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ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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Beyond Rape Trial, A Bigger Question About Women's Status In India
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<blockquote data-quote="Archived_Member16" data-source="post: 178915" data-attributes="member: 884"><p><span style="color: Red">The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com</span></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="color: Navy"></span></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="color: Navy">Beyond rape trial, a bigger question about women's status in India</span></span></strong><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><em>Court proceedings began today for five of the men accused in the deadly gang rape of a young woman in Delhi that led to her recent death.</em> </span></p><p> <span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span><p style="text-align: center"><span style="color: Navy"> [ATTACH]7061[/ATTACH]</span></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p><span style="color: Navy"> <span style="color: Red">Women travel in the women’s compartment of a train in the early morning in Mumbai. The rape of a woman on a bus resulted in a firestorm of protests.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><span style="color: Red">(Rafiq Maqbool/AP) </span></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>By Vaishnavi Chandrashekar and Shivam Vij, Correspondents / January 24, 2013 at 10:02 am EST </strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>Mumbai and New Delhi </strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">In a slum colony in one corner of Delhi, a heated debate is taking place near the home of Vinay Sharma, one of the six accused in the rape of a 23-year-old student last month that shook the capital and prompted a national discussion. Court proceedings in the case opened today.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The women of Ravi Das Camp gathered to listen to Mr. Sharma's mother defending her son to a reporter but were soon arguing over whom to blame for sexual violence.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">"Have you seen how women in Delhi wear short skirts and sit so tight with their boyfriends on motorcycles as though they are going to devour them?" asks one woman, adding, "Men will be men; women should know how not to attract attention."</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">A high school girl in jeans disagrees. "Why should boys have all the freedom?" she asks. A middle-aged woman, dressed in a sari, supports her. "Nobody rapes a man who comes home at 2 a.m.," she says.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">"That is how it is," someone else replies. "Even if a woman becomes a top bureaucrat in our society she is still seen as a woman."</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The Delhi gang rape, and the consequent flood of reports on rampant sexual harassment and violence in India, has brought global attention to an issue that has been largely overshadowed by the country's "growth story": Despite prominent female leaders and important strides in education, many Indian women continue to face discrimination and violence daily, especially if they are from marginal communities.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Crimes against women are high, illegal child marriage and payment of dowries persist, and some gender gaps are widening.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The World Economic Forum ranked India 105 on the Gender Gap Index in 2012, up from the year before, but below its 2006 ranking, and far below countries like Ghana and Bangladesh. It scored highest on political empowerment and lowest in women's health and survival.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">There is "great resilience in the basic features of gender inequality in India," says well-known development economist Jean Dreze, "in contrast with many other countries – including Bangladesh – where there are significant signs of social change."</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The challenges faced by Indian women reflect broader contradictions: Two decades of economic growth and globalization have brought improved opportunities but also greater inequality. That paradox was captured in a July survey that ranked India as the worst place to be a woman among the Group of 20 countries that make up the world's biggest economies, based on parameters like health services, threat of violence, and property rights.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>Slight gains, stronger inequalities</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Ravi Das Camp, where four of the men accused of the gang rape lived, is not unlike the victim's neighborhood in the opposite corner of New Delhi.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Both are full of poor families reaching for a better life, including through the education of their daughters. Sharma worked in a gym and waited tables to help his father, a balloon seller, put his two younger sisters through school.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The young woman who stepped onto a private bus in Delhi one late evening in December before she was gang-raped, brutally beaten, and then left for dead was training to be a physiotherapist – the pride and hope of her father, a baggage handler at Delhi's new airport.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Over the past two decades, India has almost closed its gender gap in primary education and considerably improved the secondary school gap: For every 100 boys who attend school, 98 girls now attend primary school and 85 girls attend secondary school.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Political participation has increased, and some health indicators are also up: More pregnant women get hospital care and fewer die during childbirth.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">On other fronts, however, the picture is murkier. Of most concern are low sex ratios, which reflect a persistent preference for sons across South Asia, and unabated violence against women.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">India's birth sex ratio has continued to drop, falling from 927 female babies per 1,000 male ones in 2001 to 914 in 2011. The trend is attributed to an increase in sex-selective abortions.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">One 2011 study estimated that the skewed ratio would result in India having 20 percent more men than women in the next two decades. Imbalanced sex ratios may be associated with an increase in violence, which some worry is already happening.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">At the very least, "inequalities may keep getting reinforced," says Priya Nanda, director of the social and economic development group for the International Center for Research on Women in New Delhi. She points to Haryana, a northern state with the worst gender imbalance, which is seeing "marriage trafficking" because of a shortage of women.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Recorded crimes against women have risen in recent decades. Rapes have doubled since 1991, with police registering 24,206 cases in 2011. Dowry-related deaths (women killed for bringing inadequate dowries to their husbands' families) and molestation have also increased, with almost 43,000 cases of molestation registered in 2011.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The increase may be due to improved documentation, Ms. Nanda says, but sexual crimes are also vastly underreported in India. (The United States recorded 80,000 rapes in 2008.)</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Studies by University of British Columbia professor Siwan Anderson on the Asian "missing women" phenomenon first identified by Amartya Sen in 1990 – women who, if they had had the same care as men should still be alive – found that most "missing women" in India had died as adults, not as infants or in utero as previously thought. Cardiovascular disease was a common reason for early death. Another was the vague designation "injuries."</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Separate surveys have found high proportions of domestic violence across India. At Ravi Das Camp, women insisted that the local men, including the accused, were respectful – but none denied facing violence at home.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>'A line between men and women'</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Most experts blame this litany of mistreatment on deep-seated patriarchal norms, especially in the more agrarian northern parts of the country – a cultural explanation for why higher income and educated segments also practice sex selection and why some regions in this diverse country are worse for women.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Some see sexual violence as a result of traditional norms colliding with Western lifestyles, especially in cities. The conversation at Ravi Das Camp seems to reflect this. When one woman suggested that men should stay at home and women go out to work, Sharma's mother was outraged.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">"There is a line between men and women, and it should be respected like the India-Pakistan border," she said.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Such attitudes also pervade the police and judiciary. In a society in which virginity is regarded as a serious matter of morality, the sexual history of a rape victim can influence how her case is handled – from whether it will be registered at all to the severity of punishment meted out to the rapist.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Explanations that pit modernity against tradition are only one part of the picture. India also has matrilineal traditions that were erased by colonialism, notes women's activist Madhu Kishwar. Northeastern states and tribal populations with that legacy have better sex ratios.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Ms. Kishwar blames increased violence against women on "dysfunctional government machinery" and a general uptick in crime. Whenever there is more violence, women suffer, she says.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Most rapes occur in rural areas, in keeping with population distribution, and in the context of broader caste violence.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">A recent legal amendment in the state of Madhya Pradesh penalizes any attempt to strip a woman in public, a "humiliating form of sexual violence [that] is routinely inflicted, particularly on women belonging to disadvantaged groups or transgressing social norms," says women's rights lawyer Kamayani Bali Mahabal.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>Part of a broader picture</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Gender inequality is part of broader inequalities "in caste, class, religion," notes Nanda.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Uneven job growth, for instance, helps explain India's dismal female labor force participation rate, which has declined in recent years and is among the lowest in South Asia.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Indian women tend to stay at home as incomes rise, partly because of social factors but also because of a lack of appropriate jobs, says Sonalde Desai, a senior fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">That's why their absence is greatest in the middle stage of the income scale, especially in rural areas.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">"[O]nce women have enough education to want to do something besides farm labor but don't have enough education to hold an office job, they have very few opportunities," Dr. Desai says.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">The 23-year-old student who was raped skipped that middle stage by training to become a physiotherapist, and might have eventually joined India's new middle classes.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">Instead, she died 12 days after an assault on a moving bus in the nation's capital, following an evening out watching a Hollywood movie with a friend. Her story now seems like another emblem of the apparent contradictions of modern India.</span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy">"There is a superficial impression of change in India," Mr. Dreze says. "<strong>ut for the vast majority of Indian women, it's more of the same." In recent years, he and Mr. Sen have argued that India has focused too narrowly on economic growth and not enough on social progress.</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>They have pointed to the example of Bangladesh, a much poorer country that has overtaken India in life expectancy, fertility rates, and female literacy rates – in part, Sen emphasized recently, because of its strong efforts to improve gender equality.</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong>© The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved.</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Navy"><strong><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0124/Beyond-rape-trial-a-bigger-question-about-women-s-status-in-India" target="_blank">http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0124/Beyond-rape-trial-a-bigger-question-about-women-s-status-in-India</a></strong></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Archived_Member16, post: 178915, member: 884"] [COLOR=Red]The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com[/COLOR] [B][SIZE=5] [COLOR=Navy] Beyond rape trial, a bigger question about women's status in India[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B][COLOR=Navy] [I]Court proceedings began today for five of the men accused in the deadly gang rape of a young woman in Delhi that led to her recent death.[/I] [/COLOR][CENTER][COLOR=Navy] [ATTACH]7061.vB[/ATTACH][/COLOR] [/CENTER] [COLOR=Navy] [COLOR=Red]Women travel in the women’s compartment of a train in the early morning in Mumbai. The rape of a woman on a bus resulted in a firestorm of protests. (Rafiq Maqbool/AP) [/COLOR] [B] By Vaishnavi Chandrashekar and Shivam Vij, Correspondents / January 24, 2013 at 10:02 am EST Mumbai and New Delhi [/B] In a slum colony in one corner of Delhi, a heated debate is taking place near the home of Vinay Sharma, one of the six accused in the rape of a 23-year-old student last month that shook the capital and prompted a national discussion. Court proceedings in the case opened today. The women of Ravi Das Camp gathered to listen to Mr. Sharma's mother defending her son to a reporter but were soon arguing over whom to blame for sexual violence. "Have you seen how women in Delhi wear short skirts and sit so tight with their boyfriends on motorcycles as though they are going to devour them?" asks one woman, adding, "Men will be men; women should know how not to attract attention." A high school girl in jeans disagrees. "Why should boys have all the freedom?" she asks. A middle-aged woman, dressed in a sari, supports her. "Nobody rapes a man who comes home at 2 a.m.," she says. "That is how it is," someone else replies. "Even if a woman becomes a top bureaucrat in our society she is still seen as a woman." The Delhi gang rape, and the consequent flood of reports on rampant sexual harassment and violence in India, has brought global attention to an issue that has been largely overshadowed by the country's "growth story": Despite prominent female leaders and important strides in education, many Indian women continue to face discrimination and violence daily, especially if they are from marginal communities. Crimes against women are high, illegal child marriage and payment of dowries persist, and some gender gaps are widening. The World Economic Forum ranked India 105 on the Gender Gap Index in 2012, up from the year before, but below its 2006 ranking, and far below countries like Ghana and Bangladesh. It scored highest on political empowerment and lowest in women's health and survival. There is "great resilience in the basic features of gender inequality in India," says well-known development economist Jean Dreze, "in contrast with many other countries – including Bangladesh – where there are significant signs of social change." The challenges faced by Indian women reflect broader contradictions: Two decades of economic growth and globalization have brought improved opportunities but also greater inequality. That paradox was captured in a July survey that ranked India as the worst place to be a woman among the Group of 20 countries that make up the world's biggest economies, based on parameters like health services, threat of violence, and property rights. [B]Slight gains, stronger inequalities[/B] Ravi Das Camp, where four of the men accused of the gang rape lived, is not unlike the victim's neighborhood in the opposite corner of New Delhi. Both are full of poor families reaching for a better life, including through the education of their daughters. Sharma worked in a gym and waited tables to help his father, a balloon seller, put his two younger sisters through school. The young woman who stepped onto a private bus in Delhi one late evening in December before she was gang-raped, brutally beaten, and then left for dead was training to be a physiotherapist – the pride and hope of her father, a baggage handler at Delhi's new airport. Over the past two decades, India has almost closed its gender gap in primary education and considerably improved the secondary school gap: For every 100 boys who attend school, 98 girls now attend primary school and 85 girls attend secondary school. Political participation has increased, and some health indicators are also up: More pregnant women get hospital care and fewer die during childbirth. On other fronts, however, the picture is murkier. Of most concern are low sex ratios, which reflect a persistent preference for sons across South Asia, and unabated violence against women. India's birth sex ratio has continued to drop, falling from 927 female babies per 1,000 male ones in 2001 to 914 in 2011. The trend is attributed to an increase in sex-selective abortions. One 2011 study estimated that the skewed ratio would result in India having 20 percent more men than women in the next two decades. Imbalanced sex ratios may be associated with an increase in violence, which some worry is already happening. At the very least, "inequalities may keep getting reinforced," says Priya Nanda, director of the social and economic development group for the International Center for Research on Women in New Delhi. She points to Haryana, a northern state with the worst gender imbalance, which is seeing "marriage trafficking" because of a shortage of women. Recorded crimes against women have risen in recent decades. Rapes have doubled since 1991, with police registering 24,206 cases in 2011. Dowry-related deaths (women killed for bringing inadequate dowries to their husbands' families) and molestation have also increased, with almost 43,000 cases of molestation registered in 2011. The increase may be due to improved documentation, Ms. Nanda says, but sexual crimes are also vastly underreported in India. (The United States recorded 80,000 rapes in 2008.) Studies by University of British Columbia professor Siwan Anderson on the Asian "missing women" phenomenon first identified by Amartya Sen in 1990 – women who, if they had had the same care as men should still be alive – found that most "missing women" in India had died as adults, not as infants or in utero as previously thought. Cardiovascular disease was a common reason for early death. Another was the vague designation "injuries." Separate surveys have found high proportions of domestic violence across India. At Ravi Das Camp, women insisted that the local men, including the accused, were respectful – but none denied facing violence at home. [B] 'A line between men and women'[/B] Most experts blame this litany of mistreatment on deep-seated patriarchal norms, especially in the more agrarian northern parts of the country – a cultural explanation for why higher income and educated segments also practice sex selection and why some regions in this diverse country are worse for women. Some see sexual violence as a result of traditional norms colliding with Western lifestyles, especially in cities. The conversation at Ravi Das Camp seems to reflect this. When one woman suggested that men should stay at home and women go out to work, Sharma's mother was outraged. "There is a line between men and women, and it should be respected like the India-Pakistan border," she said. Such attitudes also pervade the police and judiciary. In a society in which virginity is regarded as a serious matter of morality, the sexual history of a rape victim can influence how her case is handled – from whether it will be registered at all to the severity of punishment meted out to the rapist. Explanations that pit modernity against tradition are only one part of the picture. India also has matrilineal traditions that were erased by colonialism, notes women's activist Madhu Kishwar. Northeastern states and tribal populations with that legacy have better sex ratios. Ms. Kishwar blames increased violence against women on "dysfunctional government machinery" and a general uptick in crime. Whenever there is more violence, women suffer, she says. Most rapes occur in rural areas, in keeping with population distribution, and in the context of broader caste violence. A recent legal amendment in the state of Madhya Pradesh penalizes any attempt to strip a woman in public, a "humiliating form of sexual violence [that] is routinely inflicted, particularly on women belonging to disadvantaged groups or transgressing social norms," says women's rights lawyer Kamayani Bali Mahabal. [B] Part of a broader picture[/B] Gender inequality is part of broader inequalities "in caste, class, religion," notes Nanda. Uneven job growth, for instance, helps explain India's dismal female labor force participation rate, which has declined in recent years and is among the lowest in South Asia. Indian women tend to stay at home as incomes rise, partly because of social factors but also because of a lack of appropriate jobs, says Sonalde Desai, a senior fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi. That's why their absence is greatest in the middle stage of the income scale, especially in rural areas. "[O]nce women have enough education to want to do something besides farm labor but don't have enough education to hold an office job, they have very few opportunities," Dr. Desai says. The 23-year-old student who was raped skipped that middle stage by training to become a physiotherapist, and might have eventually joined India's new middle classes. Instead, she died 12 days after an assault on a moving bus in the nation's capital, following an evening out watching a Hollywood movie with a friend. Her story now seems like another emblem of the apparent contradictions of modern India. "There is a superficial impression of change in India," Mr. Dreze says. "[B]ut for the vast majority of Indian women, it's more of the same." In recent years, he and Mr. Sen have argued that India has focused too narrowly on economic growth and not enough on social progress. They have pointed to the example of Bangladesh, a much poorer country that has overtaken India in life expectancy, fertility rates, and female literacy rates – in part, Sen emphasized recently, because of its strong efforts to improve gender equality. © The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved. [B]Source:[/B] [URL]http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0124/Beyond-rape-trial-a-bigger-question-about-women-s-status-in-India[/URL][/B][/COLOR][B][/b] [/QUOTE]
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