Women in India: Some Recent Perspectives

Abstract

Women in India: Some Recent Perspectives Research Note W OMEN IN INDIA traditionally were members of a stratified society characterized by the ideology and practice of inequality. Caste ideology specified privileges and sanctions according to innate attri- butes, which differed by sex as well as caste. Throughout the subcon- tinent, social, economic, and political power resided with men, even in matrilineal groups or tribal communities with female farming sys- tems. With independence in 194 7 and the subsequent promulgation of the Indian Constitution, the stated equality of all citizens promised revolutionary change for women, as for other formerly subordinate categories such as untouchables. Despite progress for some women since independence, however, revolutionary or even substantial change in the conditions governing the lives of the majority of Indian women has not been achieved. The purpose of this essay is, first, to discuss some of the major problems for women in India today. A major source of information in this regard will be the recent Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, the best single research and advocacy work available. The essay will then go on to review other current research on women in India, pointing to areas where scholarly debate is vigorous or where further research and clarification is needed. The conclusion will assess current thinking in India about the nature of the problems for women and the solutions sought for those problems. Several factors have recently intensified interest in the problems of women in India. One was International Women's Year, proclaimed by the United Nations for 1975, while Indira Gandhi was still Prime Minister. In preparation for this year-long assessment of women's participation in the social, political, and economic activities of na- tions, the government of India produced a series of outstanding re- search reports. Among the government publications taken by Indian delegates to the official United Nations conference and the unofficial but livelier (on women's issues) Women's Tribune convened in Mex- ico City in June i 975, was Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in lndia. 1 This impressive document is so well written Published by the Department of Social Welfare in December of 1974, this report was commissioned in 1971. Committee members were asked to report in two years, but the magni-