Rural and urban women in India: marriage and social inequality

Asian Women

Compare and Contrast rural and urban women in India Today

According to Bumiller, "an estimated 95% of marriages are still arranged, including the majority of those among the educated middle class" (25-26) and while it may appear that there are great divides between the rurbal and urban women in India, when it comes to marriage, it is perhaps the one thing that makes them equal. Bumiller remarks in her book on a man who earned $800 a year, spending over $3,200 for a luncheon and dowry. Afterall, Bumiller says, "Marriage for love exists only among a very small slice of India's urban elite" (26) and "arranged marriages both reflect and reinforce the caste system which remains especially rigid among the rural poor" (29).

Women in India are probably accepted as being on the same social level regardless of their wealth or caste, although there are exceptions to the rule, especially seen in the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and in many of the actresses in Bollywood who command their box office audiences in song and dance. There are obvious differences in wealth in the class/caste system as each sector - poor and wealthy - have their own sub-castes/classes to contend with. Arranged marriages are still one of the only ways a woman can marry, let alone date and it is common practice for divorces to end up messy and more shameful for the woman than the man. These double-standards may be pretty par with the rest of the world, but in India such proceedings bring shame upon the family and the family name.