I came across the article with the title ‘The Truth of Women’s Rights in India’ in the June issue of  The Chungbuk Times under the Global section. I was happy to notice the coverage of Indian news; however, there were contents that are not true. As an Indian, I am trying to give wise clarifications on the article for the readers.
  In the article, the reporter used Gloria Whelan’s novel ‘Homeless Bird’ as a reference and wrote that India is the country that doesn’t accept the growth of women’s rights. First of all, Gloria Whelan is an American novelist and she used her story writing skills to make the plot of the book interesting by incorporating her imagination with old Indian customs and traditions. Whelan herself has admitted in many of her interviews that she has never really been to India and she got the idea for this book after reading a story on child widows.
  In contemporary India, girls don’t get married at the age of 13 and are not left to fend for themselves in a ‘City of Widows’. In today’s world, child marriages in India are rare. Also, the customs in which widows must wear white cotton, which indicates them as  widows, and were cremated alive with their dead grooms are the old customs of India. In reality, these customs are no longer commonly followed. In modern India, widows can live similar lives as other normal human beings. Remarriage of widows has become a common practice now. Moreover, there are many families who take care of their daughters-in-law like their own daughters after the deaths of grooms. In fact, there are many examples where grooms’ parents look for good boys for second marriages of their daughters-in-law after their sons’ deaths. This does not mean that India doesn’t have problems for women. Definitely, there are problems, but they are not as severe as written in the article and the natures of the problems are quite different. A detailed account on the current status of women in India can be written, but it will take a lot of space. What I can say here in brief is that the situation is not as bad as it was portrayed in the article, the novel of Whelan or the BBC documentary. In modern India, women have held high offices in India, including that of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Leader of the Opposition. In the current Indian government, women contribute a major proportion and are playing important roles by holding important positions in foreign countries, human resource development and other important ministries. Women are leading in sports, education and most other departments.