Horosanu:About women In Hinduism, the birth of a girl is considered to be a punishment for the bad deeds from a previous life.

That is why women are considered ardhangini (half-body). Women are considered to be only the person that gives birth and raises children. The head of the family is considered to be the man, the women only occupying a secondary role. Alex:General status Most of the young Indian girls are molested in public transport, over 80% of women that use public transport have incountered at least one sort of herassement and 69% have been herassed by men that are over 70 years old. Arathy Ram a student in the second year of university declared : that herassement has became a daily routine to us. Soso:Marriage In a hindus traditional society marriage for a women means a simple transfer from father to husband, because she never has an existence as an individual.Before she gets married she is the proprety of her father. After marriage she is considered proprety of the husband and after death proprety of the son. Women in India dont have a social status if they arent recognized as a daughter, mother or mother-inlaw. The wife must eat after the husband is full, and she must be totally devoted to him.(ex: even if he is a drunk, immoral, old, violent, she must praise him as God).Bettwen housband and wife there are certain barriers that musnt be crossed like kissing in public, looking at his face when they talk or calling him by his first name. Horosanu:Birth of a son If for the husband the birth of a child means an extreme moment of happiness for the mother it has certain reprecosions. Only if she gives birth to a son she is considered to be a mother and her existence has been justified. She continues to be obedient to her husband but now she becomes a person and she is even taken into account by her mother-in-law the relationship between the 2 becoming far better. Alex: Birth of a daughter If on the other hand a girl is born she is looked upon with indifference and is considered to be bad luck, after that the birth is followed by the families condolences. That is because the girl will never be an asset for the family and when she will get married she will leave the family to join the housbands family. If a second or a third daughter is born than she is considered to be cursed and most of the time the child is killed.

Soso:Becoming a mother-in-law Once the women becomes a mother-in-law she becomes the ruler of the house, ruling with an iron fist while keeping tradition alive and placing all the burden that she endured on her daughters-in-law. She becomes even more important as more and more grandsons are born, because the continuity of the family is assured and she has done her job well.