ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

Women are as indispensable as men for the persistence near about half of the world's populace 49.6 percent (World Population Prospects, 2010: 2) and majority of them are drudged underneath the socio-cultural and religious structures. The development of a nation largely depends upon strapping up the dexterity and abilities of all segments of society regardless of caste, class, color, creed, region, religion and sex. Inequity towards women and their unequal treatment in connection with privileges, rights and status in numerous socio-economic and cultural spheres in the society have been from the centuries ago. Centuries have come, and centuries have gone, but the quandary of women has not changed much. Time has ineffectively watched women's agony in the form of discrimination, coercion, subjugation, exploitation, deprivation, degradation, aggression and humiliation. Bias against women continues equally in public and private spheres; it goes beyond national, cultural and religious margins and is repeatedly stimulated by patriarchal stereotyping and authority imbalances that are epitomized in laws, policies and practice. Muslim communities are among the poorest, educationally disenfranchised, economically vulnerable, politically marginalized group in the country. The fact is well documented in the Committee reports, census data and research studies. This scenario also helps us to deduce the condition of women among Muslims in India. Muslim women have remained backward in most of the areas of life and are slow in availing the benefits of the ongoing development process, in recent years there has been some signs of change. India now has half a century's experience in dealing with sharp inequalities and disparities rooted in several millennia of its evolution, yet we still see sharp inequalities of gender caste, tribe, region, religion and rural-urban divide. In order to tackle this situation it is important to understand the processes responsible for this. This paper tries to analyze social status of Muslim women in India and to understand socio-structural factors behind their low status.