Rural Indian Girls Chase Big-City Dreams

Re:Rural Indian Girls Chase Big-City Dreams by pessimist on Sunday September 25, 2016 @02:53AM (#12574294)

I have never heard of this, despite having experienced rural life both among upper and lower classes. I expect that Ellen Barry made it up, or - more likely - was conned by one of her Indian assistants/translators and swallowed it up.

Having said that, the article is correct overall that life of rural Indian women is hard and governed by patriarchal rules - they are expected to be house bound etc. The description of menstrual restrictions is also accurate.

Overall the article did ring of truth and was optimistic - surprisingly for Ellen Barry and the New York Times.

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Re:Rural Indian Girls Chase Big-City Dreams by lake99 on Sunday September 25, 2016 @04:35AM (#12574461)

Not partirarchal, rather, it's about near-deification of elders, which includes the mother-in-law. Paternalistic attitudes pervade village life, and to some extent, the lives of most Indians. For example, among quite a few girls/women I know, menstrual restrictions are enforced by the grandmother, their grandfathers are dead, and the parents relax the restrictions a bit when the grandmother is out of town.

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