Gender Discrimination in India

Dr.Ruchi Thakur, Dr. Vishal Sharma
Gender sensitization is changing behavior and instilling empathy into the views that we hold about our own and the other gender. Gender sensitization is at the very heart of human rights and United Nations values. A fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter adopted by world leaders in 1945 is “equal rights of men and women”, and protecting and promoting women’s human rights is the responsibility of all States. Gender sensitivity in education is not intended to put one gender ahead of another. It is instead aimed at providing equal access of opportunities to both genders. The aim of human right education and gender sensitization is to build a universal culture of human rights through imparting knowledge and skills and the moulding of attitudes.
Prevalence of gender sensitization In India
The history of female education in India is not much old. The recognition of female education as a social issue is quiet recent in India. As per the Census 2011, India accounts for 30% of the world’s total illiterate population and out of which 70% are women. Women constitute 48% of the total population in India, with a total literacy rate of 53.7% as compared to 75.3% in males. The literacy rate among rural women is 46.1% as compared to 72.9% among urban women; which is still lower than literacy rates among than rural and urban men which stands at 70.7% and 86.3% respectively. The workforce participation rate for females at the national level stands at 25.51% compared with 53.26% for males. In the rural sector, females have a workforce participation rate of 30.02% compared with 53.03% for males. In the urban sector, it is 15.44% for females and 53.76% for males.
State-wise data shows, Kerala achieved highest literacy for female with 92.1% rate among the non-special category state. Among the special category states Mizoram and Tripura achieved nearly 90% female literacy rate during the period 2001-11. In contrast states like Rajasthan (52.7%), Bihar (53.3%) and Jharkhand (56.2%) lagged far behind in achieving female literacy. The surprising fact is that the same states achieved higher literacy rate for male. Another important phenomenon which is observed is that the states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa that are famous for backwardness in gender development made much improvement in the female literacy during the period 2001-11.
One of the glaring examples of gender inequality is declining sex ratio and falling sex ratio at birth. Given a preference for boys over girls that exists in many male dominated society, gender inequality can manifest itself in the form of the parents’ wanting the new born to be a boy rather than a girl (Sen and Drez 2005). In fact, there are so many factors responsible for this adverse sex ratio in India and outside India. The existence of patriarchal social structure, patrilinear property transfer, religious and ritualistic practice, lower status ascribed to women, prejudice against girl children as they have to be married, girls are financial liability and vulnerable to sexual assault and kidnapping are the factors behind strong son preference and discrimination against girl children. Vepa (2007) as a result of her study on, “Gender Equity and Human Development,” found that all aspects of livelihood, such as literacy, unemployment and wages, now have larger gender gaps than before. Survival indicators such as juvenile sex ratio, infant mortality rate and child labour have deteriorated for women compared to men, though there has been a narrowing of gender gaps in life expectancy and literacy. The overall gender gap has widened due to larger gaps in some indicators, which are not compensated by the smaller narrowing in other indicators both in rural and urban context.
Status of Women and Gender Discrimination in India: A State wise Analysis, reveals from her study that there are some states in India where gender discrimination is higher. Women are lagging behind in terms of education, health, employment, social status and so on. Means they are not treated equally in worldwide. There is strong disparity seen in different states. Whereas in issue like declining sex ratio, the developed states are performing very badly owing to the factors like excessive son preference, patriarchal social structure, patrilineal property transfer, religious and ritualistic practice, lower status ascribed to women, prejudice against girl children through the use of modern techniques of sex selective abortion. So in conclusion it can be said that government of these states should frame policies and enforce it through the proper use of machinery so that these extreme form of gender discrimination can be reduced immediately (Banerjee, 2013). Women’s Studies & Development Centre Delhi University conducted a study on “Assessment of Attitudinal differences towards girl child in selected districts of North India” and reported that rural girls feel less discriminated against their brothers in the family as compared to urban girls. Urban girls shoulder more household chores and are also restricted from outside exposure. Girl/Boy division of work is patriarchal in nature for both rural and urban setting. Only a small section of respondents (with a little higher rural percentage) said that boys take up work to help their mothers. Boys are generally seen to be helping their fathers more. Ngwira et al (2003) found that the time a female child and a male child spends on various activities is similar, with the exception of domestic work and social/resting time; a female child spends nearly three forth of an hour more on domestic work than a male child and therefore lesser hours of social activity/resting than boys.
The female child in India is often deprived from her right of an education. The number of girls dropping out of school far exceeds the boys because girls are expected to help at home, either with household work like washing and cooking or with taking care of younger siblings. Since girls spend more time performing domestic duties and this increases the gap between female and male equality in rural parts of India, it perpetuates the myth that education is of no help to the girl and her primary job will be to look after the household work, get married early, have children and then raise them.
Recommendation
* Attention to gender/human rights issues: especially caste and violence against women, discouraging practices that discriminate against women.
* Gender training: Gender/human rights training, should be imparted to teachers, concerned officials, staff, including education officials at the Block and District Education Offices, District Education and Training Institutes, supervisors and the members of SDMC.
* Regular studies and reviews: Regular studies and reviews be conducted with regard to gender/caste sensitivity, by experts both from the field of education and gender/human rights.
* Networking: In the process of bringing about gender equality in an educational environment, the department of education should network and work in close contact with those institutions working on gender sensitive issues.
* Gender awareness in parents
* Institutes to encourage research on gender
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