Cruelty against married women also increased
By Sreekanth A Nair
The number of rape cases has doubled in India from 2001 to 2014, said a report on the ‘Status of Women in India’ released at the International Conference on Gender Equality at Kovalam, Kerala.
The number of rape cases registered has been increased from 16,075 in 2001 to 36,735 in 2014. During the period, the number of cases of cruelty against married women went up from 49,170 to 12, 2877.
While talking on the inaugural session of the conference, Pam Rajput, chairperson of a High-Level Committee (HLC) on the Status of Women in India said, “…’home’ is the first sanctuary of violence against women in the form of incest and early marriage.”
She said that the report was an attempt to recommend policy interventions based on a contemporary assessment of women’s economic, legal, political, education, health and socio-cultural needs.
According to the report, India stands second last in health. The workforce participation of Indian women is only 25 percent (15 percent in urban areas and the rest in rural areas). This shows that India’s gender gap in the workforce is one of the worst in the world.
“Despite the economic growth and the increase in the level of education, women find it very difficult to make free choices”, Zee news quoted Rajput as saying.
The conference also discussed issues such as declining child sex ratio, malnutrition, violence against women and girls, economic disempowerment of women and girls and feminization of poverty.
Aparna Mehrotra, Senior Advisor on Coordination and Focal Point for Women in the UN System, Bindu Ananth, Chairperson, Institute for Financial Management and research Mridul Eapen of Centre for Development Studies, and Ravi Verma, Regional Director for the International Centre for Research on Women were also present in the function.