The document discusses the status of women in India from colonial times to the present. It covers 3 main parts: [1] Women in colonial India - how British colonialism both positively and negatively impacted women's rights and status through reforms like banning widow immolation but also using women's issues to assert control. Indian women began participating in reform movements. [2] Women in independent India - women gained political rights like voting and more participated in public life, but still faced issues like discrimination in religious laws as shown in the Shah Bano case. Efforts were made to boost education, employment, and political representation. [3] Challenges today - while women's social, economic, and

1. Women in
Kimp. Y. D. Hermawan
WU Yichen
India

2. CONTENTS
PART 01 Background
PART 02 Women in Colonial India
PART 03 Women in Republic India
PART 04 Conclusion

3. 01
PART ONE Background

4. PART ONE
Background
Understanding status of
women in contemporary
India
• Dowry death, enforced widowhood, widow
immolation
• Inequitable access to education and
economic opportunities
• Exploited, helpless, submissive, and in
need of humanitarian intervention and
international relief?

5. PART ONE
Background
80 %
134th
UN’s Human
Development
Index(2009)
12th
Largest
Economy
4th
Purchasing
Power Parity
of Indian women live near
or below the poverty line
India Today

6. PART ONE
Background
14Guarantees equality
15
Restricts the state from any
provision that would discriminate
on the basis of sex
16
Guarantees equality of
opportunity
39
Guarantees equal pay for
equal work
Women in contemporary India as victims of “traditional
society”
India Constitution

7. PART ONE
Background
Two Concerns:
1) Indian women achieved a favorable
constitutional status, prior to
independence and the ratification of the
Indian Constitution
2) The term of Indian women, are products
of the 19th and 20th centuries, during
which colonialism and the rise of
nationalism
India Women

8. PART ONE
Background
• The family unit has significantly shaped
opportunity and status
• Before 19th century, little emphasis was
placed on the rights of individuals, the
emphasis instead upon how an individual
contributed to the family
Women &
Family

9. 02
PART TWO Women in Colonial India

10. PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
• EIC’s business in India for more than a
century
• The poor status of Indian women served to
legitimize the EIC’s project of modernizing
Indian society
• The British abolition of widow immolation in
1829
• A strategy to enhance their authority or a
convenient ideological justification?
“Responsibility to protect
Indian women from
perverted social customs”

11. PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
• Debates over child marriage, widow
immolation, enforced widowhood, raised
significance of women and Indian tradition.
• Indian women emerged as a sociopolitical
category.
Positive Impact

12. PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
Two significant changes :
1) The use of women to serve nationalism
2) Women themselves became participants
in the major social reform debates about
women
Indian Women
and the Nation

13. From Objects
of Reform to
Subjects
PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
• participated in movements to
reform women’s education
• By the turn of 20th century, Indian
women joined political
organizations, as mothers of a
modern community
Pandita Ramabai
• Established Women’s India
Association (1917) and the All
India Women’s Conference (1926)
• Government of India Act (1919)
• Child Marriage Restraint (Sarda)
Act (1929)
Mithulakshmi Reddi

14. Women and
The Franchise
PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
• Recognized in the
Government of India Act
(1935)
• Started from the policy to
bring “responsible
government” by British in
1917, “Southborough
Committee”
• The founder of the Bharat
Stri Mahamandal &
Sarladevi Chaudhurani
Margaret Cousins, a founding member of the newly
formed Women’s India Association
• Meeting between women activists with Chelmsford and
Montagu on Dec 17, 1917
• Demanded an equal right to enfranchisement, but
rejected

15. Women and
The Franchise
PART TWO
Women in Colonial
India
Mohandas Gandhi
• Viewed women as morally superior to men, and women’s morality key to the
reform of national community.
• Public discussion of women’s political rights, conferences, countless articles
• Finally, began from Bombay and Madras in 1921
• The enfranchisement extended in 1935, settled upon parity for men and women
in the qualifications for voting and 1:5 seats for women to men.

16. 03
PART THREE Women in Republic India

17. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
Women have assumed
responsibility both as
political figures and
public servants
• Women’s participation in public debate and
policy reform continued to increase during
Indira Gandhi’s tenure as prime minister
• The political engagement of Indian women
is far beyond so called “women’s issue”
e.g. abolition of dowry & bride-price,
laws against rape, literacy, etc.

18. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
Three Key Topics
01
02
03
Civil Right
Employment
Education

19. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
• No single civil rights framework
• Religious community instead of individuals
• Rights within a unified civil code vs. Rights
within different religious communities
The Shah Bano Case
• Muslim women’s position under customary
law in terms of divorce
• Customary law vs. Constitution
Civil Rights

20. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
Facts:
• Divorced her husband at the age of 62
• Her husband was a successful lawyer with an
estimated income of Rs 5000 per month
• Customary Law: maintenance for only 3 months
following divorce as well as the wedding gift, or
a fixed sum agreed upon at the time of the
marriage
• The local Indore court: ruled in favor of her but
only granted Rs 25 per month
• Madhya Pradesh High Court: Rs 179.20 per
month
The Shah Bano Case(1978)

21. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
The Supreme Court of India
Discussion:
1) Muslim in India are bound primarily to religious
law
2) The matter of marriage & divorce falls within
the purview of Muslim customary law
3) India’s criminal law code was inappropriate on
matters of marriage, divorce, and maintenance
Holding: upheld Shah Bano’s right
The Shah Bano Case(1978)

22. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
Influence:
• A conflict between Muslims, Liberals, and
conservative Hindus
• Shah Bano apologized to her community
• Government: the passage of Muslim Women’s
(Protection of Rights in Divorce) Act (1986) to
satisfy the Muslim community in order to secure
the Muslim votes during the next election
• Feminist groups applauded the Supreme Court
decision
The Shah Bano Case(1978)

23. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
Question of legislating
seats for women first
raised, then emerged
again
1957&1974
1974
1988
1991&1993
Panchayats & Reservation for Women
Establishment of the
National Perspective
Plan which
recommends it
Experiment in the
province of
Maharashtra
Amendments 73 & 75
33% seats in village
councils for female
candidates(proxy?)
2009
Reserve 50% seats?
“A sop(bribe) in
disguise”?

24. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
• Last 15 years the number of working India
women has more than doubled
• The significant role of Call Centers
• Economy autonomy vs. Marital discord
Problems:
• Impurity, questioned mortality
• Violence: rape, abduction, kidnapping,
molestation, etc.
Employment

25. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
• Founded in 1972
• Main focus: organize women to attain full
employment and thus have the resources to
realize goals both for themselves and their
families
1) Union steady employment
2) Social services
3) Savings and credit groups
SEWA
(Self-Employed
Women’s Association)

26. PART THREE
Women in
Republic India
• Limited effects of the university-level
educational investment
• A speech delivered by Prime Minister
addressing universal female literacy in 2008
• More than doubled resources for primary
education in 2009
• The key to realize other goals
Education

27. 04
PART FOUR Conclusion