(a) The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 percent among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies. Many of them drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys’ education.
(b) The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
(c) The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However, in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
(d) In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in child sex ratio.
(e) They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.
