Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Mar 8, 2025

Fifty years after the Committee on the Status of Women in India submitted its report ‘Towards Equality’ (1974) [1] to the Government of India, many reforms were brought in to the legislative and legal frame to protect, enable and expand women’s rights [2], [3], [4]. But today, if you follow the everyday news, you get a sense that India is the most violent place for women [5], [6]. There were 32000 rape cases in 2022 according to the National Crime Records bureau [7]. Forget equality, we seem to have regressed in many regards. Women’s participation in the labour market has dropped in the past decades [8], and they get unequal wages and work in precarious conditions and the sex ratio continues to be skewed [9]. A reactionary BJP government over the past 10 years targets women as a vote bank and provides social funding in their direction in a paternalistic frame — viewing them as ‘Mothers, and daughters’ (who need to be married off and protected) in their role as home-keepers [10]. They promote a traditional outmoded idea that women are the weaker gender and not equal citizens. Patriarchal & conservative values call the shots in government and society — right-wing organisations Bajrang Dal & Vishwa Hindu Parishad are suspicious of all inter-faith marriages or cross-faith amorous relations and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad see “live-in relationships” [11] outside marriage as a threat to traditional culture [12]. The RSS criticised efforts to legislate against domestic violence or marital rape [13]. Meanwhile, women across all religious faiths in India continue to face discrimination in laws that govern the ‘personal domain’ in matters of marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, succession, custody and guardianship. It is tragic that the secular opposition including the women’s movement groups have retreated instead of standing up for the constitutional objective of having a common civil code for all citizens in our divided society. “Article 44” of the Indian Constitution states that “the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code (UCC) throughout the territory of India.” [14] The ruling Hindutva right-wing have turned the tables on India’s democrats by seeming to promote the constitutional goal of having a common civil code —tweaked with a ‘majoritarian flavour’ ( i.e. modelled on Hindu laws). The BJP-ruled mountain state of Uttarakhand has already passed a Uniform Civil Code for people from all religions. Many questions have been raised as to the legal veracity of this legislation that also covers ’live-in’ relations. Other BJP-ruled states are moving similarly. Seems bizarre to have separate laws state by state instead of a single national law, but it seems they are moving incrementally wherever they can. Let us hope, that opposition parties and progressive forces would add some water to their whiskey and rethink their opposition to a common law seemingly in line with the constitutional spirit. Can they work on a gender-just national civil law personal status as an alternative to the BJP’s uniform civil code?

Greetings to all on the International Women’s Rights Day!

March 8, 2025 —HK