the women related to him –wife, mother, sister, and so on. So this has created a power dynamics in which women are always at loss in Indian society.

Things are not always smooth and easy for men either, but women definitely suffer more. This is not the fault of any of gender but of the society as a whole who believes in patriarchal ideology and thinks that the two genders are not equal.