A great deal of literature has appeared on the situation of Indian women. Some writers refer to them as shakti - the power (Singh, 1988: 39), while some as more outspoken in villages because their labour counts more and they are economically viable (Berreman, 1972). Still others have written about the tragedy and deprivation of women at the hands of men (Miller, 1981). Some women are described as becoming wrinkled hags at an early age due to the pressure of work and ill treatment (Crook, 1897: 230). Other writers have said that women in India have had more opportunities to change and develop themselves than elsewhere in the world (Gupta, 1983: 5). By and large, Indian women are known to be dependent on men, and are exploited and beaten by men (Srinivas, 1978: 18). However, the recent socio-economic development in the country seems to have brought some changes in the position of Indian women. There is evidence that the situation of women in urban areas is changing (Kapur, 1974), but the evidence for north Indian areas hardly suggests an improvement in the position of rural women (see Gross, 1982; Gupta, 1987; MacDorman,1987). In this section the role, the position and activities of Himachali women are discussed with a view of exploring improvements in the position of Himachali women due to socio-economic development.
Women in Himachali villages perform the same role in village life as performed by women in other parts of India. It is well known that they work without rest from
morning to late at night in Indian villages as well as in villages in other third world countries (De Souza, 1980: 5-6) such as in Bangladesh. However, this activity cycle of women does not continue from childhood to old age. This pattern of work largely predominated when a woman is a wife or a daughter-in-law. Therefore, in this section, women's roles and activities are viewed in three categories: as daughter, as wife or daughter-in law , and finally as mother and mother-in-law.
Before marriage, when a girl stays at her parents house she performs a whole range of work including preparing food, bathing younger siblings, collecting firewood and fodder, cleaning the cattle shed, and working in fields. In addition to this, she goes to school and helps her younger siblings with their school work. She does this work as a member of her parents' household and faces no penalties for being inefficient in any of these areas.
Over the years the role and activities of girls before marriage have changed. Not only do they participate in many production activities but they also attend school. Thus the time which they used to spend in direct or indirect economic activities is now partly shared by their participation in school. In the past, particularly among women married before 1960, very few ever attended school and so most contributed to various activities in the parental home. The main activity of daughters was care of their younger siblings. Many girls took care of their younger siblings after they turned six years of age. In addition to caring for siblings, which include cleaning them, feeding and changing their clothes , they also helped their parents to take cattle for grazing, and fetching water from the spring or tap. By eight years of age girls started working in fields and by ten years of age they went to collect firewood and grass from the forest. The other activities such as cleaning the floor and front yard of the house, cleaning dishes and cleaning the cattle shed, all began after most of the girls turned eight years of age. Despite this considerable contribution of daughters to their parents, this work was done by daughters as a routine and as a part of their share in the stream of work performed by other family members. While these different jobs were performed by
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daughters, their male siblings were assigned the tasks of helping their father to plough fields, to fetch water, to take cattle for grazing, to collect firewood, and to take wheat, corn and millet to the flour-mill for grinding. However, male children never cleaned the dishes, plastered the kitchen floor with clay, cleaned the cattle shed, or washed clothes. The person to perform these tasks was the daughter-in- law, in her absence it was a daughter and in her absence a mother.
Once the schooling of daughters became important and parents started sending their daughters to school, a part of their time was spent in school while a part of the time, when they were at home, was taken by their school work. Some of the time was spent in teaching and guiding their younger siblings and only a fraction was available for assisting their families in household activities. Not only did it become difficult for them to contribute to various household activities, but their parents also did not expect them to contribute to many family activities as schooling became their main activity. Parents started realizing that if a daughter was to achieve success in her school, then she had to be given time to complete her school work and follow through the assignments at home which she was given at school. In this respect she was given almost equal opportunity with her male siblings.
In the household, women, whether daughter, daughter-in-law, mother or mother-in-law, had lower status than men. Men were fed first while women were fed last. Where there were daughters and sons, sons were fed with their father and other men while daughters were fed latter with women. This tradition prevailed at the time of the survey and so was the activity pattern of women.
The work of a daughter-in-law was considered most difficult. She not only had to work hard to receive the praise of her in-laws but also to submerge herself in that household. She also had to work hard to save the prestige of her parents and their relatives. A single mistake on her part may cause enmity between her parents and her in-laws which would not only restrict her contacts with her parents but also could lead to rumours about her being dishonest, lazy and lacking in
proper manners. This would lead to problems in arranging marriages of unmarried girls in her parental kin-group. It is expected that a daughter-in-law suppresses her individuality and completely cowers to the demands of unquestionable obedience from the elders in her husband's house.
The work of a mother and mother-in-law was considered to be of higher status than that of a daughter-in-law. The mother-in-law was usually the link between the patriarch and the daughter-in-law. The patriarch took the decision about various functions to be performed by a daughter-in-law, and that decision was communicated to her by her mother-in-law. Sometimes the mother-in-law herself took a decision if the patriarch was away on an assignment or if the work to be permormed was less important.
There has been considerable reporting about the abuse of daughters-in-law at the hands of mothers-in-law, such as a mother-in-law making a daughter-in-law leave her bed early in the morning and perform various duties. It was said that the mother-in-law gave merciless physical abuse to her daughter-in-law, and she expected her son to listen to her and be prepared to slap his wife at a single signal. This behaviour of mothers-in-law has been attributed to the abuse they received at the hands of their mothers-in-laws when they themselves were daughters-in-laws. It seems that mothers-in-law were not prepared to accept the changing times where daughters-in-law are older, better educated and above all have better communication with their husbands.