The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 introduced changes to the Indian Penal Code, making sexual harassment an expressed offence under Section 354 A, which is punishable up to three years of imprisonment and or with fine.

[64] Family relations play a significant role in shaping women's status in India, influenced by cultural and regional variations.

[27][28] Over time, the Hindi film industry has evolved to portray women as independent and capable, reflecting changing societal norms, thus offering audiences a vision of gender equality.

Previously, these women could not apply simple and natural makeup on film characters because the law did not allow them to do it although the status quo has changed.

[70] Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge[71], or DDLJ for short, is a 1995 Bollywood film whose main female character, Simran, represented the ideal Indian woman.

The overall presence of such characters highlight how the modern Indian woman is less bound to traditional expectations and overall have been entering the workforce, been financially independent, and even sexually freed from earlier standards.

In 2018 an IPS Officer Archana Ramasundram of 1980 Batch became the first Woman to become the Director General of Police of a Paramilitary Force as DG, Sashastra Seema Bal.

The pay gap becomes wider at senior level positions as the men with 11 and more years of tenure earned 25 percent higher median wages than women.

[100] One of the most famous female business success stories, from the rural sector, is the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad.

[101] One of the largest dairy co-operatives in the world, Amul, began by mobilizing rural women in Anand in the western state of Gujarat.

[104] Shaw remained the richest self-made woman in 2018,[105] coming in at 72nd place in terms of net worth in Forbes's annual rich list.

[106] However, India has a strong history of many women with inherited wealth establishing large enterprises or launching successful careers in their own rights.

[115][116][117] TrustLaw, a London-based news service owned by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, ranked India as the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women to live based on a poll of 213 gender experts.

In the past, child widows were condemned to a life of great agony, shaved heads, living in isolation, and being shunned by society.

[129] In India, the male-female sex ratio is skewed dramatically in favour of men, the chief reason being the high number of women who die before reaching adulthood.

[134] Ultrasound scanning constitutes a major leap forward in providing for the care of mother and baby, and with scanners becoming portable, these advantages have spread to rural populations.

However, ultrasound scans often reveal the sex of the baby, allowing pregnant women to decide to abort female foetuses and try again later for a male child.

[141] Since the 1980s, women's rights groups lobbied for marital rape to be declared unlawful,[140] but the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 still maintains the marital exemption by stating in its exception clause under Section 375, that: "Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape".

According to a report from Human Rights Watch, despite women increasingly denunciate sexual harassment at work, they still face stigma and fear retribution as the governments promote, establish and monitor complaint committees.

[152] A study by ActionAid UK found that 80% of women in India had experienced sexual harassment ranging from unwanted comments, being groped or assaulted.

[154] As stated in earlier sections, Indian women are disadvantaged in comparison to men in many areas such as literacy skills contributing to drop out rates,[84] gender bias, and inadequate facilities.

Not only are they facing gender bias and having their needs put aside as women, the pandemic created new problems such as lack of face-to-face communication and masks that inhibit lipreading.

A study by Rising Flame Organization found that over 90% of their sample of Deaf/DeafBlind/Hard of Hearing women in India struggled when it came to accessibility of education during the pandemic as well as other resources.

[161] Reporting of this violence is also extremely low due to lack of access to adequate communication - accommodations like an interpreter are rarely available in these scenarios.

[45] The average female life expectancy today in India is low compared to many countries, but it has shown gradual improvement over the years.

[191] The male-to-female ratio is high in favor toward men in developing countries in Asia, including India, than that of areas such as North America.

Those who are given more opportunity and rights are more likely to live longer and contribute to the economy rather than that of a woman expected to serve as a wife starting at a young age and continuing the same responsibilities for the rest of her life.

[194] Given the existing socio-cultural norms and situation of sanitation in schools, girl students are forced not to relieve themselves in the open unlike boys.

According to an estimate from 2013, about 85% of the rural households in Bihar have no access to a toilet; and this creates a dangerous situation for women and girls who are followed, attacked and raped in the fields.

[198] Thus, activists have collected more than 50,000 signatures supporting their demands that the local government stop charging women to urinate, build more toilets, keep them clean, provide sanitary napkins and a trash can, and hire female attendants.