Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways:\tThe literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among men. Similarly, a smaller\xa0proportion of girl students go for higher studies. When we look at school results, girls perform as well as boys, if not better in some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys’ education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.\tNo wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid\xa0and therefore often not valued.\tThe Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.\tIn many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such ***-selective abortion led to a decline in child *** ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the\xa0country to merely 927. As the map shows, this ratio has fallen below 850 or even 800 in some places.\tThere are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Urban areas have become particularly unsafe for women.\xa0They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harrassment and other forms of domestic violence.