Development of Weaker Sections: Women

Development of Weaker Sections: Women

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THE GENDER JUSTICE

ONE significant section of society that has been denied justice in India, in fact in a large number of countries world over, is that of women. For centuries they have been relegated to sidelines of social, economic and political life. Women have been given a subordinate status promoting oppressive and unequal human relations at all levels of society. It is being stressed that the problems of women, who constitute half of the world’s population, are the problems of society as a whole, and that changes in the present economic, political and social situation of women must become an integral part of efforts to transform the structures and attitudes that hinder the genuine satisfaction of their needs. Thus, any process of development and social justice that does not take into account the necessity of improving the status of women and finding more effective methods and strategies that will enable them to have the same opportunities as men to participate actively in the development of society and country can not be considered genuine. India is no exception to this.

WOMEN’S WELFARE IN INDIA

Women in India for centuries have received unequal treatment in almost all spheres of life. Indian society is a patriarchal society. During the course of history there also had been protests against this position of women. Particularly during Bhakti movement in medieval period saints and religious reformers had taken up the question of emancipation of women. But they did not have much impact.

During British colonial period with the arrival of liberal ideas and in some cases as a reaction to British rule there sprang up many reformist movements in India. Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthna Samaj and many other movements took up the cause of injustice against women. As is well known, the early reformist Raja Ram Mohan Roy denounced child marriage, and sati and worked for the emancipation of women in general. The nineteenth century also saw for the first time the enactment of social legislation by the government which included abolition of Sati (1829), Widow Remarriage Act (1856), Civil Marriage Act (1872), etc. Another significant feature of the nineteenth century is the attempts towards girls education.

In nationalist movement also, the Indian women’s immense hidden potential found a forum for its release. Gandhiji called on women to give up purdah and participate in politics. In 1917 a women’s delegation met the Secretary of State for India to demand franchise for women. In 1927 was launched All India Women’s Conference for the welfare and development of women.

While as a result of social reforms and nationalist movement there emerged awareness about women’s plight and consciousness for their upliftment, in general there was not much change in the social attitude towards women, particularly in rural areas. Also in spite of some significant social legislature, property, inheritance and such laws remained against women. In general, at the time of independence they were outside the main stream of socio-economic process and in actually did not have a rightful place in society.

WOMEN’S WELFARE IN INDEPENDENT INDIA

From the above, it becomes clear that justice for women was one of the issues of development even before independence. Accordingly, it became one of the focuses of developmental planning in independent India.

In the Constitution of India itself Articles in Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles gave concrete shape to these intentions. Article 14 confers equality before law and equal protection of law for all. This obviously means law can not be discriminatory against women.

Article 15 not only prohibits any discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth but also empowers the State to make any special provision for women and children. It means in favour of women and children other sections can be discriminated against, if it is so required. Similarly, Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in matters relating to public employment.

Article 19 guarantees to all citizens including women, freedoms of speech and expression, assemble, form associations or unions, move freely throughout the territory of India, to reside and settle anywhere and to practice any profession or carry on any occupation.

The Fundamental Rights thus, make women like men and other sections of society equal and free in all walks of life. In addition provisions of Fundamental Rights give powers to the state to make special provisions for women and children. Special provisions further, are given in the form of directives to the State in the Directive Principles of State policy. These are:

(i) Men and women equally have the right to an adequate means of livelihood (Article 39);

(ii) There is equal pay for equal work for both men and women (Article 39);

(iii) The health and strength of workers men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age or strength (Article 39);

(iv) Make provisions for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.

Apart from these negative and positive obligations on the state, the Constitution also (after the 42nd Amendment 1976) imposes a fundamental duty on all citizens, “to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women” (Article 51A). As mentioned earlier the Constitution of India has also granted universal franchise. Thus, women has equality both in right to vote and contest elections.

WELFARE AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

Efforts for welfare and development for women have been initiated at two levels. One is enactment of laws and second is formulation of welfare schemes and projects.

The Laws

Enactment of laws means using law as an instrument for change and development. In this context in last 50 years or so many laws have been enacted with a view to remove disparities and provide conditions for welfare. Some of the important laws that have been passed by the Parliament are: Special Marriage Act 1954, the Hindu Marriage act 1955, the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956, Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, the Equal Remuneration Act 1976, the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 1978, and the Criminal Law (Second Amendment Act) 1985, the Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act 1984.

In addition to enactment of laws by the Legislature, the Judiciary also has been interpreting some existing laws in more favourable ways for women. In a landmark judgement in November 1995 the Supreme Court gave the widow and daughter of a deceased equal right to property left by him. Judiciary’s decision in cases like Shah Bano and others have also been important in terms of judicial activism to reform the Muslim personal laws.

Welfare Schemes

Apart from enactment of laws efforts have also been made to formulate and implement programmes and plans for providing access to women in education, skill development, employment, fulfillment of special necessities, gender sensitisation, etc. Women’s welfare and development has also been a part of Five-Year Plans.

The Government of India in 1953 established a Central Social Welfare Board with a nationwide programme of grants in aid, for promoting welfare and development services for women, children and under privileged groups. The Board has its State counterparts.

A separate department of women and child development was setup at the centre in 1985 to give a distinct identity and provide a nodal point on matters relating to women’s development. The National Policy on Education — 1986 was a landmark in the field of policy on women’s education. The consequent programme of Action for the National Policy on Education stated that the main features of the implementation strategy would be:

(i) to gear the entire education system to play a positive interventionist role in the empowerment of women;

(ii) to encourage educational institutions to take up active programmes to enhance women’s status and further women’s development in all sectors;

(iii) to widen women’s access to vocational, technical, and professional education at all levels, breaking gender stereotypes;

(iv) to create a dynamic management structure that will be able to respond to the challenge posed by this mandate.

In 1987 the programme of support to Training-cum-Employment for women was launched to strengthen and improve the skills for employment opportunities for women below poverty line in traditional sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry, handlooms, handicrafts, cottage and village industries and sericulture where women are employed on a large scale. Another programme entitled the ‘Indira Mahila Yojana’ was started in 1995 with the aim of organising women at the grassroot level to facilitate their participation in decision-making and their empowerment. In October 1998, the Rural Women’s Development and Empowerment Project was also sanctioned.

NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN

To safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women the Parliament in 1990 enacted a law to establish the National Commission for Women.  The Commission came into existence on 31 January, 1992. The functions assigned to National Commission for Women are wide and varied covering almost all facts of issues relating to safeguarding women’s rights and promotion. Its mandated activities include review of legislation, interventions in specific individual complaints of atrocities and remedial action to safeguard the interest of women where appropriate and feasible.

As a whole it can be said that in post-independence period there have been conscious efforts to change the position of women from inequality to that of equality. At present, legally and constitutionally, women in India are given a status of equality with men. Women are free to choose any form of education and training to equip themselves for a career.  They can undertake any specialist and higher learning. But when we see the social reality what is found is that on the one hand only a small section of urban educated women have been benefited from the claimed legislative and developmental actions and on the other

hand gender bias in society not only continues but in some ways has taken a worse form in the shape of violence and crimes against women. The question of status of women in Indian society remains serious and deserves attention.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

The other major sectors of visible differences between male and female status are education and employment. The female literacy rate in 2001 was

54.16 per cent as against 75.85 per cent literate males. On the eve of independence literacy rate of women was 7.9 per cent in comparison to

54.16 per cent in 2001. Despite this the number of illiterate women has increased over the decades due to population growth, non-enrolment of girls and dropout from the formal system of education. Illiteracy and lack of education among women limit their achievements in the field of employment, training and utilisation of health facilities.

SOCIAL INDICATORS

The Indian Constitution guarantees legal and social equality to women. Various laws have been enacted to make gender equality a reality.

If a close scrutiny of the existing laws is made, it becomes clear that still many laws, particularly with right to social issues, are in favour of men. What is more important is that in practice social behaviour towards women is full of biases.

In matters of property, in spite of recent laws and judicial decisions giving women’s equal share in the family property, often justice is denied to women by their families. In many instances, the women concerned are illiterate and, therefore, are duped into signing away their legal property rights.

Obviously, the above status of women is not due to consti­tutional provisions or lack of laws or programmes. Reasons are various. First is the deep rooted patriarchal system, which makes male not only the head of the family but socially gives all decision making powers to him. Within this patriarchal system the process of socialisation both of male and female children makes them grow with the future acceptance of their roles. In an average Indian family preference is shown to male children.

Along with these social factors, our planning has also neglected the development of women in a comprehensive manner. The programmes have been piecemeal and in isolation. More important is that while programmes have been formulated adequate funds have not been released. Thus, in the male dominated family structure and caste and kinship based society, lopsided development and planning designed and implemented by status quo oriented bureaucracy has not allowed the desired changes in status of women in terms of equality and opportunities.

MOVEMENTS TOWARDS EMPOWERMENT

From the above it becomes clear that change of attitude towards women within the family and social system completely dominated by men cannot be brought about by making laws or policies alone. There is a need to bring women themselves in decision making and implementing process. Exclusion of women from the political decision making bodies and govern­mental structures have been reinforcing factors in gender-based discrimination. No serious attempt has been made either by the governments in power or any political party to address the problem of women’s participation in decision making bodies.

The women’s movement, therefore, have been struggling for reservation for women in elective bodies. They achieved partial success with 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments providing 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institution and Municipalities and Municipal Corporations. Struggle for such a reservation in Parliament and State Assemblies is on while almost all political parties in public support this demand, but when the bill to implement this comes in the Parliament, in one way or the other, it is not allowed to be passed.

NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN 2001

The government of India in 2001 issued a National Policy for the Empowerment of women. The major objectives of this policy include:

(i) Creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realise their full potential.

(ii) The de-jure and de-facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres — political, economic, social, cultural and civil.

(iii) Equal access to women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office, etc.

(iv) strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

According to National Policy, all Central and State Ministries will draw up time bound action-plans for translating the policy into a set of concrete actions through a participatory process of consultation with Centre/State departments of Women and Child Development and National/State Commission for Women.

The National Policy document also talks of strengthening of institutional mechanisms, resource management, legalisation, gender sensitisation, partnership with the voluntary sector organisations and international cooperation, to achieve the desired goals.

Needless to say the National Policy for the Empowerment of women 2001 for the first time presents a holistic approach and presents a comprehensive notion of women’s development and empowerment. It is now to be seen whether it remains a document of intentions or something really comes out of this.

Since India became independent, many policies and measures had been adopted to improve the conditions of women. Despite all this, the situation of women has not improved much. Women, in general, have not been in position to avail benefits from these measures.  However, many agencies like the Central Social Welfare Board and other departments have been set up to look after the welfare of women. There have been innumerable schemes initiated to bring about economic self-women as well as of men in all fields: reliance through employment, income the under nationalisation of the generation, education, skill training potential of approximately half the and other developmental programmes. population is a serious obstacle to To back them up, the State has also social and economic development. It is passed many laws. In fact, India ranks time for both men and women to come as the country with the maximum out of myths, imposed traditions and amount of social legislation for women. false notions of superiority of sex

Let us not forget that the full and and join hands for a more happy and complete development of any country harmonious personal family and requires the maximum participation of social life.