the place of women in indian society essay

Here is an essay on the views of Gandhi on the Status of Women in India.Sensitive to human suffering in any and every form, Mahatma Gandhi espoused the cause of women fairly early in his career. He maintained that men and women were equal in status and ought to be so regarded. He pleaded with the men to treat their womenfolk with courtesy and respect.Image Courtesy : dailynews.gov.bw/common_up/dailynews/27-01-2013-indians-641.jpgHe gained support for his point of view from all sections of the population in his characteristic way of stressing the positive aspects of women character and their strength and inner resources.Gandhiji held the men responsible for the plight of women in the past. He denounced all prevalent customs like child marriage, Purdah, the law of inheritance etc. that were unjust to women. He stressed the need for constant and continuous agitation on the part of all public-spirited people, otherwise, he felt, no significant attack could be made on the tradition-bound Hindu society.In his forthright condemnation of child marriage in young India (August 26, 1926) he said, “This custom of child marriage is both a moral as well as a physical evil. For it undermines our morals and induces physical degeneration.”The advent of Mahatma Gandhi on the political scene was indeed of crucial importance to the women of India, because he was an ardent advocate of individual as well as national freedom.Women accepted his leadership as eagerly as did men. National consciousness was roused as never before and people were made aware of their duties as well as of their rights.Gandhiji believed that abolition of the Purdah system is a necessary prerequisite to national health and well-being.His appeal, in young India brought about miraculous changes in the thinking of the people and goaded them to action. The notorious system of Purdah began to be abolished in India, under.
Ours is a hypocritical society: We say one thing. We do some thing other. We profess morality. We preach values. We give sermons on character. We honour our womenfolk. We place them on a lofty platform. We recite scriptures in their honour. We sing in praise of Sita, Savitri and Damayanti. But we are hollow within. We have given equal rights to our women in our constitution. We talk of women liberation movement. But it is a sad reality that our women are slaves as they were ages ago. It is pleasant to talk about women liberation but no one gives them real freedom. India is a male dominated society: Boys are preferred to daughters. Men are superior to women. Man governs unquestioned. The son is always honoured. But why? He will bring us a rich dowry. He will earn for his parents. He will give shelter to his aged parents. He will light the pyre at the time of cremation. He will carry on his father's generation. What an illustrious achievement! It is a fact universally acknowledged in India that sons are as sincere as daughters. It is also true that sons barring exception send out their aged parents when the later are unable to work, sons inherit their father's wealth. Daughters are a curse: Parents have to arrange large dowry for them. Daughters are treated as liabilities. It is true to some extent. We have to check the menace of dowry. Girls should reject dowry-hunters. They should organize themselves and fight man injustice against women. They should fight against cruel social inequalities heaped on them. They should women be molested, raped and humiliated in public? Why should not they raise their voice against such injustices? Women have to be given economic independence to begin with: Freedom without economic freedom is meaningless. Not to speak of unemployed women, even the employed ones have to depend on husband or in-laws for money. Employed women can't spend.
by Jayaram VIndia is one of the few countries where women enjoy a comparatively better status than many women in other parts of the world. True Indian women face many problems and are subject to the same social pressures which women experience in other parts of the world. But relatively speaking, their situation is much better than what it used to be in the pre-independence era.On the positive side women have made rapid strides in every aspect of modern life. The constitutions guarantees equal opportunity and where necessary provides necessary safeguards from possible exploitation or injustice. Indian women of today are not afraid of voicing their opinions or joining forces with other women in the local community to fight against social maladies and injustice. They have opportunities to take bold decisions or lead unorthodox lives, which might have made them vulnerable to social ridicule and family pressures few decades ago. Undoubtedly, women of today in India enjoy better status and freedom than women in the past.On the negative side, Indian women suffer from many disabilities and social injustices. This is true for all Indian women, to whatever religion they may belong, except where their status, roles and responsibilities are directly influenced by religious beliefs such as marriage and inheritence. Indian women rank high in terms of the number of prostitutes in the world, girl children neglected, abused or often sold purely for economic reasons, as victims of AIDS, and women living below the poverty line or forced to do physical labor even when they are pregnant or sick. And speaking of the sexual attitude of Hindu males.we know they are not much different from their counterparts in other religions.It is difficult to generalize the situation of women in India due to the heterogeneous nature of Indian society. Women belong to different social and economic strata.