India Women

India women in society.

The professions are still male dominated, but India women are making inroads. For women living in villages it’s not that easy, but the Self-Employed Women’s Association offers lobbying power against discriminatory and exploitative work practices and aims to enable India women to actively participate in the mainstream economy and to attain empowerment and self-reliance through financial autonomy.

Arranged marriages are still normal and village girls may well be married off while still in their early teens to men they have never met before. Then they go live in the man’s village where she has to do manual labor (at half the wages of a man), raise children and keep house. The India women have no property rights if their husbands own land.

The urban, middle-class India women have a more comfortable life, but pressure still exists. They may have gotten education, but only because this will improve their marriage prospects. Once married, they are expected to ‘fit-in’ with their in-laws, and if they fail to live up to expectations, the consequences can be dire.

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