By Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research. 

Every newborn girl child will now be adopted by the Government of India. This is the India Planning Commission’s vision, in a new bid to tackle the country’s declining sex ratio. The Commission’s proposal renders the government responsible for the protection of pregnant mothers and their unborn daughters in rural areas, through involvement of health workers and local NGOs, and cash incentives for mothers and midwives.

The Planning Commission suggests monitoring all pregnancies in India by detecting the sex of the child early on and then subsequently supporting parents expecting a girl. Health workers will assist the mother through every stage of her pregnancy and track the growth of the child until she reaches two years of age.

At present, sex determination tests are illegal in India.  When taken with the intention of preventing female births, such tests constitute a violation of the most fundamental human right, the right to life, and are a clear manifestation of violence against women.  Nonetheless, the void between the number of female and male children continues to expand, and India bears the shame of having the worst sex ratio in the world. 2011 Census data reveals the number of girl children (aged 0-6) has decreased from 927 to 914 girls per 1000 boys in the last decade. This is a good indication of the extent to which sex-selective abortions and other harmful practices are carried out in India, regardless of preventative legislation.

The Planning Commission is therefore highly critical of the ban on sex determination tests and proposes relaxing the law to make way for an alternative, more effective solution. However, their proposed alternative will only aggravate the problem. The idea of conducting sex determination tests in rural India is, for lack of a better word, ridiculous. This proposal is not only short-sighted because it overlooks the strong prevalence of pre-natal sex selection in urban areas, but also for failing to address the socio-economic and cultural context of the declining child sex ratio. In light of poverty, patriarchal social structures and traditions, or a combination of all three, parents-to-be continue to go to all lengths to avoid having a girl child. As a result, between 1980 and 2010, somewhere between four to twelve million Indian girls were aborted because of their sex. The question is therefore, when the parents themselves do not want to give birth to girls, how effective can the government really be in persuading them to change their mindsets? Determining the sex of every unborn child in India would make women very vulnerable to pressure and violence from family and community members, potentially leading to an increase in abortion and suicide rates.

Sadly, while the ban on sex determination tests was at one time a landmark achievement,  the Indian girl child is now being treated as a pawn in a game of statistics and unethical lobbying, not as a human being. Now is not the time to relax India’s law on the prohibition of sex determination tests.

By Kara Brown, a Centre for Social Research Intern in the Media & Communication Division. Kara is a recent graduate from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

To be honest, I really didn’t know what to expect before moving to New Delhi to join the Centre for Social Research team. Although I secretly feared that I’d find the extent of poverty and crime against women here discouraging, I was also determined to avoid forming any pre-conceptions. Two months into my internship, I had the privilege of visiting one of CSR’s four Crisis Intervention Centres (CICs) in Delhi, where grassroots-level work to end violence in families and communities takes place.

Accompanied by friends and family visiting from as far as Scotland, England and Germany, a handful of CSR staff headed to Chattarpur, in the southwestern most reaches of New Delhi, for the monthly Parivartan Mahila Swawlamban Samiti (Women’s Change Committee) meeting on Tuesday 30^th August. Women and girls, some as young as 8 years old, from all four of our CICs across the city had gathered in Chattarpur to greet us. A few introductory songs and dance performances later, and Chattarpur head counselor Rekha opened up the floor to a question and answer session between our guests and community members. After one teenaged girl raised her hand to ask my own mother if she’d had an arranged marriage, the entire crowd cheered, squealed in excitement and applauded when my mother shyly answered that she’d had a love marriage.

Next, we ran an art workshop where we asked everyone to paint or draw their hopes and dreams for the future. All of the women who come to our CICs for assistance have been through unthinkable traumas in their past, and many are still suffering in the present. On that Tuesday afternoon, however, in a little shaded corner of Chattarpur, after finishing their jobs and household chores, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi life and the hardships they face every day, the women and girls were all sitting there smiling, singing and laughing as they dreamed up futures of happy families, brilliant careers, palm trees, beaches and endless good weather.

One young woman in particular caught my attention. During the earlier discussion, she rocked back and forth with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She showed signs of someone who had experienced the kind of difficulties I have only read about in books: the type of childhood stories that would no doubt reduce you to tears. However, as guests and community members alike took turns to introduce themselves, she had confidently introduced herself to the group and told us that she has been coming to the Chattarpur CIC for a long time. As everyone separated into smaller groups and jostled for a portion of the art supplies, this girl began to draw one of the most colourful and expressive pictures of all. If I did have any pre-conceptions of a bleak future for the women and girls of India, or the frustrations that come with working to change mindsets in a society steeped in patriarchy, they disappeared at least for a while that afternoon in Chattarpur. These young women, with the help of an invaluable support network around them, are finding the strength to believe in themselves and gradually working towards making Delhi a safer place to live. They give me hope for the future generations of men and women in India and organisations working in the field of human rights and development, like CSR.

As some of the middle-aged women and primary school girls began approaching our guests in order to explain and eventually gift us their artworks, a few of the teenagers grabbed a set of drums and broke into song. Some of the younger girls pulled the CSR office staffers and our guests out of our seats to dance and insisted that we couldn’t leave before they’d painted mehndi (henna) designs on our hands and feet. While the henna on my own hands has since faded, it remains clearly etched in my mind just how supportive the women and counsellors in the CICs are of each other, and how warmly and selflessly they welcomed a group of strangers into their community.

Recommendations by Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research

Photo Credit: Pius Lee

Hands painted with delicate swirls of henna; a drop of red dye pressed onto her forehead beneath a colourful, sparkling veil; jewelled bracelets clinking as she lifts her arms to fix her delicate gold nose ring in place: the Indian bride is the personification of beauty and grace.

It is not difficult to imagine why the majority of Indian girls begin dreaming of their wedding day from a very early age. It’s one of the most important days in a woman’s life and a proud occasion for parents and extended family too. Sadly, however, not every wedding day or marriage is picture-perfect. Non-Resident Indian marriages (NRI marriages), for example, often result in pain, heartache, shame, and the manipulation of Indian culture and traditions. They are a curse for unsuspecting girls and an enigma for Indian society.

NRI marriages involve the union of a non-resident Indian man who was born outside of India, or has migrated to another country and a resident Indian woman. Parents, usually with their daughter’s best interests at heart, get excited by a marriage offer from a NRI – a man who is seen to be exotic, successful and wealthy (and who may even tell lies of the sort). Blinded by a seemingly lucrative offer, families overlook the potential dangers posed by this type of impulsive matchmaking.

You may be wondering - what is so sinister about a NRI marriage proposal? Despite legal prohibition of dowry in 1961 in India, the custom still continues in many parts of the country – especially in poor, rural communities. An ill-intentioned NRI will go to great lengths in order to get his hands on dowry payment and then escape scot-free. As outlined in a report by the National Commission for Women on “Problems Relating to NRI Marriages”, women who are married off to these NRI men face a variety of grim consequences. Some women reach the country of their husband’s residence, only to be left standing at the airport when he doesn’t show. These women are abandoned in a foreign country with absolutely no support, sustenance, means of returning home, and often without even legal permission to stay on. Others find themselves victim to ex-parte divorce from a court abroad, without their consent. Some wives are brutally battered, abused, malnourished, confined, and forced to flee or forcibly sent back to India. There are also NRI marriage stories of children being abducted or forcibly taken away from their mothers.

So what can be done to address the situation?

The first step in tackling these issues is to spread awareness. The more people are aware of the pitfalls of NRI Marriages, the more cautious they will be when a stranger comes asking for a daughter’s hand in marriage. To target the largest possible audience, awareness of cultural, social & legal aspects of NRI marriages needs publicised via all media outlets. Awareness programmes should be run principally in rural areas, where the most vulnerable brides and their families live. NGOs and State Government agencies could launch an extensive campaign to educate unwary communities about the potential dangers of  NRI marriages.

It is pertinent that registration of marriages be made compulsory in India. In certain regions, marriages are registered without the presence of bride or bridegroom. This malpractice should entail cancellation of marriage certificates. Most importantly, strong and stringent checks on registration of all NRI marriages need carried out. As laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, men and women are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution and both parties must freely and fully consent to wedlock. Registration and surveillance of NRI marriages will protect women from the grave consequences of scam weddings and marriage proposals.

Centre for Social Research urges the Government of India to draft new legislation and/or suitably amend existing legislation for the protection of women against malicious Non-Resident Indian marriages. A special NRI matrimonial law that deals comprehensively with marriage, divorce, maintenance, child custody and related issues, for example, would arm distressed and abandoned brides with much needed remedial armour. Amending current laws and introducing new rules and regulations would help victims of NRI marriages reclaim their fundamental rights to property, equality in marriage, the protection of family, freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment, and above all, dignity.

Every young Indian girl dreams of a future in which she is content and in which she is loved. Predatory Non-Resident Indians must be stopped from turning those dreams into nightmares.

This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.

Last week, we looked at the women who are stepping into the limelight within the Indian corporate sector to become managers, against all the odds. Sadly, a recent Centre for Social Research study on Women Managers in India highlighted several major factors still inhibiting their goals and aspirations.

In other words, representation of women at the top level of management is proportionately low compared to men in India. A solid glass ceiling prevents women from moving upwards in their careers and if companies are serious about striving toward greater diversity in their management, systematic changes are needed. In response to its findings, the CSR Research Division has outlined the following key recommendations for change:

The major barrier for the promotion of women managers in India is insensitivity towards women’s social roles and responsibilities. Active changes to the recruitment system, company policies, legislation and increased opportunities and training for women employees are needed in order to reach more proportionate gender representation in Indian corporate management.

This is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here.

“Women are fragile.” “Women are indecisive.” “Women are too emotional.” “Women are inexperienced.”

These are some of the stereotypes with which many still view women in the workplace in India today. Such pre-conceptions consequently stand in the way of success for even the most capable and talented women in their professional lives. Centre for Social Research’s recent study, Women Managers in India, has revealed unsettling explanations for the distinct lack of power and authority which remains a reality for the majority of professional women in management positions in three of India’s most rapidly developing cities. During 2009-2011 our Research team surveyed 264 women managers in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore in order to examine the underlying factors which impede women’s professional success, as well as uncover how and why women continue to struggle to prove their worth in what is often described as ‘a man’s world’.

Women managers–those that supervise 13 or more members of staff–face a variety of gender-based challenges in different corporate sectors such as health, media, finance and hospitality in India. However, views on what these challenges are differ widely between corporate levels and sectors.

The resounding opinion is that while many women are confronted with male ego, which eventually results in a loss of opportunities, they are also subjected to other factors which make the workplace an uncomfortable environment for women and constitute serious obstacles to gender equality. For one, 72% of the companies audited did not have any gender-specific policies to encourage female staff into leadership positions, suggesting that there is no intention of moving towards greater representation of women in management in the private sector. Women-specific forums for reporting grievances or gaining support on how to further one’s career do not exist either, sustaining an unwelcoming atmosphere for women in a male-dominated workplace.

In addition to the lack of institutionalised support for existing and aspiring women managers in Indian firms, gender inequality is clearly visible in the workplace. Special facilities such as flexible working hours and medical benefits are usually only available to men and not women. Given the traditional views surrounding family and marriage and the perceived importance of a woman’s role in the home in Indian society, young married women especially struggle to balance their careers and family lives. This is due to an insensitive approach toward women’s family obligations and related disagreements over maternity benefits and leave. According to our survey, 18% of study participants complained of conflicting roles, responsibilities and complaining in-laws who wanted the daughter-in law to quit her job.

But why is there a lack of understanding about the responsibilities and needs of a young working mother? In India, when women attempt to maintain a balance between time spent at home and at the office, their efforts are often misinterpreted as a lack of commitment to their job.

However, for many women starting out in their career or already working their way up the ladder, the real problem does not lie in commitment to their job but in the individual challenge of finding sufficient drive to reach the upper management level. As a result, women become complacent with the position they are holding at work, and their zeal for more responsibility and success begins to fade. While 63% of women in entry-level positions in Delhi expressed their aspiration to reach the top, only 48% of mid-career women expressed the same. Many women with such goals admitted that they were unaware of how to fulfill their ambitions or lacked confidence. While not expressly addressed in the study, there’s likely a direct link between these figures and the lack of support and encouragement for women in the workplace in corporate Indian organisations.

The utter lack of comprehensive laws regarding surrogacy in India has been causing complications for more and more foreign couples that choose Indian surrogate mothers. India is fast becoming the most popular destination to arrange for a surrogate mother, or a woman who will carry and deliver a baby for another person, due to its low cost and lack of surrogacy laws. But India isn’t the only country with convoluted legislature regarding surrogacy. Numerous other nations have less than friendly laws or hardly any laws on surrogacy, which causes confusions here at home and abroad.

In the United States, legislature regarding surrogacy varies across states. Arizona and Washington, DC ban all forms of surrogacy, while California has open surrogacy laws and Washington and Delaware only allow some forms of surrogacy. In other nations such as Australia, Brazil and the United Kingdom altruistic surrogacy isn’t prohibited by law, but commercial surrogacy, where the surrogate mother is given monetary or some other form of compensation in addition to her medical expenses, is prohibited. Therefore, couples or individuals from countries that ban commercial surrogacy are bound to fall into a legal mess as soon as they land in India looking for a surrogate mother.

These nations also consider the surrogate mother as the legal guardian and require adoption of the child in order for it to be nationalized. In India, the 2008 Draft ART Regulation Bill requires birth certificates to include the names of the intended parents so that they become the legal guardians. The differences in the law cause problems for many couples returning to their nation of origin, although many heterosexual couples manage to return with their surrogate child by claiming surrogacy wasn’t involved. Gay couples, which are increasingly choosing surrogacy in India, often get stuck in long legal battles.

India isn’t the only country still debating laws around surrogacy; Japan and South Africa have been passing around legislature for year. Japan doesn’t prohibit surrogacy but strongly discourages it, believing that it causes physical and mental discomfort to the surrogate mother and confuses familial relationships. South Africa, although lacking specific legislature governing surrogacy, maintains strict guidelines. For example, only married couples can opt for surrogacy, and the surrogate mother must have at least one child of her own. The courts also require an examination of the commissioning parents to confirm that they have appropriate intentions and require a signed agreement between the surrogate mother and the commissioners in order to be able to nationalize the child.

India’s Parliament plans to pass a bill to strengthen surrogacy laws this year. Some provisions slated for addition include preventing same-sex couples from hiring a surrogate mother, not allowing surrogate mothers under the age of 21 and over 35, and prosecuting couples who disown the baby if it is born with defects. The intent of lawmakers is to prevent the exploitation of surrogate mothers of the 1.5 billion Euros per annum industry.

By Claudia Schütz, a German intern with Centre for Social Research’s Research Department. Claudia will complete her Masters degree in Austria in 2012.

“Time has come to act,” said Professor Govind Raj of the Indian Society for International Law at the recent “Issues Relating to NRI Marriages” conference. As the coordinating agency for complaints related to Indian women who have been deserted by overseas husbands, the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs organised the conference to review the progress so far made on addressing the issue and to call for further recommendations.

Over the course of the last few years, we’ve witnessed an increase in the number of people misusing marriages between NRI (non-resident Indian) grooms and Indian brides, who quickly move abroad post-wedding to join their husbands. NRI grooms have often been found to be taking advantage of Indian women, who can find themselves isolated in new and foreign countries.

The conference saw the revision of earlier recommendations as well as an urgent appeal for the full implementation of others. CSR’s Director, Dr. Ranjana Kumari, contributed with a presentation that emphasised the urgency of a “single window approach”. As the problems emerging from NRI marriages involve numerous national laws as well as international agreements, NGOs and governments need to coordinate and work together to achieve our mutual objectives of helping these women.

By the end of the conference, participants had agreed on a number of recommendations, including:

• Agencies must ensure that NRI men are single and eligible to marry beforehand,
• All marriages and registrations of Indians abroad should be sent automatically to Indian embassies,
• Misuse of dowry must be recognised as a legal cause for divorce,
• A 24/7, toll-free helpline should be created in India and broad for potential and already married Indian women, and
• Indian women betrothed to NRI men should have access to sufficient information about their new country.

By Leela Khanna, a Centre for Social Research intern from Colorado, USA. Leela will be attending Bard College in New York this autumn.

My cousin recently got married and as such, the festivities lived up to the expectations that come with an Indian marriage. Since she is the oldest of her three sisters, my aunt and uncle threw a wedding of a lifetime, but despite all the glamour it was hard to ignore that all aspects of Indian culture, including the coming together of two people, can be gender-biased.

I first noticed this trend when my cousins and I made a trip to Lucknow, where the groom’s family resides. No one had to say it, but it was fairly obvious that our trip’s purpose was to present the official dowry. It wasn’t as though the groom’s family had demanded it, but it was such an implicit tradition that no one, not even me, said anything against.

It was even more obvious during the wedding vows. As the pundit ji began reciting the vows, some of them stood out to me: The first was the vow that the man’s salary entirely belonged to his wife. The statement seemed strange to me, and never having been one to ponder in silence, I asked out loud, “Why would she want her husband’s salary, when she’s going to be making her own money?” It was an innocent question, but as everyone glared at me for interrupting the ceremony, I realized that the connotations of the vow were more complex: It clearly implied that women were expected to be completely economically dependent on their husbands. Was it old fashioned and sexist? Yes. Did that stop it from being a part of this 21^st century wedding? No.

The other vow that jarred my thinking was the promise that the wife’s life resided in the feet of her husband. When I quietly objected to the statement, my cousins were quick to defend the vow, saying that it applies to both parties and is more symbolic for devotional love. But it didn’t seem equal, because while the wife took that vow, the husband’s vow claimed that his life was in his wife’s heart. No feet were mentioned, and I was once again disappointed that despite how much progress women have made, marriages are still as gender biased as ever. While my family left no stone unturned when it came to throwing a pretty impressive party,it was hard for me not to ignore the sexism that is still so evident, even in something as holy as matrimony.