Debating Gender Justice in India
| Date | 01 June 1995 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399500400205 |
| Author | Ann Stewart |
| Published date | 01 June 1995 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
, 253-
DEBATING
GENDER
JUSTICE
IN
INDIA
ANN
STEWART
University of Warwicke
INTRODUCTION
HIS
ARTICLE
considers
the
issues
raised
by
three
pieces
of
proposed
t
legislation
on
what
is
called
gender
justice
in
India.
They
cover
violence
-A-
against
women,
derogatory
representations
of
women
and
the
regulation
of
sex
workers.
The
proposals
under
discussion
did
not
emerge
from
established
law
reform
routes.
Two
of
the
measures
were
a
product
of
the
Centre
for
Women
and
the
Law
at
the
National
Law
School
of
India,
which
was
commissioned
by
the
Ministry
of
Women
and
Child
Development
to
review
and
bring
forward
proposals
for
reforming
the
Indecent
Representation
of
Women
(Prohibition)
Act,
1986
and
the
Immoral
Traffic
(Prevention),
Act
1986.’
The
third
reform
proposal
originated
in
the
National
Commission
on
Women’s
Status,
which
set
up
a
committee
to
look
at
the
issue
of
rape
of
minor
children.
This
committee
of
women
lawyers
concluded
that
it
was
inappropriate
to
separate
out
child
rape
from
a
general
consideration
of
the
law
in
this
area.
It
widened
its
remit
and
drafted
a
bill
on
the
Prevention
of Sexual
Violence
Against
Women
and
Children
to
replace
the
existing
provisions
on
rape
and
indecent
assault
in
the
Indian
Penal
Code, 1861.
All
the
proposals
resulted
from
a
deliberate
attempt
to
change
the
law-making
process.
The
drafters
at
the
National
Law
School
set
out
’to
obtain
community
and
consumer
perspectives
on
the
social
problem
and
then
to
structure
the
statute
in
a
simple,
comprehensive
style,
looking
at
alternate
policy
positions’
(Menon,
1993 :
4).
Consequently,
they
set
up
an
extensive
system
for
national
consultation
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Thousand
Oaks,
CA
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
4
(1995),
253-274
254
which
involved
the
establishment
of
five
regional
task
forces
and
the
holding
of
two
regional
and
two
national
level
consultation
meetings.
These
bodies
discussed
possible
approaches
to
the
issues
and
tried
to
evolve
a
consensus
on
the
way
forward
before
drafting
the
final
Bills.
These
Bills
were
then
presented
to
a
consultative
workshop
in
Bangalore
to
which
a
wide
range
of
women’s
groups,
legal
activists,
practitioners,
academics
and
policy
makers
from
all
over
the
country
were
invited.
This
consultative
exercise
was
repeated
in
Delhi
to
an
audience
of
women’s
groups,
members
of
the
legal
profession
and
also
senior
government
policy
makers.
There
were
also
a
number
of
international
contribu-
tors
at
both
workshops.
The
process
depended
upon
the
involvement
of
social
activists
and
women’s
groups.
Law
reform
has
played
an
important
part
in
these
movements’
campaigns
and
strategies
but
this
wealth
of
experience
has
had
little
impact
on
the
legal
academy.
In
India,
feminism
has
yet
to
establish
itself
firmly
within
the
legal
academy
(but
see
Sarkar,
1990)
although
some
very
interesting
material
is
now
becoming
available,
partly
through
the
work
of
the
social
activists.
The
debates
are
beginning.
The
exercise
undertaken
by
the
National
Law
School
and
the
National
Women’s
Committee
subgroup,
therefore,
represents
a
new
departure.
While
the
initiative
is
clearly
intent
on
using
law
as
social
engineering,
it
is
attempting
to
bring
women’s
experience
and
understanding
into
the
frame.
In
doing
so
it
raises
a
variety
of
issues
which
I
touch
on
here,
but
return
to
later
after
the
discussion
of
the
specific
proposals.
The
first
of
these
is
the
women’s
movement’s
strategic
engagement
with
the
Indian
state.
In
tackling
what
might
be
described
as
the
post-colonial
element
of
the
state,
women
and
civil
liberties
groups
have
campaigned
to
curb
excesses,
to
reduce
state
power
and
to
increase
the
space
for
civil
society.
Yet,
the
other
element
of
the
state
is
a
product
of
its
nationalist
past,
which
established
a
constitutionally
secular
state
committed
to
equality
for
all
its
citizens
and
in
particular
for
women.
This
aspect
of
the
state
seems
to
carve
out
a
place
for
women
in
a
civil
society.
As
we
shall
see
later,
this
space
is
fragile
because
of
the
challenges
of
communalism
and
fundamentalism.
The
women’s
movement
manoeuvres
within
these
parameters,
campaigning
against
the
state
but
arguing
for
greater
rights.
Women
face
another
constructed
dichotomy
between
tradition
and
modern-
ity.
The
women’s
movement,
particularly
through
its
legal
engagement
with
rights,
is
associated
with
the
urban
middle
class
and
is
thus
seen
as
tied
to
a
secular,
modern,
Westernized
desire
to
create
a
pan-Indian
identity.
They
are
open
to
the
complaint
that
the
proposals
under
consideration
here
are
irrelevant
to
the
masses
of
rural
poor
women
who
are
seen
as
traditional.
Women
activists
are
vulnerable
to
the
strategic
consequences
of
this
dichotomy,
of
being
on
one
’side’
or
the
other.
The
challenge
is
to
dissolve
it.
Undoubtedly,
these
proposals
have
echoes
of
Western
approaches.
They
could
be
seen
to
have
been
created
under
Western
eyes,
to
use
Mohanty’s
(1991)
phrase,
but
it
is
important
not
to
transpose
perceptions.
Thus,
in
the
discussion
of
rape,
it
must
be
recognized
that
the
issue
emerges
from
an
understanding
of
violence
which
focuses
on
the
exploitation
of
the
weak
by
powerful
groups,
not
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