The Vedic Age is regarded to have been the pinnacle of women’s status in India. According to the Vedic literature that has remained, women were treated better and enjoyed more privileges in ancient India. Their education was unrestrained, and women played an important role in religious rites, yajnas, and other festivities. Early Indian women’s economic contributions were vital. In Hinduism at the time, a woman’s responsibility was to be a good wife so that the gods and goddesses would answer to the couple’s desires and demands. When the father/husband was away, the wife/mother took care of the altar, which was kept mostly by him. Keeping the sacred light glowing around the clock was her job. Women were also expected to recite and say prayers to the gods, a task that was assigned to them in nearly every other society. In an agricultural country like India, women were needed to help the men with seasonal labour. Thousands of villages dotted India in the past. The primary unit was the family, not the individual (Naresh Rout, Odisha review, January 2016). The patriarchy ruled the religious rites. The Indians practised ancestor worship, with the oldest man performing the rites regularly in the home. The eldest son lighted his parents’ pyre. Brahmin priests and Vedic scholars could not be women. Despite the Indian myth of non-violence, violence can be seen inside the Indian family. Widows are burned on funeral pyres in northern and western India, and new and young female household members are physically and psychologically abused, it has no legal immunity. Recent abuses include dowry deaths and female foeticide. The rising dowry demand and the need for a son to keep the family line are the driving forces behind both forms of violence (frontiers in psychology, NCBI, 3 Aug., 2018)
Since men ruled patriarchal culture, mothers of sons enjoyed a unique status in society. (lumen learnings, boundless sociology). While planning birth, the gender of the baby is widely considered. Gender socialisation can result in the formation of gender stereotypes, numerous parents begin training their children at an early age to exhibit certain behaviours that are expected of both girls and boys. For instance, girls are expected to be tidy and quiet, whereas boys are expected to be filthy and rowdy. As kids get older, gender norms become more pronounced in their clothes and leisure activities; boys and girls who defy gender norms are frequently shunned by their peers for being unique. As a result, one’s self-esteem may weaken.
In the contemporary modern India, adolescence is different for girls and boys. Unlike boys, girls are often restricted in their capacity to move freely and make decisions affecting their profession, education, marriage, and social ties. Gender barriers persist into adulthood, with only a quarter of women employed in white-collar jobs. Women in India are denied many of their rights due to strongly rooted patriarchal systems, norms, traditions, and structure. India cannot fully grow until both girls and boys are equally supported (UNICEF, gender equality article). Because they are girls, they suffer risks, violations, and vulnerabilities. Most of these dangers are tied to the daily economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages girls face, specifically in times of crisis. However, facts reveal that even in the face of major changes in society, there are still significant gender disparities and inequality. (june1,2013, SSN key findings)
While women are rapidly dominating innovation, entrepreneurship, and science and technology activities in India, considerable gaps remain before women can achieve parity with men. The reduced engagement of women in innovation and entrepreneurship has greater socio-economic consequence. Unexpectedly, educated suburb married women are socially “wired” to leave the workforce to focus on household duties (gender roles and role of women in Indian society, 26 January,2016). Women leave jobs willingly because they are taught that housework and childrearing are their primary obligations. This is a topic of social and cultural influence. Men and women have different priorities. Work-life balance is often compromised by women’s excessive need to marry, manage families, bear and raise children. To save money, companies in India would rather fire young mothers or women who follow strict societal rules (BusinessToday.in, MPW).
For many reasons, women take over household tasks. A family can be temporarily or permanently female-headed, with varying implications for her family. Some households become female-headed due to migration, while male members of the family die, leave, or divorce their spouses. There is a rise the female-headed families . Non-single-parent female household heads may have a migrant husband. Despite their lack of experience or skill, these women have been pushed into the role of primary breadwinners. Their downfall and exploitation in the unorganised sector is worsened by childcare responsibilities.
As the COVID-19 epidemic has exposed structural disparities in every sector, from health to economy, security to social safety nets, communities and economies have been shaken. With limited resources and institutional ability, women and girls usually suffer in times of crisis, which is worsened in times of vulnerability, war, and tragedy. Women’s rights victories are also in jeopardy. Responding to the epidemic is about building a sustainable society that benefits everyone, with women at the forefront of recovery. Women have also become role models. Despite with the rising deaths, our doctors never deserted us. Despite having relatives with the virus, our professors learned to use technology to provide us with the best education possible. COVID-19’s rising unemployment affects unemployed family members.
“Only 24 percent of India’s employment was female prior to the pandemic, but 28 percent of all job losses were attributed to women as the pandemic gained strength.”(Dalberg advisers, August 2021). Women lost nearly two-thirds of their income during the lockdown, and they were more likely than men to experience insomnia. The increasing home load may also limit women’s re-entry into the workforce, with long-term economic effects. Historically vulnerable women, such as Muslim, migrant, and single, separated, widowed, or divorced women, have been hit hardest by the crisis. Attitudes also influence how women face a crisis compared to men. These aren’t new ideas, but rather conventional societal views on women’s roles. They may be seen in current organisational or family decisions about job security. “For example, according to the global World Values Survey, more than half the respondents in many countries in South Asia and MENA agreed that men have more right to a job than women when jobs are scarce. About one in six respondents in developed countries said the same.”(McKinsey; Anu Madgavkar, Olivia White, Mekala Krishnan, Deepa Mahajan, and Xavier Azcue; July 15, 2020). It was possible for people who worked in the office to continue to earn a wage from home; nonetheless, the majority of domestic employees were female. During times of distress, domestic employees should have been compensated as well. When they were told to quit in the middle of the month, some workers didn’t even receive their wages.
Those who work in the construction industry were among those whose daily routines were affected. The construction business employs approximately 8.5 million people, according to current estimates. According to a new survey, 35 percent of men in India have started spending more time doing household duties following the COVID-19 outbreak. The move is considered as a significant step forward in breaking down stereotypes and promoting gender equality in the workplace (The Logical Indian, Tashafi Nazir, 18 december 2021). Many men around the globe were busy in their jobs and couldn’t ever give an insight towards their creative self, but, the coronavirus outbreak and accompanying global lockdown benefited those who discovered a new pastime or leisure activity to fill their days. Many reintroduced themselves to reading, while others took up cooking hot meals. Some acquired numerous new hobbies and have become fully involved in them. Unemployment has also encouraged a number of men and women in establishing their own online businesses. To maintain productivity, several of them established businesses out of an idea which they never thought they could.
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