Problem Faced by Women in India
Women have traditionally fought for their rights and status in society. Still, they are fighting even after Independence. If we talk about today’s scenario, many women are still facing the issues like gender discrimination, sexual abuse and harassment, education, child marriage, and what not? Women are elevated to the position of goddesses in India. However, the difficulties they encounter merely show the inverse of this idea. On one hand, people worship them as goddesses, while on the other, they mistreat them mercilessly and think less of them.
When it comes to gender inequality, many parents wish for a boy rather than a girl since, in their so-called "mentality," boys will carry on with their generation. Even though it is against the law, they continue to try to determine a baby's gender and if they find out that the baby is a girl they’ll abort the pregnancy. We don't know why they don't see that they cannot pass on a generation without a girl. An infant can only be conceived by a woman. A generation cannot pass on without women. Men and women have equal responsibility for childbirth, yet neither can fully comprehend the suffering a woman goes through during the nine months of pregnancy.
Women are still facing sexual abuse and harassment, according to the most recent government report on crimes in the country, India logged 31,677 cases of rape in 2021, or 86 cases per day on an average, while there were approximately 49 incidences of violence against women reported every single hour. Many of the women experience abuse from family members or relatives. Women are frequently compelled to keep quiet in these situations out of fear of society. She is made to put up with this torture, which causes her bodily and mental suffering, and eventually, she tries to take her own life.
Education of women is another issue in the country. Due to conservative traditionalism, women's standing has always been viewed as being lower in our nation than that of men. If a girl comes from a poor household with a brother, her parents will spend their money on his education rather than hers. Their alleged philosophy holds that teaching a girl and wasting money on her are both unnecessary because she will marry and will go into someone else's family. It hurts every woman when your parents tell you that you are someone else's responsibility. She feels pain and is internally torn apart. Thanks to the government of India, they are providing free education to children of poor families and at least due to the free education policy parents are allowing their girl child to study. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have spent money on girl education.
Crimes Against Women in India
In 2021 the police recorded “sixty lakh” crimes in India out of which 4,28,278 (Four lakh twenty eight thousand two hundred seventy eight) cases involved cases against women. It's a rise of 26.35% over six years - from 3,38,954 cases in 2016. A majority of the cases in 2021, the report said, were of kidnappings and abduction, rapes, domestic violence, dowry deaths and assaults. Also, 107 women were attacked with acid, 1,580 women were trafficked, 15 girls were sold and 2,668 women were victims of cybercrimes. With more than 56,000 cases, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which is India's most populous state with 240 million people, once again topped the list. It was followed by Rajasthan with 40,738 cases and Maharashtra with 39,526 cases.
India - the Rape Capital of the world:
In the year 2021, police recorded 31,878 rapes - the numbers show a steep rise from the previous year (28,153), but compared to the 39,068 women who were raped in 2016, they show a decline of 18%. With tens of thousands of rape cases reported annually, India has earned the moniker "the rape capital of the world". It's not because India is an exception - many countries report equal or higher numbers of rapes. But critics say the world's largest democracy gets a bad name because of the way the victims and survivors are treated - they are stigmatised by the society, and often shamed by the police and judiciary too.
The Bilkis Bano Case:
On February 28, 2002, a crowd attacked Bilkis Bano and members of her family as they attempted to leave their homes to avoid the fear of communal violence at Radhikapur Village, not far from Ahmedabad. The mob killed around 14 people including Bilkis's three-year-old daughter. Bilkis, her mother, and three other women were raped and brutally assaulted. Her attackers left her naked and bleeding thinking she was dead. But she was alive. She took refuge with a tribal family and later she launched a police complaint. Bilkis fought on and took the case outside Gujarat. She approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and then the Supreme Court, which asked the CBI to examine the case. The CBI exhumed the bodies of those killed and arrested several people for the crimes. According to the CBI, the heads of the corpses had been severed after the autopsy, so that the bodies could not be identified. The trial was moved out of Gujarat to Maharashtra after Bilkis Bano received death threats. In the Mumbai court, charges were filed against 19 men, including six police officers and a government doctor. In January 2008, a special court convicted 11 accused of conspiring to rape a pregnant woman, murder, unlawful assembly, and of charges under other sections of the Indian Penal Code. The Head Constable was convicted of "making incorrect records" to save the accused. All 11 convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
These Eleven men who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case of 2002 were released from Godhra sub-jail on August 15th. This was after a panel set up by the Gujarat government approved their application for remission of the sentence. The story of the unfair treatment Bilkis Bano received made global headlines, reinforcing the view that India is often unkind to its women.
Hathras Rape Case:
Exactly a year ago, a 19-year-old woman died in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after reporting she'd been gang raped and brutally assaulted by upper-caste neighbours. Her story evoked global condemnation after the authorities forcibly cremated her body in the darkness of the night without her family's consent. The government promised a proper investigation and a fast track court to ensure early justice. But a year later, despite four men being put on trial charged with rape and murder, the case is still making its way through India's sluggish justice system, and the teenager's family have told the BBC they live like prisoners in their own home, their lives are on hold. This news had made global headlines, and reporters and camera crews crowded her home. Opposition politicians of all hues visited, pledging their support to the family in their fight for justice. When a reporter from BBC News visited her home recently, found that the family is isolated in the village, locked up in their home, guarded by machine gun-wielding paramilitary security force members, and under the intrusive gaze of CCTV cameras, mounted at key points to record all comings and goings. They were provided protection on orders from the Supreme Court amid concerns that they could be targeted by the upper castes. "It's been a wasted year," says her eldest brother. "We are safe at home because of the paramilitaries. But we can't go out to work. We are surviving on the compensation money and government rations." Her younger brother added: "We also feel under arrest. Even to buy groceries or visit a doctor, we have to go with the paramilitaries.” The case is still pending and might be stretched like the “Nirbhaya Case”
Few Older Cases:
In Ludhiana 28-year-old woman was raped by her father-in-law. He spiked her drink and raped her. In Delhi 22-year-old woman was gang raped and murdered in 2012, yes, we are talking about the "Nirbhaya Case”. After 7 years she got justice.
The Mahsa Amini Case of Iran
In Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian authorities enforced a strict dress code requiring all women to cover their faces and body in public by donning loose-fitting clothing. The "Gasht-e Ershad" (Guidance Patrols) morality police are in charge of, among other things, making sure ladies dress according to what the authorities consider to be "appropriate."
A woman in Iran was detained by morality police named “Mahsa Amini” in Tehran with her brother on the grounds that she had disobeyed the hijab law passed by the legislation, requiring women to cover their arms and legs with loose clothing and their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at the detention centre.
The case of Iran shows women are not just mistreated in India but also outside the nation too.
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