Talk:Women in India

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[edit] Changes to article

I'd like to make the following changes to the article shortly. Please discuss any objections and modifications here.

Punishment of women - I'd like to remove this topic. It doesn't make sense and only proves that the man as well as women were punished for adultery. The power to curse a woman - huh?, where does that come from? And is there any proof that this happened? Also, this article is for 'actual' status of women and not scriptural injunctions - the 'Women in Hinduism' was specifically seperated to differentiate between the 2.

infanticide - this needs to be put in perspective. The '50 million missing women' is an assumption (stated as a fact) based on gender ratios. In fact, they could be composed of several different reasons - biology, genetics, higher deaths during childbirth, lower longetivity etc. No denying the gender bias in India, but this section is way too POV. Also, the few female infanticide incidents have more to do with poverty buttresed by the cultural bias against women.

Restrictions: I'd like to remove this section as well. 1. [Hindu Law and Custom, p.145] - what book is this? will remove until clarified. 2. put the women being students of vedas in a new section titled 'education'. will include references to women sages of yore and also education of women historically and in modern india.

Add new section on the lines of 'Famous women/role models'. Kiran bedi, saine mirza, indira Gandhi, sarojini naidu, women high up in the armed forces, how they took over the freedom struggle when the men were in prisons, rani jhansi,recent winner of Magasay award etc.

Add section on affirmative action for women (AP has a 30% reservation). Maybe some stats on women in diff fields.

Add section on women self-help groups (SEWA etc)

I looked for other 'women by nationality' articles to compare presentations. Only found India and Status of women in Pakistan. The pakistan one is an opposite POV. The india article is very negative - focusses on sati, jauhar etc and doesn't reflect the real position of women in current India. I doubt I would find witchhunts or the fact that Harvard Univ did not admit girls a century ago (thinking it would a waste of resources) in an article on the US. They may be relevant but need to be in a history section.

I am looking to reverse the negative portrayal and I may be POV in that direction. I will be happy to work with anyone who has a differnt POV and get some neutrality to this article. --Pranathi 21:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Tried my hand at rework. In addition to above, removed section on purdah - firstly, the claims that it was practised don't hold. Second, images of goddesses with purdah may be compared to less clothed dieties - does not reflect actual position of women. Abundant content trying to prove Hindu purdah, but no reference to purdah in muslim societies, where it is actually practised today - why this bias?

Removed many references to Hindu books. Again this article should focus on women in India - the women in hinduism has been seperated to allow this. As before, comments and suggestions are invited --Pranathi 23:12, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree the POV need to be positive now as the situation regarding women's rights in India are getting more and more positive. But it must show the history which has not always been good. Removing purdah on the grounds that it is not now common is incorrect because it was a custom not many decades ago. I remember my mother having to cover her face from elder men in the family - so let us not deny history! Obvious things have moved on - so we do not want to dwell on these "negative" customs too much but they need to added. --Hari Singh 23:02, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] revert by User:DaGizza

I believe that you have acted unfairly and your action are not consistent with wikipedia rules in continuously reverting the additions of Guru Nanak's influence on the rights of women in this area - these are valid and well known facts that have been recorded in the history of the region. You are trying to maintain your narrow view-point and this action is in breach of WP:NPOV. How do you justify your stand regarding this unfair action?

Guru Nanak's contributions are well known and very relevant not only to this region but to the whole issue of women's rights worldwide. I ask you to reconsider this with an open mind and check the history and the quotations. Can you tell me why you have been reverting these changes? What WP rules are you following? You say that this is preaching Sikhism – this has no relevance to the issue in hand. Just because Guru Nanak Dev was Sikh, does not mean that his contribution cannot be entered here. His talked about women rights and the other un-justices against women in the area – So that makes this very relevant.

The contributions are very important as they talk against Sati, purdah, etc and gives equal rights to women, when their rights were being abused worldwide – Are these things significant to you and the article? I do not want to engage in an edit-war and I ask you to re-evaluate your stand on this issue. I await your reply. Many thanks. --17:11, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re-write and expansion

I've re-written and expanded the article. The diff is here. utcursch | talk 12:20, 29 December 2006 (UTC)