Women's Security in India / Delhi Bus Rape 2012

A gang rape aboard a bus in Delhi in December 2012 provoked an outpouring of public anger, as crowds gathered in cities across India to demand the death penalty for the attackers involved. Government officials were slow to recognize that frustration at the vulnerability of women in India--a nation of global stature with a fast-growing economy and ingrained patriarchal traditions--may have reached a tipping point.

Equality for women has been a stated goal of government officials in India since it became an independent country in 1948. However, despite numerous laws written specifically to correct gaps in women's rights, population statistics show that women are systematically excluded from educational opportunities and economic participation. Women from elite families enjoy a high quality of life, but the great majority suffer lifelong effects from a culture of male bias, as seen in health and survival statistics. The low status of women is expressed in special forms of violence: female feticide, trafficking, dowry harassment, and rape. A saving grace in India is its political empowerment of women. Women serving in local government have brought visible change in parts of rural India. In cities, young women increasingly postpone marriage to pursue higher education and a career.

Key Events

• 1950: India's founding Constitution guarantees gender equality.
• 1956: Hindu Succession Act defines separate rules for inheritance of property by Hindu women, preserving religious tradition.
• 1961: Dowry Prohibition Act bans payments as a precondition of marriage.
• 1971: Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act legalizes abortion.
• 198: Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act gives precedence to Islamic law in marriage dissolution, preserving religious tradition and denying alimony to Muslim women.
• 1992: Amendments to the Constitution reserve one-third of seats in local government for women.
• 1994: Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act prohibits using a sonogram or other test to make an abortion decision based on gender.
• 2012: India is ranked 105 among 135 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum.

Key Case

Crowds Jam Capital in Protest against Rape on Delhi Bus

Protesters blocked the streets around government buildings in New Delhi every day for six days, expressing outrage after a 23-year-old student was raped on an off-duty charter bus that drove randomly around Delhi on a Saturday night. During the attack, which occurred December 15-16, 2012, the woman was raped by five men and a teenager, beaten, and violated with an iron rod. The brutality of the attack, and the random selection of the victim, unleashed a pent-up rage in the populace that caught officials by surprise. Police had to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds, which included young women and others who felt kinship with the victim--a physiotherapy student who was striving to better herself in a society that seemed to place a very low value on her life. Demonstrations broke out across the country with similar intensity. In Chirang, in northeast India, women surrounded a local politician accused of rape and beat and stripped him.

In the weeks following the attack, there was an airing of issues relating to the vulnerability of women in India and a great deal of discussion on penalties for rape. In February 2013, a new law was enacted setting minimum sentences for gang rape and allowing the death penalty in special circumstances. At the same time, according to press reports, there was an awareness that the passage of yet another law would not change the root causes of women's vulnerability. The victim of the bus rape died of her injuries on December 29, 2012.

In-Depth Description

The Global Gender Gap Report, issued annually since 2006 by the World Economic Forum, measures the status of women compared to men in 135 countries. India ranked 105th in 2012, an improvement over past rankings, which placed India around 113th. The improvement resulted from a higher rank in the subcategory of political empowerment, where India is among the best in the world--with a ranking of 17th. Rankings in other categories of women's welfare were correspondingly worse than the overall rating. These other categories and rankings were: economic participation (123rd), educational attainment (121st), and health/survival (134th).

Women in elite families have opportunities on par with those available in other large countries with vigorous economies. India's low rankings in education, work, and health reflect the disadvantaged condition of women in the middle classes and among the poor. The harshest effects of gender inequality are felt among the poor, who make up more than a quarter of India's population. The poor are predominantly Hindus from stigmatized or "scheduled" castes and Muslims.

Lower Birth Rate of Females

Worldwide, the ratio of women to men is 105 to 100. In India, the ratio is 93 women for every 100 men. Boys are more highly valued than girls in India's patriarchal culture, and the evidence is inescapable: the practice of aborting female fetuses is rampant. A study in the medical journal Lancet estimated the number of females not born in India each year at 500,000.

The reasons for preferring male children are economic as well as cultural. Boys can earn revenue for the family and will take care of their parents in old age, whereas girls eventually leave the family and must be provided with a dowry upon marriage. Female feticide is more common among the aspiring middle classes than among the poor--as shown by the greater discrepancy between female and male births in prosperous states, such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, and Maharashtra, and the still greater discrepancy in urban areas versus rural. The birth ratio in urban areas of Punjab is 79 females per 100 males.

There are 30,000 private clinics in India offering prenatal tests that can identify the sex of a fetus. A study of clinics in the state of Maharashtra found that 80 percent were in the five districts with the highest incomes and the lowest rates of female birth. Advertisements for the clinics proclaim: "It is better to pay 500 Rs now than 500,000 Rs later." Although prenatal testing to determine the sex of a fetus is more frequent in urban areas, there are nevertheless an estimated 15,000 unregistered portable ultrasound machines in India, which have made it easier for practitioners to provide the service in less populated areas.

A law against female feticide was passed in 1994, but few cases go to court.

Girls and Trafficking

Across all demographics, girls have fewer educational opportunities than boys. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), about half of Indian women are literate. The widest gender gap in literacy is among the poor. Scheduled-caste Hindu and Muslim girls average less than three years in school. Girls stay home to help with chores and are married off as soon as possible--nearly half before the legal age of 18. As they are less valued in the family, girls receive less nutrition and health support. More than half of Indian girls and women have anemia, compared to less than a quarter of males.

Paradoxically, rising prosperity in India's big cities has led to an increase in the exploitation of girls. Girls from poorer states, such as Assam and West Bengal, are trafficked to more prosperous states where demand for housemaids is growing among the middle classes. The girls receive low wages, which are typically paid to their employment agency. Some of the girls are sold into prostitution, but an even greater number are trafficked from Nepal--estimated at 10,000 girls per month between the ages of nine and 16. Human rights advocates characterize India as the world's busiest transit center in the slave trade, and the overwhelming majority of victims are female.

Marriage, Dowry, and Violence

It has been illegal since 1961 to require a dowry as a condition of marriage. However, the custom persists in the form of gifts to the bride from her family. She takes the gifts with her when she goes to live with her husband's family. The gifts typically include cash, jewelry, electronics--goods easily controlled by the husband. The expectation of a dowry is more prevalent in the aspiring middle classes than among the very rich or poor. Dowry amounts are negotiated in accordance with prevailing rates, which are conspicuously high for doctors, engineers, and large-scale farmers.

Traditionally, the dowry is viewed as compensation to the husband's family for supporting the wife (even though she is the primary subsistence worker in the household). The low status of a new wife in the husband's family is such that he may demand additional dowry payments. The bride's family usually tries to meet new demands to avoid the disgrace of seeing the wife evicted. In four out of five cases, dowry harassment begins within a few months after the marriage, and the bride is 15 to 18 years old. In cases that come to police attention, dowry harassment ends about 60 percent of the time in the wife's being abandoned and about 25 percent of the time in the wife's death--notoriously by fires in the kitchen. In 2010, more than 8,000 dowry-related deaths were reported officially. Unofficial estimates put the total number of dowry deaths at triple that amount.

More than 40 percent of wives in India do some form of work for an external employer. However, a large share of this employment falls below standards for a conventional job: 25 percent of these jobs pay no wages to the wife, and 12 percent pay in some form of barter. Among wives who receive wages, 14 percent report they have full autonomy in deciding how their income is spent, while 16 percent have no say whatsoever. In substantive decision making--relating to major purchases, daily household spending, visits to the wife's family, and the number of children to have--21 percent say they have no involvement in decisions and 37 percent are involved in some decisions. Only 43 percent report they participate in all major decisions. Physical violence and abuse in the home affect 37 percent of Indian wives, according to government survey data (NFHS-3). In 54 percent of cases, wives report that the abuse was justified.

Alimony, Inheritance, and Personal Religion Laws

In India, a woman's rights as an individual are subordinated by law as well as social expectation to her membership in one of the nation's major population groups. As a result, the property rights of Hindu women are different from those of Hindu men. Hindu women have rights that Muslim women do not--for example, the right to receive alimony.

It has been government policy since the 1950s to protect the culture of religious communities. For Hindus, this has meant incorporating traditional practices into civil and criminal law as personal religion laws--applicable only if you are a member of the specified group. The first major example was the Hindu Succession Act (1956), which consolidated and reformed a mass of existing practices and guaranteed a woman's right to inherit property. However, the rules for inheritance were based on gender and informed by patriarchal culture.

For non-Hindus, the government policy has been to avoid imposing mandates and to allow internal processes of religious communities to prevail. As a result, the rights of Muslim women are determined according to Islamic law. This principle was tested in 1985 when India's Supreme Court awarded alimony to Shah Bano, an elderly wife who had been divorced by her husband. Islamic conservatives protested, which led to the Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, exempting Muslim women from protection under laws that apply to everyone else.

The feminist movement in India, which is generally sympathetic to preservation of cultural identity, has struggled with how to build support for gender equality.

Change through Political Participation

In the category of political empowerment, the 2012 Gender Gap Report ranked India at number 17--above Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom--largely because of women's participation in government. Constitutional amendments in 1992 established a requirement that one-third of elected positions in local government be reserved for women. Two decades with this reform have yielded meaningful results.

In cosmopolitan states, such as Maharashtra, influenced by a reform movement in the 1800s, women in office were accepted readily. In strongly patriarchal states, such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, women who ran for office were frequently proxies for their husbands. In some cases, women officeholders were excluded from power by male colleagues who ignored them or failed to invite them to meetings where decisions were made. However, in rural states, such as Uttarakhand, where men are away for long periods looking for work, women officeholders collaborated effectively on projects to improve life in their communities--for example, managing water scarcity, building extra schoolrooms, and installing public toilets. In West Bengal, an all-woman council increased revenue by leasing village ponds for fish farming and established local programs for job training, literacy, and better primary health care.

Serving in office changes the lives of women in both obvious and subtle ways. Low-caste women receive invitations to social gatherings at high-caste homes. Officeholders come to see the possibility of higher aspirations for daughters and recognize the importance of education. Official schedules and time demands give women officeholders the opportunity to work out new arrangements for sharing responsibilities at home. In some cases, women who had to be persuaded to run for a reserved office decide to run again in open elections.

The New Generation

The victim in the Delhi bus rape was a member of a growing class of young women in India, and she became a symbol of their struggle against customs and prejudices that keep women in vulnerable roles. More than 40 percent of Indian women have never been to school (compared to 18 percent of men), but the number of women who attain higher education is increasing. More families allow daughters to postpone marriage, and there is greater acceptance of young women living independently. In cities, it is now possible for single women to find respectable housing. Young women in college are ambitious and focused on their careers, although polls suggest they also accept many of the values of traditional society--for example, the expectation that they will later enter an arranged marriage. In some middle- and upper-class families, prospective husbands now prefer a bride with a professional education.

This new generation stands out, and traditional India is ambivalent toward it. The emotional intensity of the protests in New Delhi reflected a powerful shift toward change. However, the great majority of Indians, who have no chance at all of higher achievement and social mobility, remain deeply conservative and even hostile toward the ambitions and freedoms of the young, globalized generation. According to some reports, economic disparity and resentment played a role in the Delhi bus rape. While the future improves for some, it is in contrast to the certainty of continued misery for the many poor and helpless.

Bibliography

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