The Polyandrous Jaunsari
Published: May 31, 2008
Photo: Prasad
Since time immemorial the Jaunsari have nurtured a unique lifestyle with traditions and customs quite unlike any place in North India. Literature claims that the Jaunsari are live descendants of the legendary Pandava of the epic Mahabharata. That is perhaps why the people of Jaunsar share wives. Just as the five Pandava brothers had one wife, Draupadi, Jaunsari brothers too marry one woman. The Jaunsari women, however, confirmed the marriages, but remained unclear about the antecedents of the tradition. Swati, a young ninth grader, herding an errant goat, knitted her eyebrows when posed questions about having multiple husbands, and declared such events are fewer now. I definitely will not marry more than one man. Besides I am planning to look for employment once I complete my studies. Perceiving the delight in our faces, she quickly rounded up her peers and happily prattled about their day to day living and remarkable customs.
Abstract: Shared among brothers, a Jaunsari woman suffers multiple masters. With gender relations biased against women, single marriage norms need to be encouraged to mitigate the problem.
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Term Power
What is ...
No satisfactory equivalent exists for this Czech term yet it may be used to refer to social differences between women and men that are not innate but learned. They are not natural and immutable but change over time and differ within and between cultures.
A directive based on the precedence law of the European Court of Justice shifts the burden of proof from the side of the prosecution to that of the accused. In cases where one side believes that it has suffered injury as a result of a failure to observe the principle of equal treatment, and where a discrimination lawsuit exists, it is up to the accused to prove that this principle has not been breached.
A set of rules relating to gender relations which ascribe specific work and value, responsibility and obligations to women and men. These rules that disadvantage men and women in various fields of life, are applied and enforced in daily life. They are defined at all levels and are held by whole society, in institutions as part of the training, work education and other systems and at socialisation procedures.
The term defines traditional attitudes, assumptions and values that act as a barrier, for women and men in their professional promotion. A glass ceiling means preventing access to higher political, economic and academic positions, using formal and informal, hidden methods. The attempt to gain promotion to senior positions comes up against an invisible and difficult-to-define obstacle in the form of forces working against this ambition.
It is the analysis and assessment of policies, programmes and institutions based on whether they take into account the different impacts of their activities on women and men.
It is a kind budgeting which takes into account equality between men and women. It involves evaluating budgets from a gender perspective in order to achieve equality between men and women. This results in the fairer redistribution of finances on the principle of equal access to utilisation of financial resources that society has created to safeguard the needs both of women and men.
A method to eliminate inequality between sexes. It is based on the principle that all planning, and evaluation processes should include an assessment of the positive or negative impact of a decision on men and women (so-called gender analysis). If this finds that one sex will be negatively affected, the adoption of the decision must ensure that its harmful consequences are eliminated or minimised.
The right of any person or couple to freely and responsibly decide whether, how many and when they will have children, the right to information and the means to take such a decision.
Horizontal and vertical segregation is the concentration of women and men in specific sectors and jobs. Horizontal segregation is different financial valuations for specific employment and sectors, while vertical occupational segregation is concentration of women and men at different levels of employment.