ROLE OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

In contemporary India, women occupy paradoxical status. On one hand, there are Goddesses featuring in the “Hindu” pantheon and revered by men. On the other hand, some wives are burnt because they didn’t bring enough “dowry”; women are victimized by powerful local political figures and their family; some women are abducted by rich youths with impunity; and there are credible stories of female infanticide in rural India. Surely, these cases are not the norm. Nevertheless, it is horrifying to see that they happen. Compared to the status of women in Japan, Indian women enjoy equal status socially, economically, and politically; the mal-treatment of women using misinterpreted religious laws in many Islamic countries is absent in India; etc.

Since independence, the pace of change in the role and status of women in India has been greatly accelerated. By virtue of various acts and statutes -- the Child Marriage Act – the role and status of women has risen quite high. However the...