Woman Empowerment

8th March is celebrated every year as a Women’s Day. Around this day every year lot of discussions go on regarding the subject of ‘ Woman Empowerment ’. But , are the Women, to be specific, Indian woman , are they really empowered?

Pandit Jawaharlal Motilal Nehru , the first Prime Minister of India once said , “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its woman”.

Unfortunately, even after 75 years of Independence , we can’t proudly say that the woman of India is empowered . There’s still a lot to do on this front.

This article aims to discuss the topic and in the process make an attempt of educating and helping in empowering the Indian women.

Whenever we need to empower a particular segment of a society, the law of the country has a major role to play in this regard. Right from the framing of the Constitution of India there have been specific efforts taken for woman empowerment of this country. There have many new enactments or amendments to existing laws to achieve this purpose. Let us review some of the enactments one by one,

1) Pre-Natal Dignostic Techniques (Regulation & Prevention) Act, 1994 i.e. (PNDT Act) –

The male female ratio in India has always been imbalanced viz In the year 2019-20 there were 907 females per 1000 males. This happens due to many factors like ill health of girl child due to unjust treatment by families, early marriages and early pregnancies etc . However the main reason of this imbalance in ratio is the tendency to kill the female foetus before birth.

As per the provisions of PNDT Act , the pre-conception or pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India. This has curtailed the tendency of aborting the girl child in mother’s womb and contributed in increasing the female population of India.

Every Indian woman should know these provisions and take help of it whenever the need arises.

2) Prohibition of Child Marriage Act , 2006 –
Child marriages have been a common tradition of Indian culture from ancient times . The main sufferer of this unwanted tradition was always the bride who had to suffer a lot in such marriage owing to factors like change in life style, marital responsibilities, lack of proper schooling after marriage, early pregnancies, risk of widowhood and deprivation of fulfillment of basic needs after the death of husband at a small age.
Introduction of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act was a blessing to girls from all the hazards of early marriage.

3) The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act , 1971 –
In the field of woman health , The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act has been enacted. The act provides for the legal sanction to termination of pregnancy. Nature has given responsibility of child birth exclusively to women . However under certain circumstances women are not capable and willing to take this responsibility. Circumstances like pregnancy of rape victims, marriage at a young age, health issues make it difficult to give birth to a child and also take responsibility to raise a child.
In such cases ,The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act has proven to be very useful to women.

4) The Equal Remuneration Act , 1976 –
According to this provisions of this act, employment to woman can’t be denied on the basis of gender. Also gender discrimination in rewards and remuneration is disallowed. This act has been a major factor for the empowerment of working woman which has led to the entry of women in all sectors of employment .

5) The Sexual Harassment of Woman at Workplace (Prevention , Prohibition & Redressal) Act , 2013 –
The eve teasing and more serious instances of harassment of woman have been the factors which stopped women from growing at organizational level. The latest enactment named ‘ The Sexual Harassment of Woman at workplace ’ has curtailed the unwanted instances of sexual harassment of women employees , which has resulted in increase of working woman in all the fields.

6) Protection of Woman from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
Women have been given various legal remedies against their husbands or any other male adult committing domestic violence. The remedies include judgement within 60 days of filing the case, right to residence, economic relief, temporary child custody etc

7) Provisions in Criminal Law for Women
There are special provisions for women under criminal law like –
Protection against arresting a woman at night in absence of a lady police
Protection against harassment by police
No death sentence to a pregnant woman
Equal justice and free legal aid

8) Provisions and Amendments in personal Laws for the benefit of women
Safeguards to woman married to NRI
Right of maintenance from husband
Equal rights to women under adoption and guardianship laws
Married woman’s property rights
Right of inheritance in ancestral properties to daughters under Hindu Succession Act.

There are manifold efforts taken under the Indian Legal System to empower women. To take benefit of all these provisions , the women should be educated about them.

To conclude , in the words of Swami Vivekanand ,
“Just as a bird can not fly with only one wing, a nation can not march forward if the women are left behind“

– Adv. Vaidehi Godse, SGV Legal Advocates