King Drupad has been fasting along with his queens, courtiers and people to beseech the gods to give him a boy to take revenge against the Drona, the warrior. Draupadis father has only asked for a boy to take revenge on his arch-rival Dronacharya. His attitude that Draupadi, as a girl could not contribute to avenge had come along with Dhritadyumna from the fire, troubled Draupadi. The rejection of a girl child has been in India from time immemorial to the present age wherein parents consider girl child as a burden to the family. This explains the female infanticide on a large scale in India. Though the Gods granted King Drupads wish, they gave Draupadi with a caution that she would take history in a different route. Hence she decides that at one point of time she should be the hub of all activities of men. Draupadi allows herself to be subdued to over power every one later. The ordeal of Draupadi conveys how women have to remain submissive even if they were princesses in the Indian society. The concept that only sons can avenge for fathers and not the daughters nags her mind. It leads to wreak havoc on the branches of the Kuru dynasty in the Battle of Kurukshetra.

43 Female infanticide As women were supposed to be and in some areas of India are still considered

to be curse by some strata of society their birth was taken as a burden. So in past times they were

killed as soon as they were born. In some of the Rajput clans of Rajasthan newly born girl child was

dropped in a large bowl of milk and was killed. Today with the help of technology the sex of the

unborn baby is determined and if it is a girl child then it is aborted down. In all this procedure

women do not have any say they have to do according to the wish of their husbands even if she does

not want to abort she has no choice.

Evidence of the preference for and dominance of males in Indian society is found early in the life

cycle. From conception, female children are regarded and treated differently than male children. For

instance, if through amniocentesis the gender of the fetus is determined to be female, she may be

aborted because of Johnson, Johnson / OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN INDIA 1057 the preference for

male children (Kelkar, 1992; Van Willigen & Channa, 1991). This bias is substantiated by the

disparities in the sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males), which was recorded as 933 per

1,000 in the 1981 census, [and] has fallen to 929 according to the census of 1991, making India one

of the few countries with such an adverse ratio (Narasimhan, 1994, p. 51). Formerly, infanticide was

used to eliminate an unwanted female child immediately after birth. Now, however, due to the

availability of amniocentesis, it appears that abortions are taking over this role (Gangrade &

Chander, 1991; Puri, 1999).

Further, there has been an increase of 5.7% in crimes against women in India in 2008 as compared

to 2007.57 According to NFHS-3 freedom of movement is also severely curtailed for a large

proportion of women in India. Only one-third of women age 15-49 are allowed to go alone to the

market, to the health centre, and outside the community. Access to spaces outside the home

increases with both education and wealth; less than half of women have the freedom to go alone to

these places in every education and wealth category.58 According to a survey done by the

International Centre for Research on Women, 52% of women were reported to have suffered at

least one incidence of GBV in their married life alone.59 15,000 dowry deaths are estimated to occur

each year.60 Additionally, there exists a large gender gap in literacy. India ranks 121st under the

educational attainment index of the global Gender Gap Index as the female literacy rate (53%) is two

thirds of that of men (76%). 245 million women in India lack the basic capability to read and write.

Indias ranking in the primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment rates are 113th, 123rd and 103rd

respectively.61 Almost twice as many girls as boys are pulled out of school, or never sent to school.

For every 100 boys out of school there are 122 girls out of school the world over. In India this gender

gap is much wider; there 426 girls out of school for every 100 boys (UNESCO). The female literacy

rate in some parts of the country is abysmally low, around 20 percent, and the main thrust for

improvement is female education. 57 National Crime Records Bureau http://ncrb.nic.in/ 58 National

Family Heatlh Survey - 3 http://www.nfhsindia.org/data/india/keyfind.pdf 59 OneWorld South Asia.

Oxfam Campaign Wakes Up Asians to Gender quality.

http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/110142/1/1860 60 Partha Banerjee. A Matter of

Extreme Cruelty: Bride Burning and Dowry Deaths in India. Injustices Studies. Vol. 1, November

1997 61 The India Gender Gap Review, 2009, page 4:

http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/IGGR09.pdf