The Issue “Gender Ineqality” in North East India
Mrinmoy Kanti Chakraborty
2nd year law student B.A.L.L.B (Hons.)
ASSAM UNIVERSITY, SILCHAR
Introduction: The status of gender inequality still continues to be neglected in reference to various social aspects. Women are basically most of the times overlooked by the such prevailing kinship system, discriminatory laws and social norms and traditional customs which are violative to the social status of the women in the society basically. It has been noted that over the past many decades that there has been a gradual progress in the case of the women and girls to achieving the gender equality in the many various aspects of their daily life and in society but the inequality still prevails among every region, social class of the human society. The “Gender Inequality” as a whole i.e. very highly complex and decentralized, prevails in every field or areas of education, mistreatment in the form of employment, opportunities, income, health, cultural issues, economic issues, etc. This forms and classifications of inequality is a hindrance to the human livelihood and the social dignity of a human being. Since from the beginning women are confronted by discrimination and inequality they face violence, abuse, and in their wider communities they are denied to lead, women are the most sufferer in any situation typically women are viewed less than men as the competence of the women has always been doubted by the society from the primitive to the modern day. Among the eight states of North-East India women do experience inequality in social expectations being a patriarchal society every region comprises of different culture, rules, setup of norms where the male is the head authority, women are discriminated in the form of cultural taboos and sense of traditional beliefs and practices of impurity attached to them. Women or the tribal folk women have no direct access to function their own role certain decisions are hold by head councils or the male authority. Despite the differences attempts should be made to bring awareness of the overall status of women in the North-East regions with the very major case examples seen in the various states of Meghalaya and Manipur where it is seen women are self dependent and the majority of the business is dominated and controlled by the women themselves. Also with the awareness drives it is very important that the legal rights of the women should also be upheld and they are to be taught and made aware about their various legal remedies that they had been provided by the Indian constitution and the various laws of the Indian Judiciary. The past few decades have witnessed a steadily increasing awareness of the need to empower women and achieve gender equality through measures to increase social, economic and political equity, and broader access to fundamental human rights, improvements in nutrition, basic health education, social wellbeing, politics involvement of the women, safer hygiene practice tutorial and etc. The concept of gender equality has been gaining importance as the subordinate status of women in relation to men has been seen in almost every aspects and stages of life. Gender equality is understood as that stage of human development at which the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of individuals are not to be determined by the fact of being born as male or female. It is a stage when both men and women realize their full potential and become partners in every sphere of their lives. Realizing the extent of gender inequality throughout the world, the United Nations Development Fund for Women was established as a separate fund within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1984 which has been since focusing of the development of the women all around the globe who have been subjected to discrimination and subjected to humiliation and as the women in the poor or the 3rd world countries have been facing a great extent of the problems. The General Assembly at that timeinstructed to ensure women’s involvement with mainstream activities{ such as social, cultural and political and also the decision making process}. The Platform of Action resulting from the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women expanded the concept and called it as ‘gender mainstreaming’ i.e., the application of gender perspectives to all legal and social norms and standards, to all policy development, research, planning, advocacy, development, implementation and monitoring— as a mandate for all member states. The gender factor was no longer to be only a supplement to development but central to the practice of development.
The Area of research regarding “Gender Inequality”:
The northeast India comprises eight states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The region is multiethnic with heterogeneous cultural background and is different from mainstream homogeneous culture. The culture in the North East is very unique and different from the North and the Southern part of Indian Subcontinent. In the North East the mainly population is tribal and thus the customs and traditions and the practices are also very unique and different. Due to the prevalence of tribal and indigenous culture it is generally perceived that women of the region are relatively much liberal than rest of the country. The general presumption is that women of the region are equal partners with their male counterparts in different spheres of lives. This belief is rooted because unlike Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern part of India, the entire northeastern region is almost free from social evils like dowry, sati ritual, female feticide, and female infanticide. However various gender studies reveal a totally different picture. The gender attainment study by Shiv Kumar (1996) revealed that Assam, one of the largest northeastern states, ranked 10th among 16 major states of India. According to the National Human Development Report the GEI at the national level was 0.620 in the eighties which improved marginally to 0.676 in the early nineties (Govt. of India, 2002). The study showed that northeastern states like Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland ranked above the national average in terms of GEI in 1990s. However the states like Assam, Sikkim and Tripura remained far below the national average in the same study. Moreover in the last few decades insurgency has been the part and parcel of the life of the people of the region which has been one of the major issues in the north east and has created even further problems. Various ethnic strife, rebel, militancy have been affecting the normal lives of the people and women are the worst victim of it. The region has been witnessing the violation of human rights. Due to armed conflict and militant activities women in the region has been more vulnerable. Keeping all these points in mind an attempt has been made in the present paper to analyse the issues of gender inequality and the discrimination over the women i.e. socially, culturally, economically and clinically in the region.
Gender Differential in Educational Attainment:
Education is one the important factor which determines the status of women. Taking into account the literacy rate and enrolment rate at various level of education, one can find out if there exists any discrimination and the extent of discrimination which prevails in a society at a given period of time. The gender gap in education in North East India has been analysed using the few heads which further explained below:
A.)Literacy Gap: Literacy is the first step to formal education which is basically the most important source to reduce the bridge between the male and female. It is seen that for all the northeastern states the gender gap in literacy rate exists and males were observed to be more literate than that of the females .However the gender gap in literacy rate was lower in the region than that of the national literacy rates of 21.6 per cent and 16.68 per cent in 2001 and 2011 respectively. It was significantly lower for Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Arunachal Pradesh had the highest gender gap in literacy rate. However in the last decade there has been significant improvement in literacy rate as the government has been playing a key role with the flagship programmes like “Beti Bachao Beti Parhao” scheme to encourage more girls to take up education. Besides, the gender gap in literacy has been narrowed down for all the states in the region excepting Assam. Surprisingly, the gap has been widened in case of Assam. Huge influx of Bangladeshi population might be one of the reasons for widening gender gap in literacy rate as the population of Assam has been continuously growing the as the result of the illegal immigration has been taking place as the neighbouring nations such as Myanmar is facing a coup and the issue of the rohingiya immigrants from Bangladesh is also a major issue.
B.)Enrolment Gap: Enrolment ratio at different levels of education is another dimension in which gender gap is witnessed. When we compare the enrolment ratio of classes I to V and VI-VII over the period from 1999-2001 to 2009-10 a noticeable change was observed over a period of 10 years . In 1999-2001 the gender gap in enrolment ratio existed in all the states for the class I-V. The gap was highest for Assam (18.89%) and lowest for Sikkim (0.84%). However it was still above the national average. In 2009-10 the gender gap was narrowed down. Except Assam and Meghalaya all other states of the region had gender gap more than the national average. However the states like Assam and Meghalaya performed well and gender ineqality became negative implying the fact that enrolment ratio for girls exceeded that of boys. But in classes VI-VII, the enrolment rate for girls in some states exceeded that of the boys. For instance in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim the enrolment rates of girls at high school were more than that of boys and the gender inequality issues were narrowed for other northeastern states excepting Assam as compared to the national average in 1999-2001. However in 2009-10 the gender gap was narrowed down. Tripura and Assam were able to reduce the gender gap to a significant level which has been very promising as the female education had seen a sharp growth in the states. In states like Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Assam the gender gap in enrolment ratio in classes VI-VII were negative. Contrary to this in Arunachal Pradesh the gender gap was increased. In Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur gender gap was less than that of the national average. When it was further studies upon it was evident that the gender gap in enrolment in high school and higher education it was found that all the northeastern states had lesser gender gap in enrolment at IX-X level as compared to all India average.Even for most of the states it was negative implying enrolment of girl was more than that of boys. However in classes XI-XII, Manipur and Tripura had more gender gap as compared to national average. In case of higher education i.e. above class XII, the enrolment rate of boys and girls were significantly lower as compared to classes IX-X and XIXII. But gender gap in enrolment at higher education was higher for all the northeastern states compared to all India average (3.2%) except in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
Sikkim (5.7%) had highest gender gap in higher education followed by Assam (5.0%). However in Meghalaya with prevalence of matriarchal society, gender gap was observed to be negative.
Violence against Women – A Conceptual Framework Violence against women is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of women’s full advancement (World Women’s Conference, Beijing 1995). Both men and women face violence, an overwhelming majority of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence are women. Gender relations are skewed of the existence of patriarchy. In common parlance patriarchy means male domination. Religion has played an important role in creating and perpetuating patriachical ideology. While it is estimated that at least 3 out of every 5 women in India face domestic violence, reporting of such cases is extremely low as this is considered to bring shame to the family and the people are very much unaware of these vaery basic facts . One of the major factors for this is the culture of silence (Report by The North East Network, 2004). Domestic violence is considered as a private matter and not to be interfered by others. Mentally harassment, sexual and psychological violence are not taken into account by a majority of women also the issue of maritial rape is also not being taken into the account as many women are subject to such incidents. Last few years, certain efforts have been made to bring consciousness among women that violation against women is a violation of women’s human rights. “Witch- hunting” has been increasingly highlighted in the last few years in North- East India. It is a belief of superstitions and the ill practice is still prevalent by the ignorance of the inhabitants. Suspected women and men are branded as witches and are accused of causing harm to communities. These women and men are physically and mentally tortured which is severe infringement of the Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian constitution also thus such practices also violate the human rights laws and are punishable in the eyes of the law. There is evidence of some being buried and even burnt alive. Control over resources, personal enmity with powerful members of the community and the prevalence of superstitions are some of the factors responsible for witch hunting. Several local and regional level organizations have been voicing their concerns and have been mobilizing members of the communities to build public opinion against such instances of violence against the superstitions. It is also to be taken into account that in the recent times it has been clearly evident that thus such practices have been seeing a reduce and also the society has been gradually changing.
Types of Violence against Women
Now-a-Days Violence affects the live of women and girls in all socio-economic classes around the world. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers and takes a variety of forms which are very dangerous to the life of the women. Violence against women is largely unreported and if reported many times it takes a long time and money for the actual justice to be delievered. Fear and stigma often prevent women from reporting incidents of violence or seeking assistance. In fact, 80 percent of women who have been physically abused by their partners physically, mentally or in some other manner of such have never informed the Police, NGOs or shelters.
Drug Related Violence
Alcoholism increases domestic violence against women and interruption takes place in the family. An alcoholic beats his wife and children. There are number of poor incidences has been occurred in the society. Besides husband who used illicit drugs, he also disturbed his family and spends his money without planning and he depends on his wife. Women (who are engaged in different paid works) are not allowed to have at least some money that they can spend as per their wish
Women in Arm Conflict Situation North-east region has been witnessing a long and to an ongoing low-intensity conflict for a long period of time. While the entire region continues to suffer from the clutches of insurgency activities, women living in such conditions are most vulnerable due to the restrictions on their mobility, the limited access to health services and most importantly, the lack of opportunities for primary/higher education, employment and even leisure. Women have been, in internal war, the targets of sustained and frequently brutal violence committed by both parties of armed conflict. Both the sides often use violence to punish or dominate women believed to be sympathetic to the opposite side as they are subjected to be soft targets . Women have been threatened, raped and murdered during the conflict. (Human Rights Watch 1998). During to arm conflict situation, women managed households. Because the earner of the family have either fled, been killed or joined the ranks of the underground. Thus, women who were till then not allowed to join the formal economic sectors are suddenly left on their own and are forced to eke out a living for themselves and their families. They are however not provided with any kind of support or alternate sources of livelihood. Nor are any avenues of employment made available to them. Here, unemployment may be considered as a major problem. NEN team found that often women have to resort to selling liquor, drugs or even prostitution to make enough money to run their household. North- East Network Report(2004) focused that often women have to resort to selling liquor, drugs or even prostitution to make enough money to run their household. The have lost their rights such as right to life, right to liberty and security etc. Due to lack of awareness, illiteracy, lack of interaction, unequal access to information and other economic and non- economic resources, women plays triples role , women’s rights can be violated. The women of the region in the many years have been subjected to immense violation which is even evident in the very recent issue of the Manipur violence where during the conflict two women were beaten, raped and paraded naked in the street which is an example of the immence on going violation of human rights agreements, and the dignity and fundamental rights of the women in the region.
Sexual Violence In most of the cases the victim is branded as a woman of loose morals. Rape is viewed as a crime against the honour of not just the girl who is rape but also her family as many societies outcaste the entire family of the victim and the victim too from the society which brings immence shame to the family as a result of which many suicides are committed. Sometimes the nature of rape and the silence that tends to surround it makes it a particularly difficult human rights violation to investigate. Sexual violence has increasingly been used as a tool of war in the north east region. Hence for a long time, most cases of sexual violence resulting from the armed conflict involved states. Krishna Devi’s case (a 30 year old woman lived in Manipur) illustrate the use of sexual violence in armed conflict scenarios in north- east India (report by North- East Network). Men also violate women’s human rights through rape, threat of rape, forced prostitution etc. Thus, more stringent action should be taken upon against the persecution faced by the women of the region and various new laws and acts should be implemented upon to safeguard the moral and dignity of the women in the region.
Suggestions for the safeguard and the legal protection of women in North East India:
Here are some of the various suggestions for the protection of women’s rights and elimination of violence of women’s human rights in the North Eastern part of the India –
1. An important requirement for bringing about empowerment of women attitude should be changed in both men and women. The feeling that women are meant for household activities and bearing children needs. It should be replaced by a feeling of equal partnership of women and men. That the notion should rise that men and women through their joint effort could only maintain the society and run the society in an efficient manner.
2. The women should be encouraged to organised themselves such as women’s group, self- help group, N.G.O’s etc. It can be efficiently used as instruments to mobilise the women. Some successful women’s organisations can also act as catalytic agents for encouraging women’s participation in social and political activities. The government should provide financial support and infrastructure to some of the successful women’s organisations to take of the responsibility to safeguards the women’s rights and to create an awareness and enlightenment amongst women, thereby eliminating the powerful corrupted men taking advantage of the ignorance of women and controlling their decisions. Thus the more involvement of women in the social affairs and the political affairs would make them more dominant in the society. 3. National Literacy Mission and other organisations engaged in the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” should also be assigned the responsibility of educating the rural women and men regarding the significance of Human Rights and empowerment of women and also about the laws that the constitution has provided the women for their advancement. On the other hand, both print as well as electronic media can play a vital role in restructuring the rural society. It can act as an agent of political socialisation for inculcating the values of gender equality and gender justice.
4. As soon as the Government of India and all State Governments of North- East India must make an all out effort to find a political solution to the armed conflict in north – east India. And the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act must be repealed immediately. Armed forces misused this act and involved in violation of human rights in many cases. Therefore, section 19 of the Human Rights Act 1993 must be suitably amended to make the verdict of Human Rights Commissions more binding. Restrictions on the Commission’s jurisdiction over armed forces must be removed (Human Rights Act,1993).
5. National Human Rights Commission should knock at the doors of the offenders. Cases should not be pending in never ending process Strict action should be taken in this regard.
6. It is very essential to promote research works concerning violation of women’s rights and human rights. Government of India has enacted some laws for protection of women’s rights such as
a. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
b. Amendment Proposed in Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 2005.
c. Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
d. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act and rules.
e. National Commission for Women Act.
Women status mainly depends on their rights and privileges and the roles assigned to them by the society, their family and by the legal authorities. Status is determined in terms of socio- economic indicators such as income, property, education and skills, representation in the policy making, politics and etc. that open up opportunities of employment. One cannot hope gender equity unless women have a share in the decision making and the policy implementing process in the family and in the public sphere. When women raise their voices against underground oppression, they branded as state agents are silenced which has be raised and the support to be women persecuted and tormented shall be indeed provided upon to them further in hand (MEN Report, 2005). With the recent introduction of courses on human rights and peace reconstruction there is evidence of regional women’s groups calling on larger human rights organizations to address their grievances and local problems. They have also started reaching out to state agencies for redressal and justice and it has been evident that the government and the state authorities have been working in the great manner as the present govt. has had done immense work regarding the women safety and the women education which is noteworthy and further more up thus more work has too be done which would bring a society which shall be equal and the men and women shall be treated upon equally in all aspects.
References:
1.https://www.literaryendeavour.org/
2. Government of India (2002) National Human Development Report, 2001, Planning Commission, New Delhi.
3. Sullivan, Oriel (2004) “Changing Gender Practices within the Household: A Theoretical
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5. https://northeastnetwork.org/
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7. North East Network: Women in Armed Conflict Situations, Delhi: North East Network, 2005
8. R. Goswami, M.G. Sreekala : ‘Women in armed conflict situations in India: Baseline and M. Goswami, Report,’ North East Network ,2008
9. Jean Dreze & : Gender Inequalty and Women’s Agency
10. Asian Centre for Human Rights India Human Rights Report, New Delhi: Asian Centre or Human Rights, 2009
