Unequal Status

Submitted By- Suyash S. Lele

Roll No. - 73 BA LLB 17

Submitted To- Prof. Maheshwar Singh

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

DELHI, INDIA

2017
 STUDENTS DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled Unequal Status, submitted to the

National Law University, Delhi, is a documentation of an original work done by me

under the supervision of Prof. Maheshwar Singh, and this project work has not achieved

the basis for the grant of any degree of diploma/associate ship/fellow ship and related

project if any.

Suyash S. Lele

73 BA LLB 17
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express gratitude to my teacher, Dr. Maheshwar Singh, who gave me this
great opportunity of working on an equally exciting project.

Also, I would like to thank the Teaching Assistants who took a keen interest in my
project work and guided me in every possible way to reach the conclusion of the
assignment.

Finally, the last but not the least, I was fortunate enough to get constant support from my
parents and friends. Without the support of all of them, I wouldnt have been able to
complete and submit the project on time.

Suyash S. Lele
Introduction

Who is a Woman? Simone de Beauvoir uses these words in her book, The Second
Sex to express her, say frustration, towards the lowly status of women in the world. She
puts together these words before the believers of patriarchy and male dominance, asking
them what they think of a woman in the community. Is it just limited to a good
homemaker or to what extends to being the Joan of Arc or Elizabeth I. Even though the
book was written in the year 1949, the status of the gender has still remained as second,
surprising us as the world has now seen their power through Thatcher, Indira Gandhi and
many others. Today, they are the CEOs of multinational companies, famous
sportspersons and what not.

Whenever and wherever the women were given rights, it always reverted back to the
previous condition when they were provided with none. The reasons have been many-
revolution, civil wars or movements. An example of this is Afghanistan and Iran. There
was a time when the ladies there attended parties and drove vehicles, but after the
Revolution in Iran and the war in Afghanistan, the situation completely changed. Now,
there they have no one to stand for their rights and make demands.

But, the situation in other democracies is quite different. The fair sex has already found
a way through various movements and organizations that stand beside them. In India, the
job is done by Morchas, Andolans and NGOs. The country is flooded with a number of
NGOs, all of them having one goal, i.e. Empowering Women and Gender Equality.
Through this research project, the researcher would like to highlight the problems faced
by women of today and how various movements have been instrumental in combating the
social stigma that is carried along by a girl through her life.
The Women of Today

The women of today are getting much more benefits and attention than they used to get
before. In fact, the year 2001 was declared as the year of womens empowerment. Not
just limited to this, now they also have a 33% representation in the Panchayati Raj
institution. State and other institutions have started recognizing marital rape and other
violence as a crime. Not only are they getting lead roles movies but also taking part in
various movements and rallies, commanding them from the forefront. It even
incorporates high positioning legislators, none more than the President of the nation.

How did all this happen? This was not achieved in a day or two. This has been as
humongous as building the Colloseum or the Wall of China, which required aa enormous
amount of time for its completion.

Keeping all this aside, and coming to the unseen side of the story, the truth is that even
after all this, there are still reports of various atrocities, accounts of discrimination and
instances of harassment against women. National Commission for Women and
favourable legislations have stepped forward in their cause, but the deep rooted problem
requires a much more straight forward and a definitive medicine that would work out
with a solution.

In the early years of independent India, there was a little struggle regarding rights for
women, the reason being that they may have been calmed by the assurance of
constitutional parity. Although, dowry was made illegal in 1961, the momentum was
picked up by the feminist activism in the late 1970s, particularly because of the Mathura
rape case. The situation gradually worsened through the eighties when communalism
started dictating the agenda for womens rights as Muslim fundamentalists acted to deny
Muslim women the right to maintenance, the Akalis encouraged Sikh widows to marry
their husbands younger brother, and the Hindu revivalists wanted to glorify Sati and
communalize the long standing demand of the womens movement to bring an end to
discrimination in family laws.

One cant help, but agree that theres a huge number of women in the society who are not
aware about their own position. And even if they do, they dont even try to bring into
play the legislations and laws that are made for their own benefit. One of the leading
examples of this is the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. Though
it may seem strange, many of them face the wrath of their husbands and in-laws more or
less daily. But in spite of that, they dont report about all this to the police. The matter
keeps on worsening, and a day comes when tired of all that, she commits something, that
could have been averted if it got reported.

Enter NGOs and the NGO didis, who represent all those affected and who dont take all
these instances for granted and do care to look into the matter and take it up for redressal,
i.e. provide justice. Various movements too, run parallel and act for the benefit of
womankind. Notable among these have been the Gulabi Gang, Jagmati Sangwans
movement against khap panchayat system. The way they work has been commendable
and has proved that they have become a necessity for the women of today.
Women leading the front

Kamludidi, Rukminikaki and Pinjaribai, the name may sound unfamiliar, and of course,
for everyone in the world, without any doubt, the names are unheard. But, they are no
ordinary women. They are the ones who had been braving the rising waters of the Sardar
Sarovar Dam and have made themselves as role model for generations of women to
come. They led the protest and so have been other women doing, walking on their
footsteps. It was in 2002, when women and young girls took the initiative of confronting
the police and govt. officials when they tried entering the villages affected by the Man
dam. Armed with lathis, guns and tear gas shells, they cut down trees, bulldozed houses
and turned schools into police base camps, evicting them cruelly from their homes and
placing all of them into camps, no better than jails. However, even after being expelled,
they returned to their village and continued the fight. It was the women more than the
men who confronted the police at the barricades, preventing with their bodies the passage
of trucks carrying consignments of cement, steel, and other materials that would go into
making the dam, despite facing mass arrest, beatings and violence every week. They
formed the backbone of the movement, its moral centre.

This emergence of women as a collective force wasnt perceived well by the authorities
responsible. They tried various methods like planting false stories against them and
asking the caste leaders of the village to ask the women not to take their procession on
the streets owing to their indecorous activities. Nevertheless, the women remained
undaunted and challenged officials until they got an apology from them. The caste
leaders too, were powerless to do anything.

If protests like these werent enough, they now also head big companies like PepsiCo and
Lockheed Martin to name a few. Breaking patriarchal norms, there are also single
mothers, who single handedly, run their families. The families are no less than
movements, where struggles occur daily. The struggles here comprise of earning money
and various other tasks that test the bread earner lady. Thousands of them took part in
the freedom struggle fearlessly facing police batons and guns.

Hence, there hardly has been any movement which has not been led by a woman. And
regardless of their role in those factions, they continued their struggle until the final result
was achieved.
Safety is the Priority

In the last few years, crimes against women have increased manifold. Never a day goes
by when the newspapers dont have news regarding an incident of molestation. Even
though they created a huge outcry or public debate, it becomes clear that all this is just
the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath is a much murkier picture.

A research was conducted by a Delhi-based resource center for women- Jagori, with the
ultimate goal of identifying the factors that make public spaces in cities so unsafe for
women and how they are denied participation in the city life due to fear of molestation.
The research showed that a huge majority of women did fear the risk of violence. But,
this fear varied greatly depending on the location of where a person lives, works and
commutes.

The research shows us that women are often seemed and perceive of themselves as being
the illegitimate users of public space. Even when women go for their legit work, they
give way to men or avert their gaze, representing that the place belongs more to him
than to her. Their visibility in public is determined by several factors that include time,
place and purpose as the key ones. Therefore, if they are on their way to picking up kids
from the school, or buying groceries from the general store, they are seen as legit users of
the space. This doesnt necessarily make them immune from harassment, but it places
them under category of being decent and respectable. Hence, many spaces become
inaccessible for them in the night.

The way women handle harassment includes the theory of self-respect. Usually, they
dont report the harassment to their family, fearing that greater restrictions would be
placed upon them concerning their movements. Also, these incidents are not reported to
the police for fear of being questioned on their reasons of being out in public space.
There have been numerous cases where women were out in a public place at a wrong
time and had to face brutal consequences. The huge outcry and response after the incident
is to put the burden of safety back on women. For example, in 2004, Delhi Police issued a
list of dos and donts advising women not to go out alone in the dark and avoiding
talking to strangers. A fresh case of this is, when DP advised women from northeast on
avoiding molestation which comprised of advice on dress and behavior.

This also carries a bias that outside is no place for women and the place where they
belong is home. But, this sidelines the condition of many working class women who have
to travel daily through various public places like parks, bus stops and roads.

This lack of safety hits the poor, the hardest as they have to sacrifice their, or compromise
on, their right to livelihood or education because of lack of safe transport to their school
or workplace. Many parents withdraw the names of their children from the roll lists of
schools just because of fear of sexual violence on the way to school, especially by public
transport.

Coming to safety of women on workplace, the Vishaka judgment lays down the
guidelines over the safety of women at the place of work. Harassment at workplace if
often viewed as harmless and trivial. Very often, it is exempted as being a natural
behavior for males. This too, usually goes unreported due to fear of retaliation by the
accused and losing her job. The societal consideration of male dominance justifies
violence over women in the private and public sphere. The violence at workplace is never
harmless. It consists of serious issues like health and dignity. Also, protection by labor
laws only extends unto the termination of job of the employee; it does not extend to
clashes regarding sexual harassment.

The protection that is provided to the employee, post-judgment is not enough. Various
scholars have highlighted the limitations of various laws that seek to redress cases related
to harassment at workplace. The establishing of a system of regulation and punishments
reinforces the idea of gender inequality.

Women in the unorganized sector, suffer the most because of lack of proper institutions
to protect them. Vishaka guidelines are important as they made a separate category of
sexual harassment and made it a component of public discussion. It is because of these
guidelines that the issue of harassment has started receiving widespread attention and led
to many affirmative steps in the course of addressing it.

But, instead of it, what is needed is an initiative that the workers would step forward to
take, instead of the government or authorities. One cant sufficiently stress the need to
recognize the part of workers themselves in curbing sexual harassment at workplace.
When this happens, the workers or the mechanism will no longer remain a tool of the
employer or the authorities. This will not only benefit the ones in the unorganized sector,
but also those women working in the organized one.
The Livelihood Crisis in Agriculture

Women, as much as men, form the backbone of the country and its economy. But often
its painful to see a lot of them being restricted from applying for a job. Not only are
family views attached to this, but there are a variety of other reasons. And this doesnt
affect just the urban, but the rural and tribal women too.

The reason for abhorrence among tribal women for factories and industries being setup in
the forests is that after the forests have been cleared, their only choice will be to work at
the homes of the officers and babus of the plant. The clearing up of the forest area, for
them, was a loss of work, tradition, freedom and most importantly, self-respect.

With the coming up of free markets, the WTO regime, and the retreat of welfare state,
the problem of livelihood has deepened. All this because the complete focus now is on
how to increase export and setup MNCs, rather than increasing employment.

With the advent of HYV seeds and commercializing of agriculture, the prices of inputs
have increased drastically and all this has made farming an unviable option for small and
middle farmers. The business of agriculture has forced many to sell their lands and
migrate to cities & nearby towns to work in the construction as labors.

With this, we are already seeing withdrawal of women from agriculture sector and their
move towards working for domestic households. In underdeveloped regions like C.G. and
Odisha, the women had a good presence in the field, but gradually, they have started
retreating towards joining their coworkers in migration towards the cities. Women in
tribal areas are completely shocked with the loss of their land & home, and most
importantly, drastic changes in the condition of their families, to which, all of us have
been witnesses. Even after migration, the urban employment remains unsecure and
dangerous. The women are vulnerable, both socially and physically. They have to live in
slums and do various petty jobs, ranging from bidi making to household chores, including
the sustenance of their kids and family.

After a number of legislations, the government promising to bring out policies, we dont
have a substantive figure of improvement of the condition of women. This leads to
formation of Self Help Groups, which are being defined as the Moses of the womenfolk,
who would help them bridge the distance between their life and work.

Theres enough evidence to show that the SHGs are not as efficient as the can be. Theres
a lot of potential that needs to be tapped. The main motto of theirs remains to be saving
no for consuming later. Theres no clear indication whether the products of production
SHGs will sustain in the market, or the group will be able to influence policy decisions
by the government and have reduced themselves to a mere organization that reaches out
for the purpose of savings and credit. The need for today is by far, very large and should
be able to influence policies and build the trust among women, so that the suffering
women can bring their life back on track or start it afresh.
Women as their own saviours

The technology in medical sciences has opened new doors for research and betterment of
the mankind. But, every story has another side too. The detection of foetus in the womb
has become possible and this has led to the killing of foetus far easier. This problem of
considering boys over girls has its roots deep inside the unequal status of women and the
notion of male dominance. This needs to addressed immediately and ASAP,

But since, the authority for all these matters lies in the hands of authorities and
government; they usually sideline themselves instead by blaming women for the female
foeticide. A number of other excuses include that education will reduce the number of
girls killed or there is already a significant number of girls.

Since, a medical professional makes the sex selective abortion happen; only law can
regulate this and prevent the misuse of technology. Many of them believed that through
this malpractice, they were actually helping out a woman by raising her status in the
family and community by not having daughters. Finally, Supreme Court stepped forward
to hold states responsible for the regulation and exercise of Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994. The law was the fruit of
labor by womens movements that demanded a law that would regulate the sex selective
abortion.

Rajasthan has taken steps seriously in the way forward as far as the execution of the act is
concerned. More than 50 doctors and medical professionals are being tried in the courts
The first trial came up in Bharatpur on June 23rd 2007. The judgment convicting the
accused was delivered in a short span of 9 months in a fast track court. More than 30
doctors have already been scrapped off their license to practice due to misconducts.

Serious campaigns, led by women against these practices have come up and results are
being yielded. These campaigns are being joined in by college students, civil societies
etc. Due to their joint effort, cases have been registered against 44 doctors and it took a
total of 18 months to do so.

To spread awareness, these campaigns use various methods to raise the issue, such as
asking different media houses to publish news and related photographs. Reporting like
this results in awakening the ever dormant authorities to file cases against the
perpetrators. Also, the movements monitor the progress of court trials and intervene
whenever necessary. Under pressure of the campaign, the government established the
PNDT cell, without which, the huge number of cases would not have been registered.

These campaigns have also influenced other campaigns. The initiatives taken by them are
varied. Some of them being, allowing girls to light the funeral pyres, beating of drums on
the birth of girl child. In Shri Ganganagar, where the child sex ratio is among the worst,
more than 7,000 people gathered for Lohri, dedicating the fest to girls, whereas the
occasion marks the celebration of blessing sons and their mothers.

What is concerning here the laxity among the officials. Most of the monitoring agencies
comprise of doctors, who refuse to take actions against their own brethren. Hence,
District Collectors are now being appointed as the new authority, but they are themselves
so overburdened that dont have the time to implement the laws.

Theres no denial that the issue of saving the girl child has become a priority in recent
times. The practice of foeticide remains to be prevalent in the society despite the strict
laws and a lot needs to be done to protect them and indirectly, saving the country.
Dignity

In furtherance of the problems created by the eviction of the residents from their villages
or the poor economic policies leading to poverty and more families going below poverty
line, entering the occupation of sex work becomes the choice of many women, who stand
unable to provide for their families. Once caught in a vicious circle of prostitution and
entertaining clients, they find it very difficult to get out of this hell. The clear example of
this, although fictional, but inspired by true events, is evident in the movie, Chandni Bar.

Moved by their plight, the National Network of Sex Workers was instituted, which holds
massive rallies that include thousands of S.W. who protest against the amendments to
Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. They consider S.W. to be contractual and purely
consensual between adults, and demand decriminalization of it.

Since, criminalizing it makes it illegal, this has resulted in a huge outcry among the
workers who want to have its place it in general laws. Another approach, the legalization,
considers it to be a lawful activity, but places the activity under heavy regulation and
govt. control that includes forced health checkups. The irony here is that the state takes
on the role of middleman and that too, a legitimate one.

S.W. and feminism advocates have repeatedly asked to demarcate between trafficking
and sex work. And truly, both of them are worlds apart. Trafficking is the induction into
the occupation by force and prostitution is completely consensual. Although, it is true,
that many girls enter the industry under pressure and sadistic conditions. The occupation
is not much different from forced labor in industries and agricultural sector. Theres no
reason for us felling outraged over trafficking in sex work than in domestic work. In
recent years, trafficking has started to be seen as human rights violation rather than a
problem of law and order.
It is often wrongly though that the biggest enemies of sex workers are the ruthless
customers, middlemen and their owners. But instead of all these, the biggest adversaries
of theirs are the law enforcement agencies, who regularly raid the brothels and beat them
up. They are often accompanied by social workers, and trespass on their rooms, beat
them up and put them in lockup until they can bring out enough of their hard earned
money to secure their release.

These incidents are reported in a very different way in the mass media, which includes
rescue of poor victims and the moral victory for the cops and those NGOs. Those asking
for criminalizing S.W. never ask for the same for forced domestic work, where conditions
are similar.

As of now, the ITPA has not been able to achieve its objective, and has been a failure
regarding entry of minors in the industry. Instead of these legislations, the job is being
done by various other private agencies. Example of this is SANGRAM, which has
consistently worked for the uplift of prostitutes in Sangli, Maharashtra. Due to their
efforts, the number of minors in the industry has gone far less than it used to be.

These movements ask for safe environment for S.W. as well as the right to bring
revisions in the trade to meet their own demands. Theres no doubt to it that the industry
has experienced a boom in recent years. The customers and the profits have significantly
gone up, but it has only brought good to the pimps and the owners. The women continue
to suffer and most importantly, lose their respect in the society.
The traditional thinking towards the women needs to be discarded. They are not to be
regarded as housewives or homemakers anymore. They are now self dependent and can
take their decisions regarding their life.

The country is referred to as Bharat Mata, but the true mata is never allowed to
participate in spheres where men do. Still, they need to launch protests for LGBT rights,
when other developed nations have already recognized them. We still perceive prostitute
women as immoral who choose the profession out of their own will.

To achieve parity in status, the values should be inculcated in a person from childhood.
Women need to be strong, both physically and mentally from the very beginning. The
need to break the clutches of social taboos and is very much necessary, as is education.

The result cant be achieved just by enacting laws and statutes. The so called womens
development programs, initiated by the government could not get utilized fully. We still
face a shortage of girl students in schools and colleges. Some of them never get the
chance of attending college, leave alone universities. The law enforcement agencies too,
fail to take cognizance of the matters related to dowry deaths, female foeticide or family
pressures. The situation of women in the areas with presence of khap panchayats is much
more pitiable.

Hence, mere considering or worshipping women as goddesses is not enough and what is
required is a change in outlook. With it, the country would again step on the tracks of
rapid development and the women would return to their former glory.