Turns out, Slumdog Millionaire was not far off, Indian slums often resemble heaps of garbage dotted with feces and skinny kids (I mean Vogue skinny). Infact, one article suggested that it was a testament to India's commitment to democracy that it had not gone in and eliminated these areas. The slums suffer from inadequate access to safe water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, absence of infrastructure, and insecure residential status. These conditions breed crime, mental illness, disease, drug/alcohol addiction problems and suicide. Scarier yet is the demographic breakdown of these slums, which is on average 68% female and 12% children under six years old. In other words there are over 27 million women and 5 million children living in these Indian slums today.
The cycle of poverty found in the slums wraps tightly around Indian women because of the dowry system. For those of you who do not know, a dowry is a gift (typically money, goods, or real estate) given to the groom by the bride's family. Since ancient times the dowry has served as 'seed money' to help the husband provide for the new family and as an incentive for the husband to treat his new bride well. Today, the dowry system in India is like smoking weed or downloading music in the US, it is both illegal and widely practiced (and defended). One Indian blogger explains "it is so deeply rooted in Indian culture, that sometimes one feels that there's going to be no way out"[see full]. With the wedding industry taking off, modern dowries include refrigerators, TVs, washing machines, cars, and jewelry; families use dowries as an opportunity to flaunt their wealth. So what's wrong with a wife/free video ipod? While dowries may seem harmless in theory, their effects are devastating. Refusing to pay a dowry can get a bride killed; conservative estimates place the dowry death toll at 50,000 in the last decade in India alone. India in particular has a dark tradition of 'bride burning' in which the woman is doused with kerosene or gasoline and set on fire in the event that the groom deems the dowry inadequate. How common are these human campfires? CNN reports that Indian officials receive over 2,500 reports of bride burning each year--that's one woman every 3.5 hours.
However, let me paint a complete picture. While dowry related deaths and female slum populations are still a major problem, India is not entirely archaic when it comes to women's rights. Thanks to a bunch of hippie activists in the 1970s and the highly public Mathura Rape case, the ball is rolling (pun intended). Women participate in activities such as education, politics, art, science, and technology. Yet just as Manhattan differs from Cripple Creek, so does India suffer drastic stratification of values and ideologies. Among these ideological differences, women's rights is somewhat of a hot topic, like Arizona's immigration policy or Kim Kardashian's summer bod. Same thing.
