WOMEN EXPLOITATION IN INDIA: AN INVISIBLE STRUGGLE

Abstract

The Paradoxical situation of women in India is alarming. On the one hand they are worshipped as Goddess, while on the other hand burnt for dowry. Boys are seen as a big support for parents in old age-are considered necessary in order for the family lineage to continue. Girls on the contrary, are unwanted yet embody the ‘honour’ of the family. It is a double bind on for the girls or the women as they do not only have to preserve this family ‘honour’ in society, but also be silent when various atrocities such as abuse, violence, rape, early marriages happen. In the few cases in which they break their silence, the repercussions are immense.

Swami Vivekanand rightly said, 'Just as a bird can not fly with one wing only, a Nation can not march forward if the women are left behind'. Men and women are the two sides of a same coin. Their unity leads to strength their separation results in fragility. Each has what the other does not have. Both of them completes eachother. Etymologically, the word 'woman' mean - half of man. The relation of the male and female is very well illustrated in our Nyaya Darshan by the analogy of mind and matter, which means that man and woman are closely associated with each other, as the soul and body. Therefore the women ought to be respected.