Gender issues and social taboos in India

1. BY KAREN DAVID VIII A
GENDER
ISSUESAND
SOCIAL
TABOOSIN
INDIA
BIOLOGY

2. Female infanticide in India has a history spanning
centuries. Poverty, the dowry system, births to unmarried women,
deformed infants, famine, lack of support services and maternal
illnesses such as postpartum depression are among the causes that
have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of female
infanticide in India. Discrimination continues in every aspect. Be it
education, health, protection or participation, the girl child is always
treated unequally.
Gender inequality has been a social
issue in India for centuries. That in
many parts of India, the birth of a
girl child is not welcomed is a
known fact. It is a known fact too,
that discrimination starts from even
before the girl child is born and
sometimes she is killed as a foetus,
and if she manages to see the light
of day, she is killed as an infant,
which makes up the highly skewed
child sex ratio where for every 1000
boys in India, there are only 908
girls. In such a scenario, it is but
obvious that for myriad reasons,
many girls across the country are
forced to drop out of school.
•
GENDER ISSUES

4. CHILD MARRIAGE
Some girls are married off due to lack of safety and fear of
violence against women and girls in public spaces, with
many cases of being reported every day.
27 PERCENT of girls in India are married before their
18th birthday and 7% are married before the age of 15.
4% of boys were married off before their 18th birthday.
India has the highest absolute number of women married or
in a union before the age of 18 in the world – 15,648,000.
DOWRY DEATHS
Dowry is considered a major contributor towards
observed violence against women in India. Some of these
offences include physical violence, emotional abuses, and
even murder of brides and young girls prior to
marriage.The predominant types of dowry crimes relate to
cruelty, domestic violence, abetment to suicide and dowry
death .

5. RELIGION
India is home to several religions, but the most common
is Hinduism at 80% of the population. Hinduism is the third-most
widespread religion in the world after Islam and Christianity and it is
thought to be the oldest religion in the world dating back at least
5,000 years ago
Religious violence in India includes acts of violence by followers of
one religious group against followers and institutions of another
religious group, often in the form of rioting. Religious violence
in India has generally involved Hindus and Muslims.
Despite the secular and religiously tolerant constitution of India,
broad religious representation in various aspects of society including
the government, the active role played by autonomous bodies such
as National Human Rights Commission of India and National
Commission for Minorities, and the ground-level work being done by
non-governmental organisations, sporadic and sometimes serious
acts of religious violence tend to occur as the root causes of religious
violence often run deep in history, religious activities, and politics of
India.
• Religion
• Menstruation
• Dressing
• smoking 🚬
Social
taboos

6. EDUCATION
Though it is sharply increasing, the female
literacy rate in India is less than the male
literacy rate. Far fewer girls than boys are
enrolled in school, and many girls drop
out. In urban India, girls are nearly on a
par with boys in terms of education.
However, in rural India, girls continue to
be less educated than boys. According to
the National Sample Survey Data of 1997,
only the states
of Kerala and Mizoram have approached
universal female literacy. According to
scholars, the major factor behind
improvements in the social and economic
status of women in Kerala is literacy.

7. A woman’s menstrual health is crucial to her well-being
and also to the well-being of her family and community.
But too often — especially in the developing world —
mindsets, customs and institutional biases prevent women
from getting the menstrual health care they need.
Menstrual hygiene continues to be amongst the most
challenging development issues today.
Menstruation is associated with the onset of puberty in
girls and many a times, it brings with it rules, restrictions,
isolation and changed expectations from the girls by the
society. This changed attitude towards girls such as
restrictions on their self expressions, schooling, mobility
and freedom has far reaching consequences on the mindset
of women.
Menstruation is still considered a taboo in the Indian
society. Even today, the cultural and social influences on
people create a major hurdle in ensuring that the
adolescent girls are given proper knowledge on menstrual
hygiene.The main reasons for this taboo still being
relevant in the Indian society are high rate of illiteracy
especially in girls, poverty and lack of awareness about
menstrual health and hygiene. Only less than 18 per cent
of Indian women use sanitary pads.
MENSTRUATIONS 🩸

8. Dressing
India a vast country with lots and lots of
heritage and culture, every region does have
different outfits , taste and cultural values. for
ex. if you go to u.p. or bihar there is necessary
for women to put cover there face when they
get married and if suppose a women doesn’t
do the people always look them like a
something wrong they did.
like wise wearing shorts in south india not
every place still people cant accept girls in
such outfits bcos of there tradition and
religious factors.
The Indian society has always had
misogynistic undertones as many offensive
words in India are derogatory towards girls
and women.
Most women in India are taught to see their
body as a burden that they shouldn’t express
in their own unique ways.

9. S
M
O
K
I
N
G
Smoking is bad for your health, not character.
However, in India individuals who smoke are
considered to have a very questionable character.
India Today recently wrote a report that stated:
“casual smoking is on the rise among young
working women across metropolitan cities in India.”
It’s also reported that India now has 12.1 million
women smokers which statistically is the second
largest figure in the world behind the United States.
Some Indian people take a particular distaste
towards women who smoke, as it can be viewed as a
masculine trait.
This is because reports claim smoking can impact a
woman’s fertility, damage her eggs and cause
ovulation problems.
This means the stigma towards smoking could be
considered more of a gender issue.