By- Amrita Raj Pathak & Dr. Srijan Mishra, Faculty of Law, Amity University, Lucknow
Abstract
Women have played a significant part in creating society by providing moral support in the home environment. Women account for half of the country's human resources and are an indicator of national progress. Women have gained significant footing in politics, the workplace, and even more authority within their own homes. Women were once unable to express their opinions in politics since they could not vote or run for office, but now there are more than one woman running for president.
Now women and men can both be the bread winners, the stereotypical role place on women are slowly dissolving and both spouse parents are sharing the responsibilities that come with the house and family. They represent the creator and destroyer of the human race, Shakti. It must be acknowledged that women shape and construct the future of their countries. Every successful man has a woman by his side. However, treating them as the most marginalized and underprivileged group in society is abhorrent. In the majority of households, daughters are treated as liabilities and are taught to feel inferior to men. Sons are revered and honored. The Hindu wedding blessing "may you be the mother of a hundred sons" is frequently used.
It is generally viewed empowerment of women is a solution to gender discrimination. It is now widely believed that empowerment of women that is providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities in the decision making process will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination.
Keywords: Rights, Empowerment, Violation, Constitutional Safeguards, and Protection.
POSITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA
In Indian history we can get references about the role of women from the beginning of the Indus
Valley Civilization which flourished from about 3000 BC to 1500 BC in the north-western part of India. As per historical evidences relations with the human beings were governed by the collective nature of production and consumption. Men and women enjoyed equal status in raising food and in their family relations. The women’s work and their contribution to the family were same as that of men. Nature was often called by the term ‘mother’. Matrilineal system continued for long and women’s status seem to haveattained a superior one over men.
During the Sangam period, though the wife was considered as the light of the home and was honoured, it cannot be said that she was an equal partner in the household. In fact, she occupied a subordinate position in the household and it was generally accepted by the women of that age. The ancient grammarians also assign mastery behaviour to men and retiring dispositions to women.The position of women had deteriorated during the Gupta age. The women had to live under one or the other restriction from the cradle to the grave. They had no individual liberty. Practice of sati was considered a venerable act. There were no property inheritance rights for women. However, Stridhana was made obligatory. As far as livelihood matters of women are concerned, the women of the last two varnas enjoyed absolute freedom whereas it was not allowed for the first two varnas. During the period of Harshavardhana women of the higher castes observed no purdah. The girls were married at an early age, but there was no widow remarriage and the practice of sati prevailed. Female education was restricted to higher classes only. Women at all levels without any protest suffered partial to total subordination to women and their contributions to family and society rarely recognized
In the first quarter of the 19th century, Raja Rammohan Roy declared crusade against sati, and argued that the ultimate goal of all Hindu was selfless absorption in a divine essence, a union that could not
flow from an action like sati. In the 19th century, the Indian intelligentsia group involve in a dual encounter with colonial ideology.
During the period of the Cholas, the position of women in the Tamil society was mostly the same in other parts of South India. The social evils like devadasi system, sati and slavery were important practices that enslaved women in the Tamil country. The most prominent feature of this period was women’s dependence to her husband. Child marriage adversely affected the health of the girls. Besides Muslim rulers in India had large harems which encouraged polygamy, even among the Hindus there was no limit set to the number of wives a man can take. Another social evil that existed in medieval India was female infanticide which was prevalent among the Rajputs and other higher castes and even among the Muslims. Purdah system gained popularity with the advent of the Muslims. Purdah is actually a Persian word and according to Patricia Jeffrey, “purdah is a part and parcel of social stratification in India. It becomes the mental foot binding, the frogs in a well syndrome, the submissiveness of the young bride and the inability of adult women to cope with the world outside”.
UNVEILING CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN IN LEGAL & SOCIAL SECTOR
Social, cultural and religious barriers change with time. In Hindu religion, some remarkable changes have been taken place such as prohibition of ‘Sati’, where a widow immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. This inhuman religious practice was banned on December 4, 1829 (Gilmartin, 1997). Other changes, like introduction of widow marriage, encourage of girl’s education and their heredity right etc were introduced to uplift the condition of women in the society. During the British rule up to the formation of Indian Republic in 1947, the number of literate women among the female population was between two percent to seven percent and it increased to 15.35 percent in 1961 and 64.63 percent by the year 2011 (Government of India, 2020).
The culture of Hinduism drew its inspiration from Sanskrit works on religion, philosophy, ritual, law and science and particularly the two epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana. The spirits of these books became irresistible creative force which has shaped the collective culture of the Indian people. But the culture of Hinduism has greatly discriminated the role of male and female in the society. The norms assigned to women by male religious authority made them marginalized in the society. In Sabarimala temple, where Supreme Court had recently ordered to open the door for women devotees of all ages, but the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 was barred by a group of people and priest of the temple (Economic Times, 2018). It again proves that even in 21ist century women are not treated as per with the men. Women may be treated differently or abused in different phases of their life such as parental phase (sex selective abortion), infancy (differential treatment for girl child, female infanticide etc), adolescence (rape, marital rape, trafficking, sexual abuse in working place), reproductive age (dowry abuse & murders, psychological abuse etc.), and old age (abuse & neglect). The abuses of women are well spread all over the world and it is revealing through #Me Too movement. Abuse of women is a direct corollary of inferior position of women in the society. As long as men made social, cultural and religious barriers will remain in the society, women would remain in inferior position and would not be able to breathe freely.
If we look at the civilization of Vedic age in Mahabharata without religious fervour, we find very little freedom of women during that period of time. They were treated as commodities (Apeta, 1996b). Durapadi, one of the colourful characters in the Mahabharata was a daughter of king Durapada. She was forced to marry five Pandava brothers which was not a norm during that time.
Polygamy was acceptable norms in the society but not polyandry (Apeta, 1996a). She was also used as a stakeduring chess playing by Judishter, one of her husband and king of Pandava.
There are some other incidents in theVedic literature where wife was used at the will of husband or elders to get son(s) by Niyoga practice. Niyoga practice permits a childless widow ‘to cohabit with her brother in-law until the birth of a son’ (Apeta, 1996a). Kunti and Madri, wives of impotent Pandu wereforced to cohabit with someaccomplished men during that time to have sons. Kunti and Madri had threeand two sons respectively by this Niyoga practice.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN INDIA
Women's identity and status in the history of India is non-uniform and non-constant, yet violence against women is almost a universal phenomena in India.The sociologists while evaluating the position of women in India face many problems because of the paradoxical statements in different religious scriptures and sometimes in the same text at different places. As historian Romilla Thaper observes ―Within the Indian sub-continent there have been infinite variations on the status of women diverging according to cultural milieu, family structure, class, caste property rights and morals Some have described their status as equals to men‘ while others have held not only in disrespect but even in positive hatred.
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