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lent in all spheres of life, the difference being only in its enormity. Even today in most of the families the birth of a girl-child is considered a curse. Small wonder, their needs are neglected. Daughters are often given food that is deficient; and if there has to be a choice, sons will be sent to school and for higher education. Hence, more women die at a younger age than men and only 69 percent of them are enrolled at the primary stage of education. A vast majority of them drop out of schools before they reach even the secondary stage. As a result of the neglect at every stage, the demographic ratio has been undergoing an alarming change with the number of women dipping to as low as 769 against 1000 men as in Chandigarh. Women also have to put up with atrocities of various kinds at the hands of society that often treats them no better than an object." Incident of dowry deaths, rape, visual-rape of adoloscent girl, Sati and discrimination at every stage show, what kind of society they have to live in.
With the enforcemsnt of laws guaranteeing protection to women remaining ineffective in almost all the areas, women often have little option but to suffer the daily ignomity heaped on them. Indian laws concerning women are not that progressive and are often biased against them. In fact, everywhere there is a discrimination and she is compelled to live as in second grade life,
It is not easy to form a total view of the status of women in India. On the one hand, because of protection provided in the Constitution, there is formal equality between men and women, but on the other, there are inequalities inherent to our traditional social structure which have affected the status of women in different degrees. The complex process of development, urbanisation, modernisation and industrialisation have also played a vital role in creating and resolving imbalances, and this is in no uniform manner. The set of values adopted by different classes in society has contributed to a different concept of status in each hierarchical class of the Indian society.
The demographic profile which shows sex-ratio, life expectancy, literacy rate, internal minratlon rates and economic participation rates suggests the helplessness and insecurity that women in general are exposed to in spite of constitutional provisions and various pieces of legislation undertaken in their favour. Their enrolment in school is much lower than boys. The rate of dropout of girls is much higher than that of boys whether it be in school or later on in the world of work. Participation in the economic endeavour is much less and the status of women is determined accordingly to the income class the various groups fall into. Many customs and traditions
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