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The Position of Wowen
The position of women varies very greatly from one part of the state to
another. The written laws may be uniform throughout the country. In the
unwritten laws of custom, the position of women is very unequal. Whatever
a daughter receives from her parents, when she marries becomes the property
of her husband, at her death it goes to her children.
Unmarried women
may not go out alone, even if well over forty. A middle aged spinster
has an unhappy life. A few women of exceptional ability have succeeded
in overcoming these disadvantages and acquiring considerable influence.
Girls are slowly beginning to obtain greater freedom. In the so-called
lower classes, the position of the women is different. In the rural areas
and among the so-called lower castes, husband leave their wives at their
will and let them re-marry. There are many families in every village and
city where 'purdah'
is still observed.
Education Of Women
With regard to education, the law makes no difference
between the sexes. Non-technical and technical schools and the universities
are open to women. There are special colleges for girls, public and private,
but those who desire post graduate training are encouraged to go to the
co-educational colleges and universities. At the universities the proportion
of the male students is larger than that of the girls. Medicine, natural
science and humanities are the faculties particularly favoured by women.
The education of the average women given in the regular schools consists
of three R's, the rudiments of civics, hygiene, domestic science, English
and vernacular composition. Among a certain set of the upper classes of
late women go in for higher education in a missionary school or convent.
The great majority of Bihar women are quite uneducated. The level of literacy
of men is much greater than that of women. The husband may be a man of
learning and education, well read, a man of the word, but his wife is
a mere housewife. It is difficult sometimes to find a suitable boy to
marry a highly educated girl. |
