Many things have happened in the world after the twentieth century. One of the most important things is the growth of women’s rights in the world, but nations which don’t accept the growth of women’s rights still exist, and one of them is India. Gloria Whelan’s book ‘Homeless Bird’ is a novel that is based on the miserable lives of Indian women.
  Koly is a thirteen-year-old girl, and she was born in a Brahmin family. Despite of Brahmin, Koly’s family is highly poor. Indian women get married even if they are too young. Moreover, the bride’s family must provide a dowry to the groom’s family in India, and Koly can’t meet her groom until she gets married. Thus, Koly’s mom asks her husband to cancel the marriage with the unknown man, but he rejects it because Indians have an ideal that a woman who rejects a promised marriage can’t get married anymore. Her groom’s name is Hari, and he is a fourteen-year-old boy who has an incurable disease. Her parents-in-law make them get married to help with Hari’s incurable disease as a dowry. Koly was deceived. Eventually, Hari dies a month after they got married. In spite of her miserable life, there is trivial happiness. Most Indian women are illiterate because of the idea that a goal of woman’s life is just marriage, so Indians think that learning for women is just a waste of time, but Koly learns the alphabet from her father-in-law who is a teacher. Also, Koly gets along well with her sister-in-law like a real sister. For these two reasons, Koly finds happiness in her miserable life, but her happiness ends in a short time. Her sister-in-law also gets married at an early age, and she is left alone at home. Additionally, her father-in-law dies of his stress from school. Now, Koly’s bad mother-in-law is the only person left, but even the mother-in-law runs away after leaving Koly at a widow’s village. 
  The fact is more miserable than the novel. Widows must wear white cotton, which indicates them as a widow, and, in the past, widows were cremated alive with their dead grooms. It is called ‘Sati’. Indian widows get a pension after their groom dies, but generally the groom’s family takes away the entire pension. Moreover, Indian males killed their wives to get more dowries in the past. Many human rights groups are trying to improve Indian women’s rights. Recently, British media BBC made a documentary about the lives of Indian women. It received much attention by the world, but the Indian government insists that the documentary overstated the reality of Indian women. Abuse of women’s rights in India is brought about from India’s old culture and history. Thus, a solution of Indian women’s rights must be accepted by the Indian government to solve the problem faster.

By Yoo Han-bin
hb36@cbnu.ac.kr