Shameful statistics:
45 percent: percentage of Indian girls who are married before the age of 18 (International Center for Research on Women, 2010).
56,000: maternal deaths recorded in 2010 (UN Population Fund).
52 percent: percentage of adolescent girls who think it’s justifiable for a man to beat his wife. For boys, the figure is 57 percent (UNICEF, 2012).
7.1 percent: increase in crimes against women between 2010 and last year (National Crime Records Bureau in India).
12 million: estimate of number of girls aborted in India in the past three decades (The Lancet, 2011).
914: There are now just 914 girls to 1,000 boys in India thanks to female feticide (Indian census, 2011).
8,618: number of Indian women murdered last year for not providing a sufficient dowry (National Crime Records Bureau).
65.46 percent: female literacy rate; male literacy rate is 82.14 percent (2011 census).
Courtesy: "Why India is no place for women", Taipei Times.
Image courtesy: 竜次 on Flickr
It is good that you've made it amply clear to readers of your blog and their father-in-laws that you don't like how Indians are indecisive about choosing a restaurant, ordering food, how they are stupid and religious, how the rituals suck, how they force feed you, how the traffic, the condition of women suck, how the IITs are crappy.
ReplyDeleteYour preferences are very well valued sir. We, the minions in India are working hard (as hard as Indians can wink wink) to improve things here and make it up to your high standards.
I really admire how you've decided to take your respectable self away from this hugeass garbage can and parked in the US of A.
It might be hard, given how largehearted you are, but try not to worry about us second class minions you've left behind in India. We are okay, really. We can fight our own battles. And we could do with a little less patronizing.
You don't question the statistics?
ReplyDeleteBringing light on important issues is a lot better than staying in the dark, wouldn't you agree?
That's exactly what I am talking about. What entitles you to assume we Indian women/men don't question this every day? The facts are out in the open for everyone to see.
ReplyDeleteI just find your tone very condescending/patronizing to Indians.
You don't dispute the facts.
ReplyDeleteYou claim to raise the same issues I'm raising.
And you are offended that I am doing what you are doing. Makes no sense.
Also, in that above post, could you point out where my tone was condescending or patronizing?
It's sad that you have to quote "Taipei" times for your convenient statistics!! I am an Indian born and raised in India and living in the US for 25+ years and we did not grow up in the "dark" India this portrays. Yes, there are problems in India and so does the world.
ReplyDeleteWomen may have a lot of liberty in this country, but did rape stop here? We hear of fathers hiding their daughters in the basement for years like animals, pastors molesting children, shooting after shootings, but do we generalize those and say US (or the west) is bad? We live here and those must be relevant to us. How many of these issues did you cover in your blogs? (I just stumbled on your page here, so if you already did, I stand corrected).
My take on it is that the recent events were done by some animals and they should be dealt with as such. Remember there was a guy in the news (in the US) who "ate" another man's face like an animal? I don't see a difference between that and these thugs. And the problem of women's lib, it's an ongoing issue and I am sure Indians are dealing with it. Like Indiawoman says, they are dealing with it, we escaped it conveniently! We can talk about it, but only to help those we left behind, not hurting them, please!
I appreciate you bringing up issues in India, but please do it responsibly. The world is already biased about anything in India. This ugly situation has only feeding into that frenzy. If the educated mass of the west is doing that, uneducated (on world matters) just decide that only heathens and animals live in India. Please do not perpetuate that. You want to criticize, please write about both sides of the story. There are so many good things happening, even about the recent rape issue! The entire society there is dealing/talking about it. I have no objection in people pointing out issues about India, but post also about the good things there, so it gives a wholesome picture of the society. And please think in what way you can possibly help (other than just pointing fingers!!)
Sam