Traditional cultural practices mirror the beliefs and values of community members for a certain period of traversing generation. Every social class has its own set of time-honored cultural traditions and values. Some of which are beneficial to all community members, and others are detrimental to a particular group in the community in society. Discrimination against women is a prevalent and long-established issue in India on every level. India’s performance in global rankings such as the Gender Development Index (GDI) is dismally low, obstructing the country’s progress toward gender equality (Malik, 2018). Sexism can affect anyone, but women are disproportionately affected, which may involve the assumption that one gender is inherently better than the other, as is the case in India.
In India, a woman’s worth is determined by her ability to bear sons and provide a good dowry. A dowry is an integral aspect of the wedding ceremony in India; it is the country’s customs and tradition to have women pay dowry. It is the responsibility of a woman’s family to hand off their daughter to the groom with property and money. A low-income family with young daughters will be unable to afford a large dowery, putting their daughters’ lives in jeopardy. When a woman from a financially dysfunctional family marries, she is more than likely to die at the hands of her husband (Price et al., 2016). Men whose dowery was paid for less opt to murder their wives to be free to marry again and receive another dowery.
Improving the status of women and girls from various communities in India is critical not only for their operative growth and development but also for society and the nation as a whole. Ending women’s discrimination that stems from the traditional cultural practices, various measures are undertaken to help bring about change in their social status in society. These steps include encouraging women to embrace education, offering them employment opportunities, and abolishing traditional practices that discriminate against women. In conclusion, making a little girl grow up with the mentality that she is weak and always needs protection, be it physically or socially, leads to them being exploited.
Reference
Malik, R. (2018). HDI and gender development index: Current status of women development in India. PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, 5(2), 30-43.
Price, M., Lewis, M., & Wykoff, W. (2016). South Asia. In Lester Rowntree (Ed.), Globalization and diversity: Geography of a changing world (6th ed., pp. 399–428). Pearson.