WOmen in India

"Break Silence! They want to break our success. Time demands that we break this silence. If we are raising our voice, why should they get angry? We are fighting so that we have equality. We are fighting so that we have dignity. We are fighting so that we have justice. We are fighting for women's liberation. Break Silence! They are scared of our strength. They are scared of our struggles. They are scared of our unity. They are scared of our organization. They are scared of our emancipation. Hence, they are trying to break us by creating barriers of religions, caste, ethnicity, and tradition. Break Silence!" (Women's Rights Song, Desai & Patel, pg 86).

Women have long been fighting for equal rights in every sphere of society. Those in the western world have been luckier. They are not faced with the daily conflict of discrimination like those who live in third-world countries. Westerners can go to school, vote, and work whereas there are still women in developing countries which cannot. The song above is an example of women in a developing country, fighting for their own rights. Its origin is from India.

Indian women have had an extremely difficult time developing under the oppression of a male-dominated soci

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For example, to stop the problems caused by child-marriages, the age of consent was changed to twenty-one for men and eighteen for women, but some families who hold strict values go against this if they want their children married at a younger age. Only as long as the woman is married. Prithvi Nath Tikoo identifies that "the treatment of women in ancient Indian culture was, however, different. This organization outlines its objectives and strategies as follows: "To unionize women workers of the informal sector on trade lines, providing a social platform.

There have also been many legislative programs set up by the government to assist working women in India. This in an excellent example of an organization which helps women go to work, and still be responsible for their child-rearing duties. There si a general belief of parents that if their daughter does not marry, she will go to hell, and any woman in this society which does not marry is not seen as a real woman.

The plight of women becomes very apparent in the sphere of marriage. Perhaps they will one day have the tools to head toward independence. They seem to have failed in their life's ambitions. Another successful program which has been set up to help working women is a voluntary organization that runs a day-care facility for women construction workers. These women are subject not only to their fathers, but after marriage, are subject to their husbands and in-laws. Tikoo gives an example of another phenomenon, "where the son and a daughter are studying in some school or college, it is always the daughter who is asked to perform all of the culinary operations. Although the Indian women's workforce is still relatively new, it has had some real successes (as well as failures) along the way, and some of the organizations involved are beginning to make a true difference in women's lifestyles.

Approximate Word count = 2637
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

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