Photo Essay: India’s Working Women
Indian society is hierarchical, with rankings according to caste (or caste-like group), class, wealth, and power.
On this uneven playing field, Indian women face even greater barriers, especially when it comes to employment opportunities. A common belief is that a woman working outside the home is “slightly inappropriate, subtly wrong, and definitely dangerous to their chastity and womanly virtue.”
Nevertheless, Indian women do work – although much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics. Some studies estimate that as much as 90% of all Indian women work in the informal sector: plowing fields and harvesting crops, weaving and making handicrafts, selling food and gathering wood.
As I traveled around the country, women were working everywhere. Here’s what I saw:
Tags: employment, India, informal sector, women
This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2012 and is filed under Asia Pacific.
Wow! Really interesting. It sure makes me puts everything in perspective.
The clothing is very colorful. Erin I am sure has a new dress and maybe Mom too.