Objetivo estratégico IV

Bhadravathi Nagaraja Rahul M.A, M.Phil, Assistant Professor, REVA University Bangalore

Abstract

Society is a collection of individuals with a unique form of identity and control within it. On one hand social identity gives recognition to an individual and on the other social control acts as a mechanism which enforces and discloses the identity of the individual based on the social setting of the society. Social Identity and Social control plays a very crucial role in determining the role, status, position, and power of an individual within the society. Women on the other hand have always been a victim of these two factors in large, as their identity, and determination is totally fatalised under men. India being a male dominated society, the social identity and social control mechanism are totally under the hand of men. Women identity in Indian society is socially controlled and executed by men, for which women become a source of victimisation and subjugation. The current paper highlights the issues of social control measures that are enforced on women, throughout birth to death, the challenges for women empowerment and Right to Equality and also the cultural constraints that are enforced on women.

Keywords: Empowerment, Equality, Identity, Control, & Challenges.

Girls are supposed to be in the custody of their father when they are children, women must be under the custody of their husband, when married and under the custody of her son as widows. In no circumstances is she allowed to assert herself independently.

Balye pitorvashay…….” – 5/151(versus) Manusmriti

The above assertion in Manusmriti1 gives a clear picture about the position and status of Indian women. In India, women have always been subjected to various discriminations throughout their life. Though women have been given special preference and importance as goddess in Hinduism, women have been denied from getting such preference and importance. Speier says that Manu‘s code portrayed transforms position of women which is characteristic as ―obedience to her husband is the beginning, and the middle, and end of female duty‖. Speicer added that the women‘s rights ―were wholly ignored by the Brahmanical Code2‖ because daughters and wives are often too happy to require rights (Myneni, 2017). Indian women have also been victimized and marginalised at all level of the society whether it is societal involvement, political participation, economic participation, admittance to schooling and reproductive healthcare. She has always been a victim of violence, abuse, trafficking, prostitution, dowry harassment in greater extent in the Indian society. (Hazarika, 2011) For epochs it has been assumed that different description, role and status accorded to women and men in the society are determined by sex, that they are changeable. Right from when a child is born; the dance of gender begins, with the birth of son being celebrated and that of girl being a reason to be

1

Manusmrti, also spelled as Manusmruti or Manusmriti, is an Legal Text among the many Dharmasastrasof Hinduism. It was used to formulate the Hindu Law by the Colonial Government

2_{The religious and social system of the Brahmans and orthodox Hindus, characterized by the caste system and}

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morose3. There are jobs that are women-centric and some that are men centric, in the Hindu religious text, there is a place way a widow should lead their life, No such laws for widowers Existed. (Sinha, 2013)

It is predicted that around fifty thousand Dalit girls were sold to Hindu organisations that drawn in the Devadasi System as a female menailof ‖God‖ and were sexually exploited4

. The birth rate of children from 1991 showed the sex ratio of 947 girls for 1000 boys, ten years later it had fallen to 927 girls for 1000 boys.5In addition, ever since 1991 in 80 percent of all districts in India had recorded a deteriorating sex ratio with the state of Punjab being the most awful in the record. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have recorded more than 50 point decline in the sex ratio in the same period6. The reason for such discriminatory practises against women can be highlighted with two specific social categories. They are Social Identity and Social Control which are discussed in detail below.

Objectives of the Study

 To understand the impact of the Social Identity and Social Control.

 To evaluate the status and constrains of Women in the India Society.

 To evaluate the problem and issues that women go through the society.

Methodology: The research design adopted for the present study is descriptive design. Primary and secondary data are used in the study. The primary data for the study will be collected using an interview schedule which is been prepared in tune with the objectives. The Secondary data is been collected from various articles, journals and books.

Social Identity and Social Control: Social identity and social control play a very crucial role in shaping and controlling an individual. Though both have a distinctive function, still they go hand in hand in the society. Social Identity relates to how individuals recognize individually in relative to other according to what they have in common. Social identity can provide people with a sense of sense of confidence and scaffold for socializing, and it can persuade their behaviour. (Social Identity) Social control on one side refers to a broad way of adjusting the behaviour of folks in a society in the course of recognized societal norms. On the other hand, it is a way to channelize the conduct of the folks in society so that they confirm to the established code of conduct within the society at large. The aim of social control is to bring about conformity in a particular group or a society.Through socialization societies aim to control the behaviour of its members. Societies depend heavily upon effective socialization to internalise social norms and values to guide individuals. Social control is a unifying factor in the study of human behaviour. It acts as an effective mechanism to check on the identity behaviour and to ensure that individuals have internalised the social norms and values of the society. It also ensures that the individuals do not divert from the enforced norms and values of the society. Social identities can be stigmatised, this stigmatization creates an inferiority complex among the individuals of the society which most of the time is deviated. In order to maintain this deviance in

3

The same situation existed in the Western Era especially in the ancient Greek and Roman Empire, the philosophical changes in the Roman Civilisation brought about liberation of women at a later stage.

4

Human Right Watch Report in 1992; The Status of Dalit Women in India‘s Caste Based System, Sonia Mahey, University of Alberta

5 _{United Nations Children‘s Fund India‘s Report on Child Sex Ratio, 1991} 6 _{Munich Personal RePEc Archive Data on Sex Ratio, March 2008}

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the society social control acts as a mechanism by which society enforces conformity to its norms. Social Identity and Social Control, in India are predominately influenced by the patriarchical nature of society. The identity and control of women within society can be understood by partriarchical system that is prevalent in the society at a point.

―………family is a dominant ideology, through which a particular set of household and gender relationship are universalized and naturalised….and through which unequal power relations are observed and legitimised (Patricia Oberai, 2004)7

Traditional Indian families are neatly structured. Some women presume the central role with superior authority above others. The multifaceted structure is deeply entrenched and has risen to innumerable narratives of personal tragedy of unequally placed women. Their unequal position creates great desolation, sufferings, and destitutions in their lives forcing them to admit the oppressive structure in a spirit of identity and personal renunciation. (Neelima, 2016) In the view of the Supreme court of India8, women have forever been shown prejudice against men and undergo discrimination in silence. Self sacrifice and self denial are their aristocracy fortitude and they have been subjected to all kinds of inequalities humiliations, uneaseness and favouritism. (Tripathi, 2015) Women acquire the identity of ideas and values, which shape their image of womanhood and become capable to subordinate. The requirements of the specific societial identity is fulfilled through envisaging definite norms and values. Through the process of constructing ‗feminity‘, women prepared their body and mind completely to become ―invisible‖. Women‘s activity is defined through the society at large and by the culture of social action of a particular society. Social Identity through the socialization process prepares her ‗wifehood‘ as well as ‗motherhood‘ where they find her representative identity. The only qualities are femaleness, motherhood and wifehood, where the ideals of auspiciousness (Sexual purity) are related with a woman‘s appearances and character or in other words ―Femininity‖. The idea of womenhood that is constructed through social and psychological processes makes her an active performer in the domestic world and gives her a reproductive function. (Patriarchy, 2010)Indeed, some culture proffer an mature woman no possibility at all of venturing beyond the confines of the home. Under the fortification pattern a women can move about in the world, but she does so sheathed, as it were in the defensive and restrictive shell of her escorts‘ vigilant observation and examination of her behaviour. Thus she may go into the world but she does not go alone. (Fox, 1977)

Social Legitimisation: Social Legitimisation is an integral part of the society; that functions in maintaining order and just in the society. It is socially constructed in the society based on the social setting and need of the society. Legitimisation plays a vital role in the society, especially in functioning of a society. It determines the characteristic and social setting of the society. Social Legitimisations refer to the process whereby an act or an ideology becomes legitimate by its attachment to norms and values with a given society. It also refers to the norms, values, beliefs, practices and procedures accepted by a group. It can also be understood as an indivisible condition, as an internal part of the political system associated mainly with issue of power that enjoys a greater support of the individuals in the society. (Kaplanova, 2017) It can also be understood as the belief that a rule, institution, or leader has the right to govern. It is a judgment by an individual about the rightfulness of a hierarchy between rule and ruler (Hurd) In this scenario the social legitimization in

7 _{Patricia Oberai ,Qtd in the The God of Small Things. A critical Study, 2004)} 8_{Madhu Krishnan v. State of Bihar (1956) 5 SCC 148}

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the Indian society is the Indian Patriarchal system. The status is mostly affected by her relationships in the family and the the social group to which she belongs. It is inherited through culture and tradition. The social relations of gender as well as class relations are part of a historical inheritance. Patriarchy is the legitimising process in our inheritence. ‗Patriarchy‘ a term in which inequality and hierarchy are implicit and is discussed in sociological and feminist fiction in a variety of ways. Literally ‗power of the father‘ and indicating male supremacy- ―Kartha‖, understood as ‗a symbolic male oriented principle‘ governing social and gender relations, an institutional structure of male domination, or an ideology based on the power of men. (Kasturi, 0995)For instance in a patriarchal culture individually son and daughter take their identity from the kin. But while the son recognise as a stable member of the kin, the girls are more viewed as a transfer element of this entity to a new predominantly husband‘s family. This also influences inheritance and resource distribution inside family. The properties are usually inherited by male successors and transmitted through them to the next generation. According to the customary legal practice a daughter has only rights of maintenance of the property during her life in family. As soon as she gets married her rights of property use are dismissed and taken back to family unit. Also social discrimination has a huge impact on the women right to land. Norms of female dependence on males are justified through a range of social mechanisms. About one third of the household have been run by women alone as their husbands have left in search of jobs outside agriculture. Still women get less paid than men for the same work done910.Many of women in joint families are unable to take any independent decisions in respect to their own daily activities. The wife has to live by her husband‘s family and often his family wishes the daughter has to live by father and family arrangements11. According to studies made by R C Mishra nearly 90 percent of women in Uttar Pradesh, and over 80 percent in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh need permission before they can leave the house12. These three institutionalised systems of the society have posed a greater challenge to the women empowerment in the Indian society. Social identity channelizes13 women to be weaker and she is too supported by the male counterpart, whereas the social control assure that women in the society do not deviate from the identity that the society has structured them till date. In order to ensure that these authorities are functioning in a proper manner Social legitimization acts as an assessor to certify that all the societal norms and values are inflicted in a proper manner, thus posing a challenge for uplift and empowerment of the women position in the society. Hence it becomes necessary to analyse the position of women who have been posing the challenges and issues of social identity, control and legitimisation in today‘s senario. The current paper highlights the issues of Social control measures that are enforced on women throughout her from birth to death, the challenges for Women Empowerment and Right to Equality and also the cultural constraints that are enforced on women and which have possessed a question to Women Empowerment and Right to equality. Hence it becomes essential to understand the concept of women empowerment through the social identity and social control. It helps us to understand the different parameters of identities linked to women and the

9 _{(pg1-11) Status of Rural Women in India, Dr S C Shama, 2009} 10

(pg 40-44) Gender Discrimination in Indian Society, L Packiam, Allied Publishing Pvt Ltd, 2006, New Delhi

11 _{Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Bilkas Vissandjee2006}

12 _{Women in India towards gender equality, by R C Mishra, 2006, Authorspress (pg94-97)} 13 _{Refer to the Institutions such as Religion, education, marriage and family}

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constraints that are associated within those identities. On the other hand understanding the social control will enable to undersatand hurdles of empowerment encountered by women in her daily life. Social Identity and Control: Women Empowerment: Empowerment can be understood as the process of developing a sense of autonomy and self-confidence, and performing independently and communally to change the social associations and the institutions and discourses that prohibit a part of the society and keep them in poverty. It is practice of consciousness and ability to greater participation, decision making power and control and to transformative action. (Karl, 1995) Women empowerment means equipping women to be economically independent, self- reliant, have a positive esteem to enable them to face any difficult situation and they should be able to participate in the development activities. Women empowerment also refers to increasing the religious, political, societal, educational, sex or monetary strength of individuals and communities of women. Empowerment involves the building up of a society, a political environment, wherein women can breathe without fear of domination, mistreatment, dread, prejudice and the universal feeling of harassment which goes with being a woman in a traditionally male dominated structure. Women literacy rate stands less than 50 percent for whole of India. United Nation had estimated that 245 million Indian women cannot read or write and furthermore this number covers all state, religious groups and caste. The average Indian female has only 1.2 years of schooling while the Indian male spends 3.5 years of schooling14. About 70 percent of graduate Indian women were unemployed taking under consideration women represent 90 percent of the total minor workers of the country15. Women‘s empowerment in India is heavily dependent on many different variables that include geographical location, social and educational status, and age. (Shettar, 2015) Therefore it is essential to oversee the aspect of empowerment in these criteria through the mirror of the case studies in order to obtain a clear view and also to check if social identity and control have laid any impact on Women empowerment. The constitution of India declared equality of status and opportunity. Article 1616, Articles 1517, and Article 1418help to stop gender based discrimination in the country, but the issue of the gender discrimination and exploitation is still pervasive (Batra, 2017). The paper further has been analysed in two criteria on in terms of Identity and control that the women have confronted in the society.The case studies were chosen from a Private University in Bangalore, the sample consisted of three girls pursuing Under-graduation, three girls pursuing Post-graduation , two female teaching faculties and two female non-teaching faculties. From the data collected it could be observed that the role of social control and social identity had a very strong impact on women. Women were directly and indirectly affected in the process of identity and control that is socially legitimized in the society. Social identity and social control mechanisms were experienced by the respondents from the birth, to selection of courses and making a decision on employment opportunities and salary. All the respondents had been discriminated in one or the other form through the social identity and social control system.

14

United Nations Statistic Division, 2002

15 _{UNFPA State of World Population report on India, Published in 2005}

16 _{The constitution states that no citizen shall on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex descent, sex or place}

of birth, residence or any of them, be eligible for, or dicriminated against in respect of any employment of office under the State.

17_{Prohibits discrimination on ground of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.}

18 _{State shall not deny to any person equality before law or the equal protection of the laws within the Territory}