There has been a rising issue with Gender in equality in India for years. According to BBC News, a lot of women face abuse, assault, and traumatic experiences and even death. TrustLaw ranked India as the worst country to be a woman in. In 2012, there was a rise in rape cases at 9.2% and more than half of the women were between the ages of 18 to 30.  The rape cases were caused by neighbors and relatives. Kidnappings and abduction of women were at a high increase as well around 19.4%. Most rapes are not reported because it can bring shame and humiliation on the family. The rape cases that are reported some women face humiliation from the public such as taunting, name calling, and are considered dirty. Before, the criminal justice system in India has not standards for rape victims according to Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch highlights the severity of rape cases that happen annually and mention there’s no proper reform or rehabilitation for rape victims in India. However, in 2013 India’s parliament passed a law to protect women from sexual violence and assault. So far, there has not been any research that shows if there’s a protocol for treatment and health standards for rape victims. 

Other mistreatment that women face are torture such as being thrown fires. More than 100,000 women are killed by fires in India. A health issue that is common for women in India is heart disease, causing an increase in the mortality rate. From these facts and statistics we can see that women in India are treated very badly

The United Nations report talks about how the Indian constitution prohibits discrimination based on sex but women still face unequal rights compared to men. In the article “Governance In India: Women’s Rights” they mention gender inequality and how males are favored over females at birth. The article then talks about how female fetuses are aborted every year, around 600,000 abortions. According to World Bank, it shows there has been a gradual decline in annual birth rates over the years from 2017 when there has been a 18.75 annual brith rate (per thousand) compared to 2010 when the birth rate was 19.84 (per thousand). From the reports we can see that women are highly discriminated more and have endured mistreatment from laws and males that are in power. 

Women in India face workplace inequality as well. According to the article Gender Inequality Issues in India, gender roles in India are socially and culturally constructed meaning there’s an unequal power of representation in the social construction of the society. The social cast has caused women to face unequal pay, respect, and power in the workplace. Women are preferred to stay at home, take care of children, housekeeping duties, and caring for their husband. Women are to respect and please their male counterparts. From this, we can see that the social and cultural construction comes from the home which prohibits women from having equal rights in the workplace as men. It is expected of women to be submissive to males and obey their commands. Thus causing a problem for women to have equal rights as men in the workplace because culturally they are expected to subdue their own needs and take care of the family and house.

Batra, Renu, and Thomas G. Reio. “Gender Inequality Issues in India.” Advances in Developing Human Resources, vol. 18, no. 1, Feb. 2016, pp. 88–101, doi:10.1177/1523422316630651.

“Birth Rate, Crude (per 1,000 People).” Data, World Bank, 2019, data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.CBRT.IN. Biswas, Soutik. “How India Treats Its Women.” BBC News, BBC, 29 Dec. 2012, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-20863860. 

“Fixing India’s Rape Problem.” Human Rights Watch, 22 July 2016,

www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/10/fixing-indias-rape-problem. Xu, Beina.

“Governance in India: Women’s Rights.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 10 June 2013, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/governance-india-womens-rights.