Gender discrimination in India

In India, discriminatory attitudes towards women have existed for generations and affects women over their lives. Although constitution of India has granted women equal rights but gender disparities remains. There are limited opportunities for women to access resources such as education, health care services and job opportunities to women as they decide the future of India.[1] Women are disadvantaged at work, and are often underestimated for their capabilities.[2] This has prevented Indian women from achieving a higher standard of living.

Infancy to childhood
Women are important for reproduction. sex is very important between a male and a female so as to continue the species on earth.The cultural construct of Indian society which reinforces gender bias against women, [3] has led to the continuation of Indias strong preference for male children. Female infanticide, a sex -selective abortion, is adopted and strongly reflects the low status of Indian women. Census 2011 shows decline of girl population under the age of seven, with activists estimating that eight million female fetuses may have been aborted in the past decade.[4] The 2005 census shows infant mortality figures for females and males are 61 and 56, respectively, out of 1000 live births,[5] with females more likely to be aborted than males due to biased attitudes. A decline in the sex ratio was observed with Indias 2011 census reporting that it stands at 914 females against 1,000 males, drop from 927 in 2001 - the lowest since Indias independence.[6] The demand for sons among wealthy parents is being satisfied by the medical community through the provision of illegal service of fetal sex-determination and sex-selective abortion. The financial incentive for physicians to undertake this illegal activity seems to be far greater than the penalties associated with breaking the law. [7]

Childhood to adulthood (education) [edit]

Education is not widely attained by the Indian women. Although literacy rates are increasing, female literacy rates lags behind the male literacy rate.

Literacy for females stands at 65.46%, compared to 82.14% for males.[8] An underlying factor for such low literacy rates are parent's perceptions that education for girls are a waste of resources as their daughters would eventually live with their husband's families and they will not benefit directly from the education investment. [9]

Adulthood and onwards [edit]

Discrimination against women has contributed to gender wage differentials, with Indian women on average earning 64% of what their male counterparts earn for the same occupation and level of qualification.[10]

Discrimination against women has led to their lack of autonomy and authority. Although equal rights are given to women, it may not be well recognized. In practice, land and property rights are weakly enforced, with customary laws widely practiced in rural areas. Women do not own property under their own names and usually do not have any inheritance rights to obtain a share of parental property.[1]

Consequences
Gender discrimination impedes growth; with lower female-to-male workers ratios significantly reducing total output in both agricultural and non-agricultural sector.[11] It is also estimated that growth in India would increase by 1.09% if its female labor-participation rate were put on par with the US.[12]

Discrimination toward man

Although socially women have been at a disadvantage, the Indian laws highly favor women. If a husband commits adultery he will be jailed, but a women can not be jailed for adultery and neither will she be punished by the courts. In most child custody cases the children are given to the wife. In most divorce cases the child is given to the mother. There is no recognition of sexual molestation of men and rarely the police station lodge an First Information Report (FIR), men are considered the culprit by default even if it was the woman that committed sexual abuse against men. Women can jail husband's family for dowry related cases by just filing an FIR.The law IPC498A demands that the husband's family be considered criminal by default unless proven clean. According to one source, this provision is much abused as only four percent of the cases go to court and the final conviction rate is as low as two percent.

List of recognised political parties in India

India has a multi-party system with a predominance of small regional parties. Political parties that wish to contest local, state or national elections are required to be registered by the Election Commission of India (EC). In order to gain recognition in a state, the party must have had political activity for at least five continuous years, and send at least 4% of the state's quota to the Lok Sabha (India's Lower house), or 3.33% of members to that Legislative Assembly of that state. These conditions are deemed to have failed if a member of the Lok Sabha or the Legislative Assembly of the State becomes a member of that political party after his election. If a party is recognised in four or more states, it is declared as a "National party" by the EC. Otherwise, it is known as a "State Party".[1] All parties contesting elections have to choose a symbol from a list of available symbols offered by the Election Commission. All 28 states along with the union territory of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi usually have an elected government unless President's rule is imposed under certain conditions.

National Party
S.N. Symbol Flag Name Acronym Year[2] Party leader

1.

Bahujan Samaj Party

BSP

1984

Mayawati

2.

Bharatiya Janata Party

BJP

1980

L.K. Advani

3.

Communist Party of India

CPI

1925[B]

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy

4.

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

CPI (M)

1964

Prakash Karat

5.

Indian National Congress

INC

1885

Sonia Gandhi

Source: Election Commission of India.[3]

State [edit]
If a party is recognised as a state party by the Election Commission, it can reserve a symbol for its exclusive use in the state. The following are a list of recognised state parties as of September 2009. [3]

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK October 1972 J. Jayalalitha Puducherry, Tamil Nadu

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

All India Forward Bloc

AIFB

1939

Debabrata Biswas

West Bengal

All India Trinamool Congress AITC 1998 Mamata Banerjee

Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,West Bengal

Lock & Key

All India United Democratic Front

AUDF

2004

Badruddin Ajmal

Assam

All Jharkhand Banana Students Union(AJSU Party) Jharkhand

Asom Gana Parishad

AGP

1985

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta

Assam

Biju Janata Dal

BJD

1997

Naveen Patnaik

Odisha

Nangol

Bodoland People's Front

BPF

Assam

Desiya MURASU Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam DMDK September 14, 2005 Vijayakanth Tamil Nadu

Dravida Munnetra

DMK

1949

M Karunanidhi

Puducherry, Tamil Nadu

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

Kazhagam

Tractor

Haryana Janhit Congress (BL)

HJC(BL)

Haryana

Hill State People's Democratic Party Meghalaya

Indian National Lok Dal

INLD

1999

Om Prakash Chautala

Haryana

Indian Union Muslim League

IUML

1948

G.M. Banatwalla

Kerala

Jammu & Kashmir National Conference JKNC 1932 Omar Abdullah Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party JKNPP NA

[D]

Bhim Singh

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party PDP 1998 Mufti Mohammed Sayeed Jammu and Kashmir

Janata Dal (United)

JD (U)

1999

Sharad Yadav

Bihar

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha

JMM

1972

Shibu Soren

Jharkhand

Jharkhand Vikas Comb Morcha (Prajatantrik) JVM(P) Jharkhand

Janata Dal (Secular)

JD (S)

1999

H.D. Deve Gowda

Karnataka, Kerala

Coconuts

Karnataka Janata Paksha

KJP

April 2011

B.S. Yeddyurappa

Karnataka

Kerala Congress (M)

KEC (M)

1979

C.F. Thomas

Kerala

Bungalow

Lok Jan Shakti Party

[[Ram Vilas Paswan LJSP 2000 {{{last}}}| Ram Vilas Paswan {{{last}}}]] Bihar

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena

MNS

2006

Raj Thackeray

Maharashtra

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party

MAG

1963

Shashikala Kakodkar

Goa

Manipur People's Party

MPP

1968

O. Joy Singh

Manipur

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

Cultivator cutting crop

Manipur State Congress Party

Manipur

Mizo National Front

MNF

1959

Pu Zoramthanga

Mizoram

Mizoram People's Conference MPC 1972 Pu Lalhmingthanga Mizoram

Naga People's Front

NPF

2002

Neiphiu Rio

Manipur,Nagaland

Book

National People's Party

NPP

Manipur

Pattali Makkal Katchi

PMK

1989

G. K. Mani

Puducherry

People's Crown Democratic Alliance Manipur

Maize

People's Party of Arunachal

PPA

1987

Arunachal Pradesh

Jug

All India N.R. Congress

Puducherry

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

Hurricane Rashtriya Janata Lamp Dal

RJD

Bihar, Jharkhand,Manipur

Hand Pump

Rashtriya Lok Dal

RLD

Uttar Pradesh

Revolutionary Socialist Party

RSP

1940

T.J.Chandrachoodan

West Bengal

Samajwadi Party

SP

1992

Mulayam Singh Yadav

Uttar Pradesh

Shiromani Akali Dal

SAD

1920

Parkash Singh Badal

Punjab

Shiv Sena

SHS

1966

Bal Thackeray

[C]

Maharashtra

Sikkim Democratic Front

SDF

1993

Pawan Kumar Chamling

Sikkim

50px

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

TRS

2001

K. Chandrashekar Rao

Andhra Pradesh

Telugu Desam Party

TDP

1982

N. Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh

United Democratic Party

UDP

NA

Donkupar Roy

Meghalaya

Symbol

Name

Acronym

Year

Party leader

States

Zoram Nationalist Party

ZNP

1997

Lalduhoma

Mizoram

[[]]

YSR Congress Party

YSRCP

2010

Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy

Andhra Pradesh