ABSTRACT
Women enjoy the same legal status as men under the constitution of India. However, the translation of these rights at an interpersonal or social level poses a grave problem. Indian women are still discriminated against, ill-treated, and held back. The law does not always protect them; miscreants escape even after murdering women, burning them alive, and raping them. The Hindu Code Bill of 1956 has given women property rights, rights of abortion, adoption, divorce, and maintenance. But the courts may deny justice. What is needed, therefore, is a social awakening and a resolution among women not to suffer any injustice. Such social change can be achieved only through proper education of women. Murdering female children immediately after birth and the burning of widows after the death of their husbands were practices of the last century. British rulers and Indian social reformers created an awareness of these evil customs, and laws were passed to eradicate these inhuman activities.
