Key Issues Facing Women:

• Reproductive Health
• Female Feticide and Infanticide
• Sex Trafficking

In addition to being included among the first countries to grant women the right to vote, India’s constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women in education and in employment opportunities and benefits. Although on the surface India’s gender politics appear progressive, the life experiences of women in India differ greatly from those of their culturally favored male counterparts. Among the difficulties facing women in Indian politics include limited access to reproductive health education and resources, sex-selective abortions and female infanticide, violence against women (including but not limited to dowry death), and the prevalence of sex trafficking. In this developing country, levels of health care and the life expectancy of women differs greatly from region to region, and across rigid class and education borders.

Women in urban areas live almost three years longer than women in rural areas not only because those in metropolitan areas have access to a greater number of medical resources like doctors and contraceptives, but also because those who inhabit urban areas typically have access to better education and the freedom to work outside of the home—both of which assist in the potential to obtain a better-paying job and proper healthcare. Conversely, women of a lower caste/class status remain uneducated regarding the means for accessing healthcare assistance and are left are “socially distanced” from doctors, often abiding by the cultural expectation of “suffering in silence.” Such improper healthcare increases instances of untreated illnesses or infections that can lead to prolonged pain, lowered life expectancy, and unhealthy pregnancies and unsafe childbirths. According to the International Women’s Health Coalition, for example, “for 100,000 live births in India, 540 women die and dozens more experience chronic or even life-threatening conditions as a result of poor health care during pregnancy.”

Although pregnancy and childbirth is more risky for women of rural areas, female feticide and infanticide is more prevalent in educated and urban sections of society where many Indian parents use the recently outlawed sex determination tests to eliminate undesirable female births. According to the U.S. Department of State report, despite efforts to control and reduce sex-selective abortions, the illegal practice of feticide continues to be a $116 million industry.

The prevalence of such sex-selection not only attributes to the considerably low female/male ratio (nationally, there were only 933 girls per 1,000 boys per the 2001 census), but it also partially accounts for the high degree of sex trafficking that occurs in India. Although the law officially prohibits human trafficking, India continues to be a significant source and destination point of sexual and commercial trafficking of women and children. Due to extreme poverty, numerous Indian families sell their children to strangers under the false promise of paid labor or marriage, making children—young girls in particular—extremely vulnerable to human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution or forced labor. In efforts to improve the trafficking situation, the Indian government has created the Ministry of Women and Child Development that works with NGOs to “deliver counseling, legal aid, medical care, repatriation and restoration services, as well as awareness programs such as peer education, rallies, posters, booklets, and street plays. The ministry also completed the Protocol on Inter State Rescue and Post Rescue Activities relating to trafficked persons.” Global Sistergoods supports these efforts as a means towards securing protection and independence of women and children in India.