Indian women are judicially oppressed

Indian women are judicially oppressed

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  Indian Women areJudicially Oppressed Women emerged as a distinct interest group in the 19th century primarily because the bourgeoisie democratic revolutions of 17th and 18th century that excluded women from their concept of equality. This distinction was based on gender. Since then women as a commune had waged struggle for recognition of their rights as a human being. Women’s execute multilateral role in the society i.e. as a breadwinner of her family, as a care taker of her family as a mother, wife, daughter and service provider to the society. In spite of the fact that the women’s contribution to the country’s development is equal to that of their male counterpart, still they experience a number of limitations that restrain them from comprehending their potential for expansion. It was against this background that the government’s all over the world felt the need to prioritize the interests of women and their participation at every stage of the development process. Women as a core group of concern emerged as a major theme in the Millennium Development Goal. The Millennium Development Goal are the eight goals set by the United Nations in 2000 which will act as yardstick to determine the advancement in the direction of the obliteration of global poverty. UN stated that ‘Gender Equality and Women Empowerment’ as one of the Millennium Development Goals to be attained by the year 2015. The term Women’s empowerment implies the ability of the women take all the important decisions independently related to her throughout her life span that will ensure her success in all aspects of life. However these goals are far from being realized in a country like India. In fact often women in India are deprived of their fundamental right to dignity also leave alone the question of gender equality. The present paper explores the questions central to women’s right in India that is fundamentally patriarchal in nature. The article attempts to grapple with the few challenges faced by the women in India like the dowry, female foeticide, denial of inheritance, sale and trafficking of girls etc. The objective of the paper is to evolve strategies to empower women who are as human beings as men are. The paper is divided into four sections. The section I lists the areas of women’s human rights violation in India. Section II focus on the steps undertaken by the Indian constitution to protect women’s human rights. Section III focus on the strategies devised by the government and civil society to empower women in India. Some of the practices from which women are suffering in the society are: Female foeticide: The low status of women goes on with the practice of infanticide, foeticide, sex-selective abortion which has become common due to the amniocentesis technology, and mal- nourishment among girl children. In India it is estimated that around “10 million female foetuses have been aborted in the last 20 years”. “The child sex ratio in Punjab declined from 894 in 1961 to 793 in 2001. In Haryana, the child sex ratio plummeted from 910 in 1961 to 820 in 20018”. In spite of the fact that the Government of India have declared pre birth sex determination through the use of amniocentesis as unlawful, still Illicit termination of female fetus by untrained nurses
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  and staff iswidely prevalent particularly in Northern states of India like Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab. All these have resulted in the escalation of maternal mortality rate. Education: Education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women. Although Article 21 of the Indian Constitution have made it compulsory for the government to provide free education to everybody, the high rate of women’s education is still a distant dream. In spite of the fact that Sarva Shiksya Abhiyan to an extent has been successful in bringing the girl child back to the schools, yet their retention rate in the school is lower as compared to their male counterpart. In fact it has been found that there is a gradual drop out of the girl students as they move up to the higher classes. This is particularly true in the rural areas in India. The main reasons associated with this is that the parents expects girls to look after the siblings while they are at work, working with the parents as seasonal labour during the cultivation period and managing the household work while the parents are at work, the parents take more interest in boys education as against the girls as they feel that the girls are to be married off, increasing cost of education etc. Thus, the primary education in India remains a remote daydream for the women. Sexual harassment at the workplace: The initiative on a discourse on sexual harassment of women at their workplace in India started with Supreme Court’s Vishaka guidelines in 1997. However it was the passage of the ‘Sexual Harassment of Women Bill 2013’ that helped in translating these guidelines into concrete rules that are to be implemented. But even today “the issue of sexual harassment has largely been swept under the carpet in India. The provisions have never been successfully invoked because of social taboos still associated with sexual harassment”. In India the women are discriminated against in terms payment of remuneration for their jobs. This is true for both urban as well as rural areas. Women entrepreneurs often have to deal with more complications in getting credits to start their independent business. Thus in short, the Millennium Development Goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment can be realised in India only when the traditional practices like female infanticide, dowry deaths, honour killings by khap panchayats, domestic violence, or sexual abuse is eliminated. It is only then that gender equality and women’s empowerment can become a reality.