Â
On December 16th 2012 a woman was raped and later died due to an abusive gang rape in New Delhi, India. Just over a month later on January 11th, a similar crime was committed but luckily the victim still has her life. After these events were publicised, came an out roar for a change in India’s justice system and called for the prosecution of the men involved in the rape of both victims. There have been constant protests in India and across the world to bring attention to the violence against women and children cases and issues in India. It is known by many that India has serious and deeply imbedded issues in regards to the treatment and social standing of women and girls, but not many outside of Indian know why the problem exists in the first place.
Though today, the world has opened its eyes to the sexual violence cases in India, it should be known that rape is only one piece of the distorted puzzle concerning Indian women and girls. The problem literally starts from the beginning; the beginning of a girl’s life. Selective abortion is extremely popular and has been officially addressed as a crime in India. But still, couples are still finding ways to discover the sex of their unborn child and abort the pregnancy solely based on whether the fetus is male or female. According to Dr Anklesaria, who is also former president of Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecological Society of India, ‘over 78% of pregnancies and 25% are undesired’. As a result to selective abortions India has an odd sex ratio of 933 women to every 1000 men with an extremely low ratio in some provinces like Danam and Dui where the ratio is 710 women per 1000 men. In comparison to Canada, where women outnumber men on a large scale, it can be a foreign concept to digest the fact that women are not as respected as we are here at home.
Of course each culture has their own differences when compared. Indian culture, as do most cultures, favour men over women. The favouritism exists for a number of reasons. Firstly, girls can be seen as a financial burden to their family. As a custom, the bride’s family is expected to pay for all or most wedding costs when she is to be married. Indian weddings can cost a substantial amount of money that would put just about any family anywhere in debt. On top of that, though it is illegal in India, some families as still expected to pay a dowry which is a sum of money given to the groom’s family as a sort of payment for the marriage which could also be quite expensive.
Since families do not want to pay these wedding cost many reframe from baring female children all together. Though, as marriage is important in a majority of societies, there are less women available for marriage as the country is lacking in women all together. As a result women have become the victims of crimes like kidnapping and abduction, torture, rape harassment and even the importation of potential wives.
The Indian government has been making changes to address this issue by development a “Family Planning” program. This program not only covers healthy pregnancy methods, financial aid but also implements birth control programs that are supposed reduce selective abortion and general population growth. But anywhere from 20% to 40% of women (depending on the province) are not meeting the Family Planning expectations as said in India’s 2012 Annual Health Survey. Though at least the Indian government is recognizing that there is a problem and need to take steps to mix it.
This status of women in India has deprived some girls of the chance to be educated and of potential job opportunities. In a system that is preventing them the chance to get out of this cycle of neglect and abuse there is no other way to change things for women than to not only put laws in place but to implement them heavily. This is what the women and men of India, the ones that cry, screams and heartache for change are doing when they protest against the recent rape crimes that have been committed.
As for the rape cases, the men are still on trial but there has been a media ban on the trials.
Crimes against humanity like the ones committed against women in India occur all over the world. It is clear that there needs to be a worldwide change of the world’s view on women and their relationship to society in a positive way.Â
Â
Photo credits:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121230121105-02-india-rape-1230-horizontal-gallery.jpg
http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/world_news/2013/01/india_rape_victim_vigil_234_N2.jpg