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The Exploitation of Women in India
&
The Christian Response
Joseph Velamkunnel S. .J

THE TRUE HEROINES OF WORLD DEVELOPMENT ARE THE
MILLIONS OF WOMEN WHO LABOUR SO HARD AND SO LONG ?
UNDER SUCH DIFFICULT CONDITIONS AND FOR SO LITTLE
REWARD, TO SUSTAIN THE LIVES OF THEIR FAMILIES AND
THEIR COMMUNITIES. NO PRAISE CAN BE TOO HIGH FOR
THEIR COURAGE AND THEIR EFFORT. BUT IT IS NOT PRAISE
THAT THEY NEED. IT IS JUSTICE AND HELP.
World Conference of U. N. Decade for Women, Copenhagen,
14-30 July 1980.

* 1.

* ,2.
1
1

The World Conference of the United Nations Decade for
Women revealed that an average woman works twice as
hard as an average man. This is because in many cases
the women takes care of the domestic chores in addition
to going out for work.
It is on the shoulders of the 1600 million women of Africa,
Asia and Latin America that the burden of the ‘'double job"
falls most heavily. For them the working day begins at
4.30 or 5.00 am and ends sixteen hours later, as they strug­
gle to meet the most basic needsoftheir Famil ies—for food,
water, firewood, clothes, health care and a home.
contd: back page

AICUF DOCUMENTATION SERVICE
AICUF HOUSE,

125, Sterling Road. Madras-600 034.
1981 /No: 20.

2

Introduction

One of the major social problems of India, as elsewhere, seems
to be "an apartheid by sex”. For the promotion of the dignity and
rights of half of the population of the world, the U.N. declared a
Decade for Women in 1975. Last July there was a world conference
convened in Copenhagen to study the progress made so far. In
India various forms of oppression of women are reported in the
■newspapers. The phenomenon itself seems to be on the increase or
at least greater publicity is being given. This paper is an attempt
to analyse the injustice meted out to one half of the Indian popula­
tion by the other half. We are trjing to see this in the context of
our faith-perspective.
The paper will have three parts. In the first part we examine
the various forms of oppression : dowry burns, wife-beating, rape,
etc., and discrimination in the socio-economic and educational fields
We try to investigate the socio-cultural presuppositions behind these
phenomena in a society created predominantly by man. In the second
part we look at the position of women in the Church'- in India. We
discover that their condition is analogous to that of the rest of Indian
society, a victim of male domination justified through “ecclesiastical
rationalisations”. In the third part of the paper we make an effort
to respond to the God who is challenging us through this social
reality. The response would demand, on the part of men, a new
understanding of women and a conversion of heart; a deeper
commitment to their cause of liberation from all forms bf slavery as
concretised in the socio-economic reality and ecclesiastical structures.
In the ultimate analysis it is the women of India, both inside and
outside the Church, who have to appropriate their rights in society.
Hence the need for conscientisation of wonen, to discover and accept
their God-given dignity. Much more. It would imply an awareness­
building to exert social pressure on the male dominated society,
capable of bringing about changes in social structures and throught
patterns and through this a conversion of individual consciousness.

I.

EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN IN INDIAN SOCIETY

In this section we would like to explore the diverse forms of
social discrimination and exploitation of women. We shall also
analyse some of the structural mechanisms which justify and perpe- :
tuate the male domination of society at large.

C»w„,rY HEALTH CELL

v Mam, I Block
^orsmcngala
Bangaiofe-560034
1. Economic Life
India
On the world level, women and girls together carry 2/3 of the
burden of the world’s work yet receive only a tenth of 'the world's
income. They form' 40% of the paid labour force. Though.women
constitute half the world’s total population, yet they own less than
one percent of the world’s property.
3

The condition of women in developing countries, like India,
is more miserable than the rest of the world, in,almost every field
of social life. They are paid half to three quarters of the money,.
their male counterparts earn for the same job. ..In a. predominantly
agricultural country like ours, women do more than.half.of the total
agricultural work. Shanti Chakravorty in a study of Haryana State
remarks : “It is usually thought that it is the man„who is res-.
p.onsiblc for farm work, assisted by the women; but in most cases
now.it is the woman who. does the farm work, assisted by the man”.1
On an average a woman works 15 to 16 hours a day, unpaid at home
and underpaid outside. According to the 1971 census every fourth
worker in the country.is an agricultural labourer. One third of the
agricultural labourers are females. Only 2'5%of the central government
employees are women. According to the'National Committee for
women, the growth in the percentage of the women labour 'force in
the organised sector is minimal in the last sixty years i.e. 3'44% in
1911 to 17'35% in 1971. Besides the work load either in the field or
in the factories or offices, the women have to do the household worksuch.as cooking,, washing, cleaning up the house, etc. The younger
women, besides all' these, have to carry the burden of early
pregnancy, child-birth and breast feeding. TarunSali Ba.ig, a social
worker and the president of the International Union of Child
Welfare, observes
“In any home, where financial compromises are
to be made.it is .the women who are compromised against. They
are the first to be axed, in any crisis situation’’.2 In terms of helpoffered to.people for their various functions 'women seem to receivethe least attention from society.

Educational Field
The’ literacy-.rate of India is estimated at about 33 per cent.
Of the age group of 6-11 years, 49% of the girls go to school. While
at the high school level 12-17 age group only 19% attend school.
On the all India level 14'67% scheduled caste women and 1-1-3%
scheduled-tribe women are literate. In a state like Bihar the literacy
mong the scheduled caste women is as low as 1'03 per cent.
2.

4

3.

Bride Burning

Bride burning is frequently reported in the newspapers.
According to a magazine the number of dowry deaths and incidents
of wife burning in .Delhi alone is alarming. They occur at an
average of one death per day.3 As evidence can be easily removed,
it is difficult to prove that it is murder. One of the Government
hospitals in the capital of India registered about 4000 burn cases a
year, of which 75% are women. Hospital authorities suspect that
9/10 of these are dowry burns.4 Delhi police revealed 68 dowry
deaths in 1979 and 65 deaths in the first seven months of 1980.5

Wife-beating
This is, perhaps, one of the most frequently committed and
socially accepted crimes against women in India. It used to be
considered a common phenomenon among the slum dwellers and
the working class. But gradually we are coming to know to what
extent it also exists in the higher sections of society. The higher
the social status, the less readily do women disclose this, lest the
family prestige suffer. Interestingly enough we find that, over this
issue, more women from the poorer sections, especially the working
class, the Harijans and the tribals, walk off, leaving their husbands
and children. The middle class woman, economically dependent
on their husbands and inhibited by the bourgeois value system,
seem to be inclined to stay on silently at all costs. There is a
social stigma attached to a woman who may desperately resort to
abuse the husband or to beat him back. Marriage seems to confer
on the husband the rights to subject a women in any way possible
including the use of brute force. On the one hand, our women
tend to remain submissive and accept "religiously" all that comes
from the patidevs. But, also, on the other hand, Indian women
manifest proportionately more violence than the women of U.S.A.,
W. Germany or Japan. India has the highest percentage of women
murderers. In India 4'4% of the total arrests of women are for
murder while the figures in U.S.A, and Japan are 0 24% and 0'2%
respectively.
4.

5.

Rape

One of the most atrocious and dehumanising forms of oppres­
sion of women is rape. Rape is not a new phenomenon. Foreign
invaders lived on the prospect of native women and economic gains-

5
Historians point out the atrocities on women during the last two
world wars. According to some estimates, in Japan alone more
than 1/2 million infants were deserted. There were 21/2 lakh
victims after the Bangladesh war.6 A large percentage of pro­
stitutes begin their profession by first being raped.
The Magnitude of the Problem

In the month of July, 1980, The Times of India reported 40
cases of rape on 22 days. According to the paper, the victims were
as follows : Harijans 9, Adivasis more than 42, I Bhumiyar, I Yadav
and 12 others not specified. Of 40 cases, six were “mass -rapes”
and 22 were committed by “groups of rapists” and in 15 out of 40
cases the police were involved. Five women, after the crime, were
murdered. The Home Minister confessed that there were 2611,
3821, 2781 cases of rape in the years respectively, 1976, 1977, and
1978.7 Yet social workers who are in touch with what is really
happening in the countryside estimate that only 1/20 cases are
actually reported. Peter Layton, an official of the Marie Stopes
Society, recently said that nearly two million Indian women are
being raped every year.8 According to Sr. Gladys D’Souza there
were 800 reported cases of rape in the city of Bombay in 1979.
She adds that for one reported case there . are 10-12 unreported
cases of rape. It is also estimated that 71% of all rapes and 90%
of all gang rapes were preplanned.9

Rape is the only crime where guilt and shame are attached to '
the victim. The victim is “tainted” for the rest of her life. The
social and religious values make her an outcaste, an untouchable
and a disgrace to her family. If she happened to be unwed, the
violation can make her unfit for an honourable marriage bond.
Society at large looks down on a victim with suspicion. Myths
about rape such as "No women can be raped unless she wants”, ’
“dressed like she was asking for it” or “women like being raped”,
etc, current in society make it even more difficult for the victim to
reveal her tragedy. Attitudes even of family members confirm the
social ostracism. Woman is supposed to be tempting man when
she is well dressed or ill dressed. When she is alone, she can be
interpreted as inviting man and when she is socialising she can be
considered flirting for attention.
Even the legislation on rape leaves a number of loopholes in
favour of the culprits. A lawyer who successfully appeared for

6

the defence of many rape cases and won the acquital of the culprits
in most cases is reported to have confessed that she ' had been,
convinced of the accused’s guilt in most cases, but it was her job
to serve her client by taking advantage of every .loophole in the.
law".11 The lawyer admitted that the law was sadly inadequate.
to protect the rights of women. Perhaps what is needed is that
woman formulate laws from their point, of . view. This might
safeguard their, interests better.
Social Conditionings
In order to understand deeply the plight of women one must
investigate the .largely unquestioned' assumptions which man has
inculcated into society. The value systems implicit therein and.:coni-.
municated through social conditioning make women accept their
ascribed, inferior status in society. It is this mental process which
is at the root of the socio-economic exploitation Some of these
assumptions are being questioned by many educated woman today.

6.

“Woman is weaker than man’’.
The human species has made significant progress in several
spheres of. life. But man has not grown enough to overcome the
self-made mental slavery .to. the law of the jungle, "the physically
strong thrive at the expense of the weak". Since time immemorial,
this law has made woman the primary underdog of an exploitative
society. Just as in the jungle, physical strength is considered the
norm of judging superiority. Yet. what a woman lacks by way
of. brute, strength, she jnafces up by way of greater endurance. In
many groups, especially the.lpwer socio-economic levels of societies,
women do more arduous manual, labour .than men. The women
support,, on the.whole, between a quarter and a thjrd of all families
and do moye than half the agricultural work in India. Still men are
considered to be "bread winners". This sense of. women being
inferipr.because physically weaker, is passed on from generation to
generation through psychological conditionings. In fact, man after
accepting the la.w..of the jungle from the animal kingdom has out­
done the animals, in exploiting their female partners. No. other male
species destroys its own. female species except in self.-defence. Yet
man has no qualm of. conscience to,. murder the victims of rape.
No animal violates the rhythm of nature meant, for the pro­
pagation of his race. No animal discards the young ones because
they happen to be females. Man does ..all . these.
(a)

7
(b)

"Woman is inferior to man."

The most widespread and deeply dehumanising discrimination
and assaults against women are on the psychological level. The
female psyche is being crushed from very childhood. In one of the
U.N. reports we read: “There is in existence a global myth which
at once defines and limits the attributes and potentialities of both
males and females and which in fact oppresses both’’.'2

It is one thing to recognise the psychological differences and
temperamental needs between males and females. Yet quite ano­
ther thing, on the basis of these nature-given differences, that the
male dominates the female. It so often happens that the women
prefer to bury their talents rather than step out of the “feminine
line’’ drawn by the men. Injustice and social discrimination seem
to be built into the very structures of this educational process.
The female psyche is brutalised long before bodily violence is in­
flicted on her. .So thoroughly are women conditioned to accept an
inferior position in societj' that even the so-called “emancipated”
women seem to suffer from this complex. A New Delhi based psy­
chologist, Sudhir Kaker, says:
Even some of my middle class or upper class clients who may
appear to be emancipated and have reason to lead a fairly
contented life, suffer from this /-ani-woithless-because-I-ama-woman trauma beneath their veneer of emancipation. They
continue to live their traditional role of believing themselves
to be inferior, inadequate and worthless beings. Hindu
society remains a dominantly patriarchal society. 1 3
Dehumanisation is an essential aspect of this condition. Women
from childhood undergo a slow unconscious process of destruction
or denial of their self-worth. They have interiorised the inferior
self-image thrust upon them by the menfolk so deeply that anyone
who tries to speak up against it would seem to go against the
aspirations of women.
Society through a process of conditioning creates in girls, at
home and in schools, certain thinking patterns which ascribe to the
female sex an inferior status. Besides, society gradually trains
them to make this value system their own. From early childhood
this process begins. Baby girls are given bangles, anklets, etc, thus
c immunicating a sense of fragility. They are offered toys that will
shape them for motherhood and a sort of soft, gentle future. Con.

8
trasting to the dolls, puppets and nappies of girls, the little brothers
are made to feel that they are to enter a competitive threatening
world and must grow in aggressivity for success. In order to pro­
ject this image and such subliminal education, they are offered
pistols, tanks, toy soldiers and other fighting games. From early
days girls see that their mothers, whether they worked all day or
not, are supposed to prepare the dinner. They see the dad return
home from outdoor activities and looking around indignantly for
the late meals. Teenaged girls get for reading materials magazines
which project the "service image”. Advertisements will show a
housewife singing lyrics about soaps and washing powder while
cleaning the clothes of men and boys “whiter than the whitest”.
Any cleaning up job at home seems to be the prerogative of girls
and women.

It is gratifying to see women getting more and more aware of
their predicament and the educational process they are subject to.
An increasing number of urban women are becoming more and more
articulate about their deprivations in society. According to Eric
Fromm :
Basic liberating changes have already been made. Perhaps
a later historian will report that the most revolutionary event
in the twentieth century was the beginning of women’s libera­
tion and the downfall of men's supremacy. But the fight for
the liberation cf women has only just begun, and men’s re­
sistance cannot be overestimated. Their whole relation to
women (including their sexual relation) has been based on
their alleged superiority, and they have already begun to
feel quite uncomfortable and anxious vis-a-vis those women
whorefuse to accept the myth of male superiority.' 4
Eradication of illiteracy and a new type of education for freedom
would conscientise women more and more. The fact that working
class women do enjoy more freedom, at least to run away from op­
pressive conditions, indicates that economic security is vital to
preserving freedom and dignity.
C.

“Woman as the property of man’’

Another result of the social conditioning is that man, either
as father, brother or husband, considers women as a socio-economic
gift to his household. A woman’s value seems to be judged not so
much in terms of her worth as a person with rights and dignity as

9
in terms of her utility to man. Expressions of this mentality are
found in different languages and societies except, perhaps, in some
tribal communities. In Hindi a girl is called I'paraya dhan” (some­
body else's property) and a boy is called "apana dhan” (one’s own
property). Another Hindi saying as quoted in a magazine runs
thus: “A girl in the home is like spit on the ground: once spat it
cannot be taken back into the mouth, any more than a girl can be
taken back into her own family.”1 5 Yet another saying brings
out the economic aspect very clearly: “Bringing up a son is like
manuring and watering a plant in your own courtyard for when it
grows up it will give you shade and fruit; but bringing up a
daughter is like manuring and watering a plan in someone else’s
courtyard for her services and affections are destined for others”.1 8
In India for every baby boy abandoned by the parents five baby
girls are deserted by them.
Often enough men may deplore vehemently the crime of rape
but not because they are convinced that it is a violation of a
woman’s dignity; rather because the husband’s or the father’s re­
putation is damaged. This crime is an expression of the power
based on property relationships governing society. The threat of
rape is sufficient to keep the women in subjugation and her male
relatives in constant fear. “ Susan Brownmiller in Against Our Will
points out: To simply learn' the word rape is to take instruction in
the power relationships between men and women.”11 Because
she belongs to man, a raped woman’s physical or mental sufferings
are thought to be immaterial compared to the taint on her men­
folk’s honour. Her husband can abandon her, even if she is truly
innocent and society very well understands and justifies his action.
In an article in The Illustrated Weekly cf India the author clearly
brings out the social implications of such an assumption.
Rape is an expression of domination, an expression of the
male view of women as 'property'. It is because a woman is
property—father’s, brother’s or husband’s—that her virginity
’ and virtue are valued. It is because she is property that an
act of rape is regarded not so much as an offence directed at
her as one directed at her owner, her man. So soldiers see
the rape of enemy women as an act of triumph over the
enemy. So the women of striking coalminers and agitating
peasants are raped to beat down their menfolk. So police
and army personel use rape as a weapon to terrorise the
rebellious.18

10

It is social education that has created such a value system. Until
crimes against woman like beating, burning, rape, etc are under­
stood in the total context of man’s gener.-d attitude, the depth of
the problem is not really grasped. Ultimately it is the thinking
pattern which has to be rectified.
II.

WOMEN IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The history of religions show that in many areas of life religion
has liberated women. At the same time it also shows that man has
made use of religion to dominate women in so many other areas of
their lives. Domination reveals itself in certain belief systems, in
- i
or sanctions attached to customs affecting man-woman
relationship, etc. There may be social mechanisms by which unjust
relationship in society are religiously established and legitimated.
Since man had the upper hand in social life, what he created in re­
ligion is also in his favour. It would take too long to go into a de­
tailed analysis of the sacred scriptures and the traditions of the
various religions of India. Instead, let us examine the position of
women in the Church. In this second part we shall investigate the
condition of women—lay as well as religious—in the Indian Church.
Some of the pertinent questions we' could ask ourselves are :
Has membership in the Church and the sacramental participation,
affected the social condition of women ? Are women lesss discri­
minated against by the Catholic husbands ai/d Catholic priests than
their counterparts in other religious ? Are the Church structures
less unjust towards them than those of other religions in India ?
We will examine the condition of lay women only briefly because
what is said above in the first part is applicable to them to a large
extent.
A.

Women in a Male-Dominated Church

When we see the women in the rural mission stations of N. India
we cannot but recognize that Christianity has been a liberating force
for them. In several areas of their lives the Christian women are
less dehumanised than other women of the same social category. In
the cases of a large number of Harijans and Adivasis, evangelization
has been a process of conscientisation and liberation- Christian
women seem to enjoy a little more freedom to talk to men, have a
legitimate place in the worshipping communities, freedom to choose
certain professions like nursing, more freedom and courage to resist

11
a little more the demands of the rural rich, more freedom in social
life to resist or at least to postpone child marriage, etc. Religion
has made some difference to them.

Still a question can be asked whether a good education could
have the same effect on them ? As far as the women of the socially
and economically oppressed sections are concerned, a desire for and
motive for perseverance in education itself is often engendered
through Christian faith. The fact that one can break with the
karma, the centuries old social tradition or the inherited fatalism.
and surrender to a belief system, means a great leap in terms of
conscicntisation. This in turn triggers off other mental processes of
change highlighting hope in a self-growth. All the same, the
Catholic Church is basically a church of men where women get a
better deal than in other organised religions.
Half of the Catholic population is female. Yet what percentage
of women are found in the various commissions and administrative
bodies of the Church at the universal, diocesan and parish levels?
Even in an ancient church like that of Kerala how many women
representatives are found on the parish councils ? The church
structures from top to bottom, from the Synod to the last mission
station, are heavily male dominated and this is justified by rather
shaky biblical and theological rationalisations.

Up to very recent times almost all the laws and regulations
in the Church were, by and large, made by males and from their
point of view, too. The beneficiaries of so many of them are men,
e.g, the law of the sabbath and the laws of sexual morality. For a
women who has been working all through the day and part of the
night "the rest of the sabbath” means very little. So, too, the
laws regarding sexual morality; punishments for prostitution are
heavily in favour of the male partners. So many of the ministries
for which women are psychologically more apt, e. g. the anointing
of the sick, are withheld from them. Leaving aside the theological
arguments in favour of women priests, we could raise a question. Is
the unwillingness on the part of the male dominated hierarchy to
ordain women motivated by a fear of losing the ultimate control
over women ? Religious control is the most basic and most affec­
tive because it affects not only the. present life but the future as
?

WHOP

'-7/1. Futn rloor; St

«

12
The patriarchal nature of society seems to have conditioned
the nature of the experience of God in our tradition. In many re­
ligious traditions the creation myths teach that the origin of the
primitive male is from a female principle.'9 The Yahwist narrative
in the Book of Genesis (2.22) strangely enough shows Eve coming
out of the male! Even the scarce references to the female aspect of
Yawheh in Old Testament have little practical relevance in Chris­
tian spirituality. It looks so hard, if not altogether impossible, for
an adult Christian to relate himself to God as a female. Yet on the
dogmatic level we hold that God is neither male nor female, beyond
both. The absence of deities in our tradition goddesses of creation
and destruction (sinrlar to Durga and Kali, etc, in Hinduism), the
predominantly male qualities attribute to God in Christianity and
a reluctance to attribute "negative elementary characteristics”2 0 to
Our Lady can be explained by the fact that Christian tradition
grew in a patriarchal society where women were not held in high
esteem. The great tradition of the devotion to Mary in the Oriental
Churches and the periodic revival of the same in the western Church
could throw light on the basic needs of the human psyche and
the mysery of God Himself. How could a male who finds it difficult
to respect and love a woman as an equal get glimpses into the
Eternal Feminine or the Supreme Mystery beyond all distinctions ?
Is not a woman who is closer to the mystery of life and death—in
her body and psyche—more effective in revealing the mvstery of
birth-disintegration-rebirth of being in the heart of man ? Will not
such experiences lead one to a deeper penetration of the Paschal
Mystery itself ? Catholics may assert that the fullness of revelation
is in their religion or in Jesus Christ. But well educated Hindus
may show that the Hindu experience of God is richer and closer to
the totality of truth in as much as it has been able to conceive the
Godhead in terms of fatherhood and motherhood. In Christianity,
God is conceived mostly in masculine imageries.

In the litanies of the saints recited at the Easter Vigil there
are 20 male saints and 6 female saints. In the New Roman Missal
we find 30 female saints as against 166 male saints. To this list of
male saints could be added the three angels—Gabriel, Raphael,
Michael-and the unspecified number of archangels and guardian
angels whose names are accompanied by adjectives indicating the
male sex. Women in. general are considered-.to be mere religiousminded than men. Yet less women seem to have received official

13
recognition through canonisation. Has the Church in the past
failed to communicate her holiness to her women members suffic'ent
enough for canonisation ? Has the male dominated hierarchy held
up such norms of holiness for canonisation that the women could
not easily get qualified ? Has the hierarchy given greater recog­
nition to certain virtues which arc characteristic of the male psyche?
Is it, perhaps, possible that those women who manifested such
virtues to an outstanding degree were promoted easily for canoni­
sation ? It is only too natural that men readily recognised in the
female what he found beautiful in himself. The procedures and
requirements for canonisation have been revised and let us hope
that the Ghurch will approve many more saintly females for the
honour of the altar.

III.

CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO THE
OPPRECSION OF WOVEN

We tried to look at the social reality in its complexity and
found it wanting from the perspectives of Christian faith. It is im­
perative that as followers of Jesus we try to contribute our share to
the transformation of society. The call to evangelize human society
and transform it in the light of the Gospel demands from us a con­
version of our own hearts and . sincere efforts to bring about social
changes. In this third part of the paper an attempt is made to de­
lineate certain arcas.of priority of action. We propose that Christian
understanding of wcrocn, cr perhaps more genuinely hrmrn under­
standing and acceptance of women, must come first. Then we
suggest more efforts towards a social education, and finally deeper
conscientisation of women.

A.

Christian Understanding of Women

Search for a deeper understanding of society and women’s
role in it would mean abandoning the cultural prejudices inherited
from the oast. It woul 1 mean also a certain commitm n': n 'c ion
for the liberation of women. Merely a return to the Bible or tradit­
ion, however sincere, does not seem to be sufficient because the under­
standing and the interpretation of the sources of truth are already
based in favour of the male. Truth which is revealing itself in the
Bible and Christian tradition is greater than both of them and
manifests itself also through human beings—their history of suf­
ferings and hopes. Here we see that contact with human reality

14
is indispensable for receiving Truth. The history of half of huma­
nity, oppressed by the other half, their strivings and failures do
contain the history of God’s action in the world.
The problems resolved and solutions arrived at by mankind
in the past are not fully human because they did not represent half
of its population. In the same way the answers to human problem5
offered in the tradition of the Church are not human enough. They
cannot be fully human. Not because women are necessarily more
human than men, but because half of her membership are not
represented in the search for. truth. It is bound to be so, for the
Church categorically excluded half of her members from the process
by which she ruled herself and hence ruled in a manner less fully
human. In this sense the Church remains less catholic and less per­
fectly a human symbol of the eschatological community, in spite of
centuries of her reflections and experiences. Even now half of
her members are kept, systematically, at the periphery.

Vatican II teaches us :
True, all men are not alike from the point of view of varying
physical power and the diversity of int llectul and moral
resources. Nevertheless, with respect to the fundamental
rights of the person, every type of discrimination whether
social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, colour, social
condition language or religions is to be overcome and eradi­
cated as contrary to God's intent. For in truth it must still
be regretted that fundamental personal rights are pot yet
being universally honoured. Such is the case of woman who
is denied the right and freedom to choose a husband, to em­
brace a state of life, to acquire an education or cultural bene­
fits equal to those recognised for men.2 >
£o often a man may grant the complementarity of the sexes, the
need for greater respect for the rights of woman as persons, etc., but
on the level of actions he may continue to to negate the dignity
of his own wife and may even reduce her to his own needs.

B.

Education for Social Awareness
In our attempt to ensure a movement of growth for women
as God’s children in greater freedom and self-dignity, we. could
specifically’look into certain areas of concrete action. A;,richer
understanding of the dignity of women simply cannot be achieved

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unless we are engaged in a certain process of re-thinking and of initi­
ating corresponding action.
In the education programmes are there any provision for in,
structing the girls to identify and denounce such social evils as'rapewife-beating, etc ?. Are any efforts made to educate girls to ex­
plode myths regarding the inferior status of their sex ?. We do find
sisters and priests, though not in big numbers who are quite aware
of the seriousness of the situation and with deep commitment to the
liberation of women in India.. We do come across women, religious
or otherwise, who risk their lives for the cause of women.22 We
do see genuine search in evolving educational programmes with
greather emphasis on the removal of social injustices. Perhaps
more effort is needed. But undoubtedly the march in search for
God-given freedom and dignity for fuller existence has already
begun.
The traditional solutions to women’s such as offering them
greater protection (elder brother instead of the younger one, accompaying them on journeys,) giving them greater privacy, e.g.
having better locks and bolts for the private rooms oi women,
teaching men to observe more rigorously the rules regarding places
and seats reserved for women, not letting them go out just before
sunset, ete, do not seem to be sufficient. The attitude of protect­
ing them presupposes that they are still under the domain of men
and their safety depends on stronger men. However good and
heeded such precautionary measures are, in the long run they do
not envisage a full, humanly dignified existence for women.
Pramila Sanghfi, principal of M’ulicha Vidyalaya once remarked:
“I used to tell my students, do hot star' our late, do not mix too
much with boys. 1 don’t say this any more. A woman’s mind
should be strong.”23 A member of the Forum Against Rape,
Charya Darte speaks : “The Forum is against providing more pro­
tection of women. We want women to be more self-reliant.”2 4
Ultimately women will have to defend themselves and men need to
be educated to respect women. It is important that girls are edu­
cated to question certain socially accepted values and imageries
which are cultural structures supportive of male domination.
Some of them seem to be : sexual aberrations as the most abomin­
able of all sins’ a girl being “tarnished” more than a boy ora
man by going against the norms of sexual morality, the imageries
expressing the Toss of virginitg such as “a flower being crushed”
“broken vessel”, etc. Society needs to be conscientjsed to adopt

16
a healthy and human attitude to the victims of rape as well as to
the culprits. This is not to deny the necessity of more just laws
and enforcement of them. But in the long run, it is an educational
proceess of society both of the male ard the female that would take
us closer to realising the new humanity promised by Jesus. The
new man and the new woman who are the glory of God need to be
created in our society by us. Through social education the think­
ing patterns can be changed. The result will be a more human and
just
position for women in the socio economic and political
structures of society. In as much as the structural changes are
effected and honoured by society, we could think of a better world
for the better half. Pope Paul VI in Octogessimo Adveniens advo­
cated such changes in society.
Similarly in many countries a charter for women which
would put on encl to an actual discrimination and would
establish relationships of equality in rights and of respect
for their dignity is the object rf study and at times of lively
demands. We do not have in mind that false equality which
would deny the distinction laid down by the Creator Himself
and which would be in contradiction with woman’s proper
role which is of such capital importance, at the heart of the
family as well as within society. Developments in legislation
should on the contrary be directed to protecting her proper
vocation and at the same time recognizing her independence
as a person, and her equal rights to participate in cultural,
economic, social and political life.25
The Pope seems to insist on the necessity of structural changes to
effect a more just society for women.

Conscientisation of Women
Injustice against human rights built into the socio-cultural
structures cannot be adequately removed as long as the majority of
women accept the current definition of their role and status in
society. Vat. II exhorts women : "it is appropriate that they
should be able to assume their full and proper role in accordance
with their own nature. Every one should acknowledge and favour
the proper and necessary participation of women in cultural life”.2 6
In the Document on the Laity, the Church has similar teaching for
them.2 T
C.

As a means of realising this more effectively, even if the rea­
lisation should be a far distant future, there is need for conscientis-

17
ation and organisation of women into powerful bodies. If women
consider that the prevailing condition is dehumanising, a social
evil, and a deprivation of the dignity God gave them, then it
follows that they must appropriate their rights. Concessions, may
be made as a compromise solution; efforts at change of individual
hearts must be kept up. But ultimately it is only social pressure
from the oppressed that will liberate them. Rights are not begged
for but taken possession of. But this is not to advocate irrespon­
sible adventurism in a self-destructive fashion. Such a course of
precipitated action may disrupt society and defeat their own pur­
pose. Neither do we advocate a life-style contrary to the
specific psychological and physical exigencies of woman-hood.
Yet women must be ready for denunciation of certain atti­
tudes which are advocated in the name of ’‘complementarity of
sexes” but which are in reality nothing but subjugation of women
by men. What the Church teaches is the independence of women
as persons and their equal rights to participate in cultural, economic
and political life. This will not be obtained satisfactorily unless
women themselves get conscientised and demand their rights in
ways that are culturally understood by men. An author recently
wrote:
Till the barriers of tradition are torn down and like their
Western counterparts, they can organise themselves into a
powerful political kbby waging single-minded war, their con­
dition is unlikely to improve. If Indian women are unable to
find a voice, unable to distinguish between slavery and sur­
vival, their social imprisonment will slowly harden and cor­
rode the fabric of society till it is dragged into a morass. Yet
the odds are mounting so rapidly that there is only one
viable road for them, to stand and fight. Whether they can
or more important, are allowed to, will determine the differ­
ence between life and death for Indian society.2 8

This demands that women shall be ready to forego the false
satisfaction of a de-humanising condition, that they shall be ready
for self-evangelization. It means that they are willing to enter a
course of thinking which may be, as Evangelii Nuntiandi puts it,
affecting and as it were upsetting.through the power of the gospel
the present criteria of judgement, determining values points of
interest lines of thought and models of life which are in contrast
with the word of God and the plan of salvation”.2 ’ In this sense

18

conscientisation is evangelization for the women of India. Conscientisation would imply some sort of concrete action, however
small it may be in itself, for the liberation of women. In as much
as it is directed to a far distant goal of acquiring human dignity
and their proper place in Indian society it would be meaningful and
an act of real evangelization,
Conclusion
God's revelation in its concreteness is defined by human
reality. The urgency and the particular mode of Christian mission
cannot be a priori deduced from revealed truths alone, independent
of human reality. In our paper we examined a concrete painful
historical reality in its socio-cultural context—one half of God’s
children exploiting the other half. The history of God’s action
coincides with the history of women’s struggles and agonies as well
as man’s oppressions. We examined the condition of women at
large in Indian society and in the Church. We concluded the paper
with a few suggestions as to possible ways of making our society
more full}' human. A fully human society is God’s plan for every
human being on earth. But it is up to us to realize it by making
the “better” half at least equal to the other half.

FOOTNOTES
i
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
II
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

21
22

23
24
25
26
27
28
29

Himmat, 25 July, 1980.
India Today, I August, 1980.
Sunday, 25 August, 1980
Himmat, 13 November
1980.
Sunday 27 July, 1680.
The Indian, Nation, 7 November 1980.
Sunday 27 July, 1980.
India Today, I August, 1980.
Sunday 27 July, 1980.
The Examiner, 23 Febcuary, 1980The Illustrated Weekly of 15 August, 1980.
Himmat, 14 August, 1980
India Today I August, 1980.
Eric Fromm To Have or To Be? P. 188.
India Today, I August 1980.
Women in the New Asia, UNESCO, P. 191.
Sunday, 27 July, 1980.
The Illustrated Weekly of India, 15 June, I960.
Eliade Mircea, From Primitives to Zen, p. 130 ff.
Eric Neumann, The Great Mother; an Analysis of the Archetype, P.
147 ff.
Vat. II. Gaudium et Spes, No. 29.
One of the religious sisters working In the remote areas of Bihar heard
about the rape of a tribal girl by a policeman. The girl was forced to re­
main in the village at lest he lose the victim. Hearing the sad news, the
sister managed to reach the village at night, She spent the night trying
to persuade the villagers to release the girl to the possible displeasure of
the police. Along with the girl the sister returned home the next day
exhausted and speechless. Immediate medical aid was sougnt. As she
recovered, one of her first sentences was : “Even if I had to die in this
trlpel would have been a happy person. I wouid not have cared.’’
Sunday, 27 July 1980
Himmat, 25 July 1980
Pope Paul VI Octogessimo Adveniens, No
Vat II, Gaudium es Spes, No. 60
Vat. II Decree on Laity Mo: 9
Sunday, July, 1980
Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, No 19

Source :

The Liberation of Women C.R.I. Patna Unit.

Printed at Sc. Teresa’s Mercy Home Press, Banerji Road, Cochln-18.

3c“’™7ty HM1th
,b,«
Bangalore-560034
India

QUESTIONS
1. Briefly illustrate the various forms of women’s disa­
bilities and their exploitation and abuse by men of India,
'

»

2. What is your feeling in the face of this phenomenon ?
What could be the explanation for this state of affairs ?

3. Do you see any hope for a change of the
situation?

4. What hope does the Christian
liberation ?

prevailing

faith offer for womens

5. Who should be the real agents of women’s liberation ?
Substantiate your answer.

6. What do you propose to do to further the cause
women’s (your own!) liberation?

of

_______

-d

* 3.

In Europe and America women constitute 40 per cent of the
paid labour force and contribute 40 percent of the gross
domestic product. But women’s wages are lower than
men's—25 per cent less in the U K and 40 per cent less
in the U. S. A.

* 4.

In Africa women do 60 to 80 per cent of the agricultural .
work 50 percent of all animal husbandry and 100 per cent I
of the food processing. Against 1800 hours a year for men i
it is 2600 hours per year for women in agriculture.

5.

According to statistics provided by the Delhi Police, in I
Delhi 69 women died due to burns in 1979 while in the i
seven months of this year, 65 have lost their lives because I
of burns, in 1975, vvhich ironically was International
Women's Year, 350 girls were suspected to have been burnt
for providing insufficient dowries in India. According to
the Home Ministry, 2670 women died of burns in 1976 and
2917 in 1977.

6.

In India the average working day for the woman is between
15 1/2 and 16 hours per day. In cases of younger women
the work load is often combined with ferquent pregnancies,
child birth and breast feeding. During pregnancy and child
birth more than half of the world's women have no trained
help. All this has resulted in the world's most neglected
health problem in the 1980s: millions of women are suffer­
ing from chronic exhaustion.

7.

Modernisation on the agricultural front has increased the
work load for women and lessened that of men. In Africa
it has increased woman's share of agricultural labour from
55 to 68 per cent.

8.

Research and advice on family planning is usually directed
towards women. Decision on family size are usually taken
by men.

9.

Almost all the training and technology for improving agri­
culture is given to man. Women are responsible for 50 per
cent of the agricultural production and all the food pro­
cessing.

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