Status of Women

I was looking on the internet for a quote relating to society respecting women and prosperity dwelling thereupon. I have heard it before. I thought there would be a sanskrit quote. But looks like there is none. If anyone of you know let me know by posting a comment. But I found one by Sathya Sai Baba. Here it is.

"Wherever women are honored there is prosperity and happiness. Women should never be slighted or treated with disrespect. A home in which the housewife sheds tears will be bereft of all prosperity. This is the ancient conception of the role of women in the home”.

It looks like in ancient India, women enjoyed more respect and freedoms than what we see today. It is evident from the concept of female goddesses and the existence of many literate and great women in the puranas (mythological stories). This concept is not seen in the west. It looks like the status of women was reduced because of invasions from middle eastern countries. Some people say that the practice of child marriage that was prevalent even to the early 1900s started because the invading armies were kidnapping young unmarried girls but were not taking away those who were married. To avoid their girls being taken away, people started marrying girls before puberty! Anyway, history is of not much importance to me but I would like to stress the problems faced by women and the Indian society as a whole in the present day.

1) Dowry
No one knows who in history came up initially with the concept of dowry, but that person or persons are responsible for a lot of ugly karma that happens today because of dowry. This practice has created a great frustration and unease in the society. It is one of the traditional practices or parampara that needs to be dropped immediately. It is prevalent among almost all sections of the Indian society irrespective of religion, caste, language. The severity varies among different castes with the maximum amounts seen in landlord or feudal castes.

Dowry system is one of the major factor that is hindering the people in the society from living happily and without worries. It is the major reason for peoples preferring a male child over a female child and the cause of the most evil practice of female foeticide that seems to be happening in India. People are worried right from the birth of a female child. Because the female child is seen as a liability, it gets lower status in home and gets lower priority in getting nutrition, education etc. This practice is causing misery for lots of parents with girl children. Also because of the lower status, a girl child is expected to be very obedient and disciplined by restricting her wishes and dreams and carry on like this so that she will be easily accepted as a bride by an other family even though her parents cannot afford to pay a big sum in dowry. I have to clarify that not every section of society is involved in receiving dowry. But the percentage is big. The progressive percentage is lower.

2) Female Foeticide & Dharmic religion take on abortion
Though India has banned the determination of a baby's gender before it is born, the modern techniques can show this and some people are taking advantage of it and terminating pregnancies with female fetuses. Again please do not jump at me. This is a very small percentage but it is being reported in news. Here I have to talk about dharmic religions take on abortions. A soul or consciousness chooses its parents from the very many choices available to it according to its karmic baggage. The intention of the consciousness is to take up the body to work out its karma. Selective to gender or not, abortion is ugly ugly ugly karma. I think abortion can be justified only in the cases of rape (where the rapist accumulates the bad karma) or if there is a major flaw in fetus formation. But if a couple do not want kids, they should take the proper precautions available to them.

3) Eve Teasing
To some extent boys and girls teasing each other is natural and fun as long as it is consensual. But there is a term called eve teasing in India which is only one way and done by force. It takes up ugly proportions and go as far as rape and throwing acid! Yes, it is true throwing acid! The ugly practice has its roots in mans lust and it is magnified by the separation of genders culture (which has eased a lot now). Boys and girls do not get to interact much thanks to the middle eastern invasions again. Also we see in the news that most of the worst eve teasers are boys of politicians and police officers who abuse power.

4)The Monsters in Law
To end this in a comedic note again, mother-in-law and father-in-law are a big problem not only in Indian society but everywhere I guess. They are literally monsters. This problem has its roots in ego and this problem is the most difficult to solve! Father-in-law can be excused because he is not a woman but I have no sympathies with a bad mother-in-law. If she suffered due to her in-laws it is not good thinking on her part to carry that parampara. It is just accumulating bad karma. If you really had issues with your bad mother-in-law, give her a hard time when she is a old woman and about to die if you really really cannot forgive her. If you did not get a chance to settle scores, I pity you. (But remember forgiveness is always the best karma.) But don't take it on your daughter-in-law. You will be accumulating more bad karma. This women problem is very difficult to solve and I think the male chauvinist Manu guy recognized it well. Ditch the Manu and let Buddha or Krishna help you.

Because of the large percentage of stereotyped in-laws prejudices are built up and the new daughter-in-law also is very cautious from the beginning and could give a hard time to in-laws also.

I might be expanding this post more or add a follow up post after you send in your comments.