Hunger and Disease With Women in India.
Michael
As a whole, India is the second-most populous country in the world, and faces severe problems with poverty and disease. However, both of these problems have a major driving force in the treatment of women in India. Oftentimes, especially in rural India, women are considered to be second place to men. Women are the last to eat, the least educated, and the most (Coonrad). As a result of these discriminations, many women live at the worst end of the spectrum of Indian life, due to the social status given to them.
In Indian tradition, women are always treated as second-class. Although the Indian constitution considers women as equals to men, social traditions are much more difficult to remove from the people. These traditions are what keep a woman in India down in many rights which they should share equally with men. According to Coonrad, the main rule governing women is that “nothing must be done independently, even if it is her own house.” These rules, passed down from patriarch to patriarch, show that this prejudice is long-standing and hard to remove. However, it is one of the main sources of India’s problems.
This treatment of women supports disease and poverty in India. Women, being the ones that the last and the least, are always the ones who are the most malnourished. This then leads to the malnourished children they give birth to , perpetuating the cycle of hunger (Coonrad). Also, they are also in charge of taking care of their entire families, meaning that they must continuously work all their lives, leading to stress related issues. And finally, they always receive less health care than men. These problems and more perpetuate the condition of women in India, and demonstrates the brutality of these social standards.
Work Cited
Coonrad, Carol S. "Chronic Hunger and the Status of Women in India." Empowering Women and Men to End Their Own Hunger. The Hunger Project, June 1998. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.thp.org/reports/indiawom.htm>
Stacy
ReplyDeleteMichael I agree with the point that you're making. Women are the primary people that are needed to change the issue with hunger in India (Coonrad). Women are constantly discriminated against in many aspects in society. Women are discriminated against in many areas which are malnutrition, poor health, lack of education, overwork, unskilled, mistreatment and powerless (Coonrad). The fact that women in India are so discriminated against increases their chance in disease, hunger and death. The fact that India has always discriminated against women, which is shown through their history, only shows that these discriminations will be hard to get rid of because they have gotten so use to these ways. Women suffer from hunger and diseases a lot more than men do in India because they have always been so discriminated against.
Work Cited
Coonrad, Carol S. "Chronic Hunger and the Status of Women in India." Empowering Women and Men to End Their Own Hunger. The Hunger Project, June 1998. Web. 08 May 2012.
Radhika
ReplyDeleteMike, your characterization of the poverty that is forced upon Indian women is accurate, but only to a certain degree. With the advent of modernity, the role of Indian women is drastically changing, especially in rural areas, where they were once subjugated to the will of their husbands. In areas such as rural Andhra Pradesh, “thousands of poor literate women are spearheading a silent social revolution.” (worldbank) Women are beginning to break the constraints of male dominance within the familial structure, and are realizing ways of breaking the cycle of poverty in their communities. For example, Gerame Wheeler, the world bank’s visiting MD, visited with one of the scarce programs that fight poverty in India - the indira Kranti Patham (IKP). Wheeler’s article mentions that a woman he met with named Jankamma broke the cycle of poverty and disease by borrowing 150 Rupees, approximately 3 dollars to feed her family. She then began borrowing and investing amassing a “princely sum of RS 120,000” to help her son study to become an accountant. Her son now earns about 20,000 a month, and has allowed his family to live comfortably economically. Though sons are traditionally favored, women are also investing money in their daughters’ education, as mentioned by Wheeler. Though women are considered inferior, they are slowly gaining the respect of their husbands because they are taking the initiative to break their families out of the cycle of poverty and disease. Though this is a small example of an emerging social revolution, it is definitely overshadowed by other cases of women who do not have the initiative or ability to begin standing on their own to fight this problem.
Works Cited:
"Resources For." India. 23 Oct. 2006. Web. 09 May 2012. .
Michael, you bring up a good point about the lack of women rights, but I feel times have changed. Women’s participation in the economy has grown in the past 30 years as expanding economic opportunities have drawn many female workers into the market. Industrialization has placed more importance on brains. Physical labor is done by machines. Freed from physical labor, women have started getting educated and joining the work force. Women’s representation in the government have also increased during the past two decades. For example, "women’s share of seats in national legislatures creased from 10 percent to 17 percent worldwide... and all but 1 of the 10 countries without women’s suffrage in 1980 have since granted women the right to vote." (Gender Equality 8)
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
"GENDER EQUALITY AND FEMALE EMPOWERMENT." U.S.Agency for International Development, Mar. 2012. Web. 09 May 2012. .
Michael
ReplyDeleteStacy, I thank you for agreeing with me on this topic. I do feel that these women's rights are suppressed. These patriarchal traditions are a major point, creating more death in India as a whole. However, I now realize that what Radhika and Catherine are saying have large merit. It's a valid point that this always changing, and the Indian world is no different. The sentiments of the rural women of India are beginning to change as the advent of the independent woman is beginning to affect the Indian psyche. Women are beginning to realize that an independent life with equal rights is becoming almost an necessity to live in these modern times.