Education is one of the important components of women empowerment as it enables women to challenge traditional roles and helps them to face various challenges (Singh 2016). In contemporary Indian society the female education has been increasing. In the year 2011 it was 65.46 against 8.86 per cent in 1951.4 The present study aims to explore whether women have challenged gender roles and confronted gender-based violence due to increasing education and what is the status of women empowerment in the country.
In order to understand the changing status of women due to the impact of education, it is necessary to understand traditional gender roles and women’s status in the patriarchal state in the past. “Indian woman” is not a monolithic identity, but the position of Indian
3 For more information, please refer to https://newsclick.in/crimes-against-women-increased-83-over-last-ten-years-says-ncrb. Report on National Crime Research Bureau report for violence on women, 2016. Accessed 17 June 2018.
4 Please refer to
http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/reports_and_publication/statistical_publication/social_statistics/Cha pter_3.pdf for more information. Accessed 18 June, 2018.
women has to be addressed with reference to their position in different castes, classes and tribes. The following sub-section explains the caste system in India and position of women in various castes to understand intersectionality in the country.
1.1 The Caste System: A System of Hierarchy
“Women in India” is not a homogenous category but stratified into various castes/classes and religions. The socio-economic growth of these castes, classes and religions is at different levels in the country. The Dalit (lower caste/class), tribal and Muslim women have gained less from economic growth, educational progress and other human development sectors in the country (Sabharwal and Sonalkar 2015). These discrepancies of modern India have their roots in the origin and the nature of the caste system in the past.
The caste system is more than two thousand years old and prevalent not only among Hindu but also amongst Muslim, Christians and Sikh communities. It is a closed system of stratification where people’s status depends upon their birth (Deshpande 2010). The term
‘caste’ is derived from the Portuguese word ‘casta’ meaning race, lineage or breed5. During the colonization period the Portuguese identified different highly fragmented social groups into castes, which was later developed by the British administration to promote an order in Indian society (Rao 2010; Pye 2002). The system of people’s classification into four hierarchically ranked castes is called Varnas. These four hierarchically caste are further divided into various sub-castes. The important characteristics of the caste system are endogamy, hierarchy of the caste into high and low status and hereditary occupation. The system of stratification is embedded into cultural sets of norms and beliefs around ritual purity and pollution (Spears and Thorat 2015; Subedi 2014; Dumont 1970)
5 For more information, please refer to http://www.preservearticles.com/201105076354/what-do-you-mean-by-the-term-caste.html. Accessed 16 June,2018
Figure 1: Hierarchy of the caste system. Source: Kumar (2006)
Figure 1 depicts the hierarchy and status of each caste. Brahmins, which are at the top, have the highest status and Sudras/Kshudras have the lowest status. Untouchables which are shown outside the pyramid represent outcastes. Each caste is associated with specific occupation such as, Brahmins are priests and teachers, Kshatriyas are warriors and rulers, Vaishyas are farmers, merchants, and artisans and Sudras are laborers. The untouchables or Harijans or Dalits’ are outside the caste system assigned to do cleaning occupation--scavengers and skinning dead animals to which society refers as the dirtiest jobs.
The institutionalization of the caste system is through various Hindu sacred texts. One justification is a belief in the primal man, Purush, who destroyed himself to create human society. Different parts of his body created four different Varnas. The Brahmins evolved from his head, the Kshatriyas from his hands, the Vaishyas from his thighs, and the Sudras from his feet. Another justification is a theory of karma. Karma is one’s past life deeds which decides one’s caste in the present life; a lower caste means bad karma of one’s past life and vice versa.
During the colonial period, various social reform movements, started by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dr. M. Visvervaraya, Jyotirao Phule, Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar to mention a few, have struggled for eradication of the caste system. After independence, the
constitution of India granted equality of status and opportunity for all citizens of India6 and abolition of untouchability (Article 17)7. An official name given by the constitution to Dalits/
the lower caste is Scheduled Caste. The government of India, under protective discrimination policy adopted the reservation policy in 1992 under which certain seats (maximum 50%) in government educational institutions and government jobs are reserved for marginalized sections of the society which includes the “Scheduled Caste”, “Scheduled Tribe” and “Other Backward Classes”8.
Despite the fact, that the government of India is committed to remove untouchability and to improve the status of marginalized communities in contemporary India, the subjugation of lower castes is still a prominent feature in modern India (Livne 2015). But the subjugation of lower castes can now be found in new forms and shapes. The following sub-section explains the modern manifestation of the caste system in the country.
1.2 Caste and class
The section explains the association of caste inequality with class inequality in present Indian society. Class has been a real historical product in India (Kasturi and Mazumdar 1994).
As discussed earlier, the caste is an ascribed status, where being born into a particular caste decides one’s profession. Lower caste people usually have the “dirtiest” jobs and earn a lower remuneration. In contemporary India, opportunities and outcome are largely associated with caste resulting in class inequality and structural inequality. To explain it further, Divya Vaid (2012) analyzed that in spite of reservation policies adopted by the government of India, white
6 For more information, please refer to http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/constitution/preamble-of-constitution-of-india-5-features/40335. Accessed 17 February 2018.
7 For more information, please refer to, http://www.simplydecoded.com/2015/04/03/article-17-constitution-of-india/. Accessed 17 February 2018.
8 It is an official name given to classify caste which are socially and educationally disadvantaged classes. For more information, please refer to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374864/. Accessed 15 May, 2019.
collar occupations are mostly comprised of higher castes whereas lower castes are more in insecure, temporary and lower remunerative jobs.
The caste system is further institutionalized in modern Indian society due to lack of opportunity provided to the lower caste section. Though the government of India has removed any kind of discrimination on the basis of caste and implemented reservation policies on paper, studies suggest that higher caste groups have an overall higher educational level, though this gap is narrower at primary educational level for Dalits (Desai and Kulkarni 2008). The analysis provided by Desai and Kulkarni explains that the Dalit caste is devoid of higher education and thus they struggle more for opportunities to reach higher on the class ladder. Due to lack of opportunity, the vicious circle of poverty continues from generation to generation among lower castes. Enforced affirmative action implemented to narrow inequality acted as an obstacle for narrowing caste/class inequality (Desai and Dubey 2012) and inequality in outcome. Various other literature has shown how inequality in outcome has institutionalized economic deprivation of lower caste. For example, due to lack of higher education, lower castes are comprised of lower occupational groups and less materialistic achievements (Desai and Dubey 2012). Lower economic achievements further result in lower education, consumption of subsidiary food, less access to health care system and private education which in turn results in the institutionalization of lower classes with this caste status. (Desai and Dubey 2012; Desai et al. 2010; IIPS and Macro international 2007; Shariff 1999), thus lower castes face considerable obstacles to upward mobility and a caste-class association is further re-established (Desai and Dubey 2012; Deshpande 2010; Thorat and Newman 2009).
In modern India, the caste and class associations are further intensified by endogamy (marriage within one’s caste group) to re-establish and strengthen the caste system. Dalit caste women are sexually available for upper caste men, but the matrimonial alliance of upper caste men and lower caste women is socially unacceptable. The lower caste/class women are at the
lowest end due to the caste/class ladder and their vulnerable position due to patriarchy. The subjugation of lower caste/class women is more intense due to their gender, caste and economic deprivation in the Indian society. The following sub-section explains this triple burden on lower caste women in modern India.
1.3 Caste and women
The social division of people into groups which pre-determines their social and economic status is further institutionalized by the marriage system. Among other features of the caste system, endogamy is where individuals have to marry within their caste to maintain the purity of caste. Thus, maintenance and institutionalization of the caste system are assured through endogamy. In contradiction to this, exogamy is the system of marriage, where marriage is allowed outside of one’s social group. Two types of exogamous marriages are mentioned in the caste system: Pratiloma and Anuloma. Anuloma is the union between a man of a superior Varna and a woman of an inferior Varna and Pratiloma is the union of superior Varna woman with man of an inferior Varna. To keep the caste pure and intact the Pratiloma model of marriage is condemned outright and Anuloma marriage is accepted but not appreciated in society. In contemporary India, the constitution of India has legalized exogamous marriage but without any social sanctity. In modern India, mixed marriages are still not acceptable code of conduct and occur less frequently (Goli et al.2013, Sankaran et al. 2017). Though the marriage with a woman of an inferior caste is condemned, on the contrary, sexual relationships with lower caste women are not condemned (Sabharwal and Sonalkar 2015; Betellie 1990). Thus, on the caste ladder, lower caste women are more vulnerable and subjugated due to the caste stratification. On the caste ladder, the Hindu upper caste women are in a more dominant position. But due to patriarchy, a higher caste woman is at a lower position than an upper caste man. The patriarchal structure and caste structure often seem to be in juxtaposition with regards to lower caste men. A lower caste man is subordinate to an upper caste woman, but due to
patriarchy, he exerts hyper-masculinity on a lower caste woman (Menon 2009; Anandhi et al.2002).
New economic policies provide opportunities to lower castes for upward mobility by improving their class status. Their increasing participation in an unorganized insecure sector makes them more vulnerable for public violence. Due to these socio-economic transformations, the idea of hyper masculinity is exerted on women from within the group and outside the group (Menon 2009; Anandhi et al. 2002). Dalit women are prone to public and private violence;
lower caste women tolerate sexual harassment, rape, honor killing and physical violence, and economic exploitation (Sharma 2015; Rege 1994; Deitrich 1990).
Recently, in urban strata, though due to privatization, meritocracy is preferred for the jobs, but most of the time merit is being judged by castes, classes and religions where meritocracy is directly related to upper castes, classes and Hindu religions (Deshpande 2012).
Thus, past literature on Dalit women has discussed this triple subordination of Dalit women in the form of economic deprivation, exclusion due to caste status and gender-based violence due to patriarchy (Rao 2015; Deshpande 2011; Shah et.al 2006; Srinivas 1998). In a modern scenario, Dalit women are given a job of domestic helper. Works such as cleaning utensils and washing clothes are given to Dalit women, but they are not preferred for home-cook jobs (home-cook jobs are better payed than other cleaning jobs). Upper caste women are not supposed to touch food cooked by lower caste people due to notion of impurity of the lower castes (Sabharlwal and Sonalkar 2015). Dalit women, even today in modern India, are prone to experience public violence, private violence and multiple burdens of exploitation and discrimination. Not only Dalit women but also tribal women are prone to multiple exploitation.
The following sub-section discusses the status of tribal women in Indian society.
1.4 Tribal women
The term “Adivasi” denotes an indigenous people or original inhabitants. Indian tribes are heterogeneous in nature. Some of the common characteristics of Indian tribes are primitive religion, territorial isolation, common dialect, endogamy, joint ownership of property, customary law, and isolation from the mainstream Indian society (Hasnain 2007). The tribal population in India is widely dispersed. They are classified on the basis of geographical locations, language, and ethnicity.
Post-independence, the government of India has made the policies for socio-economic and educational development for Indian tribes. Such as the tribal cooperative marketing development federation of India, the vocational training centers in tribal areas, the state tribal research development institutes. According to the constitution of India president after consultation with a Governor may nominate a sub-group or community as “Scheduled Tribes9” (ST). STs form the weaker section of the society. Under affirmative policies, STs are entitled for reservation quota (certain seats are reserved for the weaker sections in all government affiliated institutes). Although the Constitution of India does not give a definition of ST, the Ministry of tribal affairs uses primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large or mainstream society, and deprivation as a criterion to identify ST.
The status of tribal women is even lower on the ladder than that of Dalit women and tribal men (Chatterjee 2014). For current studies, the researcher studied the status of nomadic and denotified tribal women in Maharashtra. Nomadic tribes do not possess any permanent settlement and means to livelihood. They migrate from one place to another. The nomadic and denotified tribal people are referred to as ‘criminal tribe’ by the mainstream Indian society
9 The constitution of India, Article 366, cl.25. For more information, please refer to https://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21438. Accessed 24 February, 2018.
today (Radhakrishnana 2009). This stigma deprived tribal men and women of living a dignified settled life. These tribal men and women face social exclusion due to the stigma of being a supposed criminal tribe, economic deprivation and lack of education. The nomadic tribal women face violence, which is of a similar nature to that faced by Dalit caste women due to their socio-economic status. Various government development policies do not reach the bottom and precisely this, section is prone to economic exploitation (Chakrabarti 2013).
Among all religions Muslim women have the lowest status due to religion and patriarchy. The next sub-section explains the status of Muslim women in India.
1.5 Muslim women in India
Muslims are economically and educationally worse- off compared to other communities in the country. According to the Sachhar committee’s report, the literacy rate among Muslims is far below than national average (42.7% of the Muslim population is illiterate against 36.9%
of the national average)10. Muslims are governed by Shariat laws or Muslim personal laws for civil cases and Indian laws for criminal cases. There is an ongoing debate for a uniform civil code11 but due to political vested interests and people from minority communities resisting, there is no uniform civil code.
The Muslim personal laws govern matters regarding marriage and divorce, infant and adoption cases, matters regarding wills, successions, joint family and partitions (Sultana 2014).
Muslim personal laws (Shariat) are an interpretation enacted by the British in the year 1935 and considered as divine by the community. These laws are binding for the community (Sultana
10 For more information, please refer to http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/muslim-illiteracy-rate-india-census-report-education-3006798/. Accessed 19 March, 2018.
11 For more information, please refer to https://www.clearias.com/uniform-civil-code-ucc/. Accessed 20 March, 2018.
2014). These arrangements were stable with minor conflict until the Shahbano case12 where a 62-year-old woman was orally divorced (three times by saying “I divorce you”) by her husband after 40 years of marriage. She was denied regular maintenance by Islamic personal law. But the lower court and later Supreme Court of India granted maintenance rights from her husband.
The judgment caused much upheaval and protest from many sections of the Muslim community across the country. The government of India passed a law called the “Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act”, 1986 through an act of Indian parliament. The act granted maintenance to the Muslim divorcee only until “iddat” period or after 90 days of divorce. Thus, Indian Muslim women who are economically and educationally disadvantaged are not even supported by the legal machinery, their status is determined by a patriarchal and religious Muslim personal law board.
The current section explained the caste system in India and caste-class juxtaposition as background information to explain education as supra-category for investigation of the current study. This background information helps to understand the status of women from different castes/classes/religions in contemporary India due to the impact of knowledge. The next sub-section explains the feminist movement in India and development of NGOization to explain Indian women’s socio-economic development since pre-independence period.