y, Astha will practice this tradition on Himanushu’s wife. The Third World women become not only advocates but even the custodians of the same culture that impedes their liberal thoughts.
Women in India are victims of child marriage which is not only a problem but also a creator of so many problems. Child marriage is a violation of female rights which has a negative impact on physical growth, health, mental and emotional development, and education opportunities that consequently creates poverty and illiteracy. In Third World societies, child marriage or forced marriage is the main problem that subjugates women with a frequent number of pregnancies, premature maternal death, child death, complications in child birth etc. For the evil of child marriage, child brides often become child widows and lose honour and right to marry again. In this story, Mrs. Trivedi became a widow in her childhood and she had no right to remarry and was parted from her husband’s family members; Sita and Astha’s mother-in-law were child brides; and Seema and Sangeeta are the teenage brides.
Women in India have no security, no guarantee of a roof over their heads. The Indian girls never go against their families or go to court over being denied their rights to property. Women should have something of their name for security. In this story, Astha suffers a lot as all her property is registered in the name of Hemant. She cannot go against her mother or husband. Both persons deprived her bitterly. She could have bought a car or could have an art gallery by spending some portion of that money but all her money is transferred to Hemant. Her mother, in this case, chooses Hemant better than Astha because he is a man. It is the custom in Third World Indian society that money and property will be controlled by males which create a lot of problems in female empowerment and female liberty.
In India, women still lag behind regarding their divorce rights. They are fed up with the ideal of Indian womanhood. Even they cannot pronounce their rights for divorce rather they suffer from the sick of sacrifice. In contrast, Western countries, the divorce rate is three out of four. To quote Kapur: “There they go on divorcing-marrying till the age of 60 - 70. They do not understand the concept of family. They only think of themselves.” (Kapur: 168) But for Indian women, divorce is a shame and dishonour for their family. That is why thousands of women suffer in Third World societies for the outdated family name. As a result, women suffer like Sangeeta or Astha. But in First World societies, such false family notions cannot trap women. There, divorce is not a shame rather a wise decision in order to avoid family violence.
In India, Secular ideas are not accepted like European countries. Women are not allowed here to enjoy their lesbian rights. But in Western countries, there are no objections for lesbianism. There are many female-headed families in Western societies where lesbian women live and even marry. No objection comes from state or society. Women in Third World societies, live under male-headed family where heterosexuality is acceptable not homosexuality. Women cannot open their heart about lesbian relationship here. In this story, the lesbian lovers; Astha and Pipeelika hide their affairs on account of social obstacles and charges.
3. Research Findings
Many researchers have so far been pursued on Kapur’s A Married Woman (2002). They celebrated Kapur’s female characters as liberated and resistant heroines with the bounties of glory. But the social problems that re-colonize them are not mentioned by them. However, this research finds out the social impediments such as child marriage, forced marriage, gender discrimination, domestic work, family violence, education inequality, discourage for degree, family tradition, patriarchal hegemony, sexual exploitation and so on that cause barricades for the Indian women to walk on the open road of liberty.
In A Married Woman ( Kapur, 2002) through the characters of Astha, Sita, Sangeeta Seema, Mrs, Trivedi and Pipeelika, Kapur