How do women face disadvantage, discrimination …

Women face disadvantages, discrimination and oppression in various ways:

1. Literacy Rate: The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among men. A smaller proportion of girls go for higher studies. If we look at school results, girls always perform better than boys, but they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their son’s education rather than spending on their daughters.
2. Unequal Wages: No wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average, an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
3. Women Are Paid Less: The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid for equal work. However in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
4. *** Ratio: In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such *** selective abortions led to a decline in child *** ratio in the country to merely 927.
   There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Urban areas became particularly unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.