Rights of Women and Law
- Part 4 -

Romilla Akham *

High Court Complex at Chingmeirong Imphal in April 2012 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

(Since I stepped in to the law class of my alma mater five years back, the plight and sufferings of Indian women has always been in mind. As I studied deeper in to Indian and International law relating to women, sometimes I found myself exasperated on the sheer lack of awareness among Indian women. I feel that it is my bounden duty to contribute whatever little that I can in this field. Of course, this article could just be the beginning.)

5. The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 : The Act provides for insurance pension and maternity benefits to women workers.

6. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 : It provides for maternity benefit with full wages for women workers.

7. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 : The Act safeguards women from unnecessary and compulsory abortions.

8. Indian Evidence Act, 1872 : Sections 113(a), 113(b) and 114(c) provide for presumptions as to abetment of suicide by a married woman within 7 years of marriage, as dowry death of a woman and as to absence of consent of woman for sexual intercourse. The Court may assume that such suicide has been abetted by her husband or by such relative of her husband or by such relative of her husband, after having regard to all other circumstances of the case.

9. Hindu Adoption Maintenance Act, 1956 : Section 18-A provides for obligations of husband to maintain his wife. Section 18(2) provides right of wife to live separately and S. 19 provides for maintenance of widow by her father-in-law.

10. Hindu Succession Act, 1956: Section 14 of the Act provides for property of female Hindu to be her absolute property. Section 23 provides right of female legal heirs in the dwelling house. The earlier law entitled the daughter only to a minor share in inheritance as opposed to men. This amendment has brought wives, sisters and daughters of this country on an equal footing with men in economic terms.

Judicial Intervention:

Although much legislation exists, due to lack of their enforcement, women continue to suffer in this patriarchal society. Due to this shortcoming of the legislations, the judiciary has come forward to protect women. The procedural shackles have been removed. The judiciary has adopted the pragmatic approach and efforts are made to grant constitutional provisions for all women. The judiciary had taken the initiative in helping the women folk when denied by the legislature. Many landmark judgments are there to substantiate this point. Some of the cases are cited below:

In Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Female Workers (Muster Roll) (AIR 2000 SC 1274), the Supreme Court extended the benefits of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 to the Muster Roll (Daily Wagers) female employees of Delhi Municipal Corporation. In this case, the Court directly incorporated the provisions of Article 11 of CEDAW, 1979 into the Indian Law.

In Mohammed Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano (AIR 1985 SC 945), the Supreme Court granted equal right of maintenance under Section 125 of Cr. P.C. 1973 to a divorced married woman notwithstanding the personal law. The Supreme Court also held that "large segments of society which have been traditionally subjected to unjust treatment, women are one such segment." The Court invoked Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which applies to everyone regardless of caste, creed or religion. It ruled that Shah Bano be given maintenance money, similar to alimony.

In Air India v. Nargis Mirza (AIR 1981 SC 1829), the Supreme Court struck down the discriminatory Rules of Indian Airlines. An Air Hostess in Indian Airline challenged certain provisions of their service rile wherein an Air Hostess could have the job up to 35years of age, but can be terminated if she gets married within 4years of her recruitment or her first pregnancy as unreasonable and invalid. The Supreme Court held that this provision compelled the Air Hostess not to have children which is against the human nature. The Supreme Court also upheld the right of the Air Hostess to work up to age of 45 years instead of 35 years of age, if they are otherwise found fit. But the validity of the rule for not allowing to get married for 4 years immediately after joining was upheld due to the exigencies of services.

In Bodhisattwa v. Ms. Subhra Chakraborty (AIR 1996 SC 922), the Supreme Court held that rape is a crime against basic human rights. The Supreme Court observed that rape was not only an offence under the criminal law, but it was a violation of the fundamental right to life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of Indian Constitution

In Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan (AIR 1997 SC 301), the Supreme Court took a serious note of the increasing menace of sexual harassment at workplace and elsewhere. It has been laid down in the judgment that it is the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in work places or other institutions to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment and to provide the procedure for the resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment by taking all steps required. The delays in such cases are to be taken up on fast tract mode, because the maxim; justice delayed is justice denied holds good more in women's right violation cases. When, justice is delayed, the faith of the people on justice system wanes, and start taking law in to their hands in the form of mob justice, family fine, destroying properties and so on which are not actually helping the cause. Crimes should not be tackled criminally or illegally, they should be tackled always in a lawful manner in a democratic country like ours.

Conclusion:

Ignorance and illiteracy has always been the problem for the failure to implement all the said legislations. The judiciary and the legislative initiations have made a tremendous development in the status of women as compared to earlier days. Lack of awareness of women, improper enforcement of the laws, poverty, etc also leads to the deplorable condition of the women. Widows still continue to suffer and are treated worse than any human being.

How many women take pride over their marital status whose husbands are still alive and laugh and sneer at the widow? They thank their stars for being lucky. We still hear and see in our locality wives being ill treated both physically and verbally. We should remember that men are not to be blamed solely for the condition of the women. Women are no lesser.

My mother told me a line which I remembered as I was concluding this article. It says, "Nupi na nupi da noknabana helli"; Women are the enemy of women ! What a paradox!

Women cry for equality when they cannot treat each other equally. We see the usual power play between the "mani mamou". All these contribute to the problem. Let us stop all these and move forward. We have now many women's civil society groups legal aid units and many other redressal forums.

The constitution and parliament has given us enough number of laws, but having the Acts and Laws along is not enough. We have to take a little courage and start sensitizing ourselves. If a crime has been committed and we keep quit, we are also liable in law, we are helping the criminals.

The Laws or legislations alone cannot solve the problems unless each of us questions the prejudices that exist in our society and educate every one about their rights and duties to move towards an egalitarian society.

(Concluded)

For queries on legal provisions on women's rights email
akhamromilla(at)gmail(dot)com
romilla91(at)rediffmail(dot)com .