Gender Sensitization Workshop

R.H. Kapadia New High School, Ahmedabad

 Introduction:
Starting from the beginning of a girl child’s life we can see all the ways in which she
is discriminated at every step of her life and is devoid of her rights which every
person in India has, irrespective of him/her being a Girl or a Boy.

The following video shall be shown as an introduction to the Workshop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUNmusdQYfg.

We shall be discussing about the following issues that a girl/woman faces in our
society and about which there is lack of awareness. We shall be taking the help of
some videos and small role-plays to involve the audience and deliver our message.

 SKIT/ROLE-PLAY TO SHOW DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN BOYS AND

GIRLS.

1. Female foeticide:
Even before the baby is born, there have been practices of sex determination
operations which enable the parents to know the sex of the child. However, misuse of
this technology has been done and many families have chosen to abort the foetus if
it’s found to be a female or a girl child. Even though the person inside the womb of
the mother isn’t yet born, can we really call this anything short of murder?
Thus the Government of India passed Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic
Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) (PCPNDT) Act in 2004 to ban and
punish prenatal sex screening and female foeticide. Currently, it’s illegal in India to
determine or disclose the sex of the foetus. However, it has been found that the
enforcement of this Act is a big issue and there is mass violation of the provisions of
this Act in our country, thus rendering the passing of the Act irrelevant.

2. Female Infanticide:
This term basically means killing a baby girl the moment she is born and this practice
is carried on widely in many areas of India and yet, when it comes down to curbing it,
there is only one Act-The Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870, which was passed
in British India.

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 Clearly an Act as old as that is not in operation today and with the changing times a
fresh and more up to date law is definitely required to save the baby girls from being
brutally murdered by their own families in many cases.

3. Deprivation of Education :
If at all the girl child is allowed to be born and raised in a dignified manner, there is a
good chance: especially in the rural areas that a girl child would never get as much
priority as would a boy child with respect to “luxuries” like Education.
Girls are expected to work at home- as if preparing themselves for their future as
house wives. They are not allowed to have a future or to be educated. The government
had taken measures for the same by passing The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), an Act of the Parliament
of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which described the modalities of the importance
of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article
21a of the Indian Constitution.
More so, this Act is not specific to girls- it applies to all children and is also known to
be low on implementation because of no follow being taken on the same.
Thus there being no existence of a stringent procedure for educating the girl child, the
current scenario is a bleak one. A girl being deprived of education means she has no
scope for developing herself and no hope for any freedom from the shackles of a
narrow-minded society.

4. Eve-teasing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLpkW5C8PqE.
Another form of violence against women is the crime of eve-teasing, which is usually
treated as low priority crime though it is a very serious issue causing immense mental
torture and humiliation to women and girls when they are insulted and sexually
harassed especially on roads and public transport. Most of these cases go unreported
due to various reasons. It violates a women’s basic right to live with dignity. It is a
form of sexual aggression that ranges in severity from sexually suggestive remarks to
inadvertent brushing in public places. Women are subjected to this social evil
irrespective of their caste, race or creed their dressing, age, looks, education,
professional and marital status; though they are ironically criticized for inviting
molesters by the way they dress.
“Eve-teasing” is an attitude, a mind-set , a set of behaviour that is construed as an
insult and an act of humiliation of the female sex. Though the Indian Penal Code does
not define the word eve-teasing, there are three sections which deal with crime of eve-
teasing. These are Sections 509, 294 and 354.

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 These sections make gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman or
acts intrude upon her privacy a, crime, but it is very difficult to exploit these
provisions to deal with various expressions of sexual harassment. The provisions
under these sections and the procedural laws are complex and the type of proof that is
required make it very difficult to get the culprit punished.

5. Domestic Violence:
Post marriage, the woe of being born as a female in a male-dominated society does
not end. Domestic violence against a woman has been a long standing problem in our
country. Once a woman is married off, it becomes very easy for her in-laws to
dominate and torture her endlessly. In most cases, a woman- to keep the honour of her
family intact is forced to keep quiet and bear with the atrocities committed. And what
happens within the four walls of a household; often remains there- with these tortures
resulting in the death of the woman and getting easily disguised as fatal accidents.
To remedy this problem, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
2005 of the Parliament of India was enacted to protect women from domestic
violence. It was brought into force by the Indian government from October 26, 2006.
Despite having a law in place, there are a plethora of cases that go unnoticed and
unreported due to the secret nature of them. There is a need to appoint protection
officers along with a full time support system to ensure that the PWDW Act is
implemented to its fullest.

6. Dowry:
Demanding heavy amounts of Dowry is another aspect- under the pretext of which
women have been continually been tortured through the ages. In the earlier ages, one
of the main causes of women dying used to be dowry deaths. Either they were
murdered or driven to suicide by continuous torture by their in-laws and husband. It
is another form of atrocities and functions as a punishment to be born a woman in a
society that doesn’t have any respect for the gender.
Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code has attempted to remedy the grave situation by
including the “demand of dowry” under the term cruelty- making it punishable. It
protects the wife from harassment by the husband or the husband's family in cases
where an illegal dowry is sought. There also exists an Act namely: The Dowry
Prohibition Act, 1961. However, as is the situation is most laws and their

Institute of Law, Nirma University

 implementation- there have been reports of this law having never been implemented
in a fit manner. The process of prevention of dowry give and take practice which is
the job of the Regional Dowry Prohibition Officers is constantly marred by
inadequacies because of unavailability of administrative staff or vehicles.

 Conclusion: we shall conclude on this note that we must give the girls and women
their rights guaranteed even by the Constitution of India. They must be equally
respected and given equal opportunities as the men are given in our society. Though
the Law in India tries to deal with these issues, yet not much could be done and these
problems seem to be on a rise, day by day. Hence, we must understand the intensity of
these offences and give women respect and their rights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WKwKUVY3vw

Institute of Law, Nirma University