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The Patriarchy
Culturally, marriages in India are between two families rather than two individuals. Arranged marriages are customary. With the assumption that unmarried women are considered risky, shameful, or vulnerable to promiscuous activity, women are expected to marry before the age of twenty.
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The cultural intensification of gender divisions effectively diminishes the role of women, often coined as inferior. Aiming to disburden themselves, families generally succumb to child marriage: an institution socially acceptable and, due to a lack of effective legislative enforcement, legally permissible.
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Apart from dictating a female's subservient role, societal gender perceptions objectify women as a physical
entity: a burden.
Tradition further dictates younger siblings, male or female, may not be permitted to marry prior to the eldest daughter. The strive to preserve familial respectability in society and uphold Aryan tradition pushes families to marry their daughters incredibly young.
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Trained to act submissive, young
girls often easily acquiesce to authoritative paternal demands concerning marriage. Their complaint nature translates into a inevitable dependency upon male relatives, before and after marriage.
Common households emphasize preserving absolute male
dominance and control over residential property, economic
status, and familial relationships, intensifying gender segregation.
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