Analyse the various disadvantages and forms of discrimination that women face in India. Suggest five concrete measures that could help establish gender equality in the country.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:19 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Disadvantages and Discrimination Faced by Women in India:
- Literacy rate among women (54%) is much lower than men (76%); girls drop out because parents prefer spending on sons' education.
- Women work more hours than men daily, yet most of their household work is unpaid and unrecognised.
- Despite the Equal Remuneration Act (1976), women are paid less than men for the same work across all fields.
- Declining child sex ratio (919 girls per 1000 boys) due to sex-selective abortions reflects deep-rooted son preference.
- Women face harassment, domestic violence, and are unsafe even within their homes.
- Women's representation in Lok Sabha is only ~14%; state assemblies have less than 5%.
Five Measures for Gender Equality:
- Enforce reservation of 33% seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023).
- Strictly implement the Equal Remuneration Act to ensure equal pay for equal work.
- Promote girls' education by providing scholarships and penalising early school dropout.
- Strengthen laws against domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sex-selective abortion.
- Recognise and value unpaid domestic work through policy support such as social security benefits for homemakers.
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Explanation
The examiner expects: (a) specific examples of discrimination from the textbook — literacy gap, wage gap, sex ratio, unpaid work, low political representation; (b) five clearly stated, concrete measures. The Women's Reservation Act (2023) is a key recent update in the chapter. Avoid vague statements like "women should be respected" — give specific, actionable measures. Five measures can be written as a numbered list to make them easy to mark.