Write an essay on Indian Society and the Status of Woman
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Indian Society and the Status of Women
The status of women in ancient India was quite high esteemed however it got deteriorated with the passage of time and mentality of people towards women. Slowly the practice of polygamy, sati pratha, dowry system, female infanticide, etc became dominated and gave rise to the male dominated country. Great Indian leaders had worked a lot to again raise the status of women in the Indian society. Because of their hard work bad practices against women in the Indian society have been banned to a great extent. Government of India has implemented various effective laws regarding safety and empowerment of the women. In the Panchayati Raj system around 33% of the seats are reserved for women thus women are being more conscious and come forward to fight for their rights. In the past few millennium, various great changes has occur in the status of women in India. There has been promotion of equal sex rights to a great extent in the recent decades. Earlier the women were responsible to the household activities and strictly restricted to the outside activities. Women in ancient India were responsible to care their husbands and kids as their primary duty. Women were not allowed to enjoy equally as men. In the early Vedic period, it is noted that women were well educated (in the work of ancient Indian grammarians like Patanjali, Katyayana etc).
According to the Rigvedic verses, women were getting married at their mature age and free to select their own life partner at that time. Gargi and Maitreyi are two great and notable women sages who have been mentioned in the Rig Veda and Upanishads scriptures. According to the history, women status was started declining with the Smritis (Manusmriti). Gradually the freedom and rights of women was curtailed due to the Islamic invasion and Christianity. Then women in India started facing confinement and restrictions due to the bad practices in the society like Sati pratha, child marriages, child labor, parda pratha, ban on widow remarriages, etc.
Purdah practice was brought in the Indian society by the Muslim conquest in Indian subcontinent. Jauhar was practiced by the Rajputs of Rajasthan whereas Devadasis in temples were sexually exploited by the rich people. However, now-a-days, women are participating in every areas of work (like politics, social work, IT field, driving, etc) without getting fear. Women are leading in many areas of work even they are showing much interest and performing better than men. We cannot say that status of women in the Indian society has been fully developed but it is continuously going up as women are being more conscious about their rights. Improvement in the status of women changes the social and economic status of the country. Status of women in the Indian society is much better than the women in other developing countries. However, it is not enough to say that status of women have been completely improved in India. In such a competitive world, Indian women are being well conscious about their rights and privileges in various fields. They are being more conscious about their professional career (socially, politically, economically and educationally) by following their all the responsibilities towards family.
Women are actively participating in the democratic process and elections which is quite more impressive in enhancing their status. Women participation in any area of work is increasing day by day than men such as number of women voters is increasing than men voters on the days of polling. Some of the great Indian women leaders, social reformers, social workers, administrators, and literary personalities who have changed the women status a lot are Indira Gandhi, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, Annie Besant, Mahadevi Verma, Sachet Kripalani, P.T. Usha, Amrita Pritam, Padmaja Naidu, Kalpana Chawla, Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, Mother Teresa, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, etc. Women have been started participating as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, etc in various fields like social, economical, political, educational, scientific and other nation- building activities. They are doing hard work in performing professional as well as household responsibilities very actively. Even after huge level improvement in the women status in India, they are still exploited and abused in many ways like rape, sex discrimination, etc.
Regarding women safety and reduce crime against women, government of India has passed another Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015 replacing the earlier Indian juvenile delinquency law of 2000. This act is passed especially after the Nirbhaya case when a accused juvenile was released. According to this act, the juvenile age has been 16 years from 18 years in cases of heinous offenses.