According Indias constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men

(Indian Parliament). Because of lack of acceptance from the male dominant society, Indian women suffer immensely. Women are children, yet they are malnourished and in poor health. Women are responsible for baring also overworked in the field and complete the all of the domestic work. Most Indian women are uneducated. Although the countrys constitution says women have equal status to men, women are powerless and are mistreated inside and outside the home. India is a society where the male is greatly revered. Therefore women, especially the young girls, get very little respect and standing in this country. The women of the household are required to prepare the meal for the men, who eat most of the food. Only after the males are finished eating, can the females eat. Typically the leftover food is meager, considering the families are poor and have little to begin with. This creates a major problem with malnutrition, especially for pregnant or nursing women. Very few women seek medical care while pregnant because it is thought of as a temporary condition. This is one main reason why Indias maternal and infant mortality rates are so high. Starting from birth, girls do not receive as much care and commitment from their parents and society as a boy would. For example a new baby girl would only be breast fed for a short period of time, barely supplying her with the nutrients she needs. This is so that the mother can get pregnant as soon as possible in hopes of a son the next time (Coonrod). Even though the constitution guarantees free primary schooling to everyone up to 14 years of age (Indian Parliament), very few females attend school. Only about 39 percent of all women in India actually attend primary schools. There are several reasons why families choose not to educate their daughters. One reason is that parents get nothing in return for educating their daughters. Another reason is that all the females in a household have the responsibility of the housework. So even though education does not financially burden the family, it costs them the time she spends at school when she could be doing chores. In addition, even if a

woman is educated, especially in the poorer regions, there is no hope for a job. Most jobs women perform are agricultural or domestic which do not require a formal education. Another reason girls are not educated is because families are required to supply a chaste daughter to the family of her future husband. With over two-thirds of teachers in India being men and students predominately male, putting daughters in school, where males surround them all day could pose a possible threat to their virginity (Coonrod). Because women are not educated and cannot hold a prestigious job, they take on the most physically difficult and undesirable jobs. A typical day for a woman in an agricultural position lasts from 4am to 8pm with only an hour break in the middle. Compared to a mans day, which is from 5am to 10am and then from 3pm to 5pm. Most women are overworked with no maternity leave or special breaks for those who are pregnant. Plus women do the majority of the manual labor that uses a lot of energy compared to the men who do mostly machine operating (Coonrod). Even though women work twice as many hours as men, the men say that women eat food and do nothing. This is mainly because the work the women perform does not require a lot of skill and are smaller tasks.

Status of Women in India - Today

When we talk of status, we understand that it implies the social and legal position of an individual or, an individuals standing vis--vis others. I do wonder why, in a country where women were at once time, ( and even today ) worshipped as incarnations of goddesses, there should be any problem of status for women. However, this is the irony of the fate of Indian women that their status which should have been an identity to reckon with, has become a topic of debate. This situation has emerged in India during the period of Muslim domination wherein was set the purdah system with all its concomitants. This system so deteriorated, as time passed that the status of women became an issue to be discussed on several platforms. The last few decades have seen a mushroom growth of organizations struggling to get for women their dues, and these organizations have also made great headway in this direction, but, how far has this helped in the improvement of the status of women in the home, in society in office, or in the country as a whole, is still a debatable issue. The last few decades have no doubt seen women coming out in the open and joining the mainstream of development of the country. Ever, it is to be seen whether this has helped them in achieving a status for themselves, in the minds of people at large. Can we consider women now equal to men in status, at least those who are working with men? No, I really dont think this has been achieved. Women are today, found in every field of mans working, and several have even become economically independent but has even that enhanced our status? On the countrary, with this onward march on the one hand, we can see a mushroom growth of crimes against women, never heard of ever before. At one time a young girl only was an item of lust for men, but with this advent of so called womens lib, infant girls of four to five years and even less, or ladies of sixty and above are becoming objects of mans lust. It is high time that we analyse the cause of all this, for if our achievements on the one side result is such chaos on the other, we will have to weigh the advantages accrued to women against the holocaust set for them. The last fifty years the Independence of India, we have seen women coming out to be educated, to do jobs, to make careers, yet the perception that women are second to men has not been erased. Now thus it is time to study and analyse the anomaly that, though she work shoulder to shoulder with men, she still remain second why ? We women are fighting in the wrong way. Why do we, women feel that it is only by entering into the domain of men can we bring succour to our pained nerves, and does experience of the last fifty years justify this by our achievement in the field of stauts? I feel that, the more we are going out, the more we are prone to dangers, and the more we are destroying our images, and the more we are making men feel adamant against us, women. This is because we enter their domains, thus causing of working outside the home but that should not be our sole objective, because when we do that, we are trampling on mens toes. Our womens objective should be to excel in our own domain, instead of entering the domain of men. Our field of work is no mean task, it is to bring up the family and rear children, bringing up

a happy Nation and a happy future. We should not consider this as a meagre task, if we have such a tremendous task, then why do we have to try to emulate men and get into their avenues of work. I feel that even though continuing to achieve a greater spectrum for ourselves to work upon, we should also need to change our attitudes to our targets. Happiness for women obviously does not lie in emulating men, but in doing our own tasks with excellence and continuing our onward march towards equality with men in status. We must remember that, when we educate a woman, we educate a family. So this is clear that, our present march forward should continue but our attitudes to the matter should change for, our status will not change only by entering the world of men, but by creating a niche for ourselves, as best as we can. I do not vouchsafe that women should not enter jobs etc, no, it is not so, but if we expect only this to produce results, Im afraid, the past experience of fifty years has shown that this is not enough. We must realize that, first and foremost, how many of us women can become financially independent, and if at all we do so, the point to be then considered is that after achieving financial independence, do we women start feeling equal to men, or, do start getting treatment like men? If not then women are putting in a fruitless effort. Are we getting any extra honour and respect at home in society, and from the would at large, if not then what have we done, where have we gone wrong? Our pursuit of status for ourselves is obviously not giving the desired results, so I feel that we women need to change our attitudes in order to achieve our goals, and the men too must be made to feel differently. Men have to feel that women are their equal partners, only with different attributes and different assignments. On the other hand, women must understand and different assignments. On the other hand, women must understand that, by emulating men we will not become their equals, instead, they will start taking us as their rivals and so never cooperate with us. We must realize that our women status depends a lot on how we carry ourselves in this male dominated society. Two people having different assignments can be equal only if they have a clear perception of their roles. By interchanging or exchanging roles we achieve nothing tangible, we only trample each others feet, and call for an altercation instead of amity. So now, after five decades of trying to emulate men it is time for us women to take stock of the situation and make a more rigorous effort to fight for out rights and equality with men with men with a changed attitude, and not only a change of assignment or appearance. Two people with different assignment can surely be equals so, why do we women have to hanker for stepping into mens shoes and take up the roles of men. Let us now change our strategy of the struggle and not only stamp men but create for ourselves a new horizon.

Women's position in India

As of March 2001, the female population stands at 495.4 million out of total 1,028 million Indian population. Thus, in the present population of 1.03 billion, there ought to be 528 million women. Instead, estimates show only 496 million women in the population today. This implies that there are some 32 million "missing" women in India. Some are never born, and the rest die because they do not have the opportunity to survive. Sex-ratio (number of female per 1,000 male) is an important indicator of women's status in the society. In 1901 there were 972 females per 1,000 males, while by 1971; the ratio has come down to 930 females per 1,000 males. In 1981 there has been only a nominal increase in the female sex ratio within 934 females to 1,000 males. There were only 926 females per 1000 males in India according to 1991 census. The 2001 census indicate that the trend has been slightly arrested with the sex ratio at 933 females per 1000 males, with Kerala at 1058 females. The sex ratio of the 0-6 age group has declined sharply from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. According to UNFPA State of world population 2005, Punjab (793), Haryana (820), Delhi (865), Gujarat (878) and Himachal Pradesh (897) have worst child sex ratio. Scheduled Tribes have fairly respectable CSR of 973 but that falls for Scheduled Castes it falls at 938.For non SC/ST population it stands at 917.Rural India has 934 per 1000 and for urban India it stands at 908.In most states least literate districts have superior CSR compared to their most literate counterparts. One reason for the adverse juvenile sex ratio is the increasing reluctance to have female children. For women the literacy rate stands at 54.16 per cent. Still, 245 million Indian women cannot read or write, comprising the world's largest number of unlettered women. National averages in literacy conceal wide disparities. For instance, while 95 per cent of women in Mizoram are literate, only 34 per cent of women in Bihar can read and write. The average Indian female has only 1.2 years of schooling, while the Indian male spends 3.5 years in school. More than 50 per cent girls drop out by the time they are in middle school. Similarly, life expectancy has increased for both the sexes; it has increased to 64.9 years for women and 63 years for men according to UN Statistic Division (2000). The Working women population has risen from 13% in 1987 to 25% in 2001. However the UNFPA State of World Population 2005 states that about70% of graduate Indian women are unemployed. Women constitute 90 per cent of the total marginal workers of the country. Rural women engaged in agriculture form 78 per cent of all women in regular work. They are a third of all workers on the land. The traditional gender division of labour ensures that these women get on average 30 per cent lower wages than men. The total employment of women in organized sector is only 4 per cent. Although industrial production increased in the 1980s; jobs in factories and establishments -- or non-household jobs -- stagnated at eight per cent of the workforce. Increasingly, companies tend to rely on outsourcing, using cheap labour.It is well known that women and children work in huge numbers in bidi-rolling, agarbatti-rolling, bangle making, weaving, brassware, leather, crafts and other industries. Yet, only 3 per cent of these women are recorded as laborers. They are forced to work for pitiable wages and are denied all social security benefits. A study by SEWA of 14 trades found that 85 per cent of women earned only 50 per cent of the official poverty level income. The sociological research on the status of women has generally suggested that the Indian women enjoy a low status in their households because family decisions relating to finances, kinship relations, selection of life partner are made by the male members and women are rarely consulted. Although there has been an expansion in health facilities maternal mortality rate continue to be high at 407 per 1, 00,000 live births (1998).WHO estimates show that out of the 529,000 maternal deaths globally each year ,136,000 (25.7%) are contributed by India. A factor that contributes to India's high maternal mortality rate is the reluctance to seek medical care for pregnancy - it is viewed as a temporary condition that will disappear. The estimates nationwide are that only 40-50 percent of women receive any antenatal care. Evidence from the states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat find registration for maternal and child health services to be as low as 5-22 percent in rural areas and 21-51 percent in urban areas. Even a woman who has had difficulties with previous pregnancies is usually treated with home remedies only for three reasons: the decision that pregnant women seek help rests with the mother-in-law and husband; financial considerations; and fear that the treatment may be more harmful than the malady.