Gender Equality in India

Are there any issues related to

one’s gender in contemporary
India?

What do you think?

1. Dr. Padmavati Iyer, aka the god of cardiology in India is the
first Indian woman cardiologist.
2. Out of 58.5 million entrepreneurs in India there are 8.05
million women.
3. Department of space (DOS) of India has 17. 64 percentage of
women personnel .
4. Indian Army has 1561 women officers .
5. 78women MPs in Parliament.
According to WHO “ Gender refers to the
socially constructed characteristics of
women and men, such as norms, roles, and
relationships of and between groups of
women and men.
Good Looking, Responsible, Strong, Rational,
Protective, Hard Working, Bread Earner,
Homemaker, Sensitive, Emotional, Courageous,
Compassionate,
1. Female Foeticide
2. Sexual and Physical Abuse
3. Dowry
4. Lack of Education
5. Food Habits
•In 1991, the child sex ratio in India was 947 girls to 1000 boys. In
2001, it had fallen to 927 girls for 1000 boys. There are 900 girls
for every 1,000 boys, according to the Sample Registration
System (SRS) 2013-15.
The normal sex ration at birth is 943-980 girls for thousand
boys.
•In India, the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic
Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (amended
in 2003) prohibits sex-selection or disclosure of the sex of the
foetus. It also prohibits sale of “any ultrasound machine or any
other equipment capable of detecting sex of foetus” to persons,
laboratories and clinics not registered under the Act.
According to the Population Research Institute, at least
12,771,043 sex-selective abortions had taken place in India
between 2000 and 2014. It takes the daily average of sex-
selective abortion to 2,332.
-The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has
acknowledged that illegal abortions still outnumber legal
abortions and thousands of women die every year due to
complications resulting from unsafe abortions.
- Maharastra, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh,
Haryana are the states with highest number of sex
selective abortions.
- Abortion is more among the rich and literate states.
Dr. Mitu Khurana and her Twin
Daughters
•Women are abused regardless of their age.
•In most of the cases of sexual exploitation the perpetrator is
someone who is known to the child.
•25% of rapes of child laborers in the year 2015 were committed
by their employers and co-workers. This fact has been extracted
from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2015 data on
the 8,800 child rape cases registered using the Protection of
Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
•488 cases saw the victim raped by grandfathers, brothers,
fathers and even sons.
•Uttar Pradesh led the highest number of child abuse cases
(3,078) followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,687 cases), Tamil Nadu
(1,544 cases), Karnataka (1,480 cases) and Gujarat (1,416 cases).
•India is the most dangerous country for women- Thompson
Reuter’s Foundation.
•While marital rape gets documented in hospitals, cases are
rarely registered, since it is excluded from the India Penal Code’s
(IPC) definition of rape.
•According to the NCRB, 24,923 cases of rape were reported in
2012 amounting to one rape every 22 minutes.
•Rape cases go unreported.
•Even the elderly women are not spared.
The number of cases reported under Dowry Prohibition Act
during 2015- in Uttar Pradesh was 2766 , in Jharkhand was
1552, in Bihar was 1867, in Karnataka was 1541, in Odisha was
1201 , in Tamil Nadu was 333, in Andhra Pradesh was 303, in
Assam was 95, in Madhya Pradesh was 62, in Maharashtra was
42.
According to the census conducted by the ministry of human
resource development in 2011, 62.1 million children are out of
school in India.
Early marriage, poverty, lack of safety in schools and low
aspirations related to girls’ education also lead to them
dropping out.
According to the recent Annual survey of Educational Report,
on average the difference between enrolment levels of boys and
girls at age 14 are declining, by 18, when the state doesn’t enforce
compulsory education through the RTE Act, 32% girls are not
enrolled—compared to 28% boys.
Laws to ensure Gender Equality in India

Equal Remuneration Act, 1973 provides for payment of equal

remuneration to men and women workers for the same work of
similar nature without any discrimination.

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 regulates employment of

women in certain establishments for a certain period (12 weeks)
before and after childbirth and provides for maternity and other
benefits.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention,

Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 has been enacted, which
covers all women, irrespective of their age or employment status
and protect them against sexual harassment at all workplaces
both in public and private sector, whether organised or
unorganised.