Discriminatory Practices In Today's Society

Discriminatory practices such as sati, child marriage, dowry killings and others are still present and prevent India from reaching gender equality. A practice named sati is executed at a much smaller scale nowadays, but nevertheless sati is still practiced in many parts of India. Sati is where recently widowed women are burned to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, a pile of wood where a corpse is burned. The practice is currently outlawed and illegal, yet it still occurs and is regarded by different societies as a valued form of demonstrating womanly devotion and sacrifice. Research by Guild for Service illustrates that for India as a whole, mortality rates among widowed women are 85% higher than among married women. Although the laws of …show more content…
The inability of a wife and her family to comply to the demands for dowry leads to the wife being abused, killed, or provoked to commit suicide. Apparently a total of 24,711 dowry deaths were reported in India for the past three years. Dowry disputes alone have caused 17,000 women to be maimed as well. National Crime Records Bureau data possesses records of over 300,000 cases of violence by the husband or his relatives due to troubles related to dowry. The dowry system is also part of the reason why female foeticide rates are so high, parents aspire to avoid having to pay such high amounts of money for dowry, therefore they aim to have male children. Moreover, rape rates has escalated all throughout the world, but India specifically has experienced a sharp rise in rape. National Crime Records Bureau stated that there were over 300,000 reports of violence against women, including rape, molestation, and abduction in the year of 2013. Additionally, over 30,000 rapes were committed in the year of 2014, with New Delhi, the capital of India, reporting 1,800 rapes. The data manifested that 86% of the rapes had been committed by close family …show more content…
Research groups express that the data is just an estimate about the amount of crime in India, as many victims remain reluctant to report crimes like rape for fear that their families and friends will shun them. Marital rape is also a problem in India that is barely discussed. A study by The International Centre for Women and United Nations Population Fund displays that out of all the people that they interviewed, about a ⅓ of the men admitted to forcing their partners into sexual acts at some point in their marriage, whereas the women were less likely to admit having sexual acts forced upon them. This study is representative of all the states in India, and clarifies that spousal rape is an underlying issue that is not being addressed by the government, since it is still legal in India. Due to the culture of maintaining virginity until marriage in this traditional society, many view marriage as a free pass for sex. This mindset objectifies one’s partner and creates a sense of entitlement, which is why marital rape is not viewed as a crime, but as a right to have intercourse with one’s partner