Indian Women Journey from kitchens to Key-boards

When we talk about modernization- it is from social, political and economic point of view. The changing role of Indian women is also greatly influenced social, political and economic modernization.


Women play an important role in shaping and developing industry, by extending their painstaking skills and instinctive talents. Indian women, though small in number when compared to Indian men, have established their competencies in the fields dominated by men for age (As per 2011 Census, there are 940 women for every 1000 men in India).

 

Starting in the 1980s, policy makers and governments taken into considerations to gender issues which was previously neglected or ignored. The led to the provocation of the ill-effects of the environment has on the health and well-being of women.

Historically women in India were respected and the birth of a girl was widely accepted and mark the arrival of “Goddess Lakshmi” – the Goddess of wealth and riches. Women have been considered ‘Janani’- Procreator or progenitor. Women are also considered to be an personification of “Goddess Durga”.

Today, Indian women besides playing entrepreneurial role in cities, also contribute significantly to agricultural activities, handicrafts, village art and crafts. Women have carried equal responsibilities with men. It is now common to see Indian women working in business or as lawyers, journalists, Software Engineers, Sports persons, and even as entrepreneurs. And Indian men’s preferences also has changed drastically who now want to get married to well qualified, increasingly want to marry working women who would also share the economic responsibilities equally.

This has perhaps brought in some basic changes in the status and role of women in the society, however, in no society in India women are treated well or equal to Indian men.


This just for our understanding that female literacy in India is 65.46% as against male literacy of 82.14%. As at end-March 2011, 21% of total bank deposit accounts constituting merely 12 % of total deposits were held by women. Similarly, women availed only 18 % of the total small credit from banks in 2011. Women constitute about 25% of the formal employment in India whereas 84 % of rural women continue to be engaged in agricultural production

Although, Indian women have begun to focus on career side, they are encountering challenges that many American women can relate to. Many Indian women, be it from rural or urban city centred, are moving out of the kitchen world to key-board world and taking steps toward becoming fully integrated and valued members of society.

However, the other side of the story is that, there is a wide-spread prevalent of unfairness against women is, on the other hand, reflected in repeatedly, reoccurring, re-reported recurrent incidents of rape, acid throwing, sexual abuse, female child infanticide and female child foeticide, dowry killings, wife beating, forced prostitution, and so on. Aamir Khan-Bollywood well-known actor and producer, hosted a television programme called ‘Satyamev Jayate’ which was featured in two different seasons. In that programme, covered some of the issues related to women in general and women and rare sports, women and well-being. A global poll conducted by Thomson Reuters in 2012 rated India as the “fourth most dangerous country” globally for women, and the worst country for women among the G20 countries.

There is a paradigm shift in Indian women status, with more and more women working in the political, business and social arenas, IT and ITeS industries. Here again, the question that arises is : will Indian women breakthrough in top positions and how will men respond? Or when will it happen?