Orissa is one of the poorest states in India. My grandmother and I mostly spend our vacations there near the beach. I see my grandmother watching the most popular Indian serials on the television. I was surprised to see how these serials revolve around the issues in the society in India. One was about child marriage and how it was affecting the children in a negatively, the other one showed how some people prefer male children to female and how women in some parts of India are treated if they deliver a girl child. It astonished me how people were aware of all these issues and still there could be an abortion going on right now in the same town. And believe it or not, the next day when the maid came with the latest gossip in town, she told Grandma how a woman got beaten up in the streets last evening by her husband. As Joel Waldfogel said in his article, people in India are getting aware and ideas about the society’s issues, but there are not many steps being take by women to do something against it.
As I was reading Freakonomics, one thing got stuck to my mind. (Part of the reason being that it was talking about India, the place I belong to.) It says that even though, in recent times, India is being thought of as an improving country, and is seen as free of the social norms, there are millions of people with the same old mentality. There are still thousands of abortions taken place everyday, and thousands of women still believe that their husbands have a right to beat them. They still depend on men and take them as their god. There are thousands of girls that are not sent to school because their parents believe that a girl should be learning how to cook. Earning is still considered a “man’s job”.
Even though statistics in this article show that there have been improvements from 2001 to 2003 in the mentalities of women, majority of the men in villages believe that women do not even have the right to speak what they think! It is considered illegal and disrespectful and a shame if a woman goes against her husband. If they do, they are beaten up and embarrassed in front of everyone. They rather stay quiet and keep their ideas within themselves than being humiliated. And I have seen it because I have travelled to villages in India and seen their society. I have seen people young couples, with more than four children who, who can barely fill up their stomachs. I have seen wives waking up at 4 AM and going to bed at 11 PM and not been given any respect whatsoever by any male in the family. I have noticed parents giving preference to their son and ignoring their daughter.
According to me, televisions are seen more as a tool of entertainment. Women watch serials full of spices and gossips more than something that would educate them. And even if they do get aware, it hardly changes their personality. And there are a very few of them who actually stand up to fight for their rights but then even they are suppressed by the men.
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