CEDAW
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw) is international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nation General Assembly. The treaty has been ratified by 189 countries, including India. Article 1 defines discrimination against women in the following terms:
“Any discrimination, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other filed .“
Women’s rights are secured under the Constitution of India- mainly, equality, dignity, and freedom from discrimination. India also has various statues governing the rights of women. However India’s Gender Equality Index (0.530, in 2015) ranks 125th out of 188 countries in the world.
In this article I will discuss some the rights which are most important to Indian women.
Life and Health
Women’s lives are unequally at risk in many parts of the world, including India. Statistics continue to show that women suffer unequally from hunger, malnutrition and from unequal access to basic health care. Religions and cultures have contributed to this state of affairs. It is difficult to distinguish between a religion and the cultural traditions that surround it. All religions have denigrated the value of female life. In India even though dowry is illegal, many married women are abused, burnt and killed, because their parents could not pay the dowry.
Multiple studies have shown that when food supply is limited, boys are given priorities over girls. Same is true of healthcare and education. Girls fetch water, work in the kitchen while boys are allowed to play or attend school.
Right to Bodily Integrity
Women suffer many abuses that violate their bodies. These include domestic violence, sexual abuse, molestation, rape, and in certain Islamic culture genital mutilation. Rape is an underreported and under punished crime world over including India. In both the Hindu and Islamic communities, unequal access to property rights and divorce and poverty frequently forces married women to stay in an abusive relationship. The very concept of marital rape is foreign to many religions, which give a husband unlimited access to the wife. Female genital mutilation is frequently defended on the basis of Islam. Some punishment sanctioned by the Koran and the Sharia laws are “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” to women.
There can be no doubt that the control of women’s bodies has been central preoccupation of many, if not most, religions of the world. In a wide range of cases, they violate some of the most basic right of a human being.
Education and JOBS
Nothing is more important to women’s life chances than education. With education a woman may consider her options and to some extent shape her future. With education she may get a job, start a business, do her own accounts, read an important notice that comes to her in the mail. She may question traditions and discover how women in other parts of the world are managing to live better.
Women‘s educational opportunities and achievements are dramatically limited in many nations including India. As per 2011 census, India’s overall literacy rate was 74.04 %( China-96.4%) but women’s literacy rate was only 65.5%. Kerala has the highest female literacy rate (92%) among the Indian states followed by Mizoram (89%).In Odisha the, the male literacy rate was 73.5% but the female literacy rate was only 50.97%. Among the Oriya women the lowest literacy level was in Nabarangpur district (21%) and in Malkangiri(21%).
According to 2015 statistics only 35.3% of India’s female population over 25 has some form of secondary education. Based on 2013 statistics, the percentage female students enrolled in undergraduate degree programs were 46%.The percentage female students were, 51% in medicine, 40% in IT, 35% in management, 32% in law and 28.5% in engineering. All these are hopeful numbers.
However the overall labor participation of women in India is only 29%. The share of central government jobs held by women in India is only 10%. Only 15.45% of IAS officers were women. Out of 323 top CEOS of Indian companies only 8(2.5%) are women. Women earn 56% of what their male colleague earn for performing the same job.
Rights of Property and Family Law
Artcle 15 of the women’s convention (cedaw) insists on women’s equality before the law. Women are to have equal rights to enter into contracts,equal property rights, and have equal treatment before courts and tribunals. This is simply not the case in many countries of the world, including India.Under traditional Islamic law, women are explicitly unequal.In india and Bangladesh , there are some laws governed by religious norms and some by secular laws. In both situations women are treated unequally with men. In India secular marriage is available as an option, but secular divorce is not. Acouple must appeal for divorce to the religion of their birth.
Reproductive Rights
International human right activists agree that women’s access to contraceptions is extremely important women’s right. It gives women reproductive control and protection against some sexually transmitted diseases(condom and diaphagram). Islam and Catholic Church oppose birth control abd abortion. Fortunately, In India women have legal right to birth control and abortion evnthough many of them do not have access to these services, especially in rural areas.
Rights of Political Participation and Speech
Even though women have held high offices including that of the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker of the LokSabha, Leader of the Opposition, many Governors and Chief Ministers only 12% of the Indian members of the Parliament are women. Out of 4896 MPS/MLAS across the country, only 418 or 9%are women. This is very sad statistic, 70 years after independence. In Odisha, out of 147 MLAs only 11(7%) are women.
Even though India does not officially suppress women’s speech, but the fear of offending the religious and the political authorities does at times pose a threat to free speech.
Conclusion
The Indian Constitution (1950) in its enumerated Fundamental Rights include a right for all persons to equal protection of the laws and also a right to nondiscrimination on the ground of “religion, caste, sex or place of birth”. The Constitution (Article17) also abolished “untouchability”. Unfortunately 67 years later, discrimination based on caste, sex, and religion continues in India.
While the educated urban middle class women’s rights continue to improve, it is not the case for vast majority of women in India. India’s maternal deaths from child birth and infant mortality rates are unacceptably high. Female infanticide is common. Women’s access to healthcare is limited. Women’s literacy rate and labor force participation rate is lower than that of men. Percentage of women in political office and high power jobs are very low. Women are also paid less than men for similar jobs. On the whole in Indian culture women are valued less than men.
No nation can claim to be free and prosperous, where half of its people are being oppressed and neglected. All developmental experts agree on at least one point-that sustainable and long-term development is not possible without the full participation and empowerment of women. We should remember Pandit Nehru’s observation that “you can tell the condition of a Nation by looking at the status of its women”. If we apply Pandit Nehru’s criterion, India Gender Equity Index ranking of 125 among 188 countries in the world is nothing but shameful after 70 years of independence. India has a long way to go make life better for her women citizen. It is time all of us work at it.
To rectify the present situation India should reserve certain percentage of all the political offices (from panchayat to MlAs, MPs) for women until their numbers come close to that of men.