By STEPHANIE CHEN and HAREEM KHAN
in New Delhi, India
International women’s day may have passed but many women in India are still fighting against an overwhelmingly patriarchal environment every day of their lives.
Here, in Khari Baoli, the largest wholesale spice market in Asia, Leena Chawhan is a rare sight.
“I’m the only young unmarried woman vendor in this whole market,” Ms Chawhan says, pointing down the street towards the hundreds of male vendors.
According to the locals there are about six other women. Having worked the stall since she was just 15, Ms Chawhan has had to develop a strong sense of survival.
“You have to be loud and assertive here. You have to captivate people to make a sale and you have to make the sale to survive, no matter what you have to stand out in market because there is so much competition, so you can't be shy about being a woman,” she says.
“Standing here is the hardest part. I can't even begin to describe the amount of filthy-minded people who come here and I have to deal with them every day.”
Ms Chawhan says a woman has to be extremely strong if she wants to survive in Delhi.
“It’s different to be a man and a woman here … and it's not a good place for women,” she says.
The figures seem to agree with her.
In 2015, 34,651 rape cases were reported according to India’s National Crime Record Bureau. Of those, 95 per cent of the alleged rapists were people the victim knew, with people aged 18-30 reporting the highest number of rapes.
The 2016 Global Gender Gap report shows the female-to-male literacy ratio in India was just 68:100.
It also shows the average earned estimated income for women that year was US$2103 compared to US$9045 for men.
But Ms Chawhan says higher education can be an escape.
“I do this to help pay for my two sisters, one who studies chartered accountancy and another who studies a dietician course,” she says.
“I want my sisters to finish their studies, and move forward in life so they don’t face the same difficulties I've faced in this job."
CEO of International Needs Australia Pri Fernando also emphasises the need to invest in education and job opportunities for women if India is to properly eradicate gender inequality.
“If you know you can do a job, if you have education and employment opportunities then … those [majority men] who are in control at the present can’t diminish your values,” she says.
Ms Fernando says many cultural factors, such as the misinterpretation of Christian, Hindu and Muslim teachings, have led to such an environment.
“It’s a whole value system and not just political correctness that needs to be realigned to make sure that women are viewed to be equal value to men,” Ms Fernando says.
“Men almost consider it their right [to have their way with a woman] and the mothers in the Hindu culture, they perpetuate it by favouring boy children over girl children.
“[They believe] that a girl will not have the economic independence to support her own family so from birth, the girls and boys are raised differently, socialised differently.”
Stall owner Amar Devi has worked the spice markets for over 50 years and although understands the concern young women like Ms Chawhan has, she says there’s nothing overtly wrong.
"I can understand that some younger women may have a hard time in such a male-dominated environment,” Ms Devi says.
"When women are younger, of course they're going to be worried and have a hard time about stepping out into such a male dominated market. But what are they going to do at home? How are they going to make money?
“I tell them, men are going to be men. What can we do about it?
“It'll get easier as they grow older.”
Studies have also suggested that societies advance faster and better when women are given equal amounts of power and status to men, something Ms Fernando says will greatly benefit the country of India as a whole.
“If women are not allowed to be economically independent and educated then they can’t contributed to the family income and they will bound at home to look after children, which further contributes to the cycle of poverty,” Ms Fernando says.
“Educating women and their children is the silver bullet that can eradicate poverty.”
Although Ms Fernando recognises the need for immediate change, she says proper progress takes time, citing the trials and tribulations women in developed countries had to face as an example.
But there seems to be movement towards the light in the horizon.
Although the literacy rate is low for women, there has been a significant growth in female enrolment in tertiary level education.
The WEF global gender gap report shows 23 per cent of indian women are enrolled in tertiary education, compared to only 11 per cent in 2011.
In the village of Niv Je in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, Baala Sawaant* says she wants her teenage daughter to get high level education so she can live bravely.
“Guru [Baala's son] is blind and didn’t have confidence because he felt he didn’t have a place in the world and that he might be a burden, but after attending university he found a purpose,” she says.
“I don’t know why, but our daughter is very shy and afraid to do things, and I think going to school in the city will help her overcome her fears.
“I want her to have a nice job so she doesn’t have to do the hard labour work and not have to rely on other people’s money so she can do what she wants.
“I want her to learn how to live intelligently and freely.”
* Not her real name