Stuck In The Back

The gender gap is closing in some respects, but remains disturbingly wide.

POLICE in Haldwani, a small town where the Gangetic Plain bumps against the Himalayas, shrugged when Kamini Sen lodged charges against her husband last October. What could be more ordinary than wife-beating and dowry extortion? The case got hotter when the 29 year-old, who holds masters degrees in both English and psychology, added that her spouse had also secretly married a younger woman. But only the final twist, revealed later when police tracked and caught Krishna “Sweety” Sen, shocked India. The two-timing swindler, said to like cursing, smoking and motorbikes, confessed that he was not a man but a woman.

Growing numbers of Indian women are, like Ms Sen, breaking traditional gender barriers. India’s defence and foreign ministers are women. A woman recently stepped down as head of its biggest bank. There have been a female president and prime minister, as well as female chief ministers in various states. Women are becoming better educated, better paid and healthier than they were. Literacy among 21-year-old women leapt, for example, from 60% in 1990 to 85% in 2011.

Yet traditional practices still hold Indian women back. The problem is not just specific customs, such as the payment of dowries or living with in-laws. Deepa Narayan, a development consultant, argues in a new book titled “Chup”—meaning “be quiet” in Hindi—that women across social classes are still conditioned from early childhood to be subservient.