GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA

Introduction:-

Gender is a common term where as gender discrimination is meant

only for women, because females are the only victims of gender
discrimination. Gender discrimination is not biologically determined but
it is determined by socially and the discrimination can be changed by the
proper and perpetuate efforts. Denial of equality, rights and opportunity
and suppresment in any form on the basis of gender is gender
discrimination.
Half of the world’s population is females. They are doing two-third
of work of the total work in the world but received only one-tenth of the
world’s total income. Nearly two-third of the women is illiterates and
they have possessed only one percent of the total world’s assets. In the
world only one-fourth of the families are headed by female. India is a
male dominant society and gender discrimination is customised
habitually.

Discrimination
From web to death females are facing lots of
discrimination against them. Some of them are:-
 Abortion of female gravida with the help of
scanning.
 Feoticide (By giving liquid extract from cactus / opuntia, giving
…… raw paddy to new born female baby, by pressing the face by pillow
or by breaking the female baby’s neck).
 Not giving enough and nutritious food.
 Not allowing to go to school (Denial of education)
 Not giving needy health care while in ill health
 Early marriage
 Eve teasing, Rape and Sexual harassment
 Dowry, Divorce, Destitution even for silly or without any reason.
Causes of Gender Discrimination
The causes of gender discrimination are
 Educational backwardness.
 Caste
 Religious beliefs
 Culture
 On the name of family history
 Customs and beliefs
 Races
 Low income
 Unemployment
 Society
 Family situation and
 Attitudes
Like male or even above them female plays important role in the
family and national development. But her contribution is not recognized
by the male dominant society.
Importance of Women in Development
Females are nearly 50 per cent of the total
population but their representation in public life is
very low. Woman continues to bear the major load of
the household work. Her primary role is often viewed
by the society as housewife.

In cardinal goals of democracy “of the people, by the people and

for the people” cannot be optimically accomplished if the female
population remains out of political empowerment. Subordination of
women in society acts a structural constraint to their participation in
political activities. This constraint operates more or less for all classes
and communities of women. Prevalent culture which is very complicated
and often decisions are taken behind the scene may be regarded as
another constraint in this regard.

Recognising women’s rights and believing their ability are

essential for women’s empowerment and development. Females should
realize their own capabilities and potentials which will strengthen their
self image and foster them with confidence to take action in life.
Political empowerment does not imply just a right to role silently but to
discuss, share and empower politics by knowing its pros and cons and
thereby to influence policies and decision making.
Empowering women is the basic to the basics of human rights
where she wants neither to beg for power nor search for power hierarchy
to exercise power against others. On the contrary she demands to be
accepted as human first of all. She as a person in command of herself
and for that necessarily all the resources physical, social, economical,
political, cultural and spiritual to be equally accessible to her, are
prerequisite for considering the whole question of empowerment.
Indian society is inherited with male chauvinism but now the
society has started to realize women’s importance and has being
accepted women’s empowerment, women as an active agent for
development, participation in and guiding their own development.
Factors affecting overall sex ratio:

The overall sex ratio is the result of the factors such as,
the sex ratio of the new born babies are sex ratio at birth, the sex ratio of
the deceased persons and the sex ratio of the net migrants.

Sex ratio at Birth:

There is no 1:1 ratio of male and female births. The number of male
babies is always slightly higher. Sex ratio of birth is above thousand.
There are 105 male babies per thousand female babies. Sex ratio of birth
is determined biologically. Nature is slightly more favourable to male at
birth. The sex ratio at birth depends upon the sex ratios of two biological
antecedent events that are sex ratio at the time conception and sex ratio
of fetus losses of deaths.

The sex of foetus is determined at the time of fertilization

but there is no direct means of observing this ratio at conception. The
indirect estimates suggest that the sex ratio at conception known as the
primary sex ratio is much higher than the sex ratio of live birth or fetal
deaths. The sex ratio of fatal deaths (gestation period of 20 weeks or
more). In United States during 1940-44 was higher i.e., 119.8 as
compared to that of live births i.e. 105.2.

Through the sex ratio at birth is determined primarily

by biological factors some demographic factors such as age of mothers
and order of live births also influence the sex ratio. There appears to be
an inverse relationship between age of the mothers and the birth order of
the child on the one hand and the sex ratio at birth on the other. Among
the lower order births, specially the first and second order births the sex
ratios are higher, which means more male babies are born among the
first and second bond.

Lower order births are associated with the

lower ages of mothers, hence the negative relationship between the age
of the mother and the sex ratio of the births. As the sex ratio at birth is
higher for first and second order births the result was an increased sex
ratio of the births. After the first and second world wars in the European
countries the sex ratio at birth had increased and some biologists
believed that some Meta biological force was in operation. Also, pre
birth interventions such as sex selective abortions were performed after
the pre determination of the sex of the foetus can influence the ratio at
birth. In India, sex selective abortions were more common. A large
number of couples practice induced abortions of the female foetus and
hence sex ratio at birth has increasingly favourable to male babies.

Sex Ratio of Deceased persons:

 Differential mortality of the males and females is an important
factor affecting the overall sex ratio and the sex ratio at various wages.
Data and sex ratio of the dead in various countries indicate that with the
exception of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh the value of sex ratios of
diseased much above 1000. In other words more than thousand males
per thousand females. The male foetus is biologically, more delicate
than the female foetus.

It means that even after the birth the

male baby continues to be biologically disadvantaged. The fact is
reflected in the higher male mortality rates not only in the first day, in
the first week and in the first month and in the first year but throughout
life. In fact, in most countries the crude death rates for males are higher
than those of females.

It has also been observed that the expectations of life

at birth for females are almost universally higher than that for females
including India. As age advances the sex ratio exhibits an increasingly
numerical access of females according to 1959 census in Soviet Union
there are 21 million more females than males. Wars widen the gap
between males and females as is observed during the Second World War
period. The Holy Quran permitted “Polygamy” (allowing male to marry
maximum four females). Because females are access in number and they
should not remain unmarried because of shortage of males.

Sex Ratio at Net Migrants:

The third factor affecting the overall sex ratio of any

population is sex ratio of the net migrants which essentially socio
economic in nature. Migration is ordinarily sex selective but it cannot
have significant impact on the sex structure of the population. In India,
the sex ratio in urban areas is favourable to males because of male
domination in internal migration.

Table -1 Gender Ratio in India, 1901-2001

Sl. Gender Ratio Gender Ratio

No. Year F/M M/F per 1000

per 1000

(1) (2) (3) (4)

1 1901 972 1029

2 1911 964 1038

3 1921 955 1047

4 1931 950 1053

5 1941 945 1058

6 1951 946 1057

7 1961 941 1063

8 1971 930 1075

9 1981 934 1071

10 1991 927 1079

11 2001 933 1072

 Sex ratio is a crucial indicator of development in a
population. The analysis is mostly used in sociological analysis. India is
an exceptional country where females are less in number as compared to
males, up to the last century. Women are fewer than men in almost all
the states in India, except Kerala. However, the expectation of life for
females crossed males in the recent years. In India discrimination
against female sex is prevailing centuries together and the situation has
deteriorated over time.

The sex ratio in India was presented in Table No. 1. The table
reveals that this has declined to 927 in 1991, and increased slightly to
933 in 2001. This is a peculiar manifestation of continuing gender
inequality and it accentuations are clearly observed in the Indian
scenario. Table 1 and 2 clearly show sex discrimination existing in India
and among States during 1901 and 2001. Most of the states in India
registered a decline in sex ratio during the last one century. The highest
decline was observed in Bihar, Orissa, M.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu
and Gujarat. The states that have registered an important in the sex ratio
are Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. However, the deductive in
sex ratio is low among the states of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Assam
and West Bengal. The highest sex ratio is noticed in Kerala and lowest
in Haryana in 2001.

Table – 2 Sex Ratios in India and Major States (Female/Male\) 1901 and 2001
Sl. 1901 2001 Chang 2001
No. State F/M F/M e M/F

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

1 India 972 933 (-) 39 1072

Andhra
2 Pradesh 985 978 (-) 7 1022

3 Assam 919 932 (-) 13 1073

4 Bihar 1054 920 (-) 134 1086

5 Gujarat 954 921 (-) 33 1086

Himachal
6 Pradesh 884 970 (+) 86 1131

7 Haryana 867 861 (-) 6 1161

8 Kerala 1004 1058 (+) 54 945

9 Karnataka 983 963 (-) 20 1037

10 Orissa 1037 972 (-) 65 1029

11 Maharashtra 978 922 (-) 56 1085

Madhya
12 Pradesh 990 920 (-) 70 1087

13 Punjab 832 847 (+) 42 1144

14 Rajasthan 905 922 (-) 17 1085

15 Uttar Pradesh 937 898 (-) 39 1114

16 Tamil Nadu 1044 986 (-) 58 1014

 17 West Bengal 945 919 (-) 26 1071

Sex discrimination is more pronounced among young age groups

which is called Jovialities sex ratio. Sex discrimination exists in the
specific age groups especially at the very young ages and in the
childhood ages. The childhood sex ratio was 945 in 1991 and 927 in
2001 in India. Similar situation was observed among the different states
in India. In Andhra Pradesh in 1991 and it declined to 939 in 2001 and
in Kerala the childhood sex ratio was 958 in 1991 and it increased to
963 in 2001.

Factors for paucity of females in India:

1. Higher mortality of females (young girls, maternal mortality, female

infanticide)

2. Change in sex ratio at birth (Because of sex selectivity induced

abortions) is becoming more and more favourable to men.

3. To a certain extent differential under counting (however differential

under counting of girls cannot explain the decline in child sex ratio
during 1981-91 and 1991-2001.)

Throughout the census history of India till 1991 the

main factor responsible for numerical deficit of females was access
female mortality. Praveen Visaria observed that access of males is due
to unusually high mortality among females compared to that of males in
India. Amarthya Sen felt that there are 37 million women missing in
India.

Conclusion -:
There is no sustainable development without gender
equality and from a development perspective; the world may miss
accomplishable targets because of gender-inequality. (“Without Firm
Action”) Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and
therefore also half its potential. “We need to be gender specific when it
comes to employment and companies could see the benefits of hiring
women - and break the stereotypical view.

An equal society begins with women

reclaiming there strong voice, and then gender wouldn’t be as much of a
relation of power. Gender equality is a fundamental right which
contributes to a healthy society fill with respect full relationship between
one another.