The 3-legged reform stool

Around 50 of those reporting abuse in the MWS belong to scheduled castes and tribes and constitute the poorest sections of society. Muslims women reporting abuse were 18, backward castes 24, caste Hindus 10. The lower figure for the latter should not lead us to assume that the incidence of violence among them is lower; rather we should keep in mind that high-caste Hindu women are less likely to report violence.

The commonest and most prevalent form of conflict reported was verbal abuse8212;in the country as a whole it accounted for 63 of all domestic abuse.

Age-wise at the all-India level, the highest proportion women reporting domestic conflict is in the 25-45 years age group, which proportion8212;23.158212;is also higher than the national average 20.74. Variations among Muslims women however are the most interesting and important. Close to 57 of our respondents in the youngest age group, 18-20 years, reported that they were ill-treated physically by their parents, and 11 said they were abused by their brothers. Husbands continue to be the ones responsible for maximum violence for the years 20-60 and above, but a good 14 of those between the ages of 45 and 60 blamed their sons for physical violence.

The most frequently cited reason for violence was the husband8217;s drinking habit, across all classes and communities, followed by husbands going out without informing their wives and, most interestingly, sharing of property.

A 8216;secular8217; response to the 8216;unholy trinity8217;

For the most part, our findings indicate that the shortage of three essentials: knowledge measured by literacy and average years of schooling, economic power work and income, and autonomy measured by decision-making ability and mobility are among the defining features of women8217;s low status. Why are Muslim women so disadvantaged? Muslim women in India are disadvantaged thrice over: as members of minority community, as women, and as poor women. Gender discrimination coalesces with class inequalities in perpetuating a structured disempowerment of Muslim women.

How then is the goal of equity and empowerment to be achieved for Muslim women? One answer would be to engage with the secular discourse of development and empowerment. Although Muslim women fall in this category of the poor, very rarely do mainstream policy makers acknowledge their poverty. And that is why one thrust of state intervention has been to try to shift the balance within the identity of Muslim women, so that being a Muslim will take precedence over a host of other identities, such as class, even gender.

This may be promoted in a deliberate way, on the basis of an expression of state policy, as in the case of protection of minority rights through the Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Divorce Act, 1986. Or it may be fostered in more indirect ways, as a consequence of the injunction to render religion irrelevant in the operation of public life, even when it points to social and economic disadvantages which may well be group specific.

When attention has been paid to Muslim women the focus has been on how they are different from Hindu women. This emphasis invariably leads to two issues, which have been focused on with regard to Muslim women8212;lack of female education and restrictive purdah8212;and how the two are linked to religion as ideology. Thus it has been widely argued that cultural norms and the relationship of women and Islam are at the core of Muslim women8217;s status, and that the latter8217;s low status is the consequence of the traditional way of life, that is, Islamic restrictions on women8217;s freedom.

The MWS findings however demonstrate that cultural restrictions are not responsible for low education, that is, religion does not influence the status of women, even though there are community specific disadvantages, which arise out of poverty; thus social and economic class, urban or rural residence and regional location determine it. This means that Muslim women are disadvantaged not because of religious conservation but because they are poor, are women, and Muslim, which together, aggravate the particular disadvantages of any one of these identities. The easy stereotyping of pardah-polygamy-talaq as the unholy trinity keeping them from social advancement is dismantled when their situation is located in a regional and socio-economic context. Yet it would be a mistake to think of the reality of Muslim women8217;s lives as forever unchanging and unchangeable.

Zoya Hasan is professor, political science, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ritu Menon is a publisher-writer

READ FIRST PART: Women, interrupted
READ SECOND PART: Choice, little freedom