Status of women in Haryana: a comparative study of Dalit and non-dalit women

Abstract

Three main aspects related to women s status i.e. social, economic and political have been the central concern of our study. To examine social aspects we have selected sex ratio, education, health, violence against women and marital status of women. For analyzing economic aspect we have selected work participation rate of women in organized or unorganized sector. To assess the political aspect we have identified the political participation of women in local bodies. newlineTo study the Status of Women in Haryana we have selected four villages from Sonepat District on random basis. These four villages are Barwasni and Lehrara from Sonepat block, Bhalgarh and Rasoi from Rai block respectively. newlineThe findings of our study revealed that assessment of work that they perform as a housewife, 94.7 percent women felt that their work was considered non-productive (See table 6c.20). They are not remunerated for domestic work. The views of dalit and non-dalit women were found to be not much different in this respect either. In fact 83.6 percent stated that there is a lack of recognizing domestic work as a productive work. About 68.7 percent also admitted that their domestic work does not add to any respect to them in the society. Women belonging to non-dalit category felt this to be the case (i.e. 88.4 percent) more than the dalits (i.e. 40.9 percent). Paradoxically the excessive domestic work had made them more dependent on their male counter parts. About 74.5 percent expressed their views on this matter suggesting that their involvement in domestic work has increased their dependency. In this respect the opinions of dalit and non-dalit women showed remarkable contrast while 93.3 percent non-dalit women felt that it had increased their dependency on male folk whereas 49.1 percent of dalit felt that it had increased their dependency on male folk. newlineOur findings revealed that the concept of property entitlement of girls was not dominant in their mind as it was reported that only 32.9 percent had positive attitude while 67.13 percent