The Ills of Patriarchy

Patriarchy generally refers to the hierarchical power relation in which men are dominant and women are subordinate. The subordination of women is explicit in many ways, in both private and public spheres, where women are denied rights and access to many things that are easily available to men. Patriarchy as a concept/tool helps in the critical understanding of the status of women in any society. In India, this nexus between patriarchy and the caste system has been found to be historically exploitative and mutually feeding off each other.

Caste in India

• Caste divisions in India dictate one’s occupation, dietary habits, rituals, marriage and other interactions with members of other castes. Members of the upper castes enjoy more wealth and opportunities, while those of the lower castes perform menial jobs. According to a recent study jointly conducted by Savitribai Phule Pune University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, 41 per cent of the country’s total wealth is owned by upper-caste Hindus. The “untouchables” are in a permanent state of “impurity” and forced to do menial jobs such as toilet cleaning and garbage removal.

Caste, being an ascriptive status without any possibility for social mobility, has four defining features, namely, hereditary specialisation, hierarchical relations, repulsion with other castes to avoid any alliances, and endogamy.

Endogamy

• The patriarchal practice of marrying within one’s caste, has long been a functional component in maintaining the purity and hierarchical exclusiveness of the caste system.
• Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development”, identified endogamy as a peculiar characteristic of caste which hierarchically separates the population, with strict punishment for any intermixing.
• Widowhood and sati were the mechanisms to address the problem of surplus women, while sanyas (asceticism) and child marriage were prescribed to handle the problem of surplus men.
• The caste system also allowed anuloma (hypergamy), where a man from an upper caste could marry a woman from a lower caste, as it did not disturb patriliny (tracing descent through the father).
• However, pratiloma (hypogamy), or the practice of a woman from an upper caste marrying a man from a lower caste, was strictly opposed as it disturbed patriliny, which is the foundation of patriarchal domination.

Inter-caste marriages

• The strength of the caste system is found in the marriage system in Indian society, where marriages within the caste are still a dominant phenomenon. In spite of many social reform movements, inter-caste marriages are limited in Indian society.
• According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III (2005-06), only 10 per cent of marriages in India are inter-caste.
• Of these inter-caste marriages, only 4.97 per cent are pratiloma marriages, where upper-caste women marry lower-caste men.
• According to this survey, the incidence of inter-caste marriages is higher in Punjab (22.36 per cent), Meghalaya (25 per cent), Goa (26.67 per cent) and Kerala (21.35 per cent), and lower in Jammu and Kashmir (1.67 per cent), Rajasthan (2.36 per cent), Tamil Nadu (2.59 per cent), Chhattisgarh (3.38 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (3.57 per cent), and Bihar (4.60 per cent).
• Data from the Indian Human Development Surveyby the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2011-12 found that only 5.4 per cent of the women surveyed in the 15-49 age group had inter-caste marriages.
• A research study by Diane Coffey, Payal Hathi, Nidhi Khurana and Amit Thorat (2018) . Around 60 per cent of non-Dalits in rural Rajasthan and 40 per cent in Delhi wanted a law against inter-caste marriages in order to protect endogamy and the purity of their caste.
• The advertisements and TV shows seeking bridegrooms clearly indicate how marriages within caste are still a dominant phenomenon in present-day India.
• After various women’s groups mounted pressure on the government, a separate category of “honour killing” was introduced in 2014 by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) annual report.
• Around 356 cases of honour killing were reported by the NCRB during 2014-16. The reporting of honour killing is minimal as most cases go unreported owing to various social factors.
• In India, women constitute almost 97 percent of honor killing victims, according to activist Kathir Vincent, director of Evidence.
• The Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances Bill was aimed at curbing activities and behaviors associated with honor crimes by criminalizing, for example, the unlawful assembly of groups of people for the purpose of condemning a marriage, and criminal intimidation of a couple.

Child marriages

• Child marriages are quite rampant in India in spite of various measures taken by the government to stop them.
• The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, does not make child marriage void; it is only voidable if either the bride or the groom complains.
• Karnataka is the only State which has made child marriages void ab initio (void from the beginning) through a State amendment.
• The NFHS III conducted in 2005-06 recorded that 47.5 per cent of women and 32.3 per cent of men had admitted to being married before the prescribed legal age.
• The NFHS IV in 2015-16 showed a decline in child marriages, with 26.8 per cent of women and 20.3 per cent of men marrying before the prescribed legal age.
• The 2011 Census of India pointed to a staggering data of nearly 12 million children in India who were married before the age of 10, out of which 84 per cent were Hindus and 11 per cent Muslims.
• The girls are at a disadvantage since nearly 80 per cent of illiterate children married before the age of 10 were girls.
• Around 102 million girls, who constitute 30 per cent of the female population, were married before the age of 18, according to the 2011 Census, whereas in 2001 the figure was 119 million.
• Around 72 per cent of all Hindu girls married before 10 are from rural areas, where caste still plays a dominant role in their social life.
• Child marriages conducted with the intent of safeguarding endogamy norms in a caste society further trample the agency of women in exercising their sexual freedom and choice of marriage.

Dowry deaths

• The social value of women in India is measured by her marital status and her reproductive abilities.
• Since these values have to be realised within the caste boundaries, dowry has become a greater incentive, even for educated men, to not deviate from the practice of endogamous marriages in India.
• The practice of virilocality(the practice of a married woman staying in her husband’s home) further alienated a woman from her parental support system with her parents always at the disposal of her husband’s family demands. When dowry demands were not met, it often resulted in violence and even the death of the woman.
• The pressure of childbearing fell squarely on the woman, with the possibility of polygamy or divorce or death if she failed.
• The shocking aspect is that such patriarchal attitudes are institutionalised and legalised by laws in contemporary India. The Goa Civil Code gives Hindu men the right to bigamy under specific circumstances mentioned in the Codes of Usages and Customs of Gentile Hindus of Goa (if the wife fails to deliver a child by the age of 25 or if she fails to deliver a male child by the age of 30).
• An average of around 8,000 dowry-related deaths are reported in India every year, according to NCRB data.

Female foeticide/infanticide

• The patriarchal society and its norms deny the value of women even before they are born.
• India, in spite of glorifying women as a symbol of the nation, has one of the highest rates of female foeticide/infanticide in the world.
• According to the 2011 Census, the girl child population in the age group 0-6 years reduced from 78.83 million in 2001 to 75.84 million in 2011.
• The child sex ratio for the age group 0-6 years had also reduced over the years, from 945 in 1991 to 914 in 2011, but the overall sex ratio showed an improvement from 927 in 1991 to 940 in 2011.
• The‘Missing’ girls

According to a Government of India report titled “Children in India 2012—A Statistical Appraisal”, around three million girls were “missing” in 2011 as compared to 2001, which points to the rampant practice of female infanticide.

• The privilege given by patriarchy to men has forced many parents to abort female children or kill them before and after they are born.
• A study by The Lancet showed that around 5,00,000 girl children died in India every year owing to sex-selective abortion.
• In the last 20 years, around 10 million female foetuses were aborted in India, and the practice is common even among the educated families.
• In April 2018, Human Rights Watch stated, on the basis of 2016 government data, that around 94.6 per cent of the rape accused were known to the victim as they were either close family or acquaintances. In 2016, there were 106 rapes every day in India. More than 30,000 rapes were reported in India every year, whereas the non-reporting of such crimes is very high owing to the social stigma attached to them.
• India recorded an Average of 87 Rape Cases Daily, Over 7% Rise in Crimes Against Women in 2019: NCRB Data.
• Overall 4,05,861 cases of crime against women during the year 2020, a rise of over 7% from 2018.
• On the basis of the NFHS 2015-16 data and NCRB data, it was derived that 99.1 per cent of cases of sexual violence go unreported in India as they involve a close relative of the victim.

Political Representation

• Female representation in Parliament is 99th in the world. Lok Sabha representation is 12%; Rajya Sabha - 11%.

Economic

• Female labour force participation rate ~ 26% (Niti Aayog)
• Gender pay gap ~ 34% (ILO)
• Existence of Glass ceiling
• Feminization of informal sector and de-feminization of formal sector.

Reports

• Global Gender Gap Index, in which India ranks 108th/149 in 2018.

Dilution of Patriarchy in the 21st century India

• Women movements have earned many rights to women in India. 33% reservation in Panchayat is one example of rising political equality in Indian Society.
• Women’s share in non-traditional employment has increased. 11.7% of India’s pilots are women (global average is 3%).
• Women’s recruitment in combat operation in army has now been planned.
• Under MGNREGA women’s participation has increased 50%.
• There are many SHGs successfully owned by women eg: kudumbashree, kerala.
• Women’s movements, like #Metoo movement, have been very successful in recent times.
• There has been support by media and male members of the society #HeforShe. This signals shift in patriarchal mindset.

The recent protest against women entering Sabarimala even after their entry was made the law of the land by the Supreme Court of India reveals the patriarchal notions rampant in Indian society. Rightly Ambedkar identified, in his writings that patriarchy is the negation of the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity. Still lot more steps are left to fulfill the gap to women emancipation and an equitable society.