Would a change in social structure and processes end violence against woman?

Change in social structure in insidious ways slowly creeps its way up, accompanied by a lot of evidence to the contrary. And for ever, whatever we say about Indian women, the opposite will also be true. There will be positive empowerment as a result of panchayat reservations and change in inheritance laws and gender-friendly police stations, but it may take several generations before women actually ride on these newly built roads.  

It is true that women are getting more of a say in homes and families and their own lives than they have had before. They are getting more educated, more entrepreneurial, and more gutsy about narrowing the gap between them and authority figures in their lives — more so spouses and in-laws than parents. This is going to keep increasing because once the worm turns, there is no stopping it.

So, let’s try and separate the signal of change from the noise, and examine how urban women’s lives are changing in India and understand what is driving this change. At the least, we will be able to market to them better, and at best to help them evolve further.While it is true, by women’s own admissions, that mothers-in-law are more tolerant and husbands less repressive, and she has equal voting rights on family issues, it isn’t social evolution that is driving this change as much as the state of the economy. In other words, we have God (or Goddess?) EMI or equated monthly installment to thank for driving this change. The concept of family has changed from a predominantly social unit to an economic unit. The new truth about Indian marriages is the old truth — that its business model is around a pragmatic ‘life business’ partnership rather than around romance. Ask any young man, or woman, and you will know.Taking a loan for whatever purpose is the new Indian way of life. The EMI is here to stay. And everyone has to do whatever they can in the family to enable family earnings to happen, so that the quality of living can be improved or the house can be owned or made livable. What is the role of the woman in this? In the lower social class, she must either earn and be a co-contributor or she must look after the housework and the children of the extended family so that the men and the women who are working outside the home can maximize their earnings.

In the middle and upper class households, she must take care of all home and ‘outdoor work’ of the family so that she facilitates and insulates the man who is better qualified and who can earn big bucks to continue to do so with no distraction.