Topic: 2024-Gender Equality in Rural Areas
Country: India
Delegate Name: Fiona Rodrigues
In rural India Only 22.4% of women claimed to have an ownership of property. 50.4% of the earning women claimed full control over income, while, 78.4% non-earning women claimed that they get sufficient amount of money from their husbands. 36.6% of women reported physical abuse, whereas 60% of them reported psychological abuse by husband or other family members. This topic of gender equality in rural areas, must be improved. Our constitution makes gender equality a right but as of right now it does not seem to be being followed. We have passed rulings such as Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Article 21 of the Constitution every citizen, including women is entitled to the right to life and dignity. Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code criminalizes harassment.
Unfortunately in these rural areas women are not as well protected and are vulnerable to these sorts of actions.
in rural area all states except Meghalaya and Sikkim had the significantly higher percentage of women’s illiteracy as compared to male. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh had higher illiterate women, 53.7% and 48.6% as compared to male, 24.7% and 21.5% respectively. This just shows how in our country people still see women as less and treat them as such because they will not take time to sit and teach their daughters to read and write. These kinds of patterns continue across the country and will continue for generations to come because no matter how much these women may want their daughters to learn that kind of control is out of their hands.
The practice of child marriage appears most common among respondents living in the poorest households and in rural areas, and with no education or only primary schooling. Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls. Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their well-being. Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school. They have worse economic and health outcomes than their unmarried peers, which are eventually passed down to their own children, straining a country’s capacity to provide quality health and education services. Estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India. Nearly 16 per cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
I have provided you countless examples of this discrimination against women which is why we, India re looking for a solution and a way to stop this, thank you
