Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century-Edited by Uttam Kumar Panda

Gender Issues and
Challenges in Twenty First

Century
Gender Issues and
Challenges in Twenty First
Century
Editor
Uttam Kumar Panda
SATYAM LAW
INTERNATIONAL
Foreword
I am immensely delighted to write the foreword to the book Gender Issues

and Challenges in Twenty First Century edited by Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda.
Perhaps, there is no wrong; if I say, every society is gendered. Gender inequality
is seemingly an undying phenomenon. Religiously, India is a cultural and
tradition based society, wherein inequality is socially inherited and retained
in the forms of gender, caste, varna, cult in one hand and on the other, we
advocate modernity, justice, freedom, liberty, social equilibrium, welfare and
so on. Indian society witnesses enormous contradictions. Therefore, these
issues attract academia, legislators, legal fraternity, policy makers, reformers,
development activists, feminists and scholars to study them for finding issue
based worth mentioning solutions. At our times, almost every local or national
issue draws international attention due to globalization of culture, immigration,
United Nation’s intervention, international declarations and conventions; roles
played by the national and international organizations in the issues of labour,
education, women empowerment, health, livelihoods, environment, peace
etc.
This edited volume is divided into three parts. The first part is discussing
about social security, rights and health issues. These issues are carefully
studied and analyzed. Most of the observations are drawn empirically and
hope recommendations will wan further policy intervention. In the second part,
issues related to law, policy and development are presented. The contributors
of this section have raised some recent socio-legal issues which in fact
require instantaneous attention of the legislators, policy makers and justice
administrators. In addition to that the third part of this book puts emphasis on
some questions which raise the very basic structural issues of Indian society.
Feminization of domestic works, men’s historical freedom from all those
unpaid activities and no recognition to that labour into national accounting
vi Foreword
system needles the feminists to say that, it is nothing but continuation of

patriarchal diplomacy even in this century. Gender equality in each sphere is
a much needed phenomenon. Gender equality in domestic work participation
could be helpful in restructuring masculinity in particular. The contributors of
this section have highlighted more on structural, cultural and social attitude
aspects of transitional phase of social change in India. I have good reasons to
believe that this edited volume will benefit scholars, teachers, policy makers,
legal fraternity and social advocates moving forward aptly in understanding
the gender issues in this twenty-first century.
Prof. (Dr.) Sukh Pal Singh

Vice Chancellor
Hidayatullah National Law University
Raipur
Preface
The idea of gender is confronted between the lines of masculinity and femininity.
The degree of confrontation depends upon heterogeneity and homogeneity
of the population composition and social structure, the very foundation of
any society. The world has seen, one gender; most likely masculinity has
historically tried to dictate the other despite the fact that even after being the
part of same family/community/society/nation. Due to domination of one
gender by the other, the humankind has lessened its progress. Men and women
are equally important for their growth, development, progress and harmonious
existence. Merely patriarchy or alone feminism can never bring harmony and
equilibrium to us. At the same time, we have to do a meticulous situational
analysis of the position of the genders and if one of them requires specific
attention through the course of policy, equity, rights and laws; the other should
cooperate to bringing them into equal footing. Hence, it is the high time to come
with a proper attitude to fill the gender gaps with an equality-slogan from all
the spheres of human life; starting from home, education, employment, health,
empowerment, liberty, freedom and justice.
The book, Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century deals
with manifold issues and presents an insight to the twenty first century problems
and prospects altogether. The edited volume includes twenty research articles
comprising of three parts. The first part presents a discussion about social
security, rights and health issues. The very first paper of this volume is written
by Asima Jena. She says that the feminist activism and scholarship for long
have underscored the influence of patriarchy in controlling and repressing
women’s sexuality and bodily autonomy. The manifestation and setback of
limited choice in the matter of sexuality and body is much prominent in the
domain of health than any other spheres of life. Gender is a distinct social
construct which is not only nurtured and sustained by society but also state
viii Preface
and this aspect have potential effect on health. In addition to that she explains
the complex interface between unequal power relations in gender and health
through some case studies on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) among
Female Sex workers belonging to lower castes of Andhra Pradesh state of
India. In this context, she has tried to present an mapping of the notion of
femininity which disembodies women in order to confirm sexual norms and
prevent them to exercise bodily agency that ultimately make women vulnerable
to STI infection. Nonetheless, other social axis such as class and caste meddle
in this vulnerability. The second segment of the paper has made a feminist
appraisal of the STI interventions in India which are rhetorically phrased as
‘gender-mainstreaming’, ‘community oriented’ etc. She argues that the very
gendering of these program is counterproductive not just in targeting women
but amounts to close-surveillance of their bodies and puts enormous burden on
women whilst leaving men. Her study offers a sincere argument that the health
studies which portray women as ‘vulnerable’ in typecasting women in two
different exclusionary blocks i.e. chaste woman and fallen woman who is a sex
worker. This category not only construct women in two different worlds but
reaffirms the very patriarchal norms which feminists have started questioning
as well as isolates multiple axis through which women live. This view point
also obliterate the agential and living realities of lower caste women who
shuttles between sex work and other wage works or visible and invisible.
The second contributor of this book is Satwinder Bains. Her paper
discusses about the South Asian immigrant partners living in Canada and her
study found that due to less connectivity, both emotional and physical where
fear, violence, threats and isolation exist in intimate relationships between
these immigrant partners. Embedded in the word ‘violence’ is the reality of
violation - of self and of the other, both intrinsically linked in the act when
violence occurs. One of the biggest factors is isolation which is exacerbated
by the cross-cultural nature of diasporic lives which sometimes appear to
provide few options for redress for either party. She further raised a question to
know whether there is any opportunity to deconstruct the biased and gendered
socialization especially in the Diaspora where cultural frameworks are even
more tightly woven, sometimes suffocating any personal growth, connectivity
and empowerment for both genders. This study attempts to find answers to the
questions of intimate partner isolation prevalent among this population.
The paper, “Gender, Social Security and Institutional Care for the
Elderly in India: Issues and Challenges” written by Srimati Nayak made a
scrupulous effort to draw attention intended for the increasing need to ensure
Preface ix
social security and institutional care for elderly people, particularly women.
She has also presented her critical views on the existing policies and tenders
her arguments how these policies, programmes/schemes make this section
more vulnerable in India.
Pradeep K. Mishra and Manjushree Mishra contributed a paper on domestic
violence and its effects on child health. The paper is analyzed in the context
of domestic violence, laws related to this and its effect on mother and child
health. They argue that though domestic violence does not relate to child health
directly, this study takes a concern that mother and child health are intertwine
to each other, in case where mother get victimized by domestic violence in any
possible way it automatically affects both mother and her child health.
Shilpa Sharma has made an analogy between feminism and nature. She
provides a historical analysis and how traditionally women were hard-pressed
to secondary place in society and equated with nature, thus being on the losing
end on both fronts, and fighting the same battle against oppression. In order to
prevent the exploitation of nature as well as exploitation of women and achieve
the goal of gender justice, it is very essential to understand the connection
between nature and women.
Asha Verma’s paper, discusses about how the recent time demands
knowledge of the legal aspects of gender equality in the world of work. Further
she says while legal instruments for promoting gender equality and protecting
women workers’ rights are steadily increasing in number and being improved
at both national and international levels, there is still a huge gap between the
rights set out in national and international standards and their implementation in
real situations. Even the best legal provisions cannot be of much use if they are
not known and implemented. People and in particular, women need knowledge
and awareness about legal rights and the machinery to enforce them if they are
to combat discrimination and fight for a fair balance of opportunity, treatment,
pay and representation between men and women in all areas of paid and unpaid
employment and in work-related decision-making. However, many workers
around the world are not aware of their rights, and this is perhaps the greatest
obstacle to exercising those rights.
The paper, “Problems and Prospects of Women Police in Odisha and Delhi:
A Sociological Study” written by Jisu Ketan Pattanaik is an empirical work
which is the product of a comparative study between women police personnel
working in Delhi and Orissa. The paper examines the job-expectation domain,
level of adjustment in police organization, police behaviour trait and coping
strategy adopted by women police personnel on the basis of psychometric
principles.
x Preface
The second part of the book deals with the issues related to law, policy and
development. There are nine papers in this section. In his work, Garry Fehr has
made a sincere effort to linking the medicinal plants-livelihood-development
issues of India. Further he describes how the shift of government policies
and schemes from a mixed economy to a more pronounced market-oriented
strategy in combination with increasing demand for medicinal plants has
transferred the traditional forest livelihoods of Adivasi (tribal) women to the
fields of wealthier male farmers and how the policies designed to protect the
forest resources and livelihoods have produced unintended consequences in the
forests. By examining the shift of policies and livelihoods through a political
ecology approach, his paper has attempted to show that official explanations of
population increase and local exploitation are insufficient to explain the socio-
economic change that is being experienced by rural Indian society.
Meena Ketan Sahu has raised the issue of adultery and how the Indian
Penal Code and law treat men and women differently or unequally while
dealing with this issue. He questions the scope of the offence under the
section 497 is limited to adultery committed with a married woman, and the
male offender alone has been made liable to be punished with imprisonment
which may extend up to five years, or fine or with both. The consent or the
willingness of the woman is no excuse to the crime of adultery. Aneesh V.
Pillai’s paper ‘Ensuring Gender Justice through Equality of Status and
Protective Discrimination: The Legislative and Judicial Role in India’ talks
about various constitutional provisions and legislations specially made for the
protection of rights of women. He further states that these provisions have also
been interpreted liberally by the Indian judiciary in order to achieve gender
justice. This paper also examines the existing provisions and legislations as
well as the role played by Indian judiciary for the promotion of gender justice
through conferring equal status and allowing protective discrimination for
women in India.
Through their paper, “Debating Dowry Prohibition Act in a Feminist
Lense: Visions and Implications in Indian Society”, Kalindi Jena and Sipra
Sagarika have interrogated the sustainability of Indian dowry system despite
the Dowry Prohibition Act, Domestic Violence against Women Act and many
other similar legislations which protect and empower women with the sincere
understanding of gender equality. Their work also accounts the divergent
responses from national and regional women’s groups and the voluntary
organizations seeing that in opposition to dowry. The paper brings a skilful
linkage between the historical developments, laws and the contemporary
stature and relevance of dowry. To an extent they have attempted to show
Preface xi
how state subordinates women rights and encourage patriarchal net workings
through enactments.
The paper written by Sharmila Chhotaray and Rajeev Dubey highlights
the Social Impact Assessment of Tripura Forest Environment Improvement
and Poverty Alleviation Project (TFIPAP) in Tripura. The study has tried to
unfurl some significant and existential questions like- how does the differential
location of stakeholders in terms of gender, class and region affect their
ability to participate or benefit from the proposed project? Is the self-help
movement empowering the poor-tribes and women? What assets are created
for beneficiaries/households after the coming into being of SHGs through bank
loans and savings and does this really empower the tribal women? Further,
they have acknowledged the positive role of financial support in the form
of a grant, loan, capacity building, and skill development imparted through
various trainings to the members of JFMC and SHGs under the auspices
of TFIPAP, their study also highlights the problem of social exclusion and
impeding role of institutional barriers in the desired outcome of project. To
them, SHG formations seem to also function as a women’s rights platform
by emancipating marginalized women members. There were inclusions of
equal decision making process and participation of economic contribution in
their family’s economic stability, and significantly through capacity building
process; women were able to articulate their public forums.
In her paper, Kaumudhi Challa has raised the issue of surrogate mothers
through her study “Surrogacy Practices and Gender Concerns: Issues and
Challenges in India”. Comparatively this is an emerging gender issue in the
twenty first century India. To some, surrogacy could be compared as a blessing
for those childless couple who wishes to have a genetically related child.
Nevertheless she has criticized the issue on various ethical, moral, health and
legal grounds. She further argues that surrogacy would lead to commodification
of women, motherhood and exploitation of poor women. The critics argue that
due to the involvement of monetary benefits poor woman may be forced to act
as surrogate and rent their wombs and thus act as an incubator for producing
babies. The issue further faces criticism that, surrogacy is similar to prostitution
due to the fact that the woman’s body is being utilized for the desire of another
individual on payment of money. It may also amount to adultery because
of the involvement of a third party male. In addition to that, she has shown
her apprehension that the conditions imposed by the intended parents on the
surrogate woman may be violating the dignity of the woman and may amount
to modern practices of slavery.
xii Preface
The work, “International and National Policies for Climate Change and
Sustainable Development: An Analysis with Reference to Gender in South
Asian Countries” by Azim B Pathan made a sincere attempt to exploring
the gendered approach of different national and international instruments,
declarations and policies evolved in the issue of climate change and sustainable
development. He has also tried to find out the role of women and issues of
women in the context of national and international instruments to prevent
the menace of climate change induced problems. He shows his doubtfulness
towards the roles and efforts of national and international organizations
regarding how they provide solutions to the issues of climate change induced
women trafficking, migration, and unemployment in South Asia.
Swadesin Mahapatra has discussed and debated the role of gender quotas
in Indian political systems. She brings the theory of representation which
proposes that all citizens should have the same opportunity to participate
in political affairs regardless of gender, race and other identities. In fact
she has written her paper providing comparative data and further states that
relative to their population share; women are underrepresented in political
leadership throughout the world. Apart from this, she has examined how
such representation affects political participation by women and the extent of
gender discrimination and along with this contributes to the understanding of
how quotas mandating women representation on local governing bodies – the
Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) – are playing out for the individuals who
comprise them. Due to multi-cultural background, India crops up multiple
gender issues and each of them requires special policy concentration and
laws.
Shyamtanu Pal’s paper debates the issue of prostitution and he puts his
views to legalize it in India for the proper checks, safety and control. He has
put forward lot of questions evolve with sex trade and its repercussions on
Indian culture, value system, health, marriage and regulating systems. He
further debates some timely reasons why to support legalization of prostitution
in India whereas some countries in the world already have legalized the sex
trade. The word ‘prostitute’ is offensive and derogatory to woman’s dignity, so
he suggests calling this ‘sex worker’.
The third part of the volume deals with the issues related to culture, attitude
and domestic work. All these issues are comprehensive and interlinked. Ellina
Samantroy and Sakshi Khurana in their paper “Capturing Unpaid Work:
Labour Statistics and Time Use Surveys” draw attention to how the women’s
unpaid work and care work have been central to many feminist discourses on
promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women and apart from
Preface xiii
this, they reveal the importance of time use surveys in not only capturing the
working lives of women and unraveling the invisible dimensions of women’s
employment but also being instrumental in addressing the larger concerns of
redistribution of work and human welfare. They have added further one of
the continuing trends of women’s work is their burden of unpaid care work.
However, the recognition of unpaid work can be considered an important
initiative towards rising female labour force participation.
The paper contributed by Uttam Kumar Panda discusses an empirical work
on “Gender Attitude in Domestic Work Participation: A Study of Two-Working
Families in India”. This paper is a micro study conducted in two capital cities
namely Bhubaneswar (State Capital of Odisha) and Delhi (National Capital
of India) on two-working families. He has vehemently tried to explore the
types of attitudinal changes that have been occurring in traditional gender role
expectations in India. In broad, how education and employment as extraneous
variables have been becoming factors to bring attitudinal changes in the both
men and women’s role in family, decision-making, career building, shaping
of individual identity, rationality, attitude, liberty and independence were the
major issues of the study.
In her study, “Gendered Dynamics of Domestic Work within Two Sets of
Delhi Households” Neha Wadhwa explicates the current context within which
the phenomena of domestic work is placed and then tries to understand some
of the historical factors that have contributed in various ways to create the
present Indian scenario. She further adds, one can realize the phenomena of
domestic work is complex and its lived experiences in lives of women are
diverse owing to the interaction of multiple social-institutional and historical
factors that create varied configurations for women in different social locations.
She concludes with remark that all the instances of discrimination that these
women implicitly or explicitly face in their lived experiences stem from their
social locations within the privacy of the household and one of the primary
conspirants has been the long rule of the patriarchal system even with changing
social, economic and cultural factors.
Vikram Singh’s paper “Gender and Caste: Socio-cultural Context in India”
has attempted to look into the gender/gender relations through theoretical
perspectives in socio-cultural context in India where existence of different
social institution define the social status, roles, gender descriptions and how
this is more suitable in classifying the role of men and women which was
constructed by Patriarchy. He also undertakes to explain the concepts, gender
and caste and aimed to analyse caste as an institution which affect women’s
position in gender relations in the Indian society which leads to multiple forms
xiv Preface
of marginalisation, social exclusion and discrimination. He further made some

attempts to unfold the existing gender inequalities, status and condition of
women, in socio-cultural context and various legal frameworks (national &
international) with reference to gender and caste in India through case studies
representations.
Thus, the book covers many gender issues and challenges of our time. The
papers written by the contributors are well researched, current and provide
scope for further research and hope it will benefit the scientific communities
of gender scholars, policy research, justice administration, law makers and
students. I sincerely acknowledge with gratitude to all the paper contributors
to this volume, my colleagues at HNLU, my parents, Archana (my wife) and
my critics, who really play very important role in one’s growth and maturity.
I am highly thankful to Professor Sukh Pal Singh, the Vice Chancellor
of Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur for writing foreword to
this book. Finally, I express thanks to Shri Satish Upadhyaya, Satyam Law
International, New Delhi for bringing out this volume well-timed with care
and interest. I hope this book will accompany you in your academic journey.
Uttam Kumar Panda

Content
Foreword ..........................................................................................................v
Preface ...........................................................................................................vii
Contributors ..................................................................................................xix
Part-I
SOCIAL SECURITY, RIGHTS AND HEALTH
1. Interface between Unequal Power Relations in Gender and
Health: A Case of STIs in India
Asima Jena ...............................................................................................3
2. Gendered Experiences of Isolation in Intimate Partner
Violence (IPV) for South Asian Immigrant Women in Canada
Satwinder Bains......................................................................................25
3. Gender, Social Security and Institutional Care for the Elderly
Srimati Nayak .........................................................................................45
4. The Effect of Domestic Violence on Maternal and Child Health:
Analysis and Recommendation
Pradeep K. Mishra and Manjushree Mishra..........................................61
5. Contours of Eco-feminism: A Gender Justice Perspective
Shilpa Sharma ........................................................................................73
6. A Critical Study of Rights of Women Workers and Gender
Equality: With Special Reference to Role of International
Labour Organization (ILO)
Asha Verma .............................................................................................91
7. Problems and Prospects of Women Police in Odisha and Delhi:
A Sociological Study
Jisu Ketan Pattnaik .............................................................................. 111
xvi Content
Part-II
LAW, POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT
8. Adultery under Indian Penal Code: Gender Justice or Injustice
Meena Ketan Sahu ...............................................................................123
9. A Gendered Approach to Understanding the Development
of India’s Medicinal Plant Sector
Garry Fehr ...........................................................................................143
10. Ensuring Gender Justice through Equality of Status and Protective
Discrimination: The Legislative and Judicial Role in India
Aneesh V. Pillai ....................................................................................163
11. Debating Dowry Prohibition Act in a Feminist Lense:
Visions and Implications in Indian Society
Kalindi Jena and Sipra Sagarika .........................................................189
12. Gender and Livelihood: An Impact Study of Tripura Forest
Environment Improvement and Poverty Alleviation Project
Sharmila Chhotaray and Rajeev Dubey ...............................................207
13. Surrogacy Practices and Gender Concerns: Issues and
Challenges in India
Kaumudhi Challa .................................................................................227
14. International and National Policies for Climate Change and
Sustainable Development: An Analysis with Reference to
Gender in South Asian Countries
Azim B. Pathan .....................................................................................247
15. Role of Gender Quotas in Indian Political System
Swadesin Mahapatra ............................................................................269
16. Legalizing Prostitution in India: An Acrimonious Debate
Shyamtanu Pal......................................................................................287
Part-III
CULTURE, ATTITUDE AND DOMESTIC WORK
17. Capturing Unpaid Work: Labour Statistics and Time Use Surveys
Ellina Samantroy and Sakshi Khurana ................................................319
18. Gendered Attitude in Domestic Work Participation:
A Study of Two-working Families in India
Uttam Kumar Panda ............................................................................341
Content xvii
19. The Gendered Dynamics of Domestic Work within

Two-sets of Delhi Households
Neha Wadhwa .......................................................................................367
20. Gender and Caste: Socio-cultural Context in India
Vikram Singh ........................................................................................397
Index .....................................................................................................427
Contributors
1. Dr. Garry Fehr: Associate Professor & Director, Global Development

Institute, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia,
Canada.
2. Dr. Meena Ketan Sahu: Head and Dean, Department of Law, Sambalpur
University, Jyoti Vihar, Sambalpur, Odisha.
3. Dr. Asima Jena: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in
Society and Development, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar,
Gujarat.
4. Mr.Vikram Singh: Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work,
Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.
5. Dr. Aneesh V. Pillai: Assistant Professor of Law, School of Legal Studies,
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala.
6. Dr. Ellina Samantroy: Associate Fellow, V.V. Giri National Labour
Insitute, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
7. Miss Sakshi Khurana: Research Associate, V.V. Giri National Labour
Insitute, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
8. Dr. Kalindi Jena: Professor of Sociology, Ramadevi Autonomous Govt.
College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
9. Miss Sipra Sagarika: Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of
Social Systems , School of Social Sciences, J.N.U., New Delhi.
10. Dr. Kaumudhi Challa: Assistant Professor of Law, Hidayatullah
National Law University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
11. Dr. Sharmila Chhotaray: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,
Tripura University (Central), Agartala, Tripura.
xx Contributors
12. Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hidayatullah

National Law University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
13. Miss Asha Verma: Assistant Professor of Law, Gujarat National Law
University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
14. Dr. Jisu Ketan Pattanaik: Assistant Professor of Sociology, National
University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi, Jharkhand.
15. Mrs. Shilpa Sharma: Assistant Professor of Law, G.H. Raisoni College,
Nagpur, Maharashtra.
16. Mr. Pradeep K. Mishra: National Coordinator, M&E, Save the Children,
India, New Delhi.
17. Mrs. Manjushree Mishra: Freelance Researcher, New Delhi.
18. Dr. Satwinder Bains: Director & Associate Professor, Centre for Indo-
Canadian Studies, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British
Columbia, Canada.
19. Dr. Rajeev Dubey: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,
Tripura University (Central), Agartala, Tripura.
20. Dr. Srimati Nayak: Lecturer in Sociology, Sambalpur University,
Sambalpur, Odisha.
21. Mr. Shyamtanu Pal: Faculty of Law Hidayatullah National law
University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh
22. Ms. Neha Wadhwa: Ph.D. Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
Mumbai, Maharashtra
23. Dr. Swadesin Mahaptra: Research Associate, MIT School of
Government, Pune, Maharashtra.
24. Dr. Azim B. Pathan: Faculty of Law, Hidayatullah National law
University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
PART-I
Social Security,
Rights and Health
1
Interface between Unequal Power Relations in

Gender and Health: A Case of STIs in India
Asima Jena
Feminism and its campaign for bodily autonomy

Feminist activism and scholarship for long have underscored the influence of
patriarchy in controlling, subordinating and repressing women’s sexuality and
bodily autonomy. To illustrate, women’s movement went beyond the narrow
confines of liberal feminism-advocating equal political rights for men and
women, radical feminism, put slogan – ‘the personal is political’. It politicized
sexual relations including sex work, pornography, sexual orientation, the
body, abortion and reproduction (Lloyd, 2005: 4). The manifestation and
impediments of limited choice in the matter of sexuality and body is quite
prominent in the domain of health than any other spheres of life. Gender is a
distinct social construct which is not only nurtured and sustained by society but
also by state. Undoubtedly, this aspect has potential effect on health. Though,
there has been an upsurge in studies highlighting the relations between gender
and health, somehow STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) did not attract
much scholarly attention compared to reproductive health albeit of the fact
that STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) are third major disease in India
next only to malaria and T.B. (Ramasubban, 1998: 2865). However, recently,
with the global recognition, panic around HIV/AIDS and social movements
against it, catapulted STIs into an object of discussion in relations to gender.
Consequently, there has been an explosion of literature investigating female
autonomy or rights with regard to fertility and sexually transmitted infections
and HIV/AIDS (Nag, 2002: 474). It raised fundamental questions about
sex, sexuality, socialization, family structure, state intervention and so on
(Ramasubban, 1995: 213). Significantly, it emphasized empowerment and
active participation of the women from vulnerable, stigmatized communities
4 Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century
in the health programs rather than an isolated and vertical approach oriented
towards technological imperatives (Gangoli and Gaitonde, 2005; Nag, 2002;
Ramasubban, 2005; Ghosh, 2005).1
Despite interrogating dominant norms, heterosexual relationships and so
on, in this realm, one interesting facet is found precluded. To date, in these
studies, gender as an analytical category is used in singular axis and in a
dichotomized manner. To elaborate, female autonomy is examined and its
impact is analysed through the nature of power relations between house-wives
or “normative/monogamous/dutiful heterosexual women”2 and their husbands
or coercive sexual consummation between unmarried girls and boys (Jejeebhoy
and Bott, 2006; Ramasubban, 1995 and 1999; Bhosale, 2004). Similarly,
on the other end, powerlessness and subjugation is studied in the sexual
relationships between commercial sex worker and their clients (Ravindran,
1999, 2000; Nag, 2002; O’Corner and Earnest, 2011: 2). Furthermore, images
of colonizers and colonized permeate in HIV/AIDS discourse wherein western
male is projected as the bastion of dominance and Asian women are depicted
as exploited victims (Law, 2000:1). For instance, to quote Ramasubban (1995),
women are more vulnerable to HIV infection due to penetrative heterosexual
contact being an important mode of transformation. Their protection from HIV
infection through this mode requires action on the part of others, viz, the use
of condoms by their male partners (Ibid: 212). However, in these accounts, we
tend to obscure the complicated sexual relationships that prevail in India and
examining gender through other social axis of difference. To put it differently,
1 Of course, one can notice contradictions and reinforcement of the colonial legacies in
STD control program in terms of treating female sex workers both as agents and objects
of surveillance under an watch care system and putting the onus of HIV prevention. This
aspect has been dealt elsewhere and several feminist scholars such as Kotiswaran, 2012;
Tambe, 2009; Ghosh, 2000 and Gangoli, 2002 have echoed this strand. Equally, in these
programs, the needs of the men and the utilitarian approach is inherent wherein protection
of the greater public and men from the HIV and STI infection is predicated on the protection
of the female sex workers from the infection. So, in the words of Gangoli, the empowerment
of female sex workers is “means to end approach” in HIV prevention rather than centered
on meeting the unmet needs of female sex workers.
2 Butler (1999) and Waldby (1996) argued that sex from the start, what Foucault has called
a ‘regulatory ideal’ that one becomes viable and consolidates ‘heterosexual imperative’
or ‘heteronormativity’. In this sense, sex not only functions as a norm, but it is part of a
regulatory practices that produces bodies it governs, that is whose regularity force is made
clear as kind of productive power, the power to produce-demarcate, circulate, differentiate-
the bodies it controls. Thus, sex is a regulatory ideal whose materialization is compelled
through certain highly regulated practices-heteronormativity. Butler challenges the concept
of “heteronomativity” [normalizing heterosexual relationships that opposite sex attract
sexually each other not same sex and making homosexuality pathological and followed by
criminalizing and polluting homosexuality] like queer theory.
Interface Between Unequal Power Relations in Gender and Health 5
there is enormous continuity between female sex work and other kind of wage
work or between a domesticated housewife and a sex worker which these
existing literatures precluded. Furthermore, the figurations of victimhood
and vulnerable in these narratives obliterate the agential and negotiation
capacities of women belonging to lower class, caste and ethnic minorities
who simultaneously live in two different worlds, i.e. docile/subservient wife
at home/private world and exchange sex for money at public space. In other
words, these studies are devoid of the embodied realities of subaltern women
who are part of feminization of poverty and migration as well as object of
transnational and local discourses to regulate their bodies and sexualities.
Against this backdrop, this article aims to bridge the gaps and seeks to
explain the complex interface between unequal power relations in gender and
health through the case study of STIs among female Sex workers belonging to
lower caste of Andhra Pradesh. It argues that the complex social dimensions
culture, power and difference is needed to be explicated into sexuality as well
the way gender intersects with multiple modalities of social difference. Case
Study of STIs among lower caste female sex workers is drawn from of an
ethnographic study that was carried out in East Godavari district especially
in Rajahmundry (a commercial city of East Godavari) for about thirteen
months during 2006-2007 as part of the author’s doctoral thesis. Two factors
were influential in selecting Rajahmundry as an appropriate site for research.
Firstly, East Godavari and its commercial city Rajahmundry is iconified as
the epicenter of HIV/AIDS by the state of Andhra Pradesh and its health
institution namely APSACS (Andhra Pradesh State AIDS control Society).
State health institutions identify it as one of the highly vulnerable districts
based on HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. East Godavari district was ranked third,
as the HIV prevalent rate was 2.75 in the year 2006 and it was ranked as
seventh in the year 2007.3 As a result, international public health institutions
and donor agencies initiated an empowerment project of female sex workers
via active participation in HIV/AIDS prevention in this district which was
modeled on the Sonagachi program. It was planned that this project would
be emulated in rest of the country as well as government led NGOs would
implement this model. Contrarily, in other official discourse primarily in the
domain of Women and Child welfare, the increase in the prevalence rate of
HIV/AIDS was attributed to the magnitude of trafficking of girls into sex
trade. East Godavari is one of the transitory points for trafficking of girls to
Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and gulf Countries. Thus, Rajahmundry is epitomized
3 According to APSACS, (Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) the declining rate of
HIV/AIDS incident rate is due to the visibility of the international and national NGOs.
as both a site of hope-liberation of sex workers from the prism of HIV/AIDS

by becoming an agent in health program as well as a site of violence- through
the narrative of trafficking. Beyond this contradiction of state’s portrayal,
there is another kind of paradoxical element. To encapsulate, East Godavari is
economically prosperous district from economic growth perspective and yet
social indicators give a desolate picture especially exclusion of lower caste,
women and adivasis [first inhabitants] from taking benefits from the growth.
This is reflected in high-indebtedness among women from the microfinance
companies and turning to sex work to repay the loan. In this sense, this study
is timely as well as a critical interrogation of the dual representations of
Rajahmundry by the state.
Secondly, this district and particularly Rajahmundry also has distinct
historical and regional accounts such as temple culture, presence of performing
community and economic development that was enunciated during the colonial
period itself. Historically, this region is quite enticing as this district housed
many different dynasties wherein temple culture and Devadasi system hold a
central place. In fact, historical accounts demonstrated that ruling elites got
their legitimacy through patronizing temples, performances and Devadasis.
This aspect not merely points out the historical roots but also the intricate
relationship between culture/performances and socio-economic system.
Furthermore, in the reform, revival and modernizing project during colonial
regime, Devadasi system of the region figured prominently. In this context,
caste determined the strand leaders took during anti-nautch movements.
This link is further extended to post-colonial Telugu film Industry and other
entertainment locales where not only former Devadasis moved to this but also
pre-existing caste nexus. This aspect was explored after selecting the field site.
Related to this, certain traits of the Devadasi system have become mimesis in
the region. For instance, non-conjugal relationships or “chinnaillu” now do
not confine to Kalavanthulus but has surpassed to other communities. These
specificities of the region re-affirmed my conviction to pursue research in this
region.
METHODOLOGY
In order to infer imminent dynamics and the inner world of these women,
(Wacquant, 1998) I used feminist ethnography as a methodological approach
(Harding, 1987). In feminist methodology, experience of women and
subjective aspects are the starting point for feminist enquiry (Harding, 1993
and Thapan, 2009). Standpoint feminism start thought from marginalized
lives and take everyday life as problematic (Harding, 1993: 50). That helped
me to grasp what people think, experience and their ideas behind the action.
Ethnographic methods also made me to pay attention to what causes people to
contradict them (Sennett, 2006: 10) and practical logic as termed by Bourdieu
(2002). Connected to this, personal and private affair is treated as political
and simultaneously, while studying women’s subjectivities, feminism does not
objectify and aim to regulate women. Thus, while I entered into their intimate
world during the research, my intention was not to produce knowledge or
unravel their sexual lives in order to legitimize state’s disciplinary endeavor
rather to deconstruct some of the hegemonic ideas constructed about them to
police them. Similarly, reflexivity aided me introspect my own approach and
continuous checking process to ensure sensitivity. In reflecting the field work
experiences, I noticed the complicated relationship between the researcher and
respondents’ and bring out the issue of the responsibility of the researchers
towards the respondent which feminism has been advocating of late. This
responsibility is entailed in providing an alternative perspective of female sex
workers that challenge the dominant narratives. Secondly, through reflexivity,
I attempted to explain the ways in which field affects the researcher and
research and vice versa. In this context, I discussed the influence of my own
gendered positioning in exacerbating this tension and further complicating
not-only the relationship between the researcher and respondent but also the
ethical dilemmas involved in social science research on studying STI infected
women. The latter aspect is mostly critical in researching sufferers especially
HIV positive persons as this process brings more pain to the respondents while
unraveling their traumatic illness experiences. This dilemmas and challenges
are discussed elsewhere.
This study relies on two sources of data i.e. primary sources and secondary
sources. The techniques of primary data collection include: case studies,
observations, and interviews with the key informants, in depth interviews with
the various communities and folk tales or narratives from the field. As I was
not a native speaker of Telugu, I had to learn the language and frequent the
houses of the female sex workers which helped me pick up their colloquial
accent and specific terms which they used in their day to day conversations and
sex trade. As part of observations, I frequently witnessed the religious festivals
which were carried out in the streets, ‘hot spots’ where sex transactions, cinema
shootings and policing practices take place. Repeated visits to the houses of
the sex workers helped me to understand the actual and fictitious kinship
relations. I unraveled their involvement in multiple occupations, the internal
dynamics of street economy/lower class neighborhoods and some of the
popular conceptions within the neighborhood. Various folk tales, which were
narrated to me, focused on the emergence of Devadasi system, the symbolic

meaning of the custom and the development of these communities as a sub-
caste. The purpose of using local tales and popular conceptions is to focus on
people’s ideas about the systems in which they operate (Das, 1982: 4).
My presence in two of the situations (the death of a Kalavanthulu
woman and marriage of a Kalavanthulu girl – who is the daughter of an older
Kalavanthulu respondent) were significant for the Kalavanthulus to accept
me as an insider. For instance, initially the questions regarding some of the
community ceremonies brought apprehensions among the respondents as they
suspected that I might disclose some of their illegal practices to the police.
Thus, they began by saying that they have stopped following some of the
earlier customs or some other times they avoided responding to it or diverted
my attention to other issues. However, after these two episodes they did not
hesitate to speak openly with me. In addition, whenever the clients mistook
me for a sex worker and tried to negotiate a price with the pimp, I was rescued
by the sex workers. My presence unintentionally interrupted sex workers’
business several times and they were very patient in giving their time to me.
For instance, they lost their business hours while conversing with me. At other
instances, some of their potential candidates of sex workers particularly school
and college students ran away from the hotspot when they saw me. Young
clients felt ashamed of themselves in frequenting sex workers. This instance
explains the problem of research relations. Although feminist discourse
advocates for a science that minimizes the harm to the women participants
and control the research process (DeVault, 1996: 33), my own field experience
implies that this method is very hard to accomplish. I kept a detailed dairy of
my protracted novitiate, recording meticulously every night my observations
and impressions on the myriad events and activities that weaved the fabric of
everyday life. Having established myself as an insider, I collected the case
studies of several women.
The study altogether covered one hundred eleven respondents which consist
of four key informants, twenty nine women [Kalavanthulu-former devadasi
communities, non – Kalavanthulu and women from other communities] who
trade sex, six plantation workers, two temple priests, two Telugu writers,
six women who sell vegetables, six truck drivers etc. The selection of the
respondents has been deliberate keeping in mind the research objectives
of the study. However, my classification of respondents according to the
occupation is more hiding the realities of their work than disclosing it. In other
words, although the respondents are categorized into conventional criteria
of occupation, in everyday lives, these respondents maintain fluid identities
and hold onto multiple occupations. For instance, two of the sex workers are
engaged in aqua-culture, four of them (the other category of sex workers)
work as agricultural workers during the harvest season in their residential
place and one of them works as a domestic servant. Also among the category
Kalavanthulu and non-Kalavanthulu, all of them work as junior artists or
‘extras’ in Telugu films and perform in record dance programs.4 Some of the
Kalavanthulu perform in Bhogum melas. Among the 11 Kalavanthulu women,
two are in politics (women representatives of the BJP Mahila Morcha), and
two of them are ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) and four women are part
of DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas) groups.
The above profile confirms with the findings of Agrawal (2008) that even the
members of this community who have secured coveted Government jobs, have
continued their former activities with the tacit support of their well-placed
kin. Similarly, the members (the male members or relatives of the women)
who have been able to secure such positions have not turned around to do
their bit for the community and often were keen to distance themselves from
their roots. Among the category – sex workers from other caste- one is the
elected member of the ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency) as well
as a member of DWCRA, one is a bangle and cosmetic seller in the villages,
two are involved in aquaculture and fishing, one is a domestic servant and
four of them are agricultural workers. The category ‘auto driver’ in this study
does not indicate one single occupation that is driving auto. In fact, two of
the young drivers performed in record dance programmes, regular viewers
of record dance programme, agents in the sex work and agents in the record
dance programme. Similarly, rickshaw pullers, security staff in the residential
apartment and police constable, all witness the transactional sex in public
spaces as well as act as agents in the sex trade. From the two business men
who were interviewed for the study, one is the owner of a poultry farm and the
other is the owner of a grocery shop. These actors play multiple roles in the
sense that they too visit sex workers. Four bank employees too worked in the
movies and had connection with the film producers.
As part of secondary data, I scrutinized census reports, record dance from
the internet, district gazette reports (including those which were drafted in the
colonial era), historical accounts, journalistic, literary, scholarly work on the
development of the district and Devadasis, autobiographies and biographies
4 Record dance programme is not the traditional performance of Kalavanthulus but it evolved
in the course of time when their traditional dance forms lost royal patronage. Kalavanthulu
(both court and temple dancers) entered into a new cultural form where they perform to the
tunes of popular film songs and enact the roles of popular film stars with scanty outfits.
of Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Carnatac art form dancers which mentioned

about the plight of Devadasis. Two of the Telugu literary works by the reformers
such as Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu’s Veshyakanthala Upanyasam and
Gurujada Venkata Appa Rao’s Kanyasulkam were reviewed to trace the shift
of sacred sex workers to profane sex workers and the concept of Chinna
illu/promiscuous relations. Thus, I had to rely on two kinds of translations
– translation from recorded interviews and translation from the Telugu literary
works. Reviews of unpublished documents of the various public health
programmes and social welfare programmes (including reporting of the local
NGOs and APSACS (Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) have
contributed towards my understanding of HIV/AIDS discourses.
Unraveling masculinity through Chinna-Illu: Intersection of

caste, gender and health
Having outlined the socio-cultural set up of Rajahmundry and methodological
approach, I delineate the specific departure that field insights provide against
the mainstream depiction of STIs. This differential account is presented
through elaborating a varied kinship arrangement called chinna-illu. Feminist
from social construction tradition recognize that sexual life means restrictively
normative, inscriptive and hierarchical where gendered hierarchy presupposes
and consolidates gender (cited in Butler, 1999: xii). They argue that women’s
role is metaphorised as the “passive receivers” and men are signified as
“doer” or “active” in sexuality (Martin, 2001). Feminist who are supporters
of phenomenological and material aspect of body emphasize that the practices
of heterosexuality embodies power relations through which masculinity and
femininity is constructed (Holland et al, 1994: 22). Although there are wide
differences in these two traditions, both camps share a point that sexuality
embodies unequal power relations between men and women. Health scholars
often use these propositions to explain HIV/AIDS and STI vulnerability among
women that failure to convince male partner for safe sex is associated with the
notion of “femininity”. It is the notion of femininity and masculinity influences
women to be docile/subservient and men to be “active and powerful” in sexual
life. As mentioned earlier, STIs among female sex workers are explained
through powerlessness of female sex workers especially material compulsion
which constrains them to pressurize male partners for sex. However, in this
kind of analysis, power differentials in sexuality is understood in isolation or
brushing aside other kind of social differences. Thus, ostensibly it overlooks
the continuity between different categories of women and their work.
Inversely, field realities revealed multiple identities of sex workers.

Simultaneously, it explicated several underlying factors that blur the
distinction between risk and non-risk boundaries, demarcated by caste norms
and inhabitations. In other words, patriarchal ideology meddles with caste
and class logic where bodies of lower caste women reproduce caste hierarchy
rather than operating independently. For instance, the concept of ‘china illu’
and ‘pedda illu’ which is prominent in Rajahmundry even today indicates
how upper caste/middle caste male folk have their sexual interactions with
lower caste/Kalavanthulu/sex workers. The existence of various forms of
sexual relationships among the different groups are referred with the local
usages such as “chinna illu”, “Peddaillu”, “Ronkamogudu” and “Unchukuna
vadu/mogudu” provides interesting dimension to the research. Even in
state’s discourse these abject form of sexual relationship is figured though
not completely. For instance, APSACS’s (2003) study indicates that Andhra
Pradesh is at the top of the list in people having multiple sexual partners.
In rural Andhra Pradesh, 24% of men and 9%of women claim to indulge
themselves beyond the parameters of marriage, up from the meager national
average age of 10% of men and 2% of women (Behaviour Surveillance Survey,
2003). These local usages were critically analyzed since it has the implication
in terms of producing ‘risk culture’ in the context of STIs. The objective here
is not to castigate and invade into these private relationships into projecting
it as a risky. Rather it is to depict power relationships in varieties of sexual
relationships.
Different forms of sexual relations which exist in this social set up include
Pedda illu –first house (legal and formal marriage), china illu – second house
[illegal and informal family], Unchukuna vadu-concubine form of relationship
in the Kalavanthulu tradition and Ronkamogudu in sex work [where sex
worker pose to be the wife a man who is entitled to have the financial support
from the particular sex worker, while she derives ‘social protection’ from the
relationship].
Let me deal elaborately each of these relationships. Chinna illu denotes the
cohabitation with a man who is legally married to another woman without the
intention of legal marriage in future, but he provides the social and economic
security. China illu culture implies men (mostly from the dominant classes)
cohabiting with women, but that does not translate to legal marriage but they
support women as long as they have a relationship with the woman. Sometimes
woman may also change her husband after a period of time. Historically, it is
known that well to do Brahmin men established a China-illu culture, literally
translated as ‘small house’ with a Devadasi ‘wife’ [who always hails from lower
caste] which was an accepted social practice (George 2004:83 and Rao 1909)
and this practice too (as like other social practice) was passed on to the men
from other dominant communities such as Rajulu, Reddy, Kama and Kapus
when these communities became socially powerful in the region.5 George
(2004) describing about Chinna illu culture of Tamil Nadu in the nineteenth
century describes,
‘The Tamil tradition, which had attached value to the arts of the
Devadasis, seemed to provide a social foundation, however tenuous,
on which the women could now rely. By the end of the nineteenth
century it had become socially acceptable for a well to do Brahmin to
take a ‘Devadasi wife’ in addition to his legal wife. The second wife
was allotted a slot in society, grudging perhaps, but a slot nonetheless.
The man would support the woman with a reasonable degree of fidelity
and she would recognize him as her ‘husband’ to the exclusion of other
men. Such a state of affairs would enable her to claim a particular Iyer
or Iyenger (the two main South Indian Brahmin sects) as her husband
and as the father of her children. The man would graciously let her
make the claim. Such an acknowledgement undoubtedly reflected
a male dominated society’s arrangement of convenience, but it did
provide the women a measure of dignity in addition to patina of
security (Ibid: 83).
5 It has been explained that dominant classes-Kamma and Reddy emerged through accumulating
both the cultural and economic capital and by benefiting from the Green Revolution in
the economically developed regions of coastal Andhra. These classes emerged through
the derived benefits from the development of irrigation canals in the coastal district, with
the monopoly over the agricultural land, its increasing entrepreneurial activities in other
sectors of local economy, its entry into white collar occupations and rising political power
(Upadhyay 1997 and Damodaran 2008). In the post-independence period the rural peasantry
(propertied classes) invested their surplus around Hyderabad which formed the state capital.
The first generation of enterprise which came up around Hyderabad is related to agrarian
change and green revolution in coastal Andhra. The economic surplus accumulated in the
course of the Green Revolution is not productively invested into agriculture sector. Instead
of providing adequate employment for peasants who have lost their land, capital is directed
outside the rural areas, towards other productive activities such as construction of cinema
halls, hotels, money lending and the lace trade. The latest development in this line is the
investment of the surplus from agriculture into the film industry (Mies 1982 & Parthasarathy
1997). The present reserach adds another dimension that contributes to their dominance
– i.e. in the culture industry by forging their caste alliances and establishing caste identities.
It is done through monopolization of economic capital in terms of agriculture, aqua culture,
poultry and tobacco. Thus the upper caste Kamma and Reddy tried to occupy and dominate
the popular culture industry or entertainment industry by investing agricultural surplus in
the Telugu cinema industry and controlling different domains such as directing the cinema;
ownership of cinema theatres, hotel industry, promoting their men folk as main characters
in the films and establishing film studios and film cities.
From the historical account this concept of Chinna illu is mentioned only in
the context of men from upper castes practicing it rather than men from the
lower castes. In the case of men from lower castes, it is justified through a
functional dimension attached to it. For instance, Ringdal (2004) mentions,
A peasant would take a second wife only if he did not sire a son with
the first spouse in medieval times (Ibid: 76).
These quotes commensurate with the arguments of Gopal (2013) that various
forms of degrading works and performances done by women falls under the
rubric of caste based labour. The labour which is devalued treated as abject
and relegated to the most marginal women in society. In order to ensure this
continued control, her sexuality is constructed as transgressive, and they are
deemed promiscuous (Ibid: 92). However, in the present day it need not be the
women from Devadasi or Kalavanthulu communities who experience Chinna
illu culture but also women from other communities. Nevertheless, this should
not be interpreted that there was rupture in Brahminical patriarchy6 rather
points that it needs to be understood in a different sense. To start with, the
local usages of promiscuous relationships with the Devadasis/Kalavanthulu
have been changed to unchukunavadu rather than Chinna illu. On the hand,
in the present day the local usage of Chinna illu refers to informal family
relationships of propertied classes with women from upper caste rather than
the lower caste women. For instance, respondents informed me that there are
certain pockets in the district which are notorious for continuing the China
illu culture such as Tummalova and Namavaram area of Rajahmundry and
other sub-divisions like Mandapeta and Kakinada. Apparently one of the sub-
division is known for keeping women as concubines and recently the name of
the sub-division Mundapeta (literally means a place that belongs to ‘woman
keeps’) has been changed to Mandapeta. On weekends men visit their second
wives (not legal wife) and this pattern is observed in Kakinada, Peddapuram,
Rajahmundry, Mandapeta and Muramunda. There is also a point in which
women value and accept husbands’ extra marital affairs. Similarly, respondents
speak of Chinna-illu kind of relationships of married women from Kamma
and Reddy community in which women leave home in the pretext of watching
cinema or shopping but actually they meet their other male partners. Consider
6 To quote from Rege’s regular phraseology to denote the regulatory and prescriptive codes
of Manusmruti which is centered on the idea of untouchability as well as exploitation of
women. Alternatively she proposes Ambedkar’s or other anti-caste protagonist’s ideology
to liberate women not only from caste oppression but also from gender. See, Rege, S. 2013.
Against the Madness of Manu: Writings on Brahminical Patriarchy by Ambedkar.
the following exchange which narrates the multiple sexual relationships of the
women from Kamma and Reddy community
‘Their partners are only businessmen. They either meet in the lodge or
in the restaurants. Their male partners provide gifts in turn’. [As told
by a key informant].
‘Kamma women keep relationship with other men since their husband
is generally absent for a long time. It provokes them. Some other women
do it for the sake of money. They do not get sufficient money from
their husbands although the latter is rich. It is because their husbands
spend their earning on other things’. [As told by a key informant].
However, we need to understand the context through which shift took place in
these terminologies. There is an underpinning of caste in transformation in these
terms. If we compare at the meaning of Chinna-illu with “unchukunavadu”
there is a certain amount of commonality i.e. indicate promiscuous relationships
or infidelity. However, the former is expressed in a softer manner than the
latter. Unchukunavadu sounds more derogatory and abusive than the former.
This difference in expression somewhere lies in the influx savarna women
[upper caste women] into these relationships.
Of late, Unchukunavadu is the relationship which is part of Kalavanthulu
tradition in which propertied classes treat the Kalavanthulu women as
concubines through Kanerikam ceremony. Kanerikam ceremony symbolizes
the marriage of Kalavanthulu girls. This practice is also seen among women
from dalit communities who work as agricultural labourers and have
sexual relationships with the absentee owner or supervisor called locally
“Chowdhurygaru”. Ronkamogudu [or some times it is referred in English
as ‘Temporary husband’ or ‘lover’] is a term that is constantly used by sex
workers from other caste group [lower caste] who maintain or cohabit with
men to get social approval. In this case the latter have a legal wife apart from
this sex worker and it is the sex worker who supports financially her man or
temporary husband. Here sex workers pretend to be the wife of a particular
male partner in order to get legitimacy in the public domain for their social
protection. There is a functional need of this kind of relationship in terms of
facilitating sex transaction in the region. Some of the respondents informed
that through this kind of liaison sex workers not only avoid policing problems
by law enforcement agencies, hooligans and neighborhood, but also it helped
their children to get social approval. In this case, the male partner gets financial
patronage through the sex worker which is contrary to the second and third
type of social arrangement ‘chinna illu’ and unchukunavadu. Similarly, this

form of relationship is considered most derogatory and acquires the value of
defilement and abject.
However, the last three forms of sexual relations are not mutually
exclusive. There is an overlap between these four forms of interaction in the
sense that sometimes some individuals are found to be in multiple forms of
relationships.7 D Cunha (1992) too argues that the separation between the wife
(the respectable woman), the mistress (the kept woman) and the prostitute (the
fallen woman), only serves to divide women (Ibid: 35). Although these four
forms of relationships overlap with the commercial sexual relationships, in the
STI and HIV/AIDS discourse this relationship is not taken into cognizance.
The reason for bringing these issues into the discussion is that these above
forms of multiple sexual relations are not scrutinized in the AIDS discourse.
However, in these four forms of relations, there is less chance to practice
protected sex in comparison to the other commercial sex transactions that
create risk situation.
The dominant HIV/AIDS discourse limits itself to recognize certain forms
of sexual relationships as risky that disclose politics of risk. The problematic
issue in the HIV/AIDS discourse is that it castigates one form of sexuality- that
is commercial aspect of sex work and also through this process it provides
legitimacy to other forms of sexuality, which also holds exchange value. For
instance, truckers who are categorized as one of the risk groups are disciplined
only to curtail their association with sex workers but their variances in
relationship with different kinds of women are not subjected to scrutiny. This
exclusionary aspect of the HIV discourse is in continuation of the colonial
legacy. In the national discourse on morality, a conscious distinction is made
between a good woman and a bad woman. A bad woman generally alluding to
a sex worker or Devadasi (who do not comply with the monogamous marriage)
was depicted as a threat to the society and moral order. The “good woman”
is not just represents moral and chaste character but unequivocally indicates
“respectable” and middle class. The present HIV/AIDS discourse has actually
been adding another layer to that distinction in the sense that these women as
health risk to the society (D Cunha 1992: 37, Rajan 2003: 119, Sreekumar:
2007: 44). The middle class woman is non-transgressive victim and lower
caste/devadasi woman is transgressive victim.
The problematic issue in the HIV/AIDS discourse is about how it castigates
one form of sexuality – that is the commercial aspect of sex work and also
through this process how it provides legitimacy to other forms of sexuality,
7 There are exceptions such as men who are extremely poor and some women.
which also holds exchange value. For instance, truckers who are categorized
as one of the risk groups are disciplined only to curtail their association with
sex workers but their variances in relationship with different kinds of women
are not subjected to scrutiny.But, the ethnographic data from the present study
indicate that truckers also have sexual relationship with non-paying partners
other than their wives (in case of married) and sex workers. Consider this
statement by one of the truck drivers:
‘Sex workers are like the vehicles that are used for public transport
and thus one can use them roughly. However our partners like our
girl friends or wives can be compared to the private vehicle for which
one needs to takes extra care. In this way, we can use condom with
sex workers as we know that they are available for the public use and
we can tolerate “rough sex” using condom although it does not give
satisfaction to us. But we cannot use condoms with our girl friends
since we expect “soft sex” without the use of condom. And we trust
our girl friends that they do not go with other men.’ (Excerpted from
one of the interviews with the truck driver)
This indicates that truck drivers tend not to use condoms with their non-paying
partners especially referring to the chinna illu kind of relationship as well as
their wives (those who are married) in anticipation that they do not indulge in
multiple sexual relationships as opposed to the case of sex workers. As Tulloch
and Lupton (2003) aptly explain,
‘People may judge the potential risk of contracting HIV from their
sexual partners based on such factors as whether they appear “clean”
or “dirty”. These judgments are cultural constructions. Central to these
assessments are notions about self and the other. It has been found
that people tend to make assessments of potential partners based on
such attributes as their social class, appearance, social demeanour and
whether or not they are judged to be “liked me”. Decisions about trust
are established very quickly on this basis. Sex with that partner is no
longer seen as risky (Ibid. 8).’
Additional limitation in this process of categorization is that this way of

framing within HIV/AIDS discourse of social groups undermines their non-
risky actions in the context of HIV/AIDS. For instance, sex workers are blamed
for the vectors of the disease and the wives of the truckers are depicted as the
victims of the transmission whereas in reality disease spreads not only through
sex workers but through the mediating factors that is the cultural belief that
constrain truckers to use condom with their wives or regular partners.
‘We think that our girl friends (meaning a female companion who is not
a sex worker) are always safe and they do not have contact with other
men. But we are wrong some times. The other day I was surprised to
know that my girl friend too was diagnosed with STIs when I took her
to the hospital’. (As told by one of the truck driver).
The above example describes the various forms of sexual relationships of

trucker population in the district and the non-risky activities by the actors
from the risk zone. The same logic also applies in the situation where female
sex workers were portrayed as “victims” to acquire STI and HIV infection
from their male customers by dominant discourses. However, in actuality,
female sex workers are more likely to use condom with the male customers
than with their non-paying and Ronkamogudu and Unchukunavadu kind
of relationships. For instance, in the Unchukunavadu kind of arrangements
lower caste women have to comply with the wishes of the regular partner or
the keep. In this context, the notion of femininity which disembodies women
in order to confirm sexual norms and prevent them to exercise bodily agency
that ultimately make women vulnerable to STI infection. Nonetheless, in
this notion of femininity, other social axis such as class and caste meddle in
this vulnerability as already stated earlier. For instance, in Unchukunavadu
kind of relationship the male partner is not just powerful from the angle of
gender, he is equally dominant from the point of view of caste and belonged to
propertied classes. This gives him the legitimacy to protect lower female sex
worker to evade policing and hassles in other kind of regulatory mechanism.
Contrary to the HIV/AIDS discourse which castigates transactional sex for the
scrutiny in anticipating risk activities, the variances of relationships indicate
that transactional sex is safe. Some of these above described tendencies can
be defined as ‘politics of risk’ as public health does not acknowledge the non-
risk activity of the risk zone or relationships and risk activity in the non-risk
relations which was quite evident through the various forms of multiple sexual
relations in the region.
Although the notion of purity still determines the heterosexual relationships
in the region, as is clear through their metanarratives and at ideological level,
however impurity co-exists with purity in practice. This co-existence is quite
evident if one examines the existing social arrangements. As Thirumalai (2005)
states,
‘Love was a usual and regular feature in the lives of men and women
in the pre-British Indian culture, but in popular practice it was not
necessarily confined to the family or to wife and husband. However, it
was a matter of prestige and pride to practice love within the family in
the Indian tradition (ibid21)’. In Telugu cultural realm, moral restraint
after a certain age is a social obligation. Yet, despite the morality
attached to it, love and extra marital relations outside the caste
were understood with tolerance (Ibid: 112). In the matters of love,
traditionally, men could venture beyond their families. They either
maintained a Dasi or concubine or a temple girl for the satisfaction of
their sexual needs (Ibid: 100)
The notion of impurity does not only exist in terms of penalizing and
disciplining those who deviate from the notion of purity, but certain forms of
impurity- unchukuna vadu is accepted. In addition to the concept of Chinna
illu, which makes it difficult to separate out the settlement pattern of the sex
workers or Kalavanthulus, some of the popular conceptions which are widely
spread in the region too further aggravate the porous distinctions. For instance,
there is a popular conception that neighborhood that is surrounded by the red-
light area tolerates the sex transaction because people in the neighborhood feel
that their properties are safe from thieves and hooligans since sex transactions
occur round the clock. It corroborates with the fact that two of the famous red-
light area in Rajahmundry i.e. Isukaveedi and Seethampeta are surrounded
by the Vaishyas or Komatilu/Business community and Brahmin community
respectively.
The above description explains how the distinction between risk and non-
risk is very dicy and how labeling, classifying, targeting certain groups as
risk groups evade understanding of risk culture, prevailing in the patriarchal
structures. Hence, understanding risk culture is more complex and sociological.
Nevertheless, regions like East Godavari and its semi-urban towns such as
Rajahmundry and Kakinada need a broader understanding of what constitutes
the yardstick of risk and risk zones and how risk culture develops in a particular
region.
CONTINUITY BETWEEN SEX WORK AND OTHER KIND

OF LABOUR
So far, I have discussed the co-existence of pure and impure kind of sexual
relationships. However, it also pinpoints something more than these various
forms of relationships. In other words, it directs the continuity in sex work and
family arrangement and in certain sense lower caste women who transact sex
approximate upper caste women. This point has been raised by contemporary
post colonial feminists [Sahni and Shankar, 2008 Ghosh 2003, Kotiswaran,
2012] that there are similarity between a sex worker and a housewife and
boundary line is blurring. Female sex workers’ connections with the society are
for real, going much beyond the physicality of her relationships with the clients
(Sahni and Shankar, 2008:2). As already pointed out while sketching the profile
of the respondents, there is another kind of continuity exists when we make
sense of feminization of labour and work. One finds an enormous amount of
fluidity in informal sector when lower caste women traverse between a range
of occupations/wage work which disrupt the manovalent nature of narrative
of women’s work. Several studies by feminists underlined “feminization of
migration and poverty” which encapsulated the multiple identities of the
women and women do not fall into neat categories of victims of sex work,
trafficking, etc (Augustin, 2007: 2, Shah, Ghosh, 2003). The present study too
looks at how women from the informal economy too occasionally get involved
in the sex trade which addresses the new demand of the sex trade. It has been
found that transactional sex becomes the survival strategy of some women in
the informal economy in order to resolve the crisis situations or penury. This
is coupled with the aspect that sex workers move out of the entertainment to
domestic sector as part of their coping mechanism from the problem created
by the law enforcement agencies. For instance, it is observed that many of
the Kalavanthulu women emigrated to gulf countries to work as a domestic
servant on a provisional basis and after their return from gulf, continue to work
in the sex trade. Nevertheless, there is a clear link between these two social
actors- female emigrants and women in the informal or subsistence economy
in the region. It has been observed that when women are confronted with
economic problems or penury, they resort to different risk routes. For instance,
the field data indicated that some of the agricultural workers particularly from
Mala and Madiga community are also forced to take up sex work. Consider the
following testimonies:
In our place (Peddapudi), we do not go outside but we work from

the fields. We do not depend on sex work exclusively as our income
but work as the agricultural laborers. We solicit clients whenever
offered. We solicit/ encounters with the clients either in their fields
or in the home. [Talking about sex workers from outside who work in
Peddapudi] There is also other category of women (implying seasonal
sex workers). These women move to Peddapudi from other mandals
such as Tuni, Golapuralu, Gutaipalem and Domada in search of
agricultural work in the sowing and harvest season (4-5 months) of

the year. These women work as the agricultural laborers in the field as
well as exchange sex whenever they are approached. [As told by a sex
worker who is also an agricultural worker].
Chowdhurygaru [implying agricultural land owner] drops me at my

door and ask me to arrange (5-7) girls to work in their field during the
harvest season. I too work in his field. While working in the field he
(Chawdhury) whispers me to come near the hut. Then I go silently so
that others will not suspect me as other workers will be busy working.
He and his friends wait for me in the hut. …He does not pay me instead
he supplies pockets of rice or black gram. Sometimes if I run out of
cash he helps me. [As told by a sex worker who is also an agricultural
worker].
These quotes explain the linkage of the propertied classes through whom the
sex transactions take place. The other instance illustrates the impact of the
developmental projects which too creates the risk producing situations. A Dalit
woman from Kathanapally, a village in the Papikondalu sanctuary talks about
the anticipated impact of the Polavaram project:
“This project is not for our benefit. We do not know what they are
making, but people are telling us it is for the moneyed people. We
have also understood that Government people came for a survey, but
they never talked to us or our elders. They did not seek our opinion.
Here we have the forest and the Godavari to fetch fruits, nuts, fish,
and we have our agricultural land. We have never gone hungry in this
village. There is always enough food to eat. If we moved out of this
village, we will have to buy food from the shops. Here we have it in
our homesteads. We also store grain in the palaasa (a collective grain
storage system). Each family gives a share from the produce to the
palaasa. Any family or individual in need can take grain from here.
Tell me, will we get all these things in that place? Even our hamlets
will be broken if they move us out from here.”
This quote explains how women from Dalit communities face the negative
consequences of the developmental project in the region. In this case, women
resort to sex work when their traditional livelihood options get shrunk through
these developmental projects. Similarly, a few women from fisher community
also get engaged in transactional sex temporarily and in other cases women
who are employed in domestic service or agricultural work emigrated to gulf

countries. These are different survival strategies which women from lower
class employed in the study region. The common line among these women is
that they remain in the domain of social sanction to illegality (Ghosh 2003).
The unintended consequences of these survival strategies have been in terms
of belonging to an impossible domain and therefore new risk producing
situations and new risk groups in the region. Shah (2006) to cogently offered a
clear insight into the relationship between two seemingly disparate economic
activities in Mumbai – day wage construction labour and paid sex work-in the
daily process of seeking out a sustainable livelihood (Ibid: 247).
DISCUSSION
This study discerned the interplay between gender and health through the
narrative of STI. However, the relationship between gender and health traverses
through multifarious registers such as gender, caste and class. So, this paper
pays attention to intersectionalities and by doing so, it tried to provide an
alternative account of lower caste female sex workers which destabilizes the
dominant representations about them. This aspect is underscored in outlining
the way transactional sex is safe. So, it argues that health studies which portray
women as “vulnerable” in typecasting women in two different exclusionary
blocks i.e. chaste woman and fallen woman who is a sex worker. This category
not only construct women in two different worlds but reaffirms the very
patriarchal norms which feminists have started questioning as well as isolates
multiple axis through which women live. This view point also obliterate the
agential and living realities of lower caste women who shuttles between sex
work and other wage works or visible and invisible. In order to overcome
the laxity the present study pays attention to multiple factors through power
operate and sketched the continuity between sex work and other wage work
and documented the way fluidity is observed among women.
REFERENCES
Agrawal, A. (2008). Chaste Wives & Prostitution Sisters: Patriarchy and
Prostitution among the Bedias of India. Delhi: Routledge.
Behaviour Surveillance Survey (2003). Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control
Society (APSACS) TRU: Hyderabad.
Bhosale, V. (2004). Women and AIDS in India: Doubly Discriminated. In Rao,
M. (Ed.). The Unheard Scream: Reproductive Health and women’s live in
India, New Delhi: Zubban publication.
Bourdieu, P. (2002). Structures, Habitus and Practices. In Calhourn, C et al.,
[ed.]. Contemporary Sociological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Butler, J. (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
London: Routledge
Damodaran, H. (2008). India’s New Capitalists: Caste, Business and Industry
in a Modern Nation. Ranikhet: Permanent Black .
D’Cunha Jean. (1992). Prostitution Laws-Ideological Dimensions and
Enforcement Practices. Economic and Political Weekly, 27 (17), 34-44.
DeVault, M.L. (1996). Talking Back to Sociology: Distinctive contribution of
Feminist Methodology. Annual Review of Sociology. 22, 29-50.
George, T.J.S. (2004). MS: A life in Music. New Delhi: Harper Collins.
Gangoli, G. (2002). Unmet needs, Reproductive Health Needs, Sex Work and
Sex Worker. Social Scientists. 30 (5),199-214.
Gangoli, L.V. and Gaitonde, R. (2005). Programmes for Control of
Communicable Diseases. In Gangoli, L.V. et al [Ed.].Review of Health
Care in India, Mumbai: CEHAT.
Ghosh, S. (2005, Summer). Surveillance in Decolonized Social Space: The
Case Sex Workers in Bengal. Social Text. 23 (2), 55-69.
Ghosh, S. (2003, October). The Flying Prostitute: Identity of the (Im)possible
Other. Hectae. 29 (2), 199-214
Gopal, M. (2013). Ruptures and Reproduction in Caste/gender/ Labour.
Economic and Political Weekly. XLVIII (18), 91-97.
Das, V. (1982). Structure and Cognition: Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual
(Second Edition). Delhi: Oxford.
Harding, S. (1987). Introduction: Is there a feminist method, in Harding, S.
[Ed.] Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Indiana. USA:
Indiana Press.
Harding, S. (1993). Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is “strong
objectivity”? in Alcoff, L. and Potter, E., [Ed.], Feminist Epistemologies.
London: Routledge.
Holland, J. et al., (1994). Power and Desire: The embodiment of Female

Sexuality. Feminist Review. No. 46.
Jeejibhoy, S.J. and Bott, S. (2006), Non-consensual Sexual Experiences
of Young People in Developing Countries: an overview, In Jeejibhoy,
S.J., Shah, I and Thapa, S. (Ed.), Sex Without Consent. Young People in
Developing Countries, London: Zed Books.
Kotiswaran, P. (2012). Dangerous Sex, invisible Labor: Sex Work and the
Law in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Law, L. (2000). Sex
work in South-East Asia: the Place of Desire in a Time of AIDS. London:
Routledge,
Llyod, M. (2005). Beyond Identity Politics: Feminism, Power and Politics.
London: Sage,
Martin, E. (2001). Women in the body: A cultural analysis of reproduction.
Boston: Beacon Press. [Revised Edition]
Mies, M. (1982). The Lace Makers of Narsapur: Indian Housewives Produce
for the World Market. London: Zed Press.
Nag, M. (2002). Empowering Female Sex workers for HIV prevention and
Far beyond: Sonagachi Shows the Way. Indian Journal of Social Work.
63 (4), 473-501.
O’Corner, P. and Earnest, J. (2011). Voices of Resilience: Stigma, Discrimination
and Marginalization of Indian Women living with HIV/AIDS. Rotterdam:
Sense publishers.
Parthasarathy, D. (1997). Collective Violence in a Provincial City. New Delhi:
Oxford
Rajan, R.S. (2003). The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in
Post Colonial India. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Ramasubban, R. (1995). Patriarchy and the risks of STD and HIV transmission
to women. In Das Gupta, M., Chen L. C., Krishnan, T.N.. Women’s Health
in India, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ramasubban, R. (1998). HIV/AIDS in India: A Gulf Between Rhetoric and
Reality. Economic and Political Weekly. 33 (45), 2865-2872.
Ramasubban, R. and Rishyasringa, B. (2005). Introduction. Ramasubban
Radhika and Rishyasringa Bhanwar (ed). AIDS and Civil Society: India’s
Learning Curve. Rawat: Jaipur.pp-1-39.
Ravindran, T.K.S. (1999). Female Autonomy in Tamilnadu: Unravelling the
Complexities. Economic and Political Weekly, 34 (16/17),WS34-WS44
Ravindran, T.K.S. (2000, May). Engendering Health. Seminar. Issue no. 489.
www.india-seminar.com/2000/489.htm
Rao, G.V.A. (1909). Kanyasulkam. Translated by Vijayasree C. & Kumar T.

Vijay, Delhi: The Book Review Literary Trust.
Rege, S. (Ed.). (2013). Against the Madness of Manu: Writings on Brahminical
Patriarchy by Ambedkar. New Delhi: Navayana.
Ringdal, N. (2004). Love for Sale: A Global History of Prostitution. London:
Atlantic Books.
Sahni, R and Shankar, V.K. (2008). Introduction. In Shahani, R. et al [Ed.].
Prostitution and Beyond: An analysis of sex work in India. New Delhi:
Sage.
Sennett, R. (2006). The Culture of New Capitalism. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Shah, S.P. (2006). Solicitation, Migration and Day wage Labour: Gender,
Sexuality and Negotiating Work in the City. In Arya, S. and Roy, A. [Ed.],
Poverty, Gender and Migration. New Delhi: Sage.
Sreekumar, S. (2007). The Land of “Gender Paradox”? Getting past the
commonsense of contemporary Kerala. Inter Asia Cultural Studies. 8
(1),34-54 .
Tambe, A. (2009). Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late
Colonial Bombay. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Tirumalai, I. (2005). Marriage, Love and Caste: Perceptions on Telugu Women
during the Colonial Period. Delhi: Promila and Co.Pubishers.
Upadhyay, C. (1997). Structural and Cultural Strategies of Class Formation in
Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology. 31 (2),169-
193.
Wacquant, L. (1998). The Prizefighter’s three bodies. Ethnos. 63(3),325-352.
Waldby, C. (1996). AIDS and Body Politics: Biomedicine and Sexual
Difference. London: Routledge.
2
Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence in

Canada: South Asian Immigrant women’s
Access to Social Services
Satwinder Bains
INTRODUCTION
“To study a Banyan Tree, you not only must know its main stem in its own soil,
but also must trace the growth of its greatness in the further soil, for then you
can know the true nature of its vitality. The civilization of India, like the Banyan
Tree, has shed its beneficent shade away from its own birthplace.… India can
live and grow by spreading abroad – not the political India, but the ideal India.
– Rabindranath Tagore (Cited in Tinker 1977: iii)” (Jayaram, 2004, p. 15).
“Etymologically, the term Diaspora is derived from the Greek composite
verb dia- and speirein (infinitive), literally meaning ‘to scatter’, ‘to spread’ or
‘to disperse’”. (Jayaram, 2004, p. 16). The Indian Diaspora contributes to the
migration of the people of India to different countries for various reasons at
various periods of history. Within the Diaspora, settlement or adaptation, and
socio-economic and political participation in the country of residence vary
greatly. India was a “host” society long before her people began to migrate in
large numbers to other lands. Waves of peoples came to settle, conquer or seek
refuge in India, bringing with them their cultures and memories. India received
and absorbed these into an increasingly pluralistic society, which appears to breed
an endless capacity for multicultural adaptation. Such a variety of ethnicities,
religions, and languages has made the Indian culture an extraordinarily synthetic
one. Indians have “learned to live with difference, developing strategies, norms
and institutions which allowed them to live together with a range of groups while
retaining their own ethno cultural identity. Indian Diasporas have inherited this
very complex legacy and culture and taken it with them to the host countries
including Canada” (Bhargava, K., et al., 2008, p. 13).
The Indian Diaspora began in the form of indentured labor in the 1830’s
and continues to be replenished by voluntary migrating professionals and
information technology specialists. It is drawn from over a dozen different

regions of India, and extends to the most under developed as well as the most
advanced countries of the world. It covers half a dozen religions, all major
castes and a wide variety of occupations ranging from unskilled laborers to
highly skilled professionals. (Parekh, B., et al., 2003). The Indian Diaspora
community in Canada is to a large extent economically affluent and culturally
progressive, but there is still resistance to social change. And since the
community is linguistically, culturally and religiously diverse and spread all
over Canada there is no one monolithic idea on the Indo Canadian Diaspora.
It is largely viewed as a progressive community that has succeeded in upward
mobility in terms of financial and economic gains. The area where I see some
stress and slow progression is in social change within some socio-cultural
groups and individuals. While this may be considered normal and part of the
migration evolution of adjusting to Canadian society, the different sets of
rules, different legal requirements and different cultural values and beliefs, the
balance to maintain certain norms is challenging.
“The majority of the Indo-Canadian population is composed of new
immigrants from India, or second and third generation Indian Canadians.
However, there are groups of Indians who have moved from other countries
such as Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad,
Tobago, and Suriname. Half of the East Indian population in Canada is
Punjabi, while the remaining Indian ethnic communities include Gujaratis,
Tamils (Indian as opposed to Sri Lankan), Keralites, Bengalis, Sindhis and
others” (Bhargava, K., et al., 2008, p. 57). This diversity has led to great
linguist diversity with Punjabi being the most widely spoken mother tongue,
followed by Tamil, Urdu and Hindi. The largest number of immigrants came
in the 60s, early 70s and 80s (Buchignani, Indra and Srivastiva, 1985). Those
groups, after 30-40 years of living in Canada, are settling and integrating well
by and large into Canadian society. They were initially in the settlement phase
of finding work, making money, looking after the children, doing all things
that are normal to new immigrants. This large bulge of immigrants is now in
a unique position where economic gains have created great wealth, access to
knowledge is greater, education is of value, and children are becoming highly
educated and integrated into all facets of Canadian living.
DEFINING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Within this milieu the South Asian community is confronted with social
challenges to which responses need to be re-adjusted not only in terms of
new understandings of old problems, but also acceptance of new laws and
Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence in Canada 27
regulations that apply in the Canadian context. One such example is that while
it might be that “domestic abuse” is understood as violence perpetrated by
men against women in marital situations, the understanding of intimate partner
violence (IPV) is not so implicit in its nature and experience. It seems evident
that naming violence is this way prevents the obscurity of the persistent and
pervasive nature of violence and may allow us to examine the underlying
causes. Dawson’s (2001) literature reviewof IPV suggests that IPV has evolved
over time. Previously IPV had been studied with a focus on women in common
law marriage and married relationships. There is now a shift to include various
types of relationships, genders, spousal and dating partner violence and non-
intimate partner violence.To help us situate this difference, Statistics Canada
(Stats Can: Sinha, 2012) defines IPV and non-intimate partner violence thus:
Intimate partner victims: Includes legally married, separated,

divorced, common-law partners (current and previous), dating partners
(current and previous) and other intimate partners. The intimate partner
category is based on victims aged 15 years and older.
Spousal victims: Includes legally married, separated, divorced,
common-law partners (current and previous). The spousal category is
based on victims aged 15 years and older.
Dating partner victims: Includes boyfriends/girlfriends (current and
previous) and other intimate partners (whom the victim had a sexual
relationship or mutual sexual attraction but were not considered to be
a boyfriend/girlfriend). Unless otherwise indicated, the dating partner
category is based on victims aged 15 years and older.
Non-intimate partner violence: Victims of non-intimate partner
violence: Includes non-spousal family relationships (parents,
children, siblings, and extended family), friends/acquaintances (casual
acquaintance, business relationship, close friends, criminal relationship,
authority figure), and strangers. Includes victims of all ages.
CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN AND FAMILIES

While certain factors like long-term relationships, economic dependence,
emotional attachment of the partners, repeated incidents of violence make IPV
unique (Ogrondik, 2006), it is true that sometimes children are also affected.
The ongoing nature of IPV also makes it distinctive from violence amongst
friends, strangers or acquaintances.For South Asian communities certain
factors lend themselves to the exacerbation of issues faced by women in violent
relationships. While the immediate stresses of home culture (living with a

partner in an extended family structure) might be the very first issues Canadian
South Asian women face, they also face acculturative processes that bring
forward stresses including host-culture discrimination, low coping abilities,
depression, and intergenerational conflict (Samuel, 2009). Samuel suggests in
his study of South Asian immigrant women in Nova Scotia, Canada, that “The
allied acculturative stress and strains affected family relationships increasing
tensions and conflicts within the home” (p. 25). In their study of South
Asian women in the US, Raj and Silverman (2003) found that South Asian
women were at high risk for IPV and that social isolation was an extenuating
factor because of lack of family support, and lack of awareness of services
- preventing them for seeking help. In their studies Raj & Silverman (2003),
Raj et al, (2005), Zakar et al, (2012) and Thandi (2011) studied the effects of
isolation due to immigration related factors. The process of immigration and
its ensuing experiences contributed to stressors such as patriarchal authority,
socialization of children and social isolation. These complicated scenarios
impact relationships which Thandi (2011) explains thus:
“The couple relationships are often complicated by the immigration

sponsorship of not only the husband or wife but other family members.
Husbands and wives, working to meet obligations both at home and
abroad, may also be experiencing the stress of a new relationship in
a new country with very different cultural norms. Underemployment
in new immigrant communities is high – especially for those who
come with postsecondary education – and this can be compounded
by experiences of racism, alienation and isolation. Despite these
difficulties, a key difference of South Asian families caught in the cycle
of intimate partner violence is the significant desire for reconciliation
by both partners. Although frontline practitioners emphasize the
importance of the woman having a true choice about whether to return
to their marriage, they acknowledge the importance of recognizing
– and respecting – this difference”. (Thandi, 2011, p. 2).
Immigration has been a long-standing tradition within Indian populations to

Canada. Chain migration has contributed to the integrated and closely linked
community life that is present in Canada (Buchignani, Indra&Srivastiva, 1985).
This migration has reaped tremendous benefit both to the Indian immigrant and
to Canada as a country in economic terms. However, it has also produced the
shortfall of intergenerational conflict where family dysfunction, breaking apart
and separation has produced much anxiety and difficulties (Choudhry, 2001).
Partially this is so because the extended family has traditionally prevented

“outsiders” from intervening when there is conflict and strife in the home.
While the strict and almost reverent maintenance of family systems has been
the cornerstone of the community, it also has its shortcomings.
The process of migration is a complex one, affected by shifting and
conflicting demands and expectations which question ideologies, cultural and
social norms in the home versus the host country. These constraints subject
the families to continued stress to accommodate, acculturate, integrate and
accept the dominant world view. Many immigrants from India remain invested
in the home country both due to remaining families, financial obligations
or commitments, ties to institutions like religion and marriage etc. This
transnational nature of their existence demands a multi-faceted approach
to create family structures that respond to both cultural domains. It takes
generations of immersion in the dominant culture to fully integrate the values
and norms of the majority and even then the peripheries and core are juxtaposed
against a very different grain, causing ruptures and breaks. Socio-demographic
factors like age, gender, language, class, education all influence the process of
acculturation. Families are forced to reconfigure their structures sometimes
without the resources or knowledge to fully appreciate the implications and
outcomes. For example, when women gain personal agency and greater
autonomy, some partners find it difficult to find the balance, since they have
themselves have no tools to deal with paradigm shifts. There is hyperbole in the
community grapevine about the influences of the west upon women’s agency
without a lot of careful dissection or meaningful discussion about the impact.
The cultural divide is great and the community does not have avenues that
help it bridge this divide. Since South Asians have a strong tendency toward
collectivism because in South Asian countries the extended family is a source
of support and an important means of transmitting and supporting values, it is
important to gain insights into the dynamics of family structures, systems and
dynamics, especially when there is a break in the traditional support system
(Deepak, 2005; Maiter & George, 2003)
RESPONDING TO COMMUNITY NEEDS

Studies in the field of IPV suggest that it might be logically understood that
culturally responsive, relevant and appropriate prevention and intervention
related services are needed for cultural groups living and residing in Canada
(Kang, 2006; Raj & Silverman, 2003; Samuel, 2009; Thandi, 2001).A necessary
prerequisite in determining appropriate service design and delivery for service
providers is gaining an understanding of the South Asian family – something
that has not always been prevalent or required(Maiter, et al., 2004). One study
suggests that the customary sharing of child-rearing responsibilities and the
availability of extended family translates into less risk of abuse for women
(Roer-Strier, 2001) however it must never be assumed that families always
have the best interest of each and every singular member at heart – since the
collective good supersede individual needs.
The South Asian family network (of support from cradle to grave) is the
mainstay of most situational and contextual experiences of individual family
members. Immigration, however, often means the disruption of family ties
and networks (Maiter, 2003; Neufeld, Harrison, Steward, Hughes, & Spitzer,
2002). There are almost an unlimited number of factors that can have impact on
the migration experience and ultimately on family functioning: jobs prospects,
language ability, different stages of migration for different family members,
economics, and the socio-political characteristics of the host country are just
some of these (Deepak, 2005; Maiter, 2003). Some South Asian women,
being relatively recent immigrants, may still be contending with inclusion
issues from the host community and this in itself poses insurmountable
barriers if no assistance is available to negotiate the many twists and turns of
acculturation since women are still relegated to the private sphere while men
almost immediately encounter the public sphere in all manners of speaking
and interaction (Maiter, 2003). Relationships with the outside world are often
defined by the inside workings of the family. An example of this might be seen
how negotiating the interactions in the community are left up to the more active
male (outside the house) – thus perpetuating the stereotype of the eastern norm.
There might be a tendency of western professionals to pathologize cultural
norms (like those supporting independence of women), acting against the
expectations of families and the culture. In fact, recognition of the value placed
on outside/inside interactions can seriously damage the fragile ecosystem of
the family unless there is a concerted effort to parlay these shifts with greater
recognition of change that might benefit the family in the long run (barring
immediate risk of harm). What needs to occur is deconstruction of some of
the labels placed on minority cultural groups, allowing for deeper and more
meaningful exploration of social, familial and cultural factors that impact the
distress as presented.
Furthermore, it is also evident that racism and discrimination are significant
factors for South Asian families which are felt at almost every contact made
with the host community – men may face this in more quantifiable ways as they
negotiate the public sphere (Samuel, 2009; Thoburn, et al., 2005). What makes
racism against South Asians unique from other forms of racism is the almost
exclusive focus on ethnicity and culture, without giving credit to the varied
and diverse experiences inherent in community living for any individual –the
lowest common denominator of stereotypes defines the interaction (Ahmed,
cited in Mullender, et al., 2002). Men and women respond to the challenges
they are faced with in a number of ways: they may strengthen; alternately the
stage may be set for violence, abuse, neglect and conflict by those who hold
the powerful positions in the home (Deepak, 2005; Pettys&Balgopal, 1998).
Adherence to cultural values and religion may intensify, in part in response to
racism and in part as an attempt to maintain cultural identity in a very different
cultural environment – enforcing old rules and traditions that may have no
bearing on the new country or location (Maiter, 2003; Maiter& George, 2003).
Environmental stressors (of community and home) may be answered by
intensifying oppressive practices (Almeida & Dolan-Delvecchio, 1999) with
IPV as a reality for those affected by the stresses and no real release systems in
place to counteract those factors outside their control.
It is important to understand the power relations and codes of South
Asian family systems (Mullender, et al., 2002) in order to fully grasp the
extent of intimate partner violence and its impact on women. Traditionally
power is organized hierarchally in South Asian families with men having
more power than women and elders having more power than youth (Deepak,
2005). Ideally, elders are available to intervene in abuses of power (husbands
towards wives, for example) and in conflicts between parents and children
(Deepak, 2005; Maiter, 2003). The community often, but not always, takes
the place of kin when family supports are lost through migration (Shirwadkar,
2004) and this is a double edged sword where the one support may turn on
the women when deeply ingrained values are given more credence over the
needs of singular women who are already low on the power grid. Given the
historic key role of extended family and community in family functioning, it is
especially important to assess the degree of isolation and/or support available
when intervening with South Asian women who face violence at the hands of
their intimate partner. Geographical distance does not necessarily weaken ties
and obligations for women and their families and the Indian Diaspora is well
invested and connected to their homeland, with families taking active part in
decisions and event planning – like marriages, child-rearing, religious duties
etc. (Mullender, et al., 2002: Pettys&Balgopal, 1998). It is suggested, then,
that including even those family members not living in close proximity will
be relevant when making assessments for services for some families (Dutt
& Phillips, 2000; Mullender, et al., 2002; Pettys & Balgopal, 1998; Singh &
Clarke, 2006). This may not always be possible and sometimes women are
denied the right access to their support systems and partners and extended
family members take it upon themselves to totally isolate the woman who may
be facing abuse.
SOCIAL SERVICES ANALYSIS

It is quite evident that social services in Canada, for the most part, have been
designed for the European origin (aka white) population (Qureshi, et al., 2000),
with very little regard given to unnoticed constituents in the community that
services are also meant to serve. The neediest are sometimes the most ignored
partially because the needy may not have the language abilities of cultural
capital to demand services or to be even able to articulate them in a manner
that is understood by the service provider. Consequently, many barriers exist
that are in relation to the dominance of Western standards and practices and
individualistic bias (Imam, 1994; Mullender, et al., 2002; Thoburn, et al.,
2005) – something women in tenuous positions can do little to combat or
overcome, thereby exacerbating not just access, but also any long-term or
effective change in IPV impacts. Inadequate strategies for recruiting minority
staff are frequently mentioned as barriers and this factor alone can lead to
inaccessibility of services when linguistic or cultural needs are not explored or
met (O’Neale, 2000; Qureshi, et al., 2000; Thoburn, et al., 2005). Significantly,
even when minority staff members are recruited by mainstream agencies,
Western perceptions prevail and services continue to be managed through a
western lens – forgoing the opportunity for diverse perspectives, approaches
and viewpoints (Thoburn, et al., 2005). This factor, if developed well, can have
tremendous impact, however it is one of the most overlooked if not ignored
factor in service planning. The South Asian community members’ willingness
to access services are influenced by fears of not having cultural needs
understood or met and fears over being treated more harshly or completely
wrongly assessed (Maiter, et al., 2004; Thoburn, et al., 2005).
Research investigating the availability and perceived effectiveness of
family support services when families are in crisis from the perspective of South
Asian community members found the respondents feeling “under-supported
and over-regulated” at times (Qureshi, et al., 2000, p. 33). It apparent that
instances where agencies had delivered services seen as culturally insensitive
and inappropriate, it had become known to others in the community and had
influenced their future access (or lack thereof). When asked if they would
access services if they knew about them, gender difference was evident with
women being more willing than men to do so. Men were more suspicious
of the motivations behind outside help. Concerns expressed included that the
aim of social workers was to break up families and put children into care.
Similar fears and apprehensions have been reported elsewhere in relation to
South Asian families (Deepak, 2005; Humphreys, et al., 1999). According to
Deepak (2005), South Asian immigrants, having come from countries without
institutional child welfare systems are shocked to find out about the states’
power to take away children. For Deepak, it is essential that service providers be
aware of the depth of distrust of child welfare by some South Asian parents.
Sharam (i.e., shame/embarrassment) and izzat (honour/respect) are major
influences which impact the help-seeking process for many in South Asian
women (Gilligan & Akhtar, 2005, 2006; Imam, 1994; Mullender, et al., 2002;
Qureshi, et al., 2000). Izzatis a patriarchal notion indicating honour, reputation,
respectability or status (Imam, 1994). Theoretically, both sexes are responsible
for maintaining family honour (Mullender, et al., 2002). However, men have
traditionally used their power to link izzat to women to the point that women
have become solely responsible for ensuring the family honour remains intact
(Chew-Graham, et al., 2002; Imam, 1994). Experiencing problems such as
violence in the home, especially with spouses, is seen as shameful, something
to be kept hidden and not exposed in the public realm, even sometimes within
the family (Maiter, 2003; Maiter, Trocmé, & George, N.D.). It is also seen as
shameful to seek help outside the family as the extended family is “supposed”
to carry the responsibility and burden to provide help, support and assistance
– however that is often skewed towards the male’s needs and his higher role
and women bear the brunt of isolation and ensuing depression (Thoburn,
et al., 2005). South Asian families, then, may be reluctant for any kind of
intervention owing to the possibility of losing face in the extended family or
wider community if members were to find out the extent of the difficulties in
the home – this silence is often most harmful to the women in the relationships
(Chand, 2000). It is not only problematic when troubles become known
outside the family – there can also be humiliation and shame in disclosing
to family members – this then is the double jeopardy that women face in the
home and outside it. (Mullender, et al., 2002; Qureshi, et al., 2000). Thus, there
is potential for isolation in close-knit communities, something that mainstream
communities do not always appreciate, causing confusion and loss of services
for women who might otherwise benefit from them (Qureshi, et al., 2000). It is
important to understand both the strengths and threats of collective groups and
to engage in undoing the difficulties inherent in the challenges faced by women
who are facing intimate partner violence(Gilligan & Akhtar, 2005; Mullender,
et al., 2002). Although the home can be a refuge from racism and oppression
found in the wider society (Imam, 1994), izzat can promote silence and denial
to the point that the care and safety of women and children are comprised
(Chew-Graham, et al., 2002). It is essential to be aware of the implications of
being seen as bringing dishonor to the family. In a twisted way, consequences
can include complete ostracism of the victim as this may be seen to be the only
way to preserve the honour of the other family and/or community members
(Imam, 1994; Mullender, et al., 2002).
Research conducted on IPV and mental health issues in the South Asian
community clearly supports the idea that the concepts of sharam and izzat
are crucial in understanding experience within the South Asian community
(Gilligan & Akhtar, 2005, Samuel, 2009, Thandi, 2011). As well as offering
detailed analyses of problems, many researchers suggest strategies to
overcome barriers (Abraham, 1998; Guru, 2006; Kang, 2006; Shirwadkar,
2004). Importantly, research on children witnessing family violence suggest
that izzat holds the key to finding solutions to issues of family violence and
that it is must be explored in a more holistic manner with men who have set
the rules in the past as to the domains of honour(Imam, 1994; Mullender, et
al., 2002; Shirwadkar, 2004). For example, exposing men as bringing dishonor
to families and communities when perpetrating violence can compel men to
share in izzat, however this is rarely done. The process of accomplishing this
may include mobilizing the community to shame the perpetrator (Imam, 1999;
Shirwadkar, 2004). However, it is important to be aware that women as well as
men can be perpetrators of violence (Imam, 1999).
A review of the literature in this area suggests that other strategies found to
be effective include encouraging women to speak out in challenge to the myth
of the silent, ineffective and powerless South Asian woman (Abraham, 1998;
Kang, 2006). Religious institutions, which are for the most part controlled by
men, are central to the maintenance of South Asian values. These institutions
have, for the most part, remained silent on the issue of violence (Abraham,
1998; Imam, 1994). Kang’s work concerning women activists in the Lower
Mainland of Vancouver, British Columbia calls for continued lobbying of
religious and key community members in order to motivate them to address
community violence. Intimate partner violence research also advocates for
services that can help without cutting off women and children from their family
and/or community support systems, allowing for a more holistic approach to
assistance that may be beneficial to the women in the long term as they decide
on a future plan (Mullender, et al., 2002). The importance of specialized victim
groups and agencies are highlighted as well (Kang, 2006). Good practice
suggests that, although outside agencies cannot address power structures of
South Asian communities directly, they can join forces with the ethno-agencies
that are addressing these issues. They can also engage in respectful dialogue
with the community (Gilligan, 2005; Mullender, et al., 2002).
It is not deterministic that South Asian women in crisis will fail to access
formal and/or more informal community supports (Qureshi, et al., 2000).
Research has revealed that minority groups, including South Asian women,
will use services when, for example, agencies seek them out, when linguistic
barriers are removed and when there is access to culturally competent staff
(Ahmed, 2005). The barriers to service outlined in the literature suggest
changes that could be made to ensure that services are made more sensitive
and appropriate. There are also several examples of good practice that can
serve as a guide or at the very least provide ideas of aspects to consider. Factors
and practices that emerge as being of particular significance include taking a
flexible and holistic approach and involving the community. The importance
of monitoring where women are in terms of successfully being able to combat
IPV is highlighted as is the importance of considering the implications and
consequences of host community racism and discrimination which often leads
women to feel isolate and afraid.
In consultations between community members and researchers, participants
emphasized the importance of practitioners taking a flexible approach. Being
given a choice of worker and having an opportunity to speak anonymously, at
least to begin with, are two of the suggestions that have been brought forward.
Service-users do not necessarily prefer to see a worker from their own
community (Imam, 1994; Qureshi, et al., 2000) because sometimes service-
users perceive workers of their own ethnicity/race as posing greater risks to
confidentiality, especially in small communities where chain migration has
created historically long linkages (Qureshi, et al., 2000). Indeed, being treated
with sensitivity and respect, and not necessarily the ethnicity or race of the
worker, is important for many service users as long as the barriers to being
served and understood have been dismantled (O’Neale, 2000).
An important area which illustrates the importance of taking a flexible
approach concerns culture. Service providers must be aware of the role of
‘culture’ while simultaneously questioning assumptions based on their own
(limited or extensive) cultural understanding (Maiter, 2003). Maintaining this
balance is important - too much emphasis on culture can result in missing
relevant contextual factors and/or stereotyping (Maiter, 2003). Stereotyping
can, in turn, result in both inappropriate interventions and failing to protect
the women in need (Dutt& Phillips, 2000). Given the large degree of variation
possible, practitioners are advised to meet clients with openness and curiosity
(Maiter, 2003; Singh & Clarke, 2006). For example, although cultures can
be primarily collectivist or individualistic, in practice persons of a particular

culture will encompass both perspectives, to certain degrees (Maiter, 2003).
It is also important to be cognizant that the aspects and behaviour applied to
South Asians, such as a patriarchal culture and being ashamed to admit family
problems, are common among people of many different cultures. Problems
arise when behaviours and problems are attributed to cultural explanations
in some groups while not in others (Qureshi, et al., 2000). Service providers
are advised to be aware of this and to question why this is the case when it
happens.
Self-awareness is critical overall. When trying to gain an understanding
of diverse cultures, it is crucially important for practitioners to be aware of
how their own cultural assumptions and biases influence how information is
processed (Singh & Clarke, 2006). Social work theory and practice evolved
from Western culture; thus, reflecting on Eurocentric and racist aspects of social
work is essential (Gilligan, 2005). Indeed, the need to address individualistic
bias in social work is a theme echoed throughout the literature (Gilligan, 2005;
Imam, 1994; Mullender, et al., 2002). Practitioners from diverse cultures
must be aware of the effect their assumptions have on their views as well and
this is not always explored or challenged (Chand, 2000; Maiter, 2003; Singh
& Clarke, 2006). Cultural competency must become a training objective of
helping agencies to help in mitigating stereotypical assumptions. As much as
cultural competency is touted as one of the important training methods for
frontline staff, cultural literacy based on ethnic focused descriptions can lead
to the false impression of homogeneity within cultures and thus a tendency
to over-generalize and further stereotype. It is important to be aware of the
pitfalls of cultural competency that create a false sense of security for the
professional when working with ethnic minority groups or individuals when
the issues are diverse and complex. Agencies will depend on those staff that
speak the language and/or are culturally more similar, but there needs to be
awareness that bicultural and bilingual workers might lack curiosity as one
readily assumes a shared understanding based on common experiences – the
bicultural worker needs to be aware of their own assumptions. Just because
they think they might understand the lived experience better does not always
necessarily mean that the client receives fair and equitable engagement. As
well, other professionals take the role of the white collaborator more seriously
and even the client might accept the dominant view as having more currency in
terms of social acceptance and future long-term viability for settlement. When
a balanced approach is taken the equation of power position+ dominant view =
“correct way” is diffused. Power differentials between the professional and the
family have to be acknowledged at the outset. Who has the power to act and
the power to define? Obviously, the power of the professional to define and to
act on that definition puts them on top of the hierarchy of systems. This power
imbalance tips the scale in favour of the professional in most instances. The
“expert” cannot assume knowledge about how people from different cultural
backgrounds think and feel, especially if the professional is from the dominant
culture. In creating mutual understanding, a double description of culture is
created by way of a blueprint for behaviour, thoughts and feelings within a
changing body of ideas which are open to individual/mutual interpretation.
The dynamic nature of relationships between an individual/family and their
culture frees the professional from having to be an expert.
Research has identified a need for assessments and interventions that take
a holistic account of both individual needs and circumstances and wider social
and economic factors (Dutt& Phillips, 2000; Humphreys, et al., 1999). The
importance of determining the role of the extended family and considering the
effects of migration has already been mentioned. Several frameworks have
been proposed by scholars to map the enormous number of factors that might
be relevant for certain families (Deepak, 2005; Maiter, 2003). Family problems,
such as physical and mental illnesses of parents, were used to exemplify the
importance of looking beyond a narrow, incident-focused approach in one study
(Humphreys, et al., 1999) Not surprisingly, some workers are overwhelmed
by the number of factors deemed to be relevant in cases of ethnic minority
families and since they are ill-equipped to deal with these issues, they are
sometimes ignored and left unattended (Dutt & Phillips, 2000).
A lack of a holistic focus in assessments and interventions is an example
of discriminatory practice in providing social services (Humphreys, et al.,
1999). Other examples of discrimination identified in this study included
poor interpreting services and a lack of attention to racial and ethnic identity
when making placements. Importantly, the authors interpret these practices
as epitomizing structural discrimination. That is, the discriminatory service
experienced by the clients was not a result of the intent of individual workers
but rather arose from conditions at the organizational level. The authors
conclude, then, that changes must be made within the system itself. Similarly,
studies have shown that when ethnically-sensitive services were delivered, it
was largely due to the efforts of individual workers rather than from having
systems in place within the agencies to do so (O’Neale, 2000; Qureshi, et al.,
2000). These concerns must be addressed if there is going to be services that
meet the needs of vulnerable women facing IPV.
Two additional points in regard to racism and discrimination are important

to make. Research has shown that workers are sometimes reluctant to
intervene in families where there is evidence of IPV and removal of children
is appropriate, or they may not intervene, because of the fear of being seen as
racist (O’Neale, 2000). When this is the case children in abusive families are
even more vulnerable. Again, the domestic violence literature provides data
in support of child protection findings. “‘Race’/culture” anxiety is a barrier
to providing support at mainstream women’s shelters (Burman, Smailes,
&Chantler, 2004). In some studies workers’ lack of confidence in dealing with
race/culture issues is tied to insufficient training (O’Neale, 2000). The second
point concerns the possible implications of speaking out about abuse and
violence. A dilemma for activists concerns how they might raise awareness
about intimate partner violence without having the mainstream society use the
information to promote further stereotyping and prejudice against the South
Asian community (Kang, 2006). For Imam (1999), reporting on violence
without considering the structural issues within the dominant society that
contributes to it is a form of cultural racism.
Involving the community is important. Dumbrill and Maiter (2004)
recommend that service providers must take the time to better understand
community/partner perspectives and motivations. Research studies reveal
that community members, community groups and service-users can provide
a wealth of information about the community as well as suggestions about
what kinds of services might be useful and well-received. Even in the case
of child sexual abuse, said to be taboo in the South Asian community, those
community members taking part in studies admitted a need for services and
expressed a willingness to learn more (Gilligan & Akhtar, 2005, 2006; India
Rainbow Services of Peel, n.d.). A need to improve communication and learn
about culture is repeated throughout the literature. Good practice is identified
in those agencies that build mechanisms into their systems to consult regularly
with community leaders and voluntary groups (O’Neale, 2000).
There has been a long-standing argument that demographic data is needed
in order to ensure social services are available and appropriate (Chand, 2000).
Data collection is important in regards to recruitment and retention of ethnic
staff, the number of ethnic service-users, the number of families in ethnic
minorities within the community, the number of foster caregivers and the places
where psychological help is available (O’Neale, 2000). The lack of research,
already noted, is related to a lack of ethnicity data (Chand, 2000). Thoburn et
al. (2005) remind of the importance of safeguarding client confidentiality and
of informing clients when their data is being collected.
CONCLUSION
From the literature it is patently obvious that South Asian women in intimate
partner violence attempting to access services are faced with many barriers that
need institutional and societal deconstructing and dismantling. While the issues
facing women and their partners/families are complex and might be difficult to
fully comprehend in a holistic and comprehensive manner, this paper lays out
some of the challenges and provides some solutions for service agencies. It is
important for agencies to address both their own internal shortcomings and the
needs of the communities in a holistic manner in order to meet the needs of
this vulnerable population.
REFERENCES
Abraham, M. (1998). Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence against
South Asian Immigrant Women in the United States. Indian Journal of
Gender Studies, Vol.5(2), 215-241.
Ahmed, S. (2005). What is the evidence of early intervention, preventative
services for black and minority ethnic group children and their families?
Practice, Vol.17(2), 89-102.
Almeida, R.V., & Dolan-Delvecchio, K. (1999). Addressing culture in batterers
intervention: The Asian Indian community as an illustrative example.
Violence Against Women, Vol.5(6), 654-683.
Bhargava, K., Sharma, J.C., Saleh, S., Nair, K.R.G., Sahai, P.S., and Dougan,
J. (2008). Building Bridges: A Case Study on the Role of the Indian
Diaspora in Canada. Queens: The Centre for the study of democracy in
the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University.
Buchignani, N., Indra, D. & Srivastiva, R. (1985).Continuous Journey: A Social
History of South Asians in Canada. Toronto: The Canadian Publishers.
Burman, E., Smailes, S.L., & Chantler, K. (2004). ‘Culture’ as a barrier to
service provision and delivery: Domestic violence services for minoritized
women. Critical Social Policy, Vol. 24(3), 332-357.
Chand, A. (2000). The over-representation of Black children in the child
protection system: Possible causes, consequences and solutions. Child
and Family Social Work, Vol.5, 67-77.
Chew-Graham, C., Bashir, C., Chantler, K., Burman, E., &Batsleer, J. (2002).
South Asian women, psychological distress and self-harm: Lessons for
primary care trusts. Health and Social Care in the Community, Vol.10(5),
339-347.
Choudhry, U.K. (2001). Uprooting and resettlement experiences of South
Asian women.Western Journal of Nursing, Vol. 23 (4), P. 376-393.
Dawson, M. (2001). “Examination of declining intimate partner homicide
rates”. A Literature Review Ottawa: Department of Justice Canada.
Deepak, A.C. (2005). Parenting and the process of migration: Possibilities
within South Asian families. Child Welfare, Vol. 84(5), 585-606.
Dumbrill, G. C. & Maiter, S. (2004, December). Moving from clients evaluating
services to clients designing services.OACAS Journal, Vol. 48(4), 17-21.
Dutt, R. & Phillips, M. (2000).Assessing black children in need and their
families. The Stationery Office, London.
Gilligan, P. & Akhtar, S. (2005). Child sexual abuse among Asian communities:
Developing materials to raise awareness in Bradford. Practice, Vol. 17(4),
267-284.
Gilligan, P. & Akhtar, S. (2006). Cultural barriers to the disclosure of child

sexual abuse in Asian communities: Listening to what women say. British
Journal of Social Work, Vol. 36(8), 1361-1377.
Guru, S. (2006). Working with Asian perpetrators of domestic violence – the
British experience.Practice, Vol. 18(3), 153-166..
Humphreys, C., Atkar, S., & Baldwin, N. (1999). Discrimination in child
protection work: Recurring themes in work with Asian families. Child
and Family Social Work, Vol. 4, 283-291.
Imam, U.F. (1994).Asian children and domestic violence. In A. Mullender&
R. Morley (Eds.), Putting men’s abuse of women on the child care agenda
(pp. 188-199) London: Whiting & Birch Ltd.
Iman, U.F. (1999).South-Asian young women’s experiences of violence and
abuse.In H. Kemshall& J. Pritchard (Eds.), Good practice in working
with violence (pp. 128-148) London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
India Rainbow Community Services of Peel (n.d.).The incest awareness and
education for the South Asian community project.
Jayaram, N., (2004). (Ed). 2004.Themes in Indian Sociology. Vol. 4. The Indian
Diaspora: Dynamics of Migration. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Kang, N. (2006). Women activists in Indian diaspora: Making interventions
and challenging impediments. South Asia Research, Vol. 26(2), 145-164.
Maiter, S. (2003). The context of culture: Social work practice with Canadians
of South Asian background. In A. Al-Krenawi& J. R. Graham (Eds.),
Multicultural social work in Canada (pp. 365-387). Toronto, Canada:
Oxford University Press.
Maiter, S., Alaggia, R., & Trocmé, N. (2004). Perceptions of child maltreatment
from the Indian subcontinent: Challenging myths about culturally based
abusive parenting practices. Child Maltreatment, Vol. 9(3), 309-324.
Maiter, S. & George, U. (2003). Understanding context and culture in the
parenting approaches of immigrant South Asian mothers. Affilia, Vol.
18(4), 411-428
Maiter, S., Trocmé, N., George, U. (n.d.).Building bridges: The collaborative
development of culturally appropriate definitions of child abuse and
neglect for the South Asian community. Retrieved on August 1, 2014 from:
http://ceris.metropolis.net/Virtual%20Library/RFPReports/RFPReports.
htm
Mullender, A., Hague, G., Imam, U., Kelly, L., Malos, E., & Regan, L. (2002).
Barriers of racism, ethnicity and culture.In Children’s perspectives on
domestic violence (pp 132-155). London: Sage.
Neufeld, A., Harrison, M.J., Stewart, M.J., Hughes, K., & Spitzer, D. (2002).
Immigrant women: Making connections to community resources for
support in family caregiving. Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 12(6),
751-768.
Ogrodnik, L. 2006. “Spousal violence and repeat police contact”. L. Ogrodnik
(ed.) Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2006. Statistics
Canada Catalogue no. 85-224-X.
O’Neale, V. (2000).Excellence not excuses: Inspection of services for ethnic
minority children and families. London: Social Services Inspectorate/
Department of Health.
Parekh, B., Singh, G., and Vertovec, S., (Eds.). 2003. Culture and Economy in
the Indian Diaspora. London: Routledge.
Pettys, G. L. &Balgopal, P. R. (1998, July-August). Multigenerational conflicts
and new immigrants: An Indo-American experience. Families in Society:
The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, Vol. 79(4), 410-423.
Qureshi, T., Berridge, D., &Wenman, H. (2000).Where to turn? Family support
for South Asian communities – A case study.London: National Children’s
Bureau.
Raj, A., & Silverman, J.G. (2003). Immigrant South Asian Women at Greater
Risk for Injury from Intimate Partner Violence, American Journal of
Public Health, Vol. 93 (3) P: 435-437.
Raj, A., Silvermanm J.G., McCleary-Sills, J., Liu, R. (2005) Immigration
policies increase South Asian women’s vulnerability to intimate partner
violence. Journal of the Ameircan Women’s Medical Association Winter
2005 Vol.60 (1), P: 26-32
Roer-Strier, D. (2001). Reducing risk for children in changing cultural contexts:
Recommendations for intervention and training. Child Abuse and Neglect,
Vol. 25(2), 231- 248.
Samuel, E. (2009). Acculturative stress: South Asian immigrant women’s
experiences in Canada’s Atlantic Provinces. Journal of Immigrant Refugee
Studies Vol.7 (9) P:16-34DOI: 10.1080/15562940802687207
Shirwadkar, S. (2004).Canadian domestic violence policy and Indian immigrant
women.Violence Against Women, Vol. 10(8), 860-879.
Singh, R. & Clarke, G. (2006). Power and parenting assessments: The
intersecting levels of culture, race, class and gender. Clinical Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol.11 (1), 9-25.
Sinha, M. (2012). http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/116
43/11643-2-eng.htm
Thandi, G. (2011). It’s a man’s problem: Strategies for working with South
Asian male perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Vancouver: Justice
Institute of BC.
Thoburn, J., Chand, A., & Proctor, J. (2005). Child welfare services for minority
and ethnic families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Zakar, R., Zakar, M., Faist, T., Kraemer, A. ( 2012). Intimate partner violence
against women and its related immigration stressors in Pakistani immigrant
families in Germany. SpringerPlus 2012, Vol.1(5). Doi:10.1186/2193-
1801-1-5. http://www.springerplus.com/content/1/1/5
3
Gender, Social Security and Institutional Care

for the Elderly in India: Issues and Challenges
Srimati Nayak
The global phenomenon of population ageing has become a major concern

for the policy makers all over the world, for both developed and developing
countries for the last two decades. The problems arising out of it will have
varied implications for underdeveloped, developing and developed countries.
With limited resources, the country’s elderly poor hardly get justice who are
forced to contend with many challenges and are dependent on others for their
care and security. Ageing of population is affected due to downward trends
in fertility and mortality i.e. due to low birth rates coupled with long life
expectancies.
One of the biggest social transformations of the late 20th and early 21st
century is population ageing. This trend is not restricted to resource rich countries
and has become a global phenomenon. Therefore, secured and healthy ageing
is a global concern now. The United Nations World Assembly on Ageing, held
at Vienna in 1982, formulated a package of recommendations which gives
high priority to research related for developmental and humanitarian aspects
of ageing (United Nations, 1987). The World Health Organization (WHO)
dedicated its World Health Day in 2012 to ageing. The European Union
(EU) designated 2012 as the year of “Active Ageing and Solidarity between
Generations”. There is mounting pressure on the economy and other allied
sectors as the population ageing is rapidly increasing. The world experienced
only a modest increase in the share of people aged 60 and above in the past
six decades, from 8% to 10%. But in the next four decades, this group is
expected to rise to 22% of the total population-from 800 million to 2 billion
people. While this ageing trend began in the developed world, it has become a
global phenomenon and accelerating, especially in low – and middle-income
countries (William and Krakauer, 2012).
STATUS OF ELDERLY IN INDIA

In India, if we divide the population into three major age-groups, i.e. in the
years 0-14, 15-59 and 60 & above it reveals that during last few decades the
share of children is decreasing from 37.6% in 1991 and is projected to be about
25% by the year 2021. On the other hand, the proportion of population in the
working age group (15-59 years) and the aged (60 years and above) both are
increasing rapidly. The proportion of the population aged 60 or above was
about 5% in India in 1901. This has increased to 5.4% in 1951 and rose to 7.4%
by 2001 (GOI 2011). The size of the elderly population rose from 12.1 million
in 1901 to approximately 77 million in 2001. According to official population
projections, the number of elderly persons will rise to approximately 140
million by 2021. Nearly 71% of the increase in the number of the aged between
1951 and 1991 could be attributed to population growth, while the remaining
29% was due to ageing of the population or an increase in the percentage of the
aged in the population (Visaria 2001). Today India is home to one out of every
ten senior citizens in the world. Among the total elderly population, those who
live in rural areas constitute 78%. Sex ratio in elderly population, which was
928 as compared to 927 in total population in the year 1996, is projected to
become 1031 by the year 2016 as compared to 935 in total population. The data
on old age dependency ratio is slowly increasing in both rural and urban areas.
Therefore, government needs to initiate some comprehensive programmes
and policy interventions to ensure life with dignity for the senior citizens of
the country. This highlights that changing demographics of India will bring
forth issues to do with providing basic amenities, food security, social security,
livelihoods, income security and institutional care in particular.
This paper is analytical in nature and based on secondary sources of data
and the paper is organized as follows: Section 1 gives the background of
the study and the status of elderly in India. Section 2 links income security
and economic independence. Section 3 examines social security and state
responsibilities. Section 4 explores the need of elderly women, their social
security and institutional care in India. Section 5 examines the provisions
of social security for elderly women. Section 6 discussed about the need for
interventions. Section 7 highlights the challenges ahead for these vulnerable
sections and Section 7 concludes the discussion.
Older people, and in particular, older women are an extremely vulnerable
group of people, who hardly gets the attention of state protection. As women,
they occupy a position which is more disadvantaged than older men and as older
people the additional vulnerability of dependency and support from others.
Older women, who include not just widows or destitute women, are in need
Gender, Social Security and Institutional Care for the Elderly in India 47
of greater attention and support in these years. Increasingly the institutions of

support and care such as the family have become more demanding in nature,
extracting from the older and vulnerable members continuous work, when
care and support are their due. In the era of globalization, the state has also
withdrawn its support from older people in the form of social security. In the
liberalization period, the state has only attended to the needs and demands
of the investors and corporate producers, who have received numerous
concessions while the elderly continue to be taxed or denied benefits except
some lip service. The state has further neglected vast sections of marginalized
labourers and older people constitute a significant section of this marginalized
workforce, a bulk of them women in the unorganized sector making them more
dependent economically.
INCOME SECURITY AND ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

Although the Indian economy has grown faster in recent times, this has mainly
benefited the new entrants into labour market. Elders are those who have
withdrawn from the labour market, implying falling income and depreciation
of assets, combined with rising health expenditure. “In India where over 90%
of the total workforce is employed in the informal sector, social security
offered by pension schemes is only available to the 10% retiring from the
organized sector” (Kumar and Anand, 2006). Consequently, their chance of
being dependent on others increase with age. Due to morbidity aged persons
are generally withdrawn from the unorganized sectors. On the other hand, aged
persons should have income security either based on insurance or through
state-sponsored mechanism.
The dependency ratio has shown an ever increasing trend, climbing from
10.9% in 1961 to 13.1% in 2001 for the country as a whole. The female
old-age dependency ratio as well as the gap between the female and male
old-age dependency ratio are increasing and the two were 13.8% and 12.5%
respectively, in 2001 (GOI 2011). This is a mater of grave concern for everyone
in the society. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on
morbidity and the aged revealed that 65% of the aged had to depend on others
for their day-to-day needs. The situation is worse for elderly females, with about
only 14% to 17% of them being economically independent in rural and urban
areas, respectively, while the remaining were dependent on others. Economic
dependence and lack of financial security have important implications on the
health outcomes of the aged. (Alwan, et al., 2007).
SOCIAL SECURITY AND STATE RESPONSIBILITY

“The basic idea of social security is to use social means to prevent
deprivations and vulnerability to deprivation” in order to ensure sustainable
human development over time (Dreze and Sen 1999). In both developed and
developing countries state-sponsored social security in the form of protective
social security has evolved to supplement and to replace the support that
family, community or other charitable institutions provide. When the question
of social security arises, it largely addresses the people in the organized sectors
of employment. But, in most parts of the world and in particular, Indian society,
large populations who are involved in informal but productive activities, both
in private and public spheres, do not have social security and left to fend for
themselves (ILR 2000).
Alam and Karim (2006) indicated that the aged in rural areas live with
major health risk factors involving frailties, diseases, a sedentary lifestyle and
their link with poor economic standing. They also analysed that due to gender
disparities and dominant structure of the social system, women are likely to
suffer more on this account. Alam (2008) showed a high support burden on
working age people (15-59) and also that socially backward communities
such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are burdened
more heavily. Even in state-supported schemes, such as the National Social
Assistance Scheme, there is greater risk of destitute elders being left out.
Likewise, a large majority of the aged from the unorganized sector lead their
life without a safety net. Kumar and Anand (2006) showed that nearly 90%
of the total workforce is employed in the unorganized sector where no social
and financial security is available after retirement. The work participation rate
among the elderly is around 40%. And most of the 60-plus elderly are from
rural areas and work in unorganized sector which makes them more vulnerable
and insecure.
Social Security in India and Problems of Implementation

In modern India since 1950s, the Constitution endorsed the provision of social
security, which marked the beginning of this provision for the aged. Some of
the important areas where legislation as well as institutional mechanisms are
provided: health insurance, worker protection, unemployment relief, etc. It is
important to note that social insurance principles are accepted as the main basis
for social security legislation, directed mostly at workers in the organized sector.
Among these are the Employees’ Provident Fund Act, 1952, supplemented by
the Family Pension Scheme in 1971 and the Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme
in 1976, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 and Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. Given
the constraints related to the nature of the unorganized sector, many states just
provide some kind of social security for certain sections of the unorganized
workers depending on their own financial viability and commitments.
From various studies it is observed that in terms of social security
arrangements which have evolved over six decades has been a piecemeal
effort, consisting of non-legislated benefits to public employees, conventional
social insurance schemes for workers in the organized sector and a modicum
of social assistance for the poor in the form of old age pension and subsidized
life insurance (Rajan ibid). It is important to note that social security measures
are plagued by several problems. Most importantly, they have to do with the
grossly inadequate allocation in budgets for this vulnerable section. Given
the abysmal and skewed allocations, the issue of covering greater sections
of vulnerable populations can only be imagined. The reforms initiated in
sectors such as insurance and pensions have indicated the need for greater
care in designing the programmes. If the revenue inputs for the schemes and
programmes are not imagined, put in place and sustained, the social security
system will not work. The other challenge is to conjure up ways to share the
allocation with other contributors, rather than only relying on the state to
provide social security. For instance, individual voluntary schemes for pension
as well as voluntary retirement saving schemes are planned where not just the
government but private institutions too are encouraged to contribute.
The role of insurance has been hotly debated in the US and many other
developed countries, and it is now being advocated for India as the state is
withdrawing from providing social security cover. It becomes all the more
important when the health sector is being privatized and the cost of services is
mounting. Working on such issues of the elderly in India is difficult due to the
paucity of data and discrepancies in what exists.
ELDERLY WOMEN, SOCIAL SECURITY AND INSTITUTIONAL

CARE IN INDIA
Women and men age differently. Both have their concerns. The problems of
elderly women are exacerbated by a lifetime of gender-based discrimination,
often stemming from deep-rooted cultural and social bias. It is compounded
by other forms of discrimination based on class, caste, disability, illiteracy,
unemployment and marital status. Patriarchal hierarchy and access to property
rights are also responsible for discriminatory treatment. Burdened with
household chores for a longer span of time compared to older men, older
women don’t have time for leisure or recreational activities. Women experience
proportionately higher rates of chronic illness and disability in later life than
men. Women suffer greater non-communicable diseases and experience lower
social and mental health status, especially if they are single/or widowed. Over
50% of women over age 80 are widows.
Elderly women and their problems need special attention as their numbers
are likely to increase in the future and, given the multiple disadvantages in
life they face in life, they are likely to be grossly unprepared to tackle these
issues. Societies have come to recognize women as a part of the deprived and
vulnerable, and have made them part of the forefront of all social security
mechanisms. Although social security covers a gamut of needs, there is
a gendering of the provision of welfare and social security policy is very
clearly entrenched in notions of the family where women are dependent on
men who are the breadwinners (Gayathri 2001). Amongst the state provisions
that addressed women first were health care and welfare benefits in their
reproductive roles. Outside the organized working sector, where women do
receive social security benefits, they haven’t received specific social security
inputs except as destiutes, who are outside the ambit of the family. A bulk
of women in productive labour in the unorganized sectors or who are self-
employed hardly have any protection. (Meena Gopal, 2006).
In India, the family is the traditional social institution for the care of the
elderly and is expected to continue the role of care-giver as the principal source
of support and security in old age. Generally, the familial system of care and
support for the elderly includes emotional, social, economic and health care
support in old age. In reality, the capacity of the family to care for the elderly
in a given social context, to a larger extent, is dependent on the social and
economic circumstances of the family, the social and cultural norms within
which it functions, and its changing structure resulting from industrialization
and urbanization, as well as on the availability of quality of support services. The
large number of families who are generally poor, for instance, can not possibly
provide the care and support for the elderly that they are traditionally expected
to (Chang 1994). The current situation of the elderly is reflected in their living
arrangements. In fact, living arrangements are an important component of the
general well-being of the elderly. Most of the elderly live with their children
or live alone with the spouse without the support and care of their children in
the family. The rapid social, economic and demographic changes are widely
assumed to have profound implications for the circumstances under which the
future of elderly lies. In modern times, due to industrialization and urbanization,
the subsequent changes in the family structure and household structure have
influenced the intergenerational family relationships, particularly family care
for the elderly. In recent years, the traditional value system within the family
in India seems to be gradually diminishing forcing them to live in age care
institutions. As a result the traditional position and status of the elderly have
been undermined by several factors such as:
(a) decline in the institution of joint family system; (b) fewer children
due to the acceptance of small family norm; (c)increasing participation
of women in economic activity; (d) migration of the young members
to cities for employment; (e) paucity of adequate housing; (f) changing
lifestyles and values arising from urbanization and priority to the
needs of the immediate family; (g)gradual breakdown of the system
of common ownership of the means of production such as land due
to changing rural economic structure (Bose 1994; Dandekar 1993;
Irudaya Rajan, Mishara, and Sharma 1995).
INSTITUTIONAL CARE FOR THE ELDERLY

The importance of institutional care is increasing with declining values in the
family set up with the changing value structure in contemporary times. Shelter
homes, short-stay homes, Day-care Centres, measures for the rehabilitation
of destitute women and prostitutes, and initiatives to set up mahila mandals
were some of the welfare measures adopted (GOI, 1995). From the Fifth Five
–Year Plan, the state began to recognize women’s contribution to economic
development and sought to bring in equity considerations in various social
security measures. However, these remain half-hearted and piece-meal efforts.
In terms of property rights, political participation and other rights women
still lag behind men. In the 1990s, some improvement has occurred with the
73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments providing reservations for women
in the local bodies in the village and urban areas. Among the schemes for
poor women, in addition to the programmes that were existent in the 1980s
such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) which has
now 40% beneficiaries to be women, the Training for Rural Youth for Self-
Employment (TRYSEM), the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS),
Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA) through
which groups of women are formed to obtain subsidy and credit for income
generating activities. There also continued to be schemes such as the Socio-
Economic Programme(SEP) which provides training and employment to needy
women such as widows, deserted wives, the economically backward and the
handicapped in traditional, agro-based, and non-traditional trades (GOI 1995;
Dandekar 1996; Gopalan 1994).
Among the specific categories of women whom the state targeted for social
security benefits were pregnant women and mothers, destitute women, widows
and the aged women. Numerous examples across the country are found in
the rural areas where women who are married into rich peasant households
might find themselves economically vulnerable or even beg for livelihood
upon death of or desertion by their husbands. Of these, the condition of
widows and older women is the most vulnerable. (Alter Chen, 1998). The
dependency of widowhood is most vulnerable as it is the women who outlive
their spouses. Widows are disadvantaged within families compared to their
male counterparts.
With the declining values in the families as the most traditional institutions
and taking into account the need of the elderly, the government of India has set
up 1018 old age homes out of which 118 homes (Directory of Help Age India,
2002) are exclusive for the elderly women across the country which clearly
reflects gender disparity in the care of the aged.
As far as dependency and support is concerned in India, at least 75% of
those who are economically dependent are supported by their family, mostly
children and grandchildren. But the notion of the dependency ratio should be
altered by including household duties and other related activities as work and
project the elderly as the economic assets not only to their respective families,
but also to society as a whole. A large proportion of elderly those above 60
years, are captured in the census as workers and there is insufficient official
documentation of the workforce in the 60+ age group. 39% of those above 60
years are counted as workers. The male workforce participation is 60.5% while
the female workforce participation rate is 16 per cent. Again, there is lack of
recognition of older women’s unpaid labour where their full day’s productive
work is not counted as work because it is not “paid” and their accounting as
marginal workers is reflected. Field studies show that in much of rural India,
elderly women who are unable to go for wage work undertake tasks within the
household premises, for example, livestock care, taking care of the children,
post-harvest work, etc. The sector-wise categorization of the workforce show
that more than 78 per cent of the elderly workforce is engaged in agricultural
activities, which for elderly women rises to 84 per cent.
ROLE OF NGOs
Some experience of self-employed widows provide an example of NGO
efforts to provide social security to the elderly, for instance, the comprehensive
group insurance scheme, widowhood insurance and so on. The Self-Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA), in the state of Gujarat is one of the largest
unions of women workers in the unorganized sector (Jhabwala 1998). The

SEWA institution helps women create their own assets. Women help their
bank balances through individual or group savings. The SEWA union also
helps women fight legal cases or to negotiate to gain access to family assets
such as land. Being part of the organization also builds individual and group
morale and confidence as well as self-esteem. Thus group effort consolidates
the social insurance provided to the women workers and also empowers them
in their livelihood.
DAY-CARE CENTRES
Day-care centres are the important provision which is supplementary for their
care and accommodation. The central government has started since 1983-84,
a grants-in-aid scheme to voluntary organizations for providing day-care and
other services, and for construction of homes for the aged.
In 1989, based on the monograph prepared by the Madras Institute of
Ageing, called ‘Care for the Elderly’. 15,471 elderly were accommodated in
old age homes around the country. In 1995, Helpage’s Survey of 256 old age
homes, as presented in its national directory of old age homes, found only 12,702
residents in all old age homes in India, even though there was simultaneous
demands for more beds. Not all of these were under the government and were
funded by religious organizations, private sources and other types of trusts and
caste organizations. In fact, the government seeks active participation of the
voluntary sector to meet the needs of older persons.
Significantly health care as social security doesn’t seem to exist in any
state. This is alarming given the fact that the growth rate of the 60 and above
age group is higher than that of other age groups. Older people’s healthcare
needs are of much concern given the inadequate provisions in the public
sector and the prohibitive costs for private healthcare. Various surveys have
estimated that susceptibility of older people, with susceptibility increasing
with higher age. Women particularly among the elderly suffer gender biases
and discrimination with respect to health care access and definitely suffer from
health problems much more but there is not any special state provision for
geriatric health care for women (Karkal, 1999).
ELDERLY WOMEN AND PROVISIONS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Public policy in India seems quite oblivious to the looming crisis and there is
little realization of the specific health needs of the elders. The public health
care facilities, which used to offer services free of cost, now force patients to
obtain drugs and receive diagnostic services from private service providers at
a high cost. As a result, elders find it difficult to meet their health needs from
their own resources. An alternative could have been the state providing health
care for the elders. But, so far no such policy has been developed by the state.
There is also little realization of the determinants and causes of bad health
among the elders. For instance, public policy has not taken into account the
living arrangements of elders, which is an important determinant of their health
status. As per 2001 Census, more than half the number of elderly females
in India (51%) are widowed, divorced, or separated, compared to only 15%
of elderly males. Further, the dependency status, as reported by the elderly
themselves, varies between men and women. The 2001 Census showed that
there were 6, 31,000 elderly beggars (0.8% of the elderly population) in India.
It may be noted that only 0.2% of the elderly are reported to be beggars by the
NSS in 1999-2000. The burden of having to care for the elderly is not equally
distributed among households. Therefore, any policy on social assistance
should take into account the living arrangements of the elderly.
NEED FOR INTERVENTION

In view of the increasing need for intervention in old age welfare, the Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment adopted a National Policy for Older
Persons in January 1999. It provides broad guidelines to state governments for
taking action for the welfare of older persons by devising their own policies
and plans of action. The policy defines a “senior citizen” as a person who is 60
years old or above. It provides a comprehensive list of various facilities and
covers many areas such as financial security, healthcare, shelter, education,
welfare, protection of life and property, and so on. The Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare has little to care for the elderly needs. Its interventions have
been mainly cosmetic in nature, such as two national institutes on ageing in
Delhi and Chennai, travel concessions for the senior citizens and setting up
geriatric departments in 25 medical colleges.
A review of various legislations on social security schemes for the aged
since Independence is available in Rajan, Mishra and Sarma(1995), Rajan
(2002). Generally, the schemes for elders in India are welfare-based-either
in the form of income support (direct cash transfers or subsidizing certain
consumption items) or protection against injustice and violence. The most
important programme for elders is the National Old Age Pension Scheme
(NOAPS) , a centrally sponsored programme managed by the Ministry of Rural
Development. This is essentially an income support programme in the form of
pension. More than 30 programmes are being run by the central government
on various dimensions of health, but surprisingly only one caters to the needs
of the elderly.
The following Table describes the perceived requirements and the
shortcomings in the programmes and schemes that exist for elders in India.
It shows that public policy has not recognized the problem of elders as such
and there is no significant public health and elderly care programmes . Elders
are more exposed to NCDs and chronic diseases, especially to cardiovascular
disease, chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes and cancer. But there is no
priority for the aged in this area. Moreover, various studies on public health
expenditure have reflected that the bulk of the money and resources is targeted
at RCH and family welfare, and the remaining goes to various disease-specific
programmes such as malaria, tuberculosis, dengue and HIV/AIDS, living little
for general health intervention (Tripathy, 2014).
Besides, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment piloted landmark
legislation, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens’ Act
2007 which is being promulgated by the States and Union Territories for the
maintenance and care of the parents and the aged. But, in reality, effective
implementation and change of mind-set of families and society towards the
elderly is very much required.
THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

By assuring high quality care, whether by providing it directly in public
institutions or by supporting private caregivers, society could demonstrate its
appreciation to a whole generation. High quality care is an ethical concern
in at least two senses : providing good care for the elderly is itself an ethical
obligation ; and care must be provided in an ethical manner-that is, the human
dimensions of care ought to take the central place. Both the elderly themselves
and younger generations can benefit when the old are assured good care.
The rapid urbanization and societal modernization has brought in its wake
a breakdown in family values and the framework of family support, economic
insecurity, social isolation and elderly abuse leading to a host of psychological
illnesses. In addition, widows are prone to face social stigma and ostracism.
The socio-economic problems of the elderly are aggravated by factors such as
the lack of social security and inadequate facilities for health care, rehabilitation
and recreation. Also, in most of the developing countries, pension and social
security is restricted to:
Table 01: Requirements, Institutions, Policies and Problems
Sl.
Requirement of Elderly Policies/Programmes Problems
No.
Income security and Old Age Pension Scheme Tokenism and difficult to
01
economic independence for BPL Elderly survive
Employment/post-
02 No policy in place
retirement activity
Primary health centres
Physical disability/ No institution and policy
03 and sub-centres are out
immobility in place
of reach
Coverage, quality
04 Shelter/Housing Old age homes and conditions are
questionable
Nutrition and food
05 Annapurna Yojana For BPL Elderly only
security
Too few for the
Treatment of non-
No disease-speci�c entire country ; their
06 communicable diseases
scheme is in place functioning a big
and chronic diseases
question
Psychiatric morbidity- No institution and policy
07
stress and strain in place
08 Elderly-friendly hospitals Nothing in place as such
Source: Tulika Tripathy, 2014.
those who have worked in the public sector or the organized sector of industry
by making others vulnerable and insecure. The elderly are also prone to abuse
in their families or in institutional settings. This includes physical abuse
(infliction of pain or injury), psychological abuse (infliction of mental anguish
and illegal exploitation), and sexual abuse. A significantly higher number of
women are victims of abuse as compared with men.
The Central and State governments have already made efforts to tackle
the problem of economic insecurity by launching some policies. However, the
benefits of the programmes have often been questioned in terms of meager
budget, improper identification of beneficiaries, lengthy procedures and
irregular payment.
So far as institutional care is concerned, most of the government facilities
such as day care centres, old age residential homes and counseling and
recreational facilities are urban-based which needs to be extended to rural
societies as they need these services urgently. Also, capacity-building of the
community leaders should be strengthened to deliver the services for the
elderly at the ground level.
CONCLUSION
The current trends in demographics coupled with rapid urbanization and
lifestyle changes have led to an emergence of a host of problems facing by
the elderly in India. The review of state and national initiatives for providing
social security and institutional care to elderly women in particular points to the
serious lack of will to address the concerns of a silent yet vulnerable section. In
the context of state restructuring of the economy with a neo-liberal agenda, it is
the deprived and vulnerable sections that bear the brunt of the resource crunch.
However, this should not lessen the efforts for advocating further assistance
and safety nets to these needy sections. The state governments, civil society
and community organizations need to admit that it owes a responsibility to
the Country’s elderly population and they can not be left to market forces as
callously as has been done by public policy in India. Therefore, there is a need
for the other stakeholders along with government to pay special attention to
the support and care for the elderly women.
REFERENCES
Alam, Moneer & Piyush Anthony (2001). ‘Social Security for the Aged’
in Social and Economic Security in India, S. Mahendra Dev, Piyush
Anthony, V. Gayatri and R.P. Mamgain (eds), New Delhi, Institute for
Human Development.
Alter, Martha Chen (ed) (1998). Widows in India. Special Neglect and Public
Action, New Delhi, Sage Publications.
Alwan, N, M. Wilkinson, D. Birks & J. Wright (2007). “Do Standard Measures
of Deprivation Reflect Health Inequalities in Older People ?”, Journal of
Public Health Policy, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 356-62.
Bookman, Ann & Dalia Kimbrel (2011). “Families and Elder Care in the
Twenty-First Century”, Work and Family, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 117-140.
Blasszauer, Bela (1994). “Institutional Care for the Elderly”, The Hastings
Centre Report, Vol. 24, No. 5, (Sep.-Oct.), pp. 14-17.
Chang, T.P. (1994). “Family Changes and the Elderly in Asia”. The Ageing of
Asian Populations, New York, United Nations.
Dandekar, Kumudini (1996). The Elderly in India, New Delhi, Sage
Publications.
Dreze, Jean & Amartya Sen (1999). ‘Public Action for Social Security.
Foundations and Strategies’ in Ehtisham Ahmed, Jean Dreze, John Hills
and Amartya Sen (eds), Social Security in Developing Countries, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, p. 5.
Gayathri, V. (2001). Social Security for Women Workers’ in Social and
Economic Security in India, Mahendra Dev, et al.
Gopal, Meena (2006). “Gender, Ageing and Social Security”, Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No. 42 (Oct.21-27), pp. 4477-4486.
Government of India (2006). Census of India 2001, Office of the Registrar
General and Census Commissioner, India.
---- (2011). “Situation Analysis of the Elderly in India”, Ministry of Statistics
and Programme Implementation, New Delhi.
ILR (2000). ‘Introduction .Social Policy and Social Protection’, International
Labour Review, Vol. 139, No. 2.
Jhabwala, Renana (1998). ‘Self-Employed Widows . Some Experiences from
Gujarat’ in Martha A. Chen (ed), op cit.
Karkal, Malini (1999). Elderly in India . An Annotated Bibliography, Centre for
Health Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Vols 1 and 2.
Panda, Pradeep Kumar (1998). “The Elderly in Rural Orissa. Alone in
Distress”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 25, (June 20-26),
pp. 1545-1550.
Rajan, Irudaya S (1999). ‘Financial and Social Security in Old Age in India’,
Social Change, Vol.29, Nos 1 and 2, March-June.
---- (2001). ‘Social Assistance for the Poor Elderly .How Effective ? Economic
and Political Weekly, February 24.
Rajan, Irudaya , S.U.S. Mishra and P. Shankara Sarma (1999). India’s Elderly.
Burden or Challenge ? New Delhi, Sage Publications.
Tripathy, Tulika (2014). “Unhealthy, Insecure and Dependent Elders”,
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLIX, No. 29, 19 July, pp. 217-
223.
Visaria, P (2001). “Demographics of Ageing in India”, Economic and Political
Weekly, Vol.31, No.06, 2 June.
Williams, R. & R. Krakauer (2012). “The Challenge of Non-Communicable
Diseases and Geriatric Conditions”, in Global Population Ageing. Peril
or Promise? World Economic Forum, Geneva.
4
The Effect of Domestic Violence on Maternal and

Child Health: Analysis and Recommendation
Pradeep K. Mishra and Manjushree Mishra
INTRODUCTION
Domestic violence or spousal violence is defined as cruelty by husband against
wife. It is recognized as a criminal act that ruptures family cohesion in a
society. It infringes the assurance of marriage to lead a secure coexistence
between husband, wife and their children that marriage claims to provide.
Besides, subsequent exposure to domestic violence gets detrimental and prone
to create maternal and child health risk at household and public health burden
at societal level (Hindin, Kishor, and Ansara, 2007; Garcia – Moreno et al,
2006, and Babu, 2010). The issue of domestic violence cannot be resolved
if there is a hesitancy in reporting it. From a societal point of view domestic
violence is imprecisely stated as private family issue where outside interference
is unwelcomed. Wife beating is often socially acceptable. According to
International Institute for Population science, 56% of Indian women believed
wife beating to be justified in certain circumstances. It is always a women who
has to be rectified and efficiently address house cores, any fail may learned by
the act of dictatorial behavior from husband and relatives. Women are taken as
raw and unskillful bodies. Sometimes victim herself shows reluctance to take
the matter to public. This is a reason why violence against women still goes
unreported in the domestic realm.
It is also misinterpreted by the law and mostly happening for women,
who are from poor economic status with low income group, lower strata
in class-caste hierarchy, belonging from the family where girl abundance
occurred. However it is observed from the recent growth in violence in many
observations, that woman from all sectors facing the violence. At large women
from middle class facing the challenge, which is yet unnoticed even if, NFHS
data has not so far quartered and cross linking in detail.
In India around 70% women are victimized by domestic violence (BBC,

2006). Although violence against women affects the most basic foundation
of their lives, it is rarely considered as development issue. Domestic violence
has never been taken as a development issue. Domestic violence against girl
and women takes many different form including feticide, infanticide, child
marriage, forced marriage, forced prostitution, battering, rape, murder, dowry
death, incest, widow harassment, stigmatization, old age desertion (Cate
Johnson, 1996). Recently GOI has identified 184 High Priority Districts
(HPD) with a mission to improve Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child
and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) indicators (GOI strategy, 2013). This
would support for differential planning and implementation with specific to
women and children.
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC DILEMMA

The Beijing declaration 4th world conference on women in 1995, well thought-
out that, the violence against women and girls, whether occurring in public or
private life, is a human rights issue and a matter of public health concern as
all forms of violence against women seriously affect their health. According
to women council of Beijing general attitude of both men and women must
be addressed before violence will abate. Such attitudes are deeply embedded
among many groups and sections generally accepted without question. For
example a study of men in Uttar Pradesh demonstrated that nearly one fourth
said that verbal insult and physical force should be used against those wives
who disobey their order (Narayan, 1996). It is matter of public private dilemma
which cannot be dismantled. In India to safeguard the right and legal entitlement
of women, the National Commission for women was set up in the year 1990.
However years of struggle by Indian women’s movement has helped to make
domestic violence more visible and open it up for further discussion. This has
finally yield some result setting agency and Government to recognize violence
in private sphere as mentioning public concern.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 498A mention the legal proceedings
if cruelty against women happens in a household. However, this initiative has
not been up to the expectation to safeguard women’s right and “protection” in
a domestic set up. Considering this drawback in the previous law, Government
of India has come up with the recent act named Protection for women from
domestic violence (PWDVA), 2005. This act perceive domestic violence in a
holistic way, that more specifically indicate cruelty against women in whatever
reason or in whatever form will be taken as an offence and Domestic Incidence
The Effect of Domestic Violence on Maternal and Child Health 63
Report (DIR) will be filed for action and immediate protection, custody in the
form of shelter home and compensatory relief. Civil society organizations also
join hands with government for the effective implementation of this act and to
create more awareness among public.
CONTEXT
The increased level of crime against women still tip-off the lacuna in legal
provisions for women. Majority of married women face violence from their
husband and relatives. The challenge coming on the way is that domestic
violence, including sexual violence in marriage is still treated as a private
matter. Insufficient awareness of the consequences of domestic violence,
how to prevent it, and the rights of victims still exists. In the National and
International arena violence against women and related health hazard has catch-
up with some fact finding initiatives. The most convincing one is to combat the
ill practice of female genital mutilation. The support mechanism includes the
appointment of a Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital
Mutilation by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). However the
maternal and child health consequences under the effect of domestic violence
has not been taken as a corresponding issue hence difficulty encountered while
pin-down with a eye catching agenda. Domestic violence is misrepresented
and underreported as there is a notion of social acceptance still exists in family
and society.
CHALLENGES
There are enormous challenges in addressing the issues of domestic
violence in the milieu of existing law. The most common question still
goes unanswered is- why do men beat his wife?
Since “wife beating” in many societies has been justified and some form
of violence are also acceptable, it is very difficult for women to come out of
its private life situation and make it public (NFHS 3 p.71). Social attitude
creates barrier to solve this problem and counseling is a major concern through
provider’s perspective. The social system is highly ignoring the challenges of
women. Case referral of victims of domestic violence is meager in number and
at times they are not allowed to speak and less attended to their grievances.
The foremost challenge India is facing now a days in addressing domestic
violence issues on health context as there is lack of sufficient facts from the
ground which are either not reported or not many research conducted on the
similar issues. Public awareness on effect of domestic violence on maternal
and child health need to be geared up with proper facts, which still remains as
a big challenge.
We should also feel that this particular issue is no longer private issue
but a widespread problem of the society which in turn impacts to the younger
generation at large. It is also imperative to enquire more on possible health
hazards of women in particular with the help of frontline workers at grass
root level if they are being affected by domestic violence. Our schemes
and programs has recently been thinking and also acted to some extent in
introducing gender lenses in few schemes such as rural development schemes,
participation of women in different committees and raise their voices. Gender
disparity constitutes a critical yet understudied issue regarding Indian infant
and child mortality (sex selective abortion, difference in caring etc.) Since
recent data is yet to come, the NFHS round 3 (2005-06) data has been given
below to visualize the present situation.
Statistics at a Glance
• 35% of currently married women in the age group of 15-49 years have
faced spousal physical violence.
• About one out of ten currently married women have been forced by
their husbands to have sex against their will and 4% have been forced
to perform sexual acts that they did not want to perform
• Almost three out of four currently married women age 15-49 who
have ever experienced each of these acts of emotional violence have
experienced them in the past year.
• Child mortality was also 25% higher among children whose mothers
experienced spousal violence compared to those whose mothers did not
have such experience.
• Infant mortality was greater among infants whose mothers experienced
such violence (78.9 of 1000 births) vs. those whose mothers did not
experience (60.1 of 1000 births).
• While neo natal deaths were higher among boys, post natal deaths
were, higher among girls, exhibiting that gender disparity leading to
inadequate care among both genders in first year of life.
The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in a research found that women
who reported more than one instance of domestic violence in the previous
year had an 11% increased likelihood of having anemia and a 21% increased
likelihood of being underweight, as compared to women with no such history.
There are some crucial data set derived from NFHS source which shows clear
disparity of child immunization status, effect of spousal violence on women
health and participation (attached in table section).
AIM OF THE PAPER

This paper analyzed the context of domestic violence, laws related to this and
its effect on mother and child health. Secondary data source such as National
Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) and National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
data are extensively used to locate the issues. This paper is analytical in
nature.
CORE ARGUMENT
Though domestic violence does not relate to child health directly, this study
takes a concern that mother and child health are intertwine to each other, in
case where mother get victimized by domestic violence in any possible way it
automatically affect both mother and her child health.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Domestic violence is one of the most common forms of gender based violence
that compel to form uneven power relation and social status between man and
women (United Nations 2006) . In India, it is apparent from the past studies
that female birth rights are on the low. NFHS Phase I (1992-93), II (1998-
99), III (2005-06) data shows a fundamental indicator of gender inequality,
where latest female birth of 918 noted among 1000 male birth. The reason for
mortality of female while birth is the use of technology, such as ultrasound
devices, that enable to detect preferential sex selection. Social attitudes are
mostly pivotal for the preference of male child.
As per domestic violence is concerned, we take family as a unit of study. In
our society where majority of families are comes under the gamut of patriarchal
set up. The norms abide to male gender superiority, where as female gender
are objectified and considered to be a subjugated mass. Men have power
over resources, decision, its own and other bodies. The birth of male child
is glorified as he has to carry forward the cult, caste, rituals, traditional value
system, and parental property of a family. In contrast the daughter is somewhat
considered as “others-property”. Bulks of capital are kept for use in marriage
rather than investing them on education and better health care. More over the
ill practice of dowry demands while marriage of a girl has come out as a costly
affair. In marital life husband operate control over wife through dowry. Non
fulfillment of time to time dowry demands leads to domestic violence and

sometimes a severe crime of homicide for dowry. To safeguard against dowry
related offense, methods like injury surveillance should be used as public
health initiative to endow with treatment for the victims (Babu, 2010).
National Crime Record Bureau place Dowry Death under the Indian
Penal Code. The available data show the increased rate of dowry related crime
between the years 2008 to 2011 where as a 4.5% decrease during 2012. In 2007,
the total number of dowry deaths and dowry-related suicides reported in India
were 8093 and 3148, respectively. There was a 74% increase in dowry-related
deaths from1995 to 2007, while there was a 31% increase in the reporting
of dowry-related suicides.In order to check the Dowry crime, gender specific
laws such as Dowry Prohibition Act was formulated in the year 1961. The
reporting of cases under this act has increased by 36.5% during the year 2012
as compared to previous year data. Odisha stands at highest incidence of such
dowry crime cases at 7.3% as compared to 1.5% at national level (The New
Indian Express, August 03, 2013).
Percent distribution of Crime against Women-Source NCRB, GOI-2012
Apart from dowry, there are other reasons of domestic violence, where
husband solely involved in abusing wife. It can be termed more specifically as
spousal violence.
According National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), Govt. of India, the

incidence of domestic violence is increasing and its scores the chart high
in comparison to other crime against women. Out of the total percentage of
crime against women, violence by husband and relatives alone secure high of
43.6%. Recent data shows a marked increase of domestic violence cases by
7.5%. Among the Indian states, Tripura repots highest of 47.8% as compared
to national rate of 18.2%.
The higher incidence of criminal act against women also affects other
indicator. Women are also pressurized for giving birth to son. Preferential sex
selection, female fetus abortion may negatively affect both mental and physical
wellbeing of a woman.
EXPOSURE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ITS EFFECT ON

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH
To understand the severity of health risk of women who get exposed spousal
violence can be categorized under three sub-heads such as physical, emotional
and sexual violence. Slapping is one of the most common forms of physical
violence which is somewhat socially accepted. In many families wife beating
are encouraged when she failed to come as per the expectation of husband while
addressing the household responsibilities. Humiliation of wife by husband in
front of others can be placed under emotional violence. The most severe form of
threat comes under sexual violence. NFHS-3 data reveals that 81% of currently
married women between the age group of 15-49 have ever experienced sexual,
emotional and physical violence within 5 years of marriage. The women who
suffer from sexual violence are more vulnerable to emotional distress and
physical injuries. The cost of injury includes incapacitation of women, loss of
women’s labor hour, increased health-care costs for household, and increased
health care burden for the society. Statistics shows 61% of domestic violence
victimized women encounter denial by its own family member to get direct
access health care facilities. It also evident that the modern contraceptive uses
is lower in case of currently married women who experienced both physical
and sexual violence. This practice may further increase the risk of uncontrolled
child birth and sexually transmitted disease among the spouse.
The National Crime Bureau of Government of India identifies one of the
prime factor in domestic violence against women is their peripheral status in
the society. The resultant consequences are lower sex ratio, lower expectancy
of life, high infant mortality rate, high drop out in primary schooling, and
low wage rate” (NCB, 1994). In case of domestic violence it is very hard to
judge how much the children get affected directly by it. Rather we can place
children as the unseen or indirect victim of domestic violence. As we see a close
association between mother and child, when mother is health wise neglected it
some way or other affects negatively the health of her child. Statistics shows
10% to 20% of children are at risk of exposure to domestic violence (Carlson,
2000). Furthermore Alcoholism is one of the reasons to aggravate domestic
violence (NFHS3). There are maximum chances of spoiling child’s tender
psychology when a father is habituated to get drunk and abusing mother. It
is the situation where the father, mother and their child in a row health wise
affected. Exposure to parental fight and alcoholism may sometime wrongly
internalized by the child to procure him to be violent and prone to be alcoholic
in future.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, EARLY MARRIAGE, AND HEALTH ISSUES

It is evident in and across the country that early marriage of girls which
starts with the age of 15 years. As mentioned earlier the severity of domestic
violence is increased with the duration of marriage. Early pregnancy can have
harmful consequences for both young mothers and their babies. According to
UNICEF, no girl should become pregnant before the age of 18 because she is
not yet physically ready to bear children. Babies of mothers younger than 18
tend to be born premature and have low body weight; such babies are more
likely to die in the first year of life. The risk to the young mother’s own health
is also greater. Poor health is common among indigent pregnant and lactating
women.
Within a male oriented family girl child are less likely to be fully immunized
and nourished than boys. Higher proportions of children are under weight if
their mother has ever experienced spousal violence (NFHS3).
In a nutshell the effect of domestic violence on children can include physical
injury, weakness, emotional difficulties, nervousness, trauma, aggressive
and passive withdrawn behavior, alienation, psychosomatic problems and
cognitive/educational difficulties. Effect on newborn health seems to be very
profound and may result developmental regression, low motor proficiency such
as hearing impairment, delayed speech, less eye contact, hyper sensitiveness,
autism, emotional distress; failure to thrive and inability to develop secure
attachments with family members (Dodd Lynda Waren 2004).
RECOMMENDATION
India’s National population Policy has considered women empowerment for
Health and Nutrition as a crosscutting theme for overall National Development.
It is also recognized that Women empowerment in societal level can only
be possible through gender equity and vice versa. In other word Women
empowerment and Gender equity are considered as two sides of same coin.
To counter domestic violence in India, there is a need to uplift referral and
assessment team, with whom mother and child can interact and club down
their difficulties. Lodging complaint, about abuse in Women Commission
and similar organization will not solely commanding for the purpose. Social
intricacies are needed to be understood and defined, which is much different
for Indian context than other country.
Domestic violence should be considered an urgent priority under public
health programs and policies where the aim is to increase survival of children
in India, particularly maternal and child health. Simultaneously it should be
remained as high on the political and development agenda at all times.
Data Tables: Facts from NFHS

Table 1: Percentage of currently married women age 15-49 who have ever
experienced spousal physical or sexual violence by whether they agree that wife
beating is justi�ed for speci�c reasons, NFHS-3, India;
Goes out without telling him 42.8

Neglects the house or children 41.4
Argues with him 43.5
Refuses to have sex 42.7
Doesn’t cook properly 43.3
He suspects she is unfaithful 42.8
Shows disrespect for in-laws 41.5
Table 2: Percentage of women age 15-49 who are allowed to go alone to;
Market 51
Health facility 48
Places outside the village/community 38
All three places 33
None of the three places 4
Table 3: Percentage of married women participated in other household decision

making process
Own health care 62
Making major household purchases 53
Making purchases for daily household needs 60
Visit to her family or relatives 61
All four 37
Table 4: Gender disparities in children’s full Immunization
NFHS-I NFHS-II NFHS-3

BOYS 37 40 45
GIRLS 34 38 42
The proportion of male children who are fully immunized in NFHS-3 is 9%

higher than the corresponding proportion of female children; this differential
was 8% in NFHS-1 and 6% in NFHS-2.
REFERENCE
1. Babu, Gopalan, Retheesh and Bontha Veerraju Babu (2010). Dowry
deaths: a neglected public health issue in India. Web Link http://in health.
oxford journals.org (International Health).
2. BBC, 2006, India tackles Domestic violence, http://news.bbc.co.uk
3. Dodd Lynda Waren. 2004. The effect of domestic violence on mothers and
their young children and development and evaluation of group work with
these families.
4. Garcia Moreno, C., H. A. Jansen, M. Ellsberg, L. Heise, and C.H. Watts
(2006). Prevalence of intimate partner violence: Findings from the WHO
multi country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Lancet
368(9543): 1260-9
5. Hindin, M.J., S. Kishor, and D.L. Ansara. 2008. Intimate partner violence
among couples in 10 DHS countries: Predictor and Health outcomes.
DHS Analytical Studies No. 18. Calverton, Maryland, USA: Macro
International Inc.
6. Johnson Cate (1996), Domestic violence in India, Recommendation of
the women’s right team, USAID
7. Kishor S. and K. Gupta, 2009. Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment
in India. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) India 2005-06.
Mumbai: International Institute of Population Sciences; Calverton,
Maryland, USA: ICF Macro.
8. National Crime Record Bureau. Crime against Women. Government of
India, Chapter-5, P 79-88.
9. The New Indian Express, August 03, 2013.
10. United Nations (2006). Ending Violence against Women: From Words
to Action. Study of the Secretary General. Division of the Advancement
of Women. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
A/61/122/Add.1.
11. A strategic approach to Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and
adolescent health (RMNCH+A) in India, (2013). Ministry of Health &
Family Welfare, Govt. of India, January.
5
Contours of Eco-Feminism:
A Gender Justice Perspective
Shilpa Sharma
INTRODUCTION
“We invoke this Goddess Mother Aditi, in the form of Earth doing all celestial
things, benefitting us in all ways holding glorious light, following truthful
paths, never depleting, ever flourishing, vast and extended, giving all happiness
and food to all. She is our Goddess Mother. We invoke her protection. Thus
protected we are assured of our wellbeing, happiness, prosperity and safety.
We surrender to her. We are indebted to her for all foodstuffs bestowed by
her. We sing praises of Mother Earth, a self-approximated and covered by the
extended sky. Let this Mother Earth multiply our happiness three-fold”.1
The Atharva Veda commands and proclaims that Goddess Mother Aditi
was in the shape of Earth. Human-beings have been her children. They urge
her for doing all heavenly things, bringing all sorts of benefits and solicit
her protection. Her protection is an assurance of prosperity and well-being.
They have to submit to her benevolent command and in a rhythm pray to
her to multiply her benevolence for their well-being and happiness. Thus the
ancient religious texts recognized the similarities between the planet Earth and
a woman. In fact since the ancient times planet ‘Earth’ has been given the
status of ‘woman’ and referred to as ‘Mother Earth’. The Earth and Woman
have been compared as they both have the capacity to give life and nurture
and sustain life.2 This imaginable relationship between women and nature are
1 Desai, Justice Ashok A. (1998). Environmental Jurisprudence. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing
House Pvt. Ltd. p. 6.
2 Dhingra, Ritu, Eco-feminism – Women & Conservation of Nature. Retrieved from www.
legalindia.in,
3 Tollefsen, Inga B. (2011). Eco-feminism, Religion & Nature in an Indian and Global
Perspective. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review. Volume 2, Issue 1, pp.89 – 95.
manifold and diverse.3 The idea that women are, because of their womanhood,
spiritually close to nature is central to eco-feminist thought and is manifested
in many forms of nature – often in the form of worshipping the inner goddess
that resides in women.4
Eco-feminism is a movement that sees a connection between the Mother
Earth and the women. It in fact sees a connection between the exploitation
and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of
women. The Mother Nature is exploited by man for various developmental
activities and similarly the women are also exploited and oppressed by men
in the society. This idea emerged in the mid – 1970’s alongside second-wave
feminism and the green movement. Eco-feminism brings together the elements
of both the feminist and green movements, while at the same time offering
a challenge to both. It takes from the green movement a concern about the
human activities exploiting nature; and from feminism the view that the male
dominated society considers women to be secondary and hence results in their
exploitation and oppression. Women tend to take a secondary place in society
and also tend to be equated with nature, thus being on the losing end on both
fronts, and fighting the same battle against oppression. In order to prevent the
exploitation of nature as well as exploitation of women and achieve the goal
of gender justice it is very essential to understand the connection between
nature and women. It is necessary to answer some of the questions such as:
“why environment is a feminist issue” as well as “why feminist issues can be
addressed in terms of environmental concerns”.5 It is essential to understand
the relation between oppression of women and exploitation of nature and why
every feminist theory must include an ecological perspective and vice versa6.
This article attempts to trace the relation between the oppression of women
and the oppression of nature. It attempts to answer the questions that why
environmental issues are relevant for women and how gender justice can be
achieved not only by giving women equal rights and participation in society
but also by protecting the Mother Earth and preventing the exploitation of
nature. This article focuses on contours of eco-feminism and the gender justice
perspectives.
4 Id. at p.91.
5 Gaard G. (ed.) (1993). Eco-Feminism: Women, Animals & Nature, Philadelphia: Temple
University Press. p.64.
6 K, Warren. (2001). Eco-feminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What it is and Why
it Matters, Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield’s Publishers, pp.3-20.

Contours of Eco-Feminism: A Gender Justice Perspective 75
DENOTATION OF ECO-FEMINISM
Eco-feminism is an activist and academic movement that see critical
connections between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women
and in both situations there is a crying for gender justice.7 Eco-feminism is
an awareness that begins with a realization that the exploitation of nature is
due to the arrogant attitude of man towards women and tribal cultures. The
patriarch nature has still not diminished in the world. Man is still considered
to be the superior species of society and this male dominant society continues
to give women the inferior-most status and treats nature similarly as per their
convenience. It is essential to know what exactly “eco-feminism” means. Eco-
feminism is a relatively vague term that references the feminist movement of
the 1900’s being tied to the movement for the preservation of the earth. Often
times, there is a direct relationship between the earth and women i.e. “mother
earth” or “mother nature”. In order to bring the movements together and gain
some sense of respect for the women in the movement who were tied together
by the society at that time the eco-feminist movement was created.
The term ‘Eco-feminism’ or ‘Ecological feminism’ was coined in 1974
by Francoise d’ Eaubonne. It’s a philosophy and movement born from the
union of feminist and ecological thinking and the belief that the social
mentality that leads to the domination and oppression of women is directly
connected to the social mentality that leads to the abuse of the environment.
Eco-feminists argue that a strong parallel exists between the male oppression
and subordination of women in families and society and the degradation of
nature by similarly masculine attitudes and methods. Eco-feminism describes
movements and philosophies that link feminism with ecology.8 It is also a
social movement described as “value system” which offers a political view
of the links between oppression of women and environmental destruction. As
man has always been the head of the family/tribe and handles money at home,
he has always been the decision maker. Thus the basic theme of Eco-feminism
is that ecological destruction has its origins in patriarchy; nature is under threat
not from humankind but from men and the institutions of male power. The
sexual division of labour thus inclined men to subordinate both women and
nature, seeing themselves as masters of both. From this point of view, Eco-
feminism can also be classified as a particular form of social ecology.9
7 Women & life on Earth: What is Eco-feminism?. Retrieved from http://www.ecofem.org

8 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofeminism visited on 10/8/2014.
9 Ray, B.N. (2006). Political Theory – Interrogation and Interventions. Delhi: Authors Press,
pp. 625-642.
The idea that feminism offers a distinctive and valuable approach to the
environmental issues has led to the development of Eco-feminism as one of
the major philosophical schools of environmentalist thought. With the passage
of time various schools of Eco-feminist thoughts have also evolved.
SCHOOLS OF ECO-FEMINIST THOUGHT10

There are various schools of Eco-feminist thoughts which focus on different
perspectives. They are as follows:
• Feminist Environmentalist: They study gender interests in natural
resources and processes based on the different roles of men and women
in daily work and responsibilities.
• Social Feminists- They focus on the role of gender in the political economy
and analyze the impact of men and women on economic systems.
• Feminist Post Structuralism: They explain genders’ relation to the
environment as a reflection of beliefs of identity and difference such as
race, class, gender, age, and ethnicity. In this way they try to explain the
relation of gender and development.
• Liberal Feminist: They treat women as having an active role in the
environmental protection and conservation programs. This role can
become problematic. There is a common symbolism in the idea of ‘man’
pitted against nature while nature is feminized and woman is assumed to
have profound connections with her environment.
• Feminist Political Ecologist: It links feminist culture and geographical
ecology together. It argues that gender is an important factor in determining
access and control of natural resources. The access and control of natural
resources depends on class, race, culture, and ethnicity and thus gender
issues are relevant to transform the environment and to achieve the
community’s opportunities of sustainable development.
Though Eco-feminism is emerging as an school of thought in environmental
protection as well as gender justice movement, it is not free from drawbacks
and there are various criticisms against it.
ECO-FEMINISM: DRAWBACKS AND CRITICISMS

The ideas of Eco-feminism and the dangers in such thinking have been pointed
10 Das, P. G. (2009). Modern Political Theory. New Delhi: Central Book Agency (P) Ltd., pp.
47 – 57.
out by various feminist scholars, such as Cecile Jackson,11 Janet Biehl,12

Meera Nanda13 and Bina Agarwal.14 They have pointed out, this eco feminist
perspective is “ethnocentric, essentialist, blind to class, ethnicity and other
differentiating cleavages, historical in approach and neglects the material
sphere”. Eco feminist literature portrays the historical exploitation and
domination of women and nature as going hand in hand, and both are seen as
victims of development. It is taken as self-evident that any harm to nature harms
women equally, since women are seen as closer to nature than men. However
none of the eco-feminist literature attempts to establish this linkage through
concrete evidence or strong argument. Thus the basic idea of Eco-feminism
is very subjective and unreliable and considers the domination of women and
nature mainly in ideology. Thus it neglects the “interrelated material sources
of dominance based on economic advantage and political power”15 as well
as the gender division of labour and distribution of opportunity. These eco
feminist images of women in fact “retain the patriarchal stereotypes of what
men expect women to be. “They freeze women as merely caring and nurturing
beings instead of expanding the full range of their potentialities and abilities.16
The use of metaphors such as ‘women as nurturing – like the earth’ and the
‘earth as female’ are regressive rather than liberating women”.17 They only
reinforce stereotypes images of men and women in the society.
It is also criticized that eco-feminism considers women as a homogeneous
category, both within countries and across nations. It “fails to differentiate
among women by class, race, and ethnicity and so on”. Eco-feminism ignores
the fact that the concepts of nature, culture and gender are “historically and
socially constructed and vary across different countries and societies and also
vary within the cultures and time periods”18. Eco feminist essentialism fails
to put forward any account of historical change in society, Critics like Susan
Prentice19 argue that emphasizing the special relationship of women with nature
11 Jackson, C. (1993). Women/Nature or Gender/History ? A Critique of Eco-feminist

Development, The Journal of Peasant Studies. 20, 3, April, pp. 384 - 419.
12 Biehl, J. (1991). Rethinking Eco-feminist Politics. Boston: South End Press at. p.113.
13 Nanda, M. (1991). Is Modern Science a Western patriarchal Myth? A Critique of the Populist
Orthodoxy. South Asian Bulletein. Vol. II, pp.1-2.

14 Agarwal, B. (1992) The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India. Feminist
Studies. 18, 1, Spring, pp.119-158.

15 Id. at p.122.
16 Biehl, J. (1991). Rethinking Eco-feminist Politics. Boston: South End Press. p.115.
17 Supra at P. 117.
18 Infra 22 at 33.
19 Prentice, S. (1998). Taking Sides: What’s Wrong with Eco-feminism?, Women &
Environments,” pp. 9-10.

and politics imply that what men do to the earth is bad, unlike women, thereby
ignoring the fact that men too can develop an ethic of caring for nature. It also
fails to analyze capitalism and its domination of nature. Though the basic ideas
of eco-feminism are criticized, it cannot be denied that there is some truth in
the relation between nature and women and the ideas of eco-feminism have
relevance in the contemporary times.
ECO-FEMINISM: IMPORTANCE
Women are great conservators of nature and environment by birth. In many
cultures, women have historically held the primary role of making food,
arranging fuel and water for their families and communities. As women
are closely related to their surroundings they have played a major role in
trying to protect their surroundings. They have tried to prevent or undo the
effects of deforestation, desertification and water pollution. Eco-feminism
is a joining of environmental, feminist and women’s spirituality concerns.
As the environmental movement along with environmental crisis raised the
consciousness of women to the destruction of earth and natural resources,
the women began to see a parallel between the devaluation of earth and the
devaluation of women. Women began to see the link as not a false construction
of weakness but as strong unifying force that clarified the violation of women
and the earth as part of same drama of male control. This movement applies
feminist principles and ideas to ecological issues. It is a term used to address
integrate relationship between feminist and environmental perspectives. The
eco-feminism form is an intellectual foundation of ecology and feminism, which
focuses on issues such as women’s rights, ecological and gender justice.
Eco-feminist believes that the oppression of women is a form of social
domination by men and they identify this practice in relationship with the
oppression of nature since the two have been systematically oppressed.20 The
goal of the eco-feminist movement is to develop alternative non-dominating
solutions that will value, celebrate and defend both women and nature. Humans
should not try to control nature, but work along with it and must try to move
beyond power-based relationships. Importance should also be given to the
process rather than only the goal. Similarly men should not try to control and
subjugate women but work along with them and allow women to express her
ideas and participate in the decision making process. Thus eco-feminism has
a gender justice perspective and emphasizes that the female sphere is just as
20 K, Warren. (2001). Eco-feminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What it is and Why

it Matters, Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield’s Publishers.
important and applicable as the male sphere. One needs to change the patriarchal
nature of the system by withdrawing power and energy from patriarchy.
Eco-feminist theory has brought into focus the links between development,
environment and gender. It has highlighted the fact that the violence against
nature and against women is built into the dominant development model.
The various schools of Eco-feminist thoughts focus on the different aspects
related to women. For example, some Eco-feminists focus on the material
conditions of women in their day to day life and locate the source of domination
in patriarchal capitalism. As men are considered to be the heroes of their family
and are in possession of the finances and property the patriarchal capitalism
means that the head of the family deals with the economic system of the house
and controls the capital in his hands. Another school of spiritually-oriented
Eco-feminists seek to celebrate women and their association with nature as
a source of strength, power and virtue. They argue that human relation with
nature has vast political and structural implications.
The views with respect to the reasons for oppression of women and
destruction of nature thus differ amongst the eco-feminists. These Eco-
feminists wish to break the chain that has been created around women and the
environment. Thus the significance of Eco-feminism is that it works in favor
of women and environment and can be a movement for protecting nature and
women’s rights and achieving gender justice.
ECO-FEMINISM: HISTORY
Eco-feminism emerged in the West as a product of the peace, feminist and
Ecology movements of the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The term “Eco
feminism” was coined by the French writer Francoise of ‘Eaubonne in
1974. It was further developed by Ynestra King in about 1976 and became
a movement in 1980, with the organization, in the same year of the first eco-
feminist conference – “Women and Life on Earth: Eco Feminism in the 80s”
at Amherst, Massachusetts, US.21 This conference explored the connections
between feminism, militarism, health and ecology. It was followed by the
formation of the Women’s Pentagon Action, a feminist, anti-militarist, anti-
nuclear war weapons group. According to eco-feminist, Ynestra King: “Eco
feminism is about connectedness and wholeness of theory and practice… it
sees the devastation of the earth and her beings by the corporate warriors and
the threat of nuclear annihilation by the military warriors as feminist.22
21 Philips, A. (1987). Introduction’ in feminism & Equality. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 17.
22 Pathan, Feroz. (2013). Need of a Stronger Eco-feminist Movement. Hyderabad: Asia Law
House. pp. 27 – 34.
The historical accounts show that prehistoric era which centered on goddess
worship, was dethroned by an emerging patriarchal culture with male gods
to whom the female deities were subservient. Nature was further degraded
by the scientific revolution of the 17th century that replaced the nurturing
earth with the metaphor of a machine to be controlled and repaired outside.
The earth is to be dominated by male developed and controlled technology,
science and industry. The women were restricted because of their ability to
bear children and role in nurturing and rearing children. Thus the women were
closer to nature. In fact, women’s biology and nature are seen as sources of
female power to be celebrated.23 There is an implicit belief that the past was
a time when people lived in balance with nature. People were forced because
of lives directly linked to the earth to value it and its resources. The coming of
development broke that link for many and the earth’s resources were exploited
and the earth was wasted.
After the beginning of the environmental movement in the early 1970’s
clashes among feminists and other social justice movements emerged. The
feminists that took interests in these movements explored how oppressions
were linked together through gender, race, class and ecology as well as species
and ideas of nationhood. Women indulged in efforts to protect wildlife in the
late 19th century. Susan A. Mann, an eco-feminist and professor of sociological
and feminist theory consider the roles women played in these activisms to be
the starter for Eco-feminism in later centuries.24 Many authors wrote many
articles on this topic and the topic started getting attention required. Some
texts were Women and Nature (Susan Griffin 1978), The Death of Nature
(Carolyn Merchant 1980) and Gyn/Ecology (Mary Daly 1978). These texts
helped to boost the association between domination by man on women and the
domination of culture on nature. By the end of the decade Eco-feminism had
spread worldwide.25 However in the 1990’s, the advancing theories in Eco-
feminism began to be seen as essentialist views.
The 1990s is one of the most criticized phases. The exploitation continues
into the present, especially in our throw-away society. It still continued to
reinforce patriarchal dominance. By 21st century Eco-feminism became
23 Merchant, C. (1992). Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World, Revolutionary
Thought/Radical Movements. New York: Routledge. p. 63-88.
24 Mann, Susan A. (2011). Pioneers of U.S. Eco-feminism & Environmental Justice. Feminist
Formations. pp. 23-77.

25 Gaard, G. (2011). Eco-feminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-placing species
in a Material feminist Environmentalism. Feminist Formations. Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer)

pp. 26–53.
aware of criticisms and with all the facts started doing research and renaming
the topic, i.e. queers ecology, global feminist environmental justice and
gender environment. Some other environmental issues by 21st century were
eco-justice, environment and climate justice into theoretical thought as the
environment is at the head of global issues. However in developing countries
the situation remains the same without any improvement. The speed to develop
earth has itself put earth at the edge of crisis.26
One can see the efforts of some brave women who tried their best to
protect the environment and create an awareness about the need to prevent
environment exploitation..For eg: In India in 1974, a group of about thirty
women in the Himalayas of Northern India united to save more than 10,000
square miles of forest watershed. Deforestation in the Himalayan forests had
caused landslides, flooding and major soil erosion and had forced women
villagers to hike further up the mountains to gather fuel. Now known as the
Chipko Movement, Hindi for “to cling,” the name reflected the protesters’
practice of throwing their arms around the trunks of trees marked for chopping
and refusing to move. This practice and term later became popular in other
areas of the world and was popularly called “tree-hugging”.27
Only a few years later, an eco-feminist movement in Kenya also
embraced the importance of trees. The Green Belt Movement started as a local
community tree planting effort. The group of women addressed the lack of
local water, the effects of soil erosion and the rising challenges caused by their
area’s deforestation. As with the women in India, the women of the Green
Belt Movement recognized that by protecting and replenishing their natural
environment, they were also laying the groundwork toward equitable economic
development.28
Many hands together have worked towards eco-feminist movement. They
have developed and nurtured this movement by various ideas and writings.
Some names quoted here are of feminist thinkers, including Susan Griffin,
Carolyn Merchant, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Ynestra King, Ariel Salleh,
and Vandana Shiva. They vary in thoughts but share a common ground and a
common motive and goal.
While eco-feminism seeks to end all forms of oppression, including
racism, classism, and the abuse of nature, its focus is on gender bias, which
26 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofeminism.

27 The chipko movement as a case study of Eco-feminism. Retrieved from http://ecological
feminism.wordpress.com visited on 7/18/2014.
28 Supra n. 2 at p.2.
eco-feminists claim has dominated western culture and led to a patriarchal,

masculine value-oriented hierarchy. This framework is a socially constructed
mindset that shapes our beliefs, attitudes, values, and assumptions about
ourselves and the natural world.
ECO-FEMINISM: INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO

Eco-feminism emerged in the West as a product of the peace, feminist and
ecology movements of the late 70s and the early 80s. It was meant to describe
how the human race could be saved by women initiating an ecological
revolution as a way to counter the oppression of women that is one and the
same as the oppression and destruction of nature. Globalization of all aspects
of environment has begun to shift the momentum in Eco-feminism as well.
Women Healing Earth: third world women on ecology, feminism and religion
provide insight into Latin American, Asian and African Eco-feminism. Reuther
notes that while Eco-feminism is not a “movement” in these large geographical
areas, the global dialogue inspired by connections between the oppression of
women and nature needs to be recognized. The contributors are all local/global
activists and their work speaks to the globalization of Eco-feminism.
Some International Highlights

• The con-spirando collective and Chile collaborated with Reuther in
developing the volume, con-spirando translated as “breathing with” or
spiritual conspiracy” tries to weave a network of women throughout
Latin America who are interested in feminist theology, spirituality and
Eco-feminism” while also holding women’s rituals.
• This collective publishes a magazine by the same name and operates a
women’s center in Santiago in addition to focusing specifically on eco-
feminist activisms and analyzes.
• Victoria Tauli – Corpz, from the tribal community of the Igorots in the
Philippines, reflects on the spiritual links between women and nature in
Igorot culture. Sara Mvudud, with the women and law in southern Africa
research project in Zimbabwe claims that “gender is also fundamental
in understanding human interaction with the environment and respect to
natural resources.
• Anti-militarist movement in Europe and the US, movement against
dumping of hazardous wastes in the US, and Green Belt movement in
Kenya, are all labelled as “eco-feminist” movements. These movements
demonstrate “resistance politics” and point the connections between

women and nature.
Globalization requires the integration of local and subsistence based economies
into a global market subsuming ‘local’ interest to a ‘global’ interest which is
clearly specific interest and not a universal one at all. The changing environment
of the nation is a big challenge. According to globalization it is founded that
the nation will get smaller in size as time progresses. The power of the nation
exists to only control the ‘functions’ such as the police, taxes etc. The freedom
of trade, information and cultural flows will create a “global village” in which
individuals are global citizens rather than nationals.
Many eco-feminists have noted, it is important to untangle the public
concerns related to globalization from the real changes that are occurring
internationally. At this time, multi-nationals are becoming increasingly
powerful and the role of the nation is changing. We must remember that
globalization is a challenging concept.
Vandana Shiva explores the changing concepts of State in India as
an example of the impacts of capitalism and globalization on subsistence
communities in the South. Shiva states that the concept of ‘motherland’ –
rooted in the soil as an image of sacred life and creation, the feminine – was
the traditional organising symbol in India. It was replaced by ‘Mother India’ as
a focus of resistance in the fight against colonization by British in 1940’s. The
subsequent drive for ‘development’ replaced the image of mother or feminine
strength with the state itself as a patriarchal leader.
Eco-feminists are critical of both the institution of the state and its role
in globalization due to its function in a patriarchal economy. As the state is
so significantly tied to identity and political participation the changing nation
state, never a holistic institution to begin with, has been important in the rise of
nationalist disintegration and violence. Ultimately, however, eco-feminists are
unsure about the future of nation advocating new/old concepts of independence,
in which people are economically, socially and spiritually embedded in the
land that they live on and therefore in nature.
ECO-FEMINISM: APPLICATION IN INDIA

Today, in India, women’s and ecological movements are among the rapidly
growing concerns and their ideologies have come to pervade the development
discourse as never before. Both are relatively recent developments, by and
large, though their organs in modern times may be traced back to the Indian
Renaissance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both have come to a head
in the 1970s and gathered momentum by the 1980s onwards. Modernization

under external, mainly Western, impact appears to have been the catalyst in
giving rise to both these concerns in modern times. It is another matter that
ideally a much faster rate of change is called for the emancipation of women
from male dominated society and for freeing the nature from industrial and
sociological assault.29
A large and growing body of literature on Eco-feminism in the west
relates gender and environment mainly in ideological terms. In India, however
growing protests against environmental destruction and struggles for survival
and subsistence pointing to the fact that caste, class and gender issues are
deeply interlinked. Eco-feminist literature portrays the historical exploitation
and domination of women and nature as going hand in hand and both are
seen as victims of development. It is self-evident that any harm to nature
harms women equally, since women are seen as closer to nature than men. The
patriarchal stereotypes of what men expect women to be; they freeze women
as merely caring and nurturing beings instead of expanding the full range of
women’s human potentialities and abilities.30
In India, the most visible advocate of Eco-feminism is Vandana Shiva.
Her work is categorized with the eco-feminists of the radical approach but her
critique of the entire development model and its effects on the environment,
places her more among the eco-feminists of the socialist framework.31
As social and economic conditions intertwine with the growth of
industrialized areas, environmental challenges have become a debatable issue
in political arenas. Due to dwindling resources and the mounting research on
the human impact on the environment, government leaders are faced with
the challenge to answer how to strike a balance between human rights and
environmental protection with politics of a capitalist global market and power
within the system. The United Nations Environment Programme has stated
that the new future of human rights and environment is the “awareness of
how fundamental the environment is as a prerequisite to the enjoyment of
human rights”. However, as Yayo Herrero notes, globalization for the sake of
profit has lead to “the poverty of women and indigenous cultures, who are the
first victims of the destruction of nature”, and globalization and the state of
women must be critiqued for the future of gender and environmental equality.
29 Singh, M.P. & Saxena, Rekha. (2011). Indian Politics – Constitutional Foundations &
Institutional Functioning. New Delhi: PHI learning Pvt. Ltd. p.335.
30 Sharma, K. (1992). Contemporary Women’s Movement in India: Its Dialectics and
Dilemmas. The Indian Journal of Social Science. 6, 1, pp. 30- .65.

31 See, Supra note at 53.
This viewpoint is shared by the movement and ideas of eco-feminists such as

Vandana Shiva, Judith Plant, and Carol Adams.
Although eco-feminism has over 30 years of literature and activism,
the academic realm has given more room for the expansion of other areas
within feminist theory, especially in Western culture, which has led to a lack
of conversation around the connection of sustainable ideas and feminism as a
keystone for global gender equality. After all, the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) explains in the State of the World’s Population report, 2009,
“Women, particularly those in poor countries will be affected differently than
men. They are among the most vulnerable to climate change, partly because
in many countries they make up the larger share of the agricultural work
force and partly because they tend to have access to fewer income-earning
opportunities. Women manage households and care for family members,
which often limits their mobility and increases their vulnerability to sudden
weather-related natural disasters. Drought and erratic rainfall force women to
work harder to secure food, water and energy for their homes. Girls drop out
of school to help their mothers with these tasks. This cycle of deprivation,
poverty and inequality undermines the social capital needed to deal effectively
with climate change”.32
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND ECO-FEMINISM: CASES AND

EXAMPLES
Eco-feminism grows from the idea that women and nature are closer and in
sync compared to a man. The eco-feminist believes that women have equal
right on natural resources; however women do not have any control on these
natural resources. The history of woman’s land right in India and other country
of South Asia has been and will continue to be a history of contestation
and struggle at every level i.e. legal administrative, social and ideological.
Cultivated land, forest and water are, and will be the most crucial form of
property in rural India.
The two major cases mentioned hereby are:

1. The Bodh Gaya peasant movement initiated in 1978.
2. Ganga Mukti movement launched in 1982, in Bihar.
32 Datar, C. (2011). Eco-feminism Revisited: Introduction to the Discourse, Jaipur: Rawat

Publications. p. 63.
These cases can be well related with women empowerment and eco-
feminism.
• The Bodh Gaya land movement: This was the first land struggle in South
Asia in which land interest of women were taken into account and carried
forward with success. At last they would get equal right on the land
released from the Math. It raised gender consciousness in the region.
• Ganga Mukti movement: This movement has been waging non-violent
battle against monopoly of water lords over Ganga water and for acquiring
fishing rights. They succeeded in getting fishing rights in Ganga along
with all rivers passing through the state and 80 km. area of catchment of
Ganga was freed from water lords.
The Bodh Gaya movements, as well as Ganga Mukti movement were
revolutionary movements that initiated a process in which women were both
subject of change and agent of change. The women articulated both their gender
and class interest in group. Though eco-feminism has not yet developed into
an independent social movement in India but in the light of above observation
we can see it happening at grassroots level through women empowerment.
It also proves symbiotic relationship between eco-feminism and women
empowerment. Another very important movement is the Chipko movement
of the 1970s.33
The emergence of Indian environmental movement can perhaps be dated
to 1973 when the famous Chipko movement began in Garhwal Himalayas;
where women struggled for the protection and regeneration of the forests.
These women organized a non-violent movement on the footsteps of Gandhian
resistance methods, calling themselves CHIPKO, which means tree hugger”
in Hindi. Forest conflicts go back to British times. It continued even in post-
independence period. This movement spread rapidly to different villages. The
movement was largely carried by women. Chipko Movement is developing
global perspective on the role of male domination in the exploitation of women
and nature.
Another very important movement of India was Narmada Bachao
Andolan. Like Chipko this movement also has gained global publicity.
The Narmada Valley Project the work on which started in the mid 1950s
comprises 31 major dams, 135 medium dams and 3000 minor dams spread
over the State of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Among the
33 Jain, S. (1984). Women and People’s Ecological Movement: Study of Women’s Role in the
Chipko Movement in U.P. Economic & Political Weekly,19 ,13 october 1984 at p. 36.
largest such projects globally, it has given rise to perhaps the most sustained
and controversial movements against ecological and sociological damages
caused by such big dams in India since the Silent River Valley Project in Kerala
stirred up popular protests in the 1970s. Incidentally, the BhakaraNangal and
HeeraKud dams in Punjab and Orissa in the Nehru era had escaped such social
protests presumably because of the first flush of modernist enthusiasm in favour
of these “new temples of development” planned by the post independence
Indian State. Popular protests have also marked the completion of the Tehri
dam in Uttarakhand that caused displacement of thousands of people from
their homes and hearths including the submersion of the entire town of Tehri
in the year 2005.34
In October 2010, the NBA which is often credited with having introduced
an alternative development discourse in India celebrated its 25 years as India’s
largest organized protest movement against the construction of big dams and
the displacement of people. This Gandhian nonviolent movement could not
stop the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. But it did force the states
concerned Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to address the issue of
rehabilitation of the displaced more seriously that before. Its campaign also
led to the international financial agencies like the World Bank and USAID
to withdraw funding for the project. The movement transcended caste and
community divisions, mobilized women in large numbers, but the anti dam
protestors were often divided along party lines of Congress and BJP. They
failed to stem the tide of Maoist violence among the tribal communities. In
answer to the critique that the movement was an anti dam phenomenon alone,
Medha Patkar, the moving spirit of the movement advocates the concept of a
peoples parliament, a platform against globalization and communalism and
for ecological democracy and sustained development.35 There are many such
movements carried out nationally and internationally.
CONCLUSION
At the outset, movements all over the world that are dedicated to the protection
of nature and continuation of life on earth, like the Chipko movement in India,
Anti-Militarist movement in Europe and the US, movement against dumping
of hazardous wastes in the US, and Green Belt Movement in Kenya, are all
labeled as “eco feminist” movements. These movements attempt to demonstrate
34 Mahaprashasta, Ajoy Ashiwad. (2010). Movements: Call of the River. Frontline, November
19, pp. 29-32.
35 Supra n. 29 at p. 340.
the ‘resistance politics”36 working at the micro-levels of power and point to the
connections between women and nature. They also claim to contribute to an
understanding of the interconnections between the domination of persons and
nature by sex, race and class.37 These new phenomena do operate as identity
networks offering a philosophy for living. The focus is on raising a collective
consciousness in order to fundamentally change the structure of the world.
This is a new form of action which operates entirely at the symbolic level, and
there are many such groups within the larger structure of the environmental
movement.38 The term eco-feminism thus has various gender perspective to it,
in fact can be a movement for protecting the mother nature as well as women
rights and preventing the exploitation of both nature and women by men.
The eco-feminism movement and its different schools of thought help
to uncover various meanings of relation between women and environment
and understand how they operate within the movement. The result is a better
understanding of what eco-feminism is and the level at which it operates
for those who identify with it. It also provides a view into how other such
movements may operate as identity and consciousness for women. This also
encourages public awareness which is very important for improvement in area
of eco-feminism.39
Eco-feminism has strengths in its ability to highlight the impacts of
globalization and their significance, particularly with respect to its impacts
on women and children and on cultural and biological diversity. However its
weakness is in analyzing the causes of globalization. Men are also exploited
and damaged under capitalism. Even when eco-feminists address essentialism
that may linger in their dialogue, so that men are not simply ‘bad’ or destructive
by their nature, eco-feminists imply that men are spiritually marginalized and
separated from nature through their experience. Women are hurt most by the
exploitation of the earth because they are the most weak in patriarchal society.
The main focus is on women who are more at risk because they suffer double
oppression of poverty, race, education, or nation. One such group that this
vision recognizes as primary victims of exploitation is women in developing
countries.
36 Quinby, L. (1990). Eco-feminism and the Politics of Resistance. California: Random House.
p, 92.
37 Rao, Manisha. (2012). Eco- feminism at the Crossroads in India: A Review, DEPn.20/2012..
Retrieved from http://www.unive.it/media/allegato/dep/n-20-2012/Ricerche/casi/11_Rao_

Ecofeminism-pdf.
38 Brammer, Leila R. & Adolphus, Gustavus. Ecofeminism, The Environment & Social
Movements. Retrieved from http://homepages gac.edu/2 Ibrammer/Ecofeminism.

39 Ibid.
Respect for women is the most talked about issue from ages, but women are
continued to be disregarded in every area; domestically, at office work, in rural
and urban areas, at educational institutes and many other areas globally. Even
today we hear about inhuman behavior of men towards women. “Charity begins
at home” it applies so well over here. We as humans need to imbibe values in
our children from childhood. There is nothing to be ashamed of. We need to be
transparent towards our kids so that they are introduced to biological changes
through us and not from the wrong sources. Educative learning stays inside and
controls a person. Illiteracy is the main cause behind the crime scene. People
end up with wrong actions to explore new things. The example which can be
quoted here is rape of a woman. This is the burning issue in India currently and
no stringent measures are still taken. Thus correct principals and values has
to be fed in a human right from birth whether men or women. It is high time
now. The same is with nature. Nature needs to be respected. Global warming
is another burning issue which is slowly eating earth. There will be nothing
left for our kids in the future. Global warming is slowly eating up earth. Strict
measures have to be taken to save our mother earth. Thereby eco-feminist and
their movements have started making a difference but their journey is a long
way which they will achieve only through cooperation of humans.
SUGGESTIONS
The future is dependent upon all adopting this strategy of living with the Earth.
We can fit into the ecosystem by recycling resources and utilizing renewable
resources in this world full of scarcity of resources. This can only come about
through a total change in consciousness. This vision, like the others, promotes
an entirely new way of life. It is necessary to develop in a democratic society,
a society that would be based on the full participation and involvement of
women and men in the process of adaptation and thus in the maintenance of
healthy ecosystems. Disputes would be solved on this basis. As a result, this
society would operate on the basis of what is best for the whole of society.
The issue of environment needs to be taken up by the women’s movement
strongly. There is need of uniting the demands of women’s movements with
those of ecological movements more strongly to further the Eco-feminist
movement practically. Eco critical theory needs to adopt more tangibly
applicable strategies like those found within Eco Feminism. Regretfully,
Women’s movement to a large extent has been pre-occupied with issues of
urban based women. It would be in fact become broader based if the category
‘woman’ was not treated as homogeneous and environmental issues relating to
women of different regions, classes, and castes were taken up.
6
A Critical Study of Rights of Women Workers

and Gender Equality: With Special Reference to
Role of International Labour Organization (ILO)
Asha Verma
INTRODUCTION
The Preamble of ILO’s Constitution of 1919 declares universal and lasting peace
can develop only on the basis of social justice. Even at that time, immediately
after the First World War, the protection of women and the principle of equal
pay for equal work were highlighted as areas calling for immediate action.
At Philadelphia Declaration in 1944, the International Labour Conference
adopted a Declaration, now an annex to the Constitution, which proclaims that
“all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue
both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of
freedom and individual dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity”.
The Declaration also states that “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to
prosperity everywhere”. The ILO through its principles promotes equality and
social justice. While constantly adhering to this goal, the approach has changed
considerably, in response to the evolving roles of women and men in society.
Perceptions of the “traditional” share of paid labour and unpaid family or care
work have been, and are still, undergoing remarkable changes. The ILO has
not only reacted to those societal changes but has also taken a prominent role in
ensuring equality in the world of work. It does this through promoting gender
equality through international labour standards; advocating for measurable
progress toward gender equality with its constituents (governments, employers
and workers’ organizations) and in its own structures and processes;
• Promoting gender equality through technical cooperation around the
world; and
• Promoting gender equality through the management, dissemination and
sharing of relevant knowledge.
It is extremely important to increase knowledge of the legal aspects of gender

equality in the world of work. While legal instruments for promoting gender
equality and protecting women workers’ rights are steadily increasing in
number and being improved at both national and international levels, there
is still a huge gap between the rights set out in national and international
standards and their implementation in real situations. Even the best legal
provisions cannot be of much use if they are not known and implemented.
People need knowledge and awareness about legal rights and the machinery to
enforce them if they are to combat discrimination and fight for a fair balance
of opportunity, treatment, pay and representation between men and women
in all areas of paid and unpaid employment and in work-related decision-
making. However, major problem lies because of unawareness amongst the
workers regarding their rights, and this is perhaps the greatest obstacle to their
exercising those rights. The International Labour Organization has adopted two
important instruments for ensuring accountability on gender equality in recent
years. They are the most recent resolution on gender equality, pay equity and
maternity protection, adopted in the year 2004.
International Labour Conference and calling for more active contribution
to eliminating gender discrimination and promoting gender equality, and a
Decision, taken by the ILO’s Governing Body in March 2005, making gender
mainstreaming obligatory in all the ILO’s technical cooperation activities.
Emphasis on gender equality in technical cooperation was reinforced in the
2006 ILC Resolution and Conclusions on technical cooperation, which says
that the ILO should “actively promote mainstreaming of gender equality in
donor partnership agreements” Social dialogue, typifying the ILO’s inclusive
approach to all its work, also underpins gender equality by recognizing the
need for women and men to have equality in the world of work.
RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will be relevant to understand the intricacies of women worker’s
rights in India. It will emphasize on the pertinent role of ILO in ensuring
rights to the women and to bring gender equality in terms of employment and
how far the existing legislations are competent to bring gender equality.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The principle of gender equality is emphatically enshrined in the Indian
Constitution in the Preamble itself, and Fundamental Rights, Fundamental
A Critical Study of Rights of Women Workers and Gender Equality 93
Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only guarantees

equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive
discrimination in favour of women. Within the framework of a democratic
polity, our laws, development policies, Plans and programmes have aimed at
empowerment of women in different spheres. From the Fifth Five Year Plan
(1974-78) onwards has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues
from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women
has been recognized as the central issue in determining the status of women.
The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament
in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. The 73rd
and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for
reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for
women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making
at the local levels. After all these efforts and role of I LO in ensuring gender
equality still we can that there is a huge gap. Still women workers are deprived
of equality in terms of employment.
OBJECTIVES
(i) To study and analyze the International conventions and recommendations
relating to women workers.
(ii) To understand the existing labour legislations ensuring gender equality
and critically analyze them.
(iii) To critically evaluate the gender bias in Indian industries.
METHODOLOGY
The research is doctrinal in nature based on the secondary sources. The major
data source for this paper is the documents related to International Labour
organization conventions and recommendations and Annual Survey of
Industries (ASI) of different years..
HYPOTHESIS
The study reflects that although the ILO and the existing labour legislations
have made an attempt to reduce the gender inequality in Indian industries but
still there is inefficiency on the implementation part.
THE EFFICACY OF INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONVENTIONS

AND RECOMMENDATIONS
International labour standards are primarily tools for governments which are
seeking to draft and implement labour law and social policy, in consultation
with employers’ and workers’ organizations, to acceptable international norms.
They prescribe, among other things, minimum working conditions and the
principle of non-discrimination in its many aspects, and are usually designed
for all workers irrespective of their sex, ethnicity, physical ability, or other
attributes.
Conventions are international treaties open to ratification by ILO member
States. Ratification means that a country undertakes to apply the provisions of
the ratified Convention in law and practice, and to submit to regular international
supervision on the extent of application. Ratifying countries must provide
regular reports to the ILO on the measures taken to implement the Convention,
and must accept the ILO’s supervision of compliance. If a Convention is not yet
ratified by a member State, it represents a goal to be reached. In fact, millions
of workers benefit from national laws that are influenced by ILO Conventions
even when the country has not (yet) ratified them.
Recommendations set non-binding guidelines to orient national policy
and practice which may be used as a source of inspiration or interpretation.
They may supplement the provisions contained in a parallel Convention on
the same issue. ILO Conventions and Recommendations are adopted by the
Annual International Labour Conference. National delegations of government,
workers’ and employers’ representatives meet annually in Geneva to discuss,
adopt and supervise standards governing the world of labour.
Countries who have ratified a Convention must implement it. They should
repeal any statutory provisions and modify any administrative instructions
or procedures that are inconsistent with the Convention. The governments of
States which have ratified a Convention report regularly to the Committee of
Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR)
on its application in law and in practice. Workers’ and employers’ organizations
have the right to submit information as well. In countries which have ratified
the Tripartite Consultation Convention, 1976 (No. 144), the social partners
should all be consulted before government replies, proposals or reports are sent
to the CEACR. The report of the CEACR, an independent body, is discussed
in the tripartite Committee on the Application of Standards at the International
Labour Conference. Shortcomings are pointed out and governments are offered
technical assistance to correct them. Promoting the ratification and proper
application of the Conventions and Recommendations is a key activity of the
ILO. In particular, the promotion of the key standards for gender equality is a
central responsibility of the ILO’s Bureau for Gender Equality.
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR STANDARDS ON GENDER EQUALITY

Labour standards deals with gender equality in different ways. Some are
referring specifically to gender equality or non-discrimination, women,
or men, e.g. the Conventions on equal remuneration between women and
men 1951 (No. 100), maternity protection, 2000 (No. 183), termination of
employment, 1982 (No. 158), and employment policy, 1964 (No. 122). Others
are gender-sensitive – standards whose provisions by their nature take
into account women’s and men’s needs but do not mention men and women
explicitly, e.g. the Conventions on workers with family responsibilities, 1981
(No. 156), elimination of the worst forms of child labour, 1999 (No. 182),
part-time workers, 1994 (No. 175) and home workers, 1996 (No. 177), and
a range of standards dealing with working conditions such as safety, security
and transport. The fundamental Convention No. 111 spans these two groups,
since it addresses discrimination and therefore gender equality but is not
exclusively about gender based discrimination. A third group of Conventions
comprises technical standards whose texts are fairly neutral but which may
have gender specificities in their application, for instance in the collection and
use of statistics. They include areas such as payment of wages, occupational
accidents and injuries, hours of work, and social security.
An important strategy used by the ILO to achieve the global goal of decent
work is to promote the ratification and application of the labour standards
relevant to equality. The four key equality Conventions are of particular
importance, but other Conventions and Recommendations relevant to gender
equality, such as those related to employment promotion, working conditions,
and migrant workers, are also promoted. It is also important to note that
the promotion of standards with obvious gender equality aspects in no way
precludes the promotion of equality in the application of standards which are
not specifically gender-related.
GENDER EQUALITY AS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT

Since the 1990s, the concept of a human-rights-based approach to development
has gained importance and offers a normative framework which is very relevant
in the present context. The rights-based approach naturally includes eliminating
all forms of discrimination. This means that all ILO member States have an
obligation, arising from the very fact of their membership, to respect, promote
and realize the principles concerning these fundamental rights. The ILO has
designated eight Conventions as embodying these fundamental principles
and rights. Two of these have the specific aim of promoting gender equality:
Conventions No. 100 and No. 111.1
The protection and promotion of equality between women and men are
recognized as fundamental concepts in the major international human rights
instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948);
the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966); the Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979)
and its Optional Protocol of 1999; the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989); the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all
Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (1990); the UN Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993); the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action (1995) and its follow-up; the Millennium Development
Goals; and, most recently, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
disabilities, adopted by the Plenary of the General Assembly on 13 December
2006. Such provisions are also binding on States which have not ratified specific
ILO instruments but have ratified these more general international standards.
Many of the treaty bodies established to monitor compliance with the UN
instruments have in their regular reporting paid special attention to gender
issues, and indeed have mainstreamed gender equality in their questions to
States Parties.
As well as international instruments, national human rights machineries,
including commissions for equality and equal opportunities, are valuable
instruments for winning and protecting equal rights in the world of work. They
exist in many countries. In South Africa, for example, the South African Human
Rights Commission (SAHRC), created under section 189 of the Constitution,
has successfully taken a high profile especially on discrimination issues. The
SAHRC exists alongside a national Commission on Gender Equality, also
established by the Constitution (section 187). Some have argued that the
parallel existence of these two bodies could result in women’s rights being
marginalized, and accordingly there have been several efforts to coordinate
their work. Carrying that trend further, the United Kingdom’s Equality Act of
1 The four key ILO gender equality Conventions are the Equal Remuneration Convention
(No. 100), Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111), Workers
with Family Responsibilities Convention (No. 156) and Maternity Protection Convention
(No. 183). Conventions 100 and 111 are also among the eight fundamental Conventions of
the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
2006 – the precursor to a promised Single Equality Act aimed at combining all
the existing equality enactments (on race, gender, disability, etc.) within Great
Britain has established an overarching Commission for Equality and Human
Rights.
A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S

RIGHTS
Discrimination on the grounds of sex is a major form of discrimination, and
has been a focus of attention for the international community since the Second
World War. The protection and promotion of women workers’ rights have
always been integral to the ILO’s mandate. The employment of women before
and after child-birth was the subject of one of the ILO’s first Conventions,
dating from 1919, the very first year of the Organization’s life. Maternity
protection remains a key issue in the promotion of gender equality, as the third
Convention on this theme, Convention No. 183, reflects. Convention No. 100,
by guaranteeing equal pay for work of equal value, opened the door to the
examination of structural gender biases in the labour market. Since then there
has been a gradual shift in emphasis from protecting women to promoting
equality and improving the living and working conditions of workers of either
sex on an equal basis, as can be seen, for instance, in the replacement of the
Employment (Women with Family Responsibilities) Recommendation, 1965
(No. 123) by the Convention No. 156. In the new millennium, new and revised
labour standards reflect the overarching goal of decent work, which now
underpins all the ILO’s activity. Gender equality is central to this goal.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, women were perceived as
more fragile than men, both physically and socially, and therefore as not suited
to certain forms of work, particularly any activity which might endanger their
health and especially their childbearing function. Minimum standards regarding
maternity leave and benefits were consequently among the first instruments
adopted by the ILO. In the early 1950s, the emphasis shifted to the promotion
of equality between men and women in employment and remuneration. In
1951, Convention No. 100 and its accompanying Recommendation on equal
remuneration (No. 90) laid down the guiding principles of equal remuneration
for work of equal value regardless of sex. In 1958, Convention No. 111 and the
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Recommendation (No. 111)
were adopted to establish the principle of non-discrimination on a number
of grounds including sex, with regard to access to vocational training, access
to employment, and terms and conditions of employment. Conventions 100
and 111 are among the most widely ratified of all ILO Conventions and have
influenced the drafting of subsequent and related United Nations Conventions

and regional instruments.
Other early standards related to occupational safety and health, such as
the Lead Poisoning (Women and Children) Recommendation, 1919 (No. 4),
the White Phosphorus Recommendation, 1919 (No. 6), and the White Lead
(Painting) Convention, 1921 (No. 13), contained specific provisions prohibiting
the employment of women in certain areas and for certain processes, reflecting
the concern with not endangering women workers’ reproductive health. While
these instruments (and the Benzene Convention (No. 136) and Recommendation
(No. 144) of 1971 are due to be revised, several up to date instruments contain
similar women-specific provisions, right up to the very recent Safety and
Health in Agriculture Convention (No. 184) and Recommendation (No. 192)
of 2001. Convention No. 89 prohibiting night work for women in industry,
adopted in 1948 (following the earlier Night Work (Women) Convention,
1919 (No. 4) and Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No. 41)),
was made more flexible through the Protocol of 1990, and a new Night Work
Convention (No. 171) and Recommendation (No. 178) were adopted in 1990,
now protecting both men and women against the hazardous effects of night
work However, women-specific provisions are still the subject of debate, for a
large number of ILO member States consider them discriminatory.
From the 1960s, standards promoting equality were increasingly based
on the recognition that equality implies the sharing of family responsibilities
between men and women. As women gained a growing share of the labour
market – though not always in full-time jobs – the male breadwinner in full-time
work came to represent the model of the “typical” worker less and less. Labour
standards began to reflect this shift in 1965, when Recommendation No. 123
on women with family responsibilities was adopted, covering measures that
should be taken to enable women workers to fulfil their various responsibilities
harmoniously and without discrimination. From the early 1980s, as the focus of
analysis concerning equality in general was reoriented from women to relations
between women and men the conviction gained ground that any change in the
role of women should before work of equal value regardless of sex. In 1958,
Convention No. 111 and the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Recommendation (No. 111) were adopted to establish the principle of non-
discrimination on a number of grounds including sex, with regard to access
to vocational training, access to employment, and terms and conditions of
employment. Conventions 100 and 111 are among the most widely ratified
of all ILO Conventions and have influenced the drafting of subsequent and
related United Nations Conventions and regional instruments.
A number of standards adopted more recently respond to the rapid

changes in the labour market and in modalities of work in the face of growing
globalization from the 1980s onward. For example, Convention No. 175 and
Recommendation No. 182 of 1994, aiming at the equal treatment of full- and
part-time workers, are important for gender equality because most part-time
workers are women. The Convention No. 177 and Recommendation No. 184
concerning home work, adopted in 1996, contribute to improving the situation
of millions of homeworkers, a large majority of whom are women. Convention
No. 182 and Recommendation No. 190, aiming at the prohibition and
elimination of the worst forms of child labour, also have a gender component,
calling for account to be taken of the special situation of girls. Convention No.
183 is one of the ILO’s four key equality Conventions, as noted above.
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 is coherent with Conventions
Nos. 100 and 111 as regards discrimination in general and equal pay for work
of equal value in particular; it also enjoins upon member States the provision
of equal welfare facilities for seafarers irrespective of sex or other attributes.
Several recent Recommendations contain clauses referring to the importance
of observing and promoting gender equality; they include the Promotion
of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193); the Human Resources
Development Recommendation, 2004 (No. 195); Employment Relationship,
2006 (No. 198). The last of these aims to encourage member States to adopt
national policies regulating the employment relationship, particularly in the
case of “vulnerable workers”, including women workers. This is of particular
importance to women workers in typical and highly feminized types of work.
Accompanied by a change in that of men and should be reflected in their
greater participation in family and household duties. In accordance with this
thinking, Convention No. 156 and its accompanying Recommendation No.
165 concerning workers with family responsibilities were adopted in 1981.
These instruments apply to men as well as women with responsibilities for
dependent children or other members of their immediate family, and are
intended to facilitate their employment without discrimination resulting from
such family responsibilities.
RIGHT TO ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

Equal opportunities for access to employment must be guaranteed, to workers
of both sexes, before and during the hiring process. Employment agencies,
both public and private, should promote equal employment opportunities by:
• encouraging applications from all eligible workers, men and women, and
reviewing the recruitment records for both sexes;
• rejecting discriminatory requests from prospective employers, and

informing them of the law and national policies on equal opportunities;
• informing applicants of their right to equal employment opportunities;
• Informing applicants of any policies and practices concerning work–
family reconciliation measures.
According to the Convention No. 183, pregnancy or motherhood should
not constitute a source of discrimination in access to employment, and
member States should take appropriate measures to ensure this.2
As regards access to employment for workers with family responsibilities,

Convention No. 156 calls for the right to engage in employment without dis-
crimination, free choice of employment, and training and guidance to promote
access to employment for such workers. Recommendation No. 165 expands
on these principles.
Small and micro-enterprises in a variety of economic sectors are important
sources of employment and self-employment for women in both developed
and developing countries, and there has been a significant rise in the number
of women entrepreneurs. Small and significant rise in the number of women
entrepreneurs. Small and medium-sized enterprises offer a good channel of
access to employment for women; but policy, regulatory and institutional
environments are frequently unfriendly to women and/or small enterprises
and women’s access to credit, technology, assets such as land or premises and
training is often lower than that for men. Access to employment of this kind
can be promoted by means of specific measures and incentives for women
aspiring to become entrepreneurs.3
2 According to convention No. 183 Tests for pregnancy or certification of non-pregnancy

should not be required of a woman applying for employment, except where national laws or
regulations restrict the employment of pregnant or nursing women in specific situations, for
instance work deemed hazardous to the mother or the child. Similarly, known or suspected
HIV-positive status should not be the sole grounds for refusing a job to an applicant of either
sex, unless it can be objectively established in good faith that seronegativity is a necessary
occupational requirement.
3 ILO Conventions and recommendations relating to Access to employment- C. 111 and R.
111: Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), 1958,C. 122: Employment Policy, 1964
R. 169: Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions), 1984 ,C. 88: Employment Service,
1948,C. 142: Human Resources Development, 1975. C. 156 and R. 165: Workers with
Family Responsibilities, 1981, R. 189: Job Creation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises,
1998,C. 181 and R. 188: Private Employment Agencies, 1997,C. 183: Maternity Protection,
2000,R. 103: Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002, R. 195: Human Resources Development,
2004.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Affirmative action also termed positive measures to counter sex discrimination
comprises special, usually temporary, measures to redress the effects of past or
continuing discrimination in order to establish de facto equality of opportunity
and treatment between men and women. Such measures are targeted at a
particular group and are intended to eliminate and prevent discrimination and
to offset disadvantages arising from existing attitudes, behaviour and structures
based on stereotypes concerning the division of social roles between men and
women. The adoption of positive measures stems from the observation that
the legal banning of discrimination has not proved sufficient in itself to create
equity in the world of work. Affirmative actions are necessary to put everyone
on an equal footing, especially where historically entrenched socio-economic
inequalities arise out of a history of oppression of one group by another. Article
5.2 of Convention No. 111 lists legitimate grounds for special measures designed
to meet particular requirements. Affirmative action in favour of women should
not be considered as discriminatory against men in a transitional period. Once
the consequences of past discrimination have been rectified, the measures
should be removed or adjusted so as to prevent discrimination against men. To
avoid unintended backlash, it is advisable to undertake consultation with all
stakeholders before instituting positive measures.
Affirmative action for women may encompass a wide range off measures,
including corrective action such as:
 setting targets, goals or quotas for women’s participation in activities or

sectors, or at levels from which they have previously been excluded and
in which they are still under-represented;
 promoting women’s access to wider opportunities in education, vocational
training and employment in non-traditional sectors and at higher levels of
responsibility;
 placement, guidance and counseling services, provision for gender- trained
personnel familiar with the special needs of employed and unemployed
women;
 fast-track career measures, including mentoring and pairing within
existing networks;
 informing and motivating employers to recruit and promote women,
especially in the sectors and categories mentioned;
 promoting the active participation of women in decision-making bodies
within and beyond the world of work;
 adapting working conditions and adjusting work organization to suit the

needs of workers with family responsibilities;
 adopting contract compliance policies within the framework of public
spending;
 Fostering greater sharing of occupational, family and social responsibilities
between men and women.
Affirmative action may be more effective when it is developed and applied
through cooperation between the government, and the employers and trade
unions concerned; when it suits the needs and possibilities of the employees
and employers; and when it is effectively monitored and followed up with
adequate government resources.
The government should play a leading role in implementing such
programmes for public sector employment. Public service commissions
are potentially useful as an instrument for actively promoting equality of
opportunity as regards both gender and other aspects of diversity.
Affirmative action should also involve the recognition that in certain
circumstances men may also suffer discrimination. The Constitutional Law of
India also ensures Protective Discrimination. Affirmative action in favour of
men might also be a way to increase the number of men working in female-
dominated occupations. In some transitional economies, it is becoming
recognized that there is a need to address the special needs of men who have
been lost their jobs in state-owned enterprises and have withdrawn from
economic activity in discouragement.4
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR BREASTFEEDING WORKERS

As per the provision in the Convention No. 183 of ILO, the member states
have to ensure that the breastfeeding workers are not assigned any work which
is prejudicial to the health of mothers and their children.
The ILO Convention and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 191)
also stipulate that the breastfeeding women worker should be provided with
the right to one or more daily breaks or a daily reduction of hours of work to
breastfeed her child. She should have the right to interrupt her work for this
purpose, and such interruptions or reductions in daily hours of work should be
4 ILO Conventions and Recommendations- C. 111 and R. 111: Discrimination (Employment

and Occupation), 1958, C. 156 and R. 165: Workers with Family Responsibilities, 1981,C.
159 and R. 168: Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), 1983,C.
169: Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989.R. 193: Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002, R. 195:
Human Resources Development, 2004.
counted as working time and remunerated accordingly. While the first Maternity
Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3), specified two half-hour nursing breaks
and the Maternity Protection Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95), called for
one and a half hours per day, the current Convention leaves it to national law
and practice to determine the matter of determining the period during which
nursing breaks or the reduction of daily hours of work are allowed, the number
and duration of nursing breaks, and procedures for the reduction of daily hours
of work. Adjustments to meet special needs are permitted on the basis of a
medical certificate.
Where practicable, provision should be made for the establishment
of facilities for nursing under adequate hygienic conditions at or near the
workplace.5
We have Maternity benefits Act, 1961 to regulate the employment of
women in certain establishments for certain periods before and after child-
birth and to provide for maternity benefit and certain other benefits.
EQUAL CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

All employees, irrespective of their sex, should be informed equally about
promotion, mobility and training opportunities and equally encouraged to
pursue suitable opportunities. It should specifically be ensured that:
• All employees are informed of forthcoming vacant positions in a
systematic and equitable manner;
• Application requirements and procedures for mobility, promotions and
training programmes are clearly defined and followed, and information
on them is made available to all employees;
• Restrictions deriving from agreements or arrangements of custom and
practice are removed when they operate to exclude workers of one
sex from promotion, transfer and training opportunities, or affect them
disproportionately;
• A career progression plan is introduced whereby all job promotion
opportunities are made known to encourage the participation of all
employees, particularly those who have traditionally been excluded from
career progression; training and mobility opportunities are available to
all employees to avoid occupational segregation in the workplace;
5 Conventions and Recommendations- C. 103: Maternity Protection (Revised) and R95:

Maternity Protection, 1952, C. 183 and R. 191: Maternity Protection, 2000.
• Training programmes are developed and regularly reviewed to assist

all employees, in particular women, in overcoming obstacles to their
development in employment, specifically in adjusting to structural change
and technological innovation, with a view to increasing management and
other skills; Efforts are made to reduce inequalities in participation in
training. Informal means of promoting women’s career chances, such as
mentoring, may also be provided.
Convention No. 156 on workers with family responsibilities deals with the
measures that are to be taken to enable workers with family responsibilities
to enter the labour force or re-enter it after a period of absence Such measures
may include vocational training, paid education leave, and a range of
information and advisory services suited to the needs of workers with family
responsibilities.6
MEDICAL AND CASH BENEFITS DURING MATERNITY FOR

WORKING WOMEN
The Convention No. 183, which revised Convention No. 103 of 1952, provides
that while a woman is away from work on maternity leave she is entitled to
cash benefits at a level which ensures that she can maintain herself and her
child in proper conditions of health and to a suitable standard of living. She is
also entitled to medical benefits, including prenatal, childbirth and postnatal
care, as well as hospital care when necessary. According to the Convention
(No. 103), it should be possible for her to choose a doctor freely, and also to
choose between a public and a private hospital. Cash benefits are to be provided
either by means of compulsory social insurance or from public funds. When
cash benefits are provided through compulsory social insurance schemes and
are based on earnings, they should not be less than two-thirds of the woman’s
previous earnings or such of those earnings as are taken into account for
computing benefits (C. 183, Art. 6 (3)). Recommendation No. 191 provides that
where practicable and after consultation with the representative organizations
of employers and workers, these benefits should be raised to the full amount of
the woman’s previous earnings or the proportion taken into account for benefit
6 ILO Conventions and Recommendations C. 88 and R. 83: Employment Service, 1948 C.

111 and R. 111: Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), 1958,C. 122 and R. 122:
Employment Policy, 1964,C. 142: Human Resources Development, 1975,C. 156 and R. 165:
Workers with Family Responsibilities, 1981;R. 169: Employment Policy (Supplementary
Provisions), 1984R. 195: Human Resources Development, 2004.
computation purposes. The employer should not be individually liable for the
cost of these benefits.7
GENDER EQUALITY FOR CASUAL WORK

Casual work is work without a fixed duration performed by workers who are
called on to work only as and when they are needed by the employer. They may
work full- or part-time for periods of varying duration. Casual work is closely
dependent on the level of, and fluctuation in, the workload, and casual workers
may work for only a few days or for as long as several weeks in a row. The
employment contracts of casual workers – where these exist – can stipulate
their minimum and maximum hours of work and the notice period that has
to be respected for requiring that they work. Under “zero hours” contracts,
however, workers are not entitled to any minimum number of hours of work,
but are required to be available to the employer without any assurance that
they will be called upon to work.
Casual workers differ from other non-permanent workers in that they may
often possess fewer rights and less protection. The absence of a continuing
stable relationship with any employer can lead to casual workers not being
considered employees at all, even where there is a contract. In other cases, they
may lose out on labour rights where these are attached to a qualifying period
of employment, which is usually longer than the casual worker’s period of
work. Casual workers’ legal and contractual entitlements are usually limited
or absent. For instance, casual workers may be excluded from the terms of
the Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No. 158), according to
the decision of individual member states, by virtue of opt-out clauses open
to member States after consultations with the social partners. Article 1 (3) of
Convention No. 158 does, however, prohibit the continuous use of short-term
contracts aimed at avoiding an employer’s obligation to give certain rights to
workers.
Many temporary workers can be considered to be casual workers. Although
some temporary workers, particularly those who work for private employment
agencies, may have longer fixed-term contracts, temporary workers generally
receive low wages and have a lower quality of employment. Casual work,
and particularly seasonal casual work, is done by people of both sexes and all
7 C. 102: Social Security (Minimum Standards), 1952, C. 103: Maternity Protection (Revised)
and R95: Maternity Protection, 1952, C. 110: Plantations, 1958 (and Protocol, 1982), C.
165: Social Security (Seafarers) (Revised), 1987, C. 181: Private Employment Agencies,
1997, C. 183 and R. 191: Maternity Protection, 2000.
ages including many children; but, as with many other forms of precarious
work, women predominate in it. In agricultural work, women and children
often accompany the male head of household as unpaid family helpers.
Paragraph 2 (a) of Recommendation No. 131 on Invalidity, Old-Age and
Survivors’ Benefits recommend the gradual extension of invalidity and old-
age benefits to persons whose employment is casual.8
Under the terms of the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969
(No. 129), casual or seasonal agricultural workers are implicitly covered under
the concept of “employee”, thus according them the same right to benefit
from labour inspection as permanent full-time workers. Convention No. 169,
concerning the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples, refers to casual workers
in Article 20.3:
The measures taken shall include measures to ensure: (a) that workers
belonging to the peoples concerned, including seasonal, casual and migrant
workers in agricultural and other employment, as well as those employed by
labour contractors, enjoy the protection afforded by national law and practice
to other such workers in the same sectors, and that they are fully informed of
their rights under labour legislation and of the means of redress available to
them.
Recommendation No. 165 on workers with family responsibilities, while
not mentioning casual workers explicitly, also addresses temporary workers
and homeworkers, many of whom have family responsibilities, stating that
their terms and conditions of employment, including social security coverage,
should be as far as possible equivalent (pro rata) to those of full-time, permanent
workers respectively.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND GENDER EQUALITY

Collective bargaining can be an important way to promote gender equality. In
most countries it is a principal means of determining terms and conditions of
employment, including all aspects of gender equality at work. Equal pay, over-
time, hours of work, leave, maternity and family responsibilities, health and the
working environment, and dignity at the workplace are all issues for collective
bargaining with the potential for promoting gender equality in the workplace.
Women’s access to career development, promotion and vocational training
are also important issues that can be considered in collective bargaining.
Not only do gender issues need to be addressed in collective bargaining, but
8 R. 131: Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors’ Benefits, 1967. C. 129 and R 133: Labour
Inspection (Agriculture), 1969, R. 165: Workers with Family Responsibilities, 1981.
traditional collective bargaining issues, referring to the terms and conditions of

employment such as wages, hours of work, working conditions and grievance
procedures should be reassessed from a gender perspective. The prerequisite
to collective bargaining is freedom of association. Thus, collective bargaining
agreements also include the rights and responsibilities of trade unions and
employers’ organizations.
The subjects for negotiation depend on the social, economic and legal
context, and on what women themselves choose as priorities. They might
include (inter alia) affirmative action, flexible working hours, pay equity,
childcare provision, or sexual harassment. However, gender issues are often
not sufficiently dealt with in collective bargaining because women are under-
represented in trade union decision-making structures and negotiating teams.
Equality clauses are often missing or very limited. The reasons for this may
include women’s double burden of paid work and domestic labour, which
does not leave them enough time to participate in trade union affairs, lack
of confidence, assertiveness and training, or the fact that the union is male-
dominated and insensitive to women workers’ needs (e.g. timing and length
of meetings). For collective bargaining to be truly effective and equitable, the
concerns of women must be understood and given credence. Consultation with
women workers and ensuring that women are represented on negotiation teams
are fundamental ways to do this. Trade unions alone, or the social partners
jointly with government, may take initiatives to encourage the inclusion of
gender equality issues in social and employment agendas. The ILO can provide
information and training to help make collective bargaining more responsive
to gender issues.
Men also need certain types of protection with regard to their role in social
reproduction. Measures are also necessary to give both men and women the
opportunity to share more family responsibilities (e.g. parental leave, flexible
working hours and greater access to part-time work.
CONCLUSION
The existing labour laws are to be reformed in light of liberalization,
globalization and privatization. Though international labour organization has
taken utmost care to ensure gender equality but still there is a wide gap. When
it comes to unorganized sector women are paid very less as compared to male
workers.
In the process of globalization, female participation in paid employment has
considerably increased. This, however, has not led to equal benefit from their
integration into the labour market, which remains highly gender segregated.
Many countries have responded to this economic process with legislative

and administrative changes, in order to liberalize national labour standards
and working conditions, and to make them more flexible. There is growing
concern, expressed particularly in the international debate, that economic
globalization must have “a human face”, and be accompanied by a set of
minimum standards in the social field. The tendency to level down social and
labour standards in the process of globalization needs to be tackled. Political,
business and trade union leaders must accept their shared responsibility and
pay attention to international labour standards, thus contributing to improving
working conditions for both women and men.
REFERENCES
ILO. (2000). ABC of Women Workers Rights and Gender Equality, Geneva,
International Labour Office.
Srivastava S.C., (2005). Social Security and Labour Laws, Lucknow, Eastern
Book Company.
Kumar H.C., Labour and Industrial Law, Universal Law Publishing Co, Pvt.
Ltd.
Pai G.B., (2002). Labour Law in India, Vol 1&2, Butterworths, India.
2nd Labour Law Commission Report Vol 1, 2 & 3.
Malhotra O.P. (2004). The Law of Industrial Disputes, 6th edition, New Delhi,
Lexis Nexis, Butterworths.
Malik P.L. (2007). Industrial Law, 20th edition, Lucknow, Eastern Book
Company.
Mishra S.N. (2009). Labour Industrial Laws, Allahabad, Central Law
Publications.
7
Problems and Prospects of Women Police in

Odisha and Delhi: A Sociological Study
Jisu Ketan Pattanaik
INTRODUCTION
Research on police women has been the subject matter of considerable interest
among social scientists all over the world. The involvement of more women
in the police profession not only strengthens the police work but also helps
in reducing crimes committed by and against women and children. They can
strike a balance in the police occupation. The presence of women police being
of great significance in the present times, it is important to understand the
various aspects of their work like stress, adjustment, behavior, and coping
strategies, as they are different from those faced by men. Women entered into
the criminal justice system as a response to social force and for better protection
of women and juveniles (Horne, 1979). Highlighting the growing importance
of women police in police organization, National Police Commission of India
(1980) indicate that women police have a very constructive role to play in re-
establishing and reforming delinquent girls, especially needed in areas where
police come in contact with women. Though, at present women police are
performing all duties and functions of police as good as male police personnel
both in developed and developing countries including India same times, it
is believed that they are facing a lot of difficulties and problems both in the
professional sphere as well as in the domestic front. This is due to gender
discrimination, rough and tough police culture, dominance of male members
and egoistic attitude of male members and the nature of the job itself which
often requires twenty hours presence in the place of work.
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are more women employed by police agencies today than ever before.
A trend found in the contemporary research reveals that there are many
similarities among male and female police officers (Archbold, Carole A and
Schulz, Dorothy Moses (2012). Brown & Campbell (1991) carried out a study
on Hampshire constabulary in England. They found that women officers were
more likely deployed on foot or car patrol and less likely involved in specialist
investigation departments, prisoner handling and traffic patrol, and were absent
from dog, air support and marine sections. Young (1991) conducted a study on
British women officers. His study shows that women officers adopt a feminine
competence which makes little concession to entrenched stereotypes. Hunt’s
(1990) study found that the notion of women’s cop culture is its reforming
character, a theme which has resonance with the earlier history of police
women and transform the policeman’s cultural order. Homant and Kennedy
(1985) found that the police women should have more concern, patience, and
understanding in these situations.
Holdaway and Parker (1998) conducted a study on constabulary in the north
of England. They found that on crime work women officers were as enmeshed
in the occupational culture as their male colleagues. They stress that the female
officers in their sample faced a different environment from their male colleagues,
largely because engendered inequalities located within a wider, societal structure
of beliefs, attitudes and related actions permeated the organizational structure
and culture of the constabulary. Connolly (1975) predicted that the use of police
women in normally male roles would be a source of organizational conflict
which would eventually bring about adaptive changes in policing.
Brewer (1991) conducted a study on women police and argues that police
stations are male domains. They are populated predominantly by males and
markedly masculine in their occupational culture. A 1971 national survey of
major police agencies sponsored by the Police Foundation to determine how
women were being utilized in police departments confirmed that there were
very few women employees and that these few were deployed in limited tasks
(Milton, 1972). Ott (1989) in an application of Kanter’s thesis, proposed that
because police work is one of the most stereotypically masculine occupations,
the incursion of women is particularly opposed by men. Ott found in her
study of Dutch police, that solitary women officers experienced stronger
sex stereotyping, were less accepted, and more often experienced sexual
harassment than in work units having several women as members.
OBJECTIVES
a. To study the demographic and socio-economic background of the women
police working in Orissa and Delhi
Problems and Prospects of Women Police in Odisha and Delhi: A Sociological Study 113
b. To analyse what extent are women police adjusted or maladjusted in the

police organization and in the family
c. To find out changes in behavior occurred after the women joined the
police service
d. To explore coping strategies adopted by the women police in both states
to relieve their work-related stress
THE STUDY DESIGN

The study is based on exploratory-cum-descriptive research design. Women
police personnel from the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector to Inspector
working in Orissa and Delhi constitute the universe of the study. The research
study adopts incidental sampling. The first sample is composed of 40 women
police; the second consists of 70, and the final sample comprises 200 women
police officers (75 from Orissa and 125 from Delhi) in the rank of assistant
sub-inspector to inspector. In order to get information from the women police
personnel, the principal researcher collected data in three phases both in Orissa
and Delhi. All the subjects are residents of either Orissa or Delhi. The majority
of the subjects are Hindus (n=175; 87.5%), married (n=115; 57.5%), college
graduates (n=105; 52.5%), and live in joint families (n=105; 52.5%) in both
Orissa and Delhi. In Orissa, the women police personnel ranged in age from 23
to 43 years (M=31.81, SD=7.59) and in Delhi from 22 to 55 years (M=35.28,
SD=7.76).
METHOD OF INQUIRY AND TOOLS

The research instrument used in the study was a questionnaire containing general
background along with, job expectation checklist (JECL), police behaviour
scale (PBS), police women behaviour scale (PWBS), police adjustment scale
(PAS) and women police coping strategy scale (WPCS) . For the purpose of
administering the tests, the women police officers were contacted through
Superintendent of Police (Orissa) and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Delhi)
and were asked to take part in the interview.
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF

WOMEN POLICE
The distribution of ethnicity of women police in Table 1 reveals that there
is representation from all categories of the population in Delhi and Orissa.
Women from the “scheduled castes” (SC), “scheduled tribes” (ST), “other
backward classes” (OBC), and “socially and educationally backward classes”

(SEBC) are not attracted to the job of a police officer both in Delhi and Orissa.
Women from these categories have showed less interest in the police service
as the involvement of law and order problems create the impression that these
jobs are physically tough and demanding.
Table 1: Chi-square value of women police on the basis of Caste/Tribe
Sl. No. Caste/Tribe Orissa Delhi Total X2 ratio

1. General 49 86 135
2. OBC 6 3 9 X2 = 13.39,
3. SEBC 7 1 8
4. SC 8 22 30 (df = 4,
5. ST 5 10 15 p<.01)
6. Total 75 122 197
The study results in Table 2 show that while women police as a whole
are facing problems both in the states of Orissa and Delhi, women police
in Orissa (M=19.33; SD=3.16) have higher job expectations than their
counterparts in Delhi (M=18.24; SD=3.09) and the results are statistically
significant at the p<.05 level. It may be because Orissa is a less developed
state with a low population density and a lower rate of crime whereas Delhi
is a cosmopolitan state with a high population density as well as a higher
crime rate which is increasing rapidly due to industrialization, migration
from rural areas to urban belts, high social mobility, and slum culture.
Crime in India Report, published by the National Crime Records Bureau,
New Delhi, (2007) suggested that Delhi reported significantly more number
of crimes in the country. All these pose challenges for women police
personnel located in different police stations, police control rooms, railway
stations, airports, and other allied offices. At the same time, the pressure of
workload is much more in Delhi than in Orissa. Therefore, Delhi women
police are always living in a state of high alertness and preparedness to
meet any eventuality and have less expectation out of their jobs than the
women police in Orissa. Again, in Delhi, new types of crimes are emerging
in the form of violent crime, organized crime, white collar crime, cyber
crime, and terrorism, which require sudden action by the police personnel to
control crime. Thus, while the Delhi police job is more demanding, women
police have less job expectation. On the other hand, while the Orissa police
job is less demanding, the women police have higher job expectation.
Table 2: T-test showing the difference of test scores of Orissa and Delhi Women police
on job expectation scale.
Sl. No. State N Means and S Ds* t ratio

1. Orissa 75 19.33 (3.16) t = 2.38, (df = 198,
2. Delhi 125 18.24 (3.09) P<.05)
*Figures in Parentheses are SDs.
ADJUSTMENT VS. MALADJUSTMENT

Women police personnel experience problems while maintaining a balance
between family work and office work. Women police personnel, particularly
those belonging to nuclear families, both in the states of Orissa and Delhi are
the worst affected. Their adjustment pattern in the police environment is poor.
This is due to the fact that there is no extra help available in a nuclear family
to do the family chores and look after the children.
It is evident from Table 3 that the family structure has a significant effect
on the adjustment pattern of the women police. A higher score on the Police
Adjustment scale shows that the women police had to make more adjustments
at their workplace. Women police belonging to joint families (M = 44.60; SD
= 18.97) are better adjusted to their workplace as opposed to women police
from nuclear families (M = 53.46; SD = 19.46). On the other hand, women
police in extended families had to make the most adjustments (M = 63.50; SD
= 24.03). These differences were found to be statistically highly significant at
p<.01 level.
Table 3: ANOVA showing the effect of Family Structure on Police Adjustment.
Family
Sl. No. N Means and SDs* F- ratio
Structure
1. Nuclear 89 53.46 (19.46)
2. Joint 105 44.60 (18.97) F=6.75, (df = 2/197,
3. Extended 6 63.50 (24.03) P<.01)
4. Total 200 49.11 (19.88)
*Figures in parenthesis are SDs.
Table 4 provided the mean scores and the standard deviations of both Orissa
and Delhi policewomen along with the t-ratio on the police adjustment scale.
The mean scores show that women police in Orissa (M = 45.16; SD = 17.63) are
better adjusted in comparison to Delhi’s women police (M=51.48; SD=20.83)
who significantly lag behind in the matter of adjustment at the workplace and
the difference is statistically significant (t = –2.20, df = 198, P <. 05). This may
be because Delhi is a metropolitan city and the pressure and complexities of
work are much more in comparison to Orissa, where the work pressure may
be less. Again, looking at the increasing crime rate in Delhi, women police
in Delhi may be more exposed to dangerous work conditions as opposed to
women police in Orissa.
Table 4: T-test showing the Difference of test scores of Orissa and Delhi Women Police
on Police Adjustment Scale.
Sl. No. State N Means and S Ds* t ratio

1. Orissa 75 45.16 (17.63) t = -2.20, (df = 198,
2. Delhi 125 51.48 (20.83) P<.05)
*Figures in Parentheses are SDs.
Table 5 shows that married women police are prone to more stress and face
problems both in Orissa and Delhi as their adjustment to the police environment
is relatively low. This may be because married women police try to strike a
balance between their domestic and professional roles which is very difficult
as the job of a police officer requires long work hours, at times extending to
24 hours a day. It shows that married women have a slightly higher adjustment
problem (M = 49.14; SD = 20.09) as opposed to unmarried women (M =
49.01; SD = 19.89). However, women police officers who are widows have
scored the highest on the adjustment scale (M = 49.41; SD = 19.51) leading
the researchers to infer that they might have the most trouble adjusting to the
workplace.
Table 5: ANOVA showing the Difference of Effect of Marital Status on
Police Adjustment
Sl. No. Marital Status N Means & SDs * F- ratio

1. Unmarried 73 49.01 (19.89)
2. Married 115 49.14 (20.09) F= .00, (df = 2/197,
3. Widow 12 49.41 (19.51) P>.05)
4. Total 200 49.11 (19.88)
*Figures in parenthesis are SDs.
Table 6 shows the results of examining the relationship between the personal
characteristics of the women police personnel and their behavior. It was found
that age had a significant negative relation to behaviour (–.17, p<.01). This
means that older women exhibited worse behaviour than the younger ones.
Similarly, older women also adopted less healthy coping strategies (–.13;
p<.05) as compared to the younger women police. Age at marriage and coping
strategy also had a strong negative correlation (–.12; p<.05). This shows that
the younger a woman was at the time of marriage, the healthier was her coping
strategy. Years of service also showed significant relationships with police
behaviour (–.15; p<.01) 19 and coping strategy (–.15; p<.01). This indicates
that the less the number of years of service, the better was the behaviour and
more likely was the individual to adopt healthier coping strategies. This result
is consistent with the findings of Butler and Cochrane’s (1977) study which
revealed that with increasing experience in the police profession, police officers
exhibit an increased need to be independent of others in decision making, to
argue their points of view, to do new and different things, and to ignore guilt
and wrong doing. Again, it also reveals that with the increase of service in the
police profession, the coping strategies become unhealthier.
Table 6: Relationship between personal characteristics and personality traits
Dependent Variable
Independent Women
Police Police
variable Job expec- Police be- police
women adjust-
tation haviour coping
behaviour ment
strategy
Age .02 –.17* –.09 .09 –.13**
Age at marriage .04 –.04 –.06 –.00 –.12**
Number of
–.01 –.03 –.05 .00 –.06
children
Years of service .10 –.15* –.07 .07 –.15*
*Significant at .01 level
**Significant at .05 level
WORK-RELATED PROBLEMS
Police work involves a plethora of outdoor activities like patrolling, providing
security during important occasions, public functions, and rallies, crime
fighting on the streets, and ensuring a safe and secure environment for the
public in general. This crime-fighting and protective role, coupled with the
fact that police officers have been predominantly male from the beginning,
the police profession is typically looked on as a masculine job. But slowly and
steadily, with the advent of industrialization, urbanization, and rapid social
changes, police forces all over the world have felt the need for women officers,
and consequently, women entered the occupation primarily to control crimes
committed by and against women and children. Presently, women police
around the globe are performing their duties and functions as efficiently as the
male police personnel. However, the results of this study show that women are
facing a lot of difficulties and problems both in the professional sphere as well
as in the domestic front. This is due to gender discrimination, the rough and
tough police subculture, control by male colleagues, attitude of male members,
and the nature of the job itself which often requires long hours of work.
HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY COPING STRATEGIES

Coping has two major functions; dealing with the problem that is causing the
distress (Problem-focused coping) and regulating emotion (emotion-focused
coping)-(Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984b).Coping
strategy deals with healthy and unhealthy coping strategy used by women
police personnel both in Orissa and Delhi in order to relieve from stress, strain,
tension, anxiety and depression which emanated from the police job. It was
manifested from the study that Orissa women police personnel adopts more
healthier coping strategy in comparison to Delhi women police who used less
healthier coping strategy.
CONCLUSION
Women police in Orissa have higher job expectations than the women police
in Delhi who are exposed to more dangerous situations, have longer work
hours, and face greater rigor, thus, reducing their expectations from the job.
Women police from joint families also had higher job expectations as opposed
to women police from nuclear families, although the difference was not found
to be statistically significant. As far as adjustment is concerned, Orissa’s
women police are better adjusted in comparison to Delhi’s women police.
This may again be due to the fact that Delhi, a metropolitan city, has greater
pressure and complexities at work. Women police in joint families had the
least difficulty adjusting to the work place as they got the support of other
family members in taking care of the children and attending to household
chores. Such support was not available to nuclear families. The situation was
even worse in extended families where these women had to rely on relatives to
take care of their children, thus, increasing stress and the resultant adjustment
problems at the workplace. Also, married women were found to have a slightly
higher adjustment problem as opposed to unmarried women police. However,
the most difficulties and adjustment problems were faced by widowed women
police officers.
On examining women police officers’ behavior, the researchers found
that Orissa’s women police showed better behavior and adopted healthier
coping strategies than Delhi’s women police officers. It was also found that
irrespective of the police force, younger female officers showed better behavior
at the workplace and also used healthier coping strategies. Age at the time of
marriage and years of service also showed significant statistical relationships
with coping strategies. The younger a woman was at the time of her marriage
and the less the years of service, the healthier was the coping strategy used.
Women police from nuclear families also used healthier coping strategies
compared to their counterparts who belonged to joint families. Women police
that took the help of extended family members in fact adopted the healthiest
coping strategies.
REFERENCES
Archbold, Carol A. and Schulz, Dorothy Moses (2012). Research on women
in policing: A look at the past, present and future, Sociology compass, 69
(2012).
Brewer, J (1991). Inside the RUC: Routine Policing in a Divided Community,
Clarendon, Oxford
Brown, J and Campbell, E.A (1991).Less than equal, Policing, 7, 324-333.
Butler, A.J and Cochrane, R(1977).An examination of some elements of the
personality of police officers and their implications, Journal of Police
Science and Administration, 5, 441-450
Connolly, HA (1975).Police women as Patrol Officers: A study in role
adaptation, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Psychology,
University of New York.
Folkman, S and Lazarus, R .S (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle aged
community sample, Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 21,219-
239.
Government of India (1980). 5th report of the National Police Commission.
Homant, R.J and Kennedy, D.B (1985). Police perception of Spouse Abuse-
a comparison of male and female officers, Journal of Criminal Justice,
13,29-47.
Holdway, S. and Parker, S. (1998). Policing Women Police: Uniform, Patrol,
Promotion and Representation in CID, British Journal of Criminology,
Vol. 38, No. 1, PP. 40-61.
Horne, P. (1979). Police Women: 2000 A.D. The Police Journal, Vol. 52, No.
4.
Hunt, J (1990). The Logic of Sexism among Police. Women and Criminal
Justice. Vol.2, pp 3-30.
Lazarus, R.S and Folkman, S (1984b). Stress, appraisal and coping, New
York;Springer
Milton, C.H (1972). Women in policing, Washington, D,C, Police Foundation
Ott, E.Marlies(1989). Effects of the male-female ratio at work, Psychology of
Women Quarterly, 13.
PART-II
Law, Policy and
Development
8
Adultery under Indian Penal Code:

Gender Justice or Injustice
Meena Ketan Sahu
INTRODUCTION
According to Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC)1 adultery is
a criminal offence. In common parlance, adultery means a consensual sexual
relationship between a married person and a person of other sex, who is not
the spouse of the married person. However, it is not necessary that the other
person is a married person.2 The offence of adultery3 is committed only by
a man who has sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without his
consent. Adultery is an offence which is committed by a third person against
a husband in respect of his wife and of which a man can alone be held liable
for the offence.4 Adultery is considered to be an invasion to the right of the
husband over his married wife.5 In other words, it is an offence against the
sanctity of the matrimonial home and an act which is committed by a man.6
It is an anti-social and illegal act. It consists in having carnal knowledge
1 Section 497 in The Indian Penal Code defines Adultery.—Whoever has sexual intercourse
with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another
man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting
to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine,
or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.
2 Samraj Nadar v. Abraham Nadachi, AIR 1970 Mad. 434, 437.
3 The definition of ‘adultery’ that occour in the dictionary is gender neutral, where, it may
be committed by either of the sex. However, under most of the statutes, it gender favoured
and mostly prescribe ‘female adultery’ which has been webbed around the married woman
whose consensual extra-marital sexual involvement without the consent of her husband is
an essential condition of ‘adultery’.
4 Gansapalli Appalamma v. Gantappali Yeliayya, (1897) ILR 20 Mad 470.
5 Chandra Chhitar Loha v. Mst. Nandu, AIR 1965 MP 268, 269.
6 Olga Thelma Gomes v. Mark Gomes, A.I.R 1959 Cal. 451
of a married woman7 with knowledge of that fact, without the consent and
connivance of her husband to constitute adultery; sexual intercourse is a
necessary ingredient. The law of adultery8 is not applied on a woman and has
been expressly provided that the woman cannot be held for abetment of the
offence. The object of the law is to inflict punishment on those who interferes
with the sacred relation of marriage, and the legislature as well considers it to
be an offence one who interferes in the sacred matrimonial home.9 However,
the framers of the Code did not include adultery as a crime; it was only after
the recommendation of the Second Law Commission it was added to the
Code.10 It is commonly accepted that it is the man who is the seducer and not
the woman, and it is considered as an anti-social and illegal act by any peace
loving and citizen of good morals, who would like any one to be indulged in
such acts before their nose.11
The scope of the offence under the section is limited to adultery committed
with a married woman, and the male offender alone has been made liable to
be punished with imprisonment which may extend up to five years, or fine or
with both. The consent or the willingness of the woman is no excuse to the
crime of adultery.12 Thus adultery is an offence committed by a man against
a husband in respect of his wife. It is not committed by a man who has sexual
intercourse with an unmarried or a prostitute woman, or with a widow, or even
with a married woman whose husband consents to it or with his connivance.
‘Connivance’ is a figurative expression meaning a voluntary blindness to some
present act or conduct, to something going on or before the eyes, or something
which is known to be going on with no protest or desire to disturb or interfere
with it.
7 Dalip Singh, AIR 1949 All 237.

8 According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Adultery means, sexual relations between a married
person and someone other than the spouse. Written or customary prohibitions or taboos
against adultery constitute part of the marriage code of virtually every society. Indeed,
adultery seems to be as universal and, in some instances, as common as marriage. See,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/6618/adultery visited on 25.06.2014 at 10.35
a.m.
9 Re Rathna Padayachi, AIR 1917 Mad 220; V. Revathi v. Union of India, AIR 1988 SC
835; See also, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Committee on Reforms
of Criminal Justice System 190 (2003) (“Criminal Justice” hereinafter), online at http://
www.mumbaipolice.org/%5Carchives_report%5Cmalimath%20committee%20report.pdf
(visited July 03, 2014)].
10 Ratanlal & Dhirajlal, 2 Law of Crimes at 2710 (Bharat Law House 26th ed. 2007) (C.K.
Thakker and M.C. Thakker, eds).

11 V. Revathi v. Union of India, AIR 1988 SC 835; See also, Hatim Khan v. State, AIR 1963
J&K.
12 Gul Mohammad v. Emperor, AIR 1947 Nag, 121.
Adultery under Indian Penal Code: Gender Justice or Injustice 125
INGREDIENTS
To constitute an offence of adultery, the following ingredients must be
established, viz:
(1) Sexual intercourse must be committed with the wife of another man.
(2) The person must have knowledge or has reason to believe that the woman
is the wife of another man.
(3) Such sexual intercourse must be without the consent or connivance of the
husband.
(4) Such sexual intercourse must not amount to the offence of rape.13
METHODOLOGY
The research relies largely on inductive logic, i.e. it will be doctrinal in
nature. To explore to the logical goals in consonance with objects of study,
identified research issues, the research would depend upon Law Commission
Reports, Law Texts and Commentaries, research articles and the Case laws.
The study will explore the directions available in foreign jurisdictions, so as to
gain a comparative insight of the progress of law around the world.The study
limits to doctrinal method. Apart from the primary source of material such as
legislations and case laws, and expert opinions, the study explores all relevant
academic/research papers etc.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

The identified research issues are:
1. Why wife not guilty of adultery in India?
2. Constitutional validity of Section 497 I.P.C.
3. Adultery is not an offence in most of the countries of the world.
4. De- criminalization of Adultery.
5. Amendment of Section 497of I.P.C is the crying need of the hour.
WIFE NOT GUILTY OF ADULTERY

Adultery under Section 497, I.P.C. is limited in scope as compared to the
misconduct of adultery as understood in divorce proceedings. As stated earlier,
13 K.D. Gaur “The Indian Penal Code” Fourth Edition, 2009 Universal Publishing Co. Pvt.
Ltd, Delhi, at p. 800.
the offence is committed by a man who has sexual intercourse with the wife
of another man and without the latter’s consent or connivance. The wife is not
punishable for being an adulteress, or even as an abettor of the offence, despite
being a consent party to the crime. She is an “abettor” will get away with it.14
One of the essential ingredients of the section, which states that the absence
of consent or connivance of the husband is needed to constitute the act prima
facie shows that the section is not gender neutral. The very gender neutrality
of the section has been debated many times; the constitutional validity of the
section has been challenged in the court on the grounds that it violates the
fundamental rights of a man under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which
states that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before law or the
equal protection of the laws within the territory of India” and that this Section
does not come under the purview of the saving clause under Article 15 (3)
of the Indian Constitution. Equally the Section doesn’t provide any relief to
any woman whose husband has done adultery, which is also a violation of
the gender neutrality clause provided in the Constitution of India. It has been
recommended for amendment by the 42d Law Commission of India reports
and 2003 Malimath Committee Reports, but the law stands still date. In this
context, the article tries to analyse whether the section is actually violation
of Indian Constitution, or is there a need to neutralize the section or to make
adultery a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence or not to make adultery
any offence at all.
SOCIAL ASPECT
From social point of view, ‘adultery’ means an extra-marital voluntary sexual
intercourse between heterosexual persons either or both of them are married
having living spouse.15 The legal definition of adultery varies from country to
country and statute to statute. While at many places adultery is when a woman
has voluntary sexual intercourse with a person other than her husband, at other
places adultery is when a woman has voluntary sexual intercourse with a third
person without her husband’s consent. In India, the legal provision under penal
statutes signify the ‘female adultery’ where only the section consider adultery
if occur with married woman only.
It has been observed that sexual relation has found basis of social
relationship in almost all the civilized society in the world. Therefore, there
14 Supra note 11 at p. 2.
15 “The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English”; Sixth Edn; Oxford University Press;
p. 15.
is strict social sanctions had been imposed on formation, continuation and

regulation of sexual relationship in the society at any given moment of time.
History had evidence that there had been a chain of normative values that
govern and regulate the sexual activities of an individual. The permitted sexual
relationship within the marital wedlock has been found the basis of marriage
institution, which had been thought to be an important institution for sustaining
the society. Historical analysis has revealed that depending upon the various
factors, the different society shows either a clear permission and prohibition
of sexual relationship which may be governed by value based system of
‘Sexual morality’ which prescribed norms of permitting or prohibiting
sexual relationship between opposite sexes. This permission or prohibition
by socio-religions approval form the basis of ‘marriage institution’, and any
relationship out of marital wed-lock has attracted socio-religious sanctions.
Values those governing sexual morality not only prohibited the ‘adulterous’
behavior of married person, but other act such as homosexuality, lesbian,
incent, relationship had also been prohibited. Beside the same, the sodomy,
bestiality and other format of sexual behavior were neither openly recognized
nor gives rise to any social bondage. Despite there are evidence that such
relations did exist in history, but it did not have any social sanction as such.
Even in the religion, which used to provide the justification, legitimacy and
political backing only permit heterosexuality that gives rise to procurement
of children. The underline philosophy of such normative pattern was depends
upon the continuation of society and procurement of children, which ensure
the coming up of next generation on the earth. It was a philosophical notion
that only the heterosexuality and carnal sex secure the possible outcome of
children, only such relationship and sexual orientation was permitted in the
society. Therefore, any sexual orientation, formation, expression and bondage,
which did not have any guarantee of procurement of children, were prohibited
and there was even the punishment inflicted for such behavior.16
But the extent of such prohibition and punishment prescribe varied as per
the values and norms governing the sexual morality in the society. Different
societies display the different degree of social morality which differ and had
correlation with the total sum of morality traits. Thus different society has
varying pattern of sexual morality. Adultery, as understood in known history
of human civilization, was also prohibited as it directly threat the marital
bondage invaded by stranger. Therefore, adultery is also observed to be
relative phenomenon depends upon the values governing the sexual morality
16 Infra note 17 at p. 5.
in the society. It has also been governed differently in different society. In

Europe, most of the nations only considered it as civil wrong and only concern
of affected individual family, and not of the ‘State’. But in India, adultery
is punishable offence. In most of the African countries tribes have open sex
pattern and ‘adultery’ has not been considered as socially prohibited act.
There works the different form of ‘sexual morality’. Even in most of the tribes
those mostly reflect matriarchal family, the concept of ‘adultery’ is altogether
invisible.17
JUDICIAL APPROACH
The first important discussion regarding the constitutional validity of the
section was held in the case of Yusuf Abdul Aziz v. The State of Bombay and
Husseinbhoy Laljee.18 In this case, Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code
was challenged to be ultra vires the Article 14 and 15 of the Constitution of
India. The Supreme Court held that Article 14 is general provision and should
be read keeping in mind the other provisions which sets out exceptions to
fundamental rights. Sex is a sound classification and Article 15 (3) provides
for the exceptions to the women and children. The petitioners argued that this
clause is made only for the beneficial of the women and not for giving license
for committing or abetting crime. However, the Court held that they cannot see
any restrictions as such; nor they agree that the section tantamount to a license
to commit the offence of which punishment has been prohibited. The Court
finally held that Article 14 and 15 when “read together validate the impugned
clause in section 497 of the Indian Penal Code”. In the case of Sowmithri
Vishnu v. Union of India13 the Supreme Court held that the Section 497 is
not violative of the Article 14 or Article 15 of the Indian Constitution on the
grounds that 14:
(1) Section 497 confers upon the husband the right to prosecute the adulterer
but, it does not confer any right upon the wife to prosecute the woman
with whom her husband has committed adultery. The Supreme Court
considered this to be a policy of law, and while defining the offence
of adultery if the offence is restricted to men is not violative of any
constitutional provision.
(2) Section 497 does not confer any right on the wife to prosecute the husband
who has committed adultery with another woman. The Court said that the
17 V.S. Chowbe “Adultery – A Conceptual & Legal Analysis” available at http://ssrn.com/
abstract=1856991, accessed on 23-7-2014 at 8.45 p.m.
18 AIR 1954 SC 321.
law is that the wife who is involved in an extra-marital sexual relationship

is not a author of a crime but is a victim and the legislature considers it to
be offence against the sanctity of a matrimonial home, and the offence is
generally considered to be committed by a man. The procedure of law and
the definition itself speaks for who have the right to prosecute whom.
(3) Section 497 does not take in cases where the husband has sexual relations
with an unmarried woman, with the result that husbands have, as it
were, a free license under the law to have extramarital relationship with
unmarried women. The Court said that the law does not give freedom
to men to have illicit relations with unmarried women, it only made a
specific kind of extra-marital relation as an offence which it considered
to be most seen and common. The husband can be booked under civil
procedure by wife for separation. It is for the law makers to reform the
penal law as per modern times and it doesn’t offend Article 14 or 15 of
the Constitution of India.19
In the case of V. Revathi v. Union of India20 the constitutional validity of S.
198(1) read with S.
198(2) of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 that it only allows the husband
of the adulteress to prosecute the adulterer but does not permit the wife of the
adulterer to do so.21 The court said that the law does not allow either of the
spouses to prosecute each other under criminal law; a husband is not permitted
because the wife is not treated an offender in the eye of law. The wife is not
permitted as Section 198(1) read with Section 198(2) does not permit her to do
so. Moreover there is “reverse discrimination” in favour of women and there is
no discrimination against women so far as she is not allowed to prosecute her
own husband.
LOGICAL ANALYSIS
A. Violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution
The Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with adultery is gender
biased mainly on the grounds that it does not allow the wife to prosecute the
woman with whom her husband has adultered though it allows the husband
to prosecute the man who has adultery with his wife. The law has considered
woman to be a victim not as author of the crime.22 This very notion of
19 Vishnu, AIR 1985 SC at 1621.
20 AIR 1988 SC 835.
21 Ibid.
victimhood lies on “the psychological belief of considering oneself helpless,

lacking power to overcome the situation and in a need of some external agency
to take them out of the situation”. The State enhances the state of powerlessness
and impotence which is central to the ideology of victimhood through this kind
of legislation.
The contention of the Honourable Court is that the community punishes
the “the ‘outsider’ who breaks into the matrimonial home and occasions the
violation of sanctity of the matrimonial tie by developing an illicit relationship
with one of the spouses subject to the rider that the erring ‘man’ alone can be
punished and not the erring woman. It does not arm the two spouses to hit each
other with the weapon of criminal law”.23 However, the Court misses out the
point that the wife has no relief in Criminal law though the same provision is
given to the husband, and in a case where the woman is unmarried the woman
cannot be prosecuted altogether. This can be seen as a violation of natural
justice which is fundamental to our Constitution.24 Article 14 read with 16(1)
accords right to equality or an equal treatment consistent with the principles of
natural justice.
B. Section 497 I.P.C vis-à-vis Article 15 (3) of Indian Constitution

Constitution makers presumed that in the middle of the twentieth century no
one would discriminate on the ground of sex.25 But it reveals that the legislature
is clearly making discrimination on the grounds of sex on the pretext of giving
“protective discrimination” to the women. The special treatment given to
the women under cl. 3 of Article 15 should be restricted to such cases which
must be related to some features or disability which are so peculiar that it
differentiate women from men as a class.26
The equality clauses in the Indian Constitution were framed on the basis
of the American Constitution, so to ignore the background is like not only
violating the basic norms of comparative constitutional law but violating
the basic principles of interpretation of the constitution.27 The American
Supreme Court has stated that where both the sexes are on equal footing and
discriminations to a particular sex as a class would be like denying the equal
23 AIR 1985 SC at 1618.

24 Subhash C. Kashyap, Constitutional Law of India at 481 (Universal Law 2008).
25 Constituent Assembly Debates. Vol. VII. at 650.
26 Durga Das Basu, Commentary on the Constitution of India at 1796 (Wadhwa 8th ed 2007);
See also, Srinivasan v. Padmasini, AIR 1957 Mad 622.

27 State of U.P. v. Deoman, AIR 1960 SC 1125, 1131; See also Basu, Commentary on the
Constitution of India at 1796 (cited in note 27).

protection clause as enshrined in the constitution; “the very kind of arbitrary

legislative choice [is] forbidden by the Constitution”.28 Even any kind favour
may it be positive or negative to the women for “administration convenience”
would be repealed or struck down as discriminatory and unconstitutional.29
The Court held that they cannot see any restrictions that the clause should
be used to measures which are strictly beneficial in nature.30 However, if
we take a note of what was the intention of our Constitution framer behind
keeping such clause as Article 15(3), the scenario becomes clear. Prof. K.T.
Shah believed that:
…this discriminations is in favour of particular classes of our society
which, owing to an unfortunate legacy of the past, suffer from disabilities or
handicaps. Those, I think may require special treatment; and if they do require
it, they should be permitted special facilities for some time so that real equality
of citizens may be established. […] It is only intended to safeguard, protect or
lead to their betterment in general; so that long-range interests of the country
may not suffer. (Emphasis added)31
The intention of the Constitution Drafters were clear that they included
this clause to safeguard, protect or lead to the betterment of women in general;
they have not intended to keep it to give a license for abetting or committing an
offence. Even the Supreme Court did not agree that the section tantamount to
a license to commit the offence of which punishment has been prohibited.32
The Court said that an argument like making both man and woman held
liable for adultery is not permissible as this is a policy of law.33 An example
put forward by the Honourable Court that “why the offence of robbery should
be punishable with imprisonment for ten years under Section 392 of the penal
Code but the offence of adultery should be punishable with a sentence of five
years only : ‘Breaking a matrimonial home is not less serious a crime than
breaking open a house’”.34 However, if we put the example in this way and
check if it make discrimination that “Why the offence of robbery by a woman
be not punished and the robbery by a man is punished for 10 years”. Can this
be called a gender equal law as such, if breaking the matrimonial home is
28 Reed v. Reed, (1971) 404 US 76, 77.

29 Frontiero v. Richardson, (1973) 411 US 677, 690.
30 31 AIR 1954 SC at 322.
31 Constituent Assembly Debates. Vol VII at 655.
32 Abdul Aziz, AIR 1954 SC at 322.
34 Law Commission of India, Indian Penal Code Report number: 42 326-327 (1972) (“IPC
Rep” hereinafter), online at http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/1-50/Report42.pdf (visited

Sept 09, 2009). 37 Id.
considered to be a more heinous crime than robbery, why a woman cannot be

prosecuted for the offence? The question of policy of law does not apply here
as the law is discriminatory on the face without any valid, satisfactory reason
for such laws.35
The underlying law at the present situation, considers only men as offender,
as a class; the women are not physically or socially such situated that they are
incapable of committing the offence of adultery. Further, both the sexes are on
an equal footing in committing the offence of adultery, this kind of legislation
are discriminatory and arbitrarily protecting the women. The Section 497 of
the Indian Penal Code is nothing but violative of the equality clause under
Indian Constitution.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. The Fifth Law Commission
The Fifth Law Commission in its 42d Law Reports suggested that Section 497
should not be removed from the penal code, but it recommended that both the
man and the wife should be made guilty as there is no valid justification “for not
treating the guilty pair alike” and also scaled down the maximum punishment
from five years to two years as the existing punishment is “unreal and not call
for in any circumstances”.36 The recommended section is as follows:
497. Adultery. – If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who is, and
whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without
the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting
to the offence of rape, the man and the woman are guilty of the offence of
adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a
term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.37
B. The Indian Penal Code (Amendment) Bill

The Indian Penal Code (Amendment) Bill of 1978 provided for amendment of
the section 497, however it was not passed by the legislature. Clause 199 of the
draft bill provided for:38 Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is,
and whom he or she knows, or has reason to believe, to believe to be the wife
35 See papers.ssrn.com/.../SSRN_ID1627649_ Accessed on 7-7-2014 at 7.45 a.m.

36 Ibid.
37 Supra note 28 at p. 7.
38 Ki Vibhute, PSA Pillai’s Criminal Law at 779 (LexisNexis Buttersworth Wadhwa 10th ed
2008). See Criminal Justice, at 190 (cited in note 5).

or husband as the case may be, of another person, such sexual intercourse not
amounting to the offence of rape, commits adultery, and shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years,
or with fine, or with both. The draft bill differs from the suggestion of the
42d Law Commission Report in two ways; the draft provided for punishment
of the adulterer or irrespective of the gender and has retained the maximum
punishment for the offence up to five years.
C. The Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System

Committed headed by Justice V.S. Malimath in the year 2003 suggested that
the section 497 of Indian Penal Code should be amended as to give effect
that “whosoever has sexual intercourse with the spouse of any other person
is guilty of adultery...”.39 The Committee viewed that as the very objective
of the section is to preserve the sacred relationship of marriage, adultery is
abhorred by the society so there is no justification that the wife who has sexual
relationship with a man is not treated equally.40 This suggestion if accepted
would make a man and a woman be treated equal as an adulterer. In a survey
made by the 42d Law Report Commission in 1972 on the question for the
repeal of the section 497, majority of the judges and lawyers wanted to retain
the section and only a minority wants it to be repealed. They also argued that
India has not reached such a situation to make a radical change in the law.
However, they have also revealed that there are only a few complaints related
to criminal adultery, and only a few of them are sent for imprisonment as most
of the accused in cases has been let free only with a fine.
D. The United Nations Human Rights Commission

The commission has expressly mentioned that “it is undisputed that adult
consensual sexual activity in private is covered by the concept of privacy”.41
Also the Committee taking into notice the criminalization of some behaviors
such as those characterized as “debauchery” by some states asked that the states
“should refrain from penalizing private sexual relations between consenting
adults” and to follow the Article 17 and 26 of the International Covenant
39 http://www.mumbaipolice.org/%5Carchives_report%5Cmalimath%20committee%20repor
t.pdf (visited July 03, 2014).
40 Ibid.
41 Death by stoning/flogging, (Amnesty International 2006), online at http://www.amnesty.
org/en/library/info/MDE25/006/2006 (visited July, 2014).

on Civil and Political Liberty.42 India being a party to this covenant should
think about decriminalizing adultery. The Amnesty International has also
expressly criticized and opposed those laws which criminalize sex between
two consenting adults in private place.43
THE NATIONAL WOMEN COMMISSION

India wants that the rather than making provisions to amend the laws to treat
the women as criminal in the case of adultery they want that the section to be
repealed and treat the offence as a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence
even the Supreme Court of India has impliedly said that the man and woman
should not strike each other with the weapon of criminal law. Even the 42d
Law Commission Report suggested that the main objective of the law is not to
put a person under imprisonment, the court generally comes in settlement with
the offender in mercenary level. The Supreme Court has already said that the
philosophy behind this law is to that social good is promoted that the husband
and the wife is allowed to “make up” or “break up” the matrimonial relation
rather than prosecuting and dragging each other to the Criminal courts.44 They
can live together in the spirit of “forgive and forget” or get separated from each
other by approaching a civil court for divorce.45 Moreover, the law is made for
the betterment of the children who can be saved from the trauma of seeing one
of the parents being jailed. Taking into consideration the development in other
developed and progressive countries and the suggestion from the committees
and other place it is apt time to de-criminalize adultery and make it a civil
wrong. Wife not guilty for adultery:-Adultery under Section 497 I.P.C is limited
in scope as compared to the misconduct of adultery as understood in divorce
proceedings. As stated earlier, the offence is committed only by a man who
has sexual intercourse with the wife of another man and without the latter’s
consent or connivance. The wife is not punishable for being an adulteress, or
even as an abettor of the offence, despite being a consenting party to the crime.
She, as an “abettor “will get away with it.
42 Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Egypt, (United Nations

2002), online at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CCPR.CO.76.EGY.En?
Opendocument (visited July 4, 2014 ).
43 “Death by stoning/flogging” See, NCW rejects proposal to punish women for
adultery, The Hindu, (Dec. 26, 2006), online at http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/26/

stories/2006122603270900.htm (Accessed on July 09, 2014 ); See also, V. Revathi v. Union
of India, AIR 1988 SC 835.
44 Revathi, AIR 1988 SC at 838.
45 Ibid.
With regard to gender justice the Supreme Court of India in Yusuf Abdul Aziz
v. State of Bombay46 observed that section 497 is not ultra vires under articles
14, 15 and 21 of the constitution on the ground that it is only the man, who is
held liable for adultery and not the wife with whom adultery is committed. The
wife is saved from the purview of the section and is not punished as an abettor.
Held, sex is a reasonable and sound classification accepted by the constitution
which provides that State can make special provisions for women and children
vide article 15, clause 3 of the constitution. The reason for not punishing a wife
has been summarized by the framers of the code in the following words:
It is pertinent to mention here that the even though dearest interests of
the human race are closely connected with the chastity of woman and the
sacredness of the nuptial contract, we cannot but feel that there are some
peculiarities in the state of society in this country which may well lead a
humane man to pause before the determines to punish the infidelity of wives.
The condition of the women of this country is unhappily, very different from
that of the women of England and France, they are married while still children;
they are often neglected for other wives while still young. They share the
attention of a husband with several rivals. To make laws for punishing the
inconsistency of the wife, while the law admits the privilege of the husband to
fill his zenana with women, is a curse which we are most reluctant to adopt. We
are not so visionary as to think of attacking by law, an evil so deeply rooted in
the manners of the people of this country as polygamy..... But while it exists,
while it continues to produce it’s never failing effects on the happiness and
respectability of women, we are not inclined to throw into a scale, already too
much depressed, the additional weight of the penal law.47
Wife should be made guilty of Adultery- It is high time that either the
woman should be brought within the purview of section 497 and punished as
an abettor under section 108, I.P.C, or section 497, I.P.C be deleted from the
statute book as in case of England, and most of the European countries and in
case of Malaysia and Singapore. The existing glorifies gender bias and this is
something that women find distasteful. When the law was written 150 years
ago, women were seen as an oppressed class in need of protection. But what
kind of protection is this which deems them as men’s property. If women can
become the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers, why can’t they be held equally
responsible for their actions in the same way men are? Let both the partners to
the crime share the blame equally as in case of Germany, France and Jammu
46 1954 Cr. L.J 886.

47 Draft Penal Code, Note Q , p. 175.
and Kashmir under Ranbir Penal Code. The Indian Penal Code (Amendment)
Bill, 1972 suggested that the special privileges granted to women under section
497 of the code be done away with. However, the amendment of the section
could not be carried out and the law remains as it was when enacted in 1860.
Adultery in Jammu and Kashmir: In this regard, the Jammu and Kashmir
State Ranbir Penal Code, 1932, section 497 is more progressive. It makes the
errant wife punishable along with her paramour. The section reads as follows:
Jammu and Kashmir Ranbir Penal Code: Section 497: Adultery: Whoever
has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason
to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance
of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is
guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or
with both. In such a case the wife shall be punishable as an abettor.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
The criminal law of adultery varies from country to country. It is not uniform.
It differs according to the religious norms, attitude of the people and many
other factors. The provisions relating to adultery in some of the countries are
given below:
United States: The law relating to criminal adultery prevailing in different
states in United States reveals that three major formulations of adultery exist
under state laws in the United States viz:
• The Common law view48
• The canon( a law or body of laws of a church)
• The hybrid view.
According to the common law view, adultery takes place only when the woman
is married and both husband and wife are held liable. Under the canon law (law
of the church) view, adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married
person with a person other than the offender’s husband or wife and only the
married person is held guilty. According to the hybrid rule , followed in twenty
states in the United States, if either spouse has sexual intercourse with a third
party, both transgressors are guilty of adultery. Finally, eight states held both
48 Common law is the term used for the law of a country or state based on custom, usage and
the decision of the law courts, technically common law is referred to English law.
transgressors guilty, if the woman is married, but if the woman is single only
the man is guilty. Six states do not punish adultery at all.49
England and France: Adultery is not a criminal offence in the United
Kingdom. It is punishable, though mildly, in some of the European countries.
For instance, in France, a wife guilty of adultery is punishable for a period
ranging from three months to two years of imprisonment. The husband,
however, may put an end to her sentence by agreeing to take her back the
adulterer is punishable similarly.
Germany: In Germany, if a marriage is dissolved as a result of adultery, the
guilty spouse as well as the guilty partner, is punishable with imprisonment for
a term of not less than six months, but prosecution has to be initiated by the
aggrieved spouse by means of petition.
Pakistan and Islamic countries: In Pakistan adultery is viewed as a heinous
offence and both the man and woman are subjected to punishment which may
extend to the death sentence. In 198750 a Pakistan court of session sentenced a
couple to be buried upto their necks and stoned to death in public for committing
adultery. In April, 2002, Zafran Bibi was sentenced to death by stoning in
North West Frontier province for adultery. Perhaps such a severe sentence for
adultery is awarded in Pakistan since Islamic Penal Law (Huddod Ordinance)
was introduced in 1980. In some other Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia,
Iran, Egypt etc also like Pakistan, adultery is punished severely.
Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong: Malaysia, which is predominantly, a
Muslim country, adultery is not an offence under the Penal Code. It may be
because of Singapore and Hong Kong influence, where is not punishable.
Philippines: It is of interest to note that in Philippines, which is a catholic
dominated Christian country, it is the married woman, and not the husband,
who is liable for adultery.
ARTICLE 333 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE ACT NO. 3815

STATES
“Who are guilty of adultery: Adultery is committed by any married woman
who shall have sexual intercourse with a man not her husband and by the
49 See Law Commission of India , 42nd Report(1971) 323-328.

50 Hindustan Times, (November 10, 1987, p. 11 Delhi Edn.) Mohammuad Sarwar, aged 35 had
eloped with Shahida, aged 26, a few years ago and the couple were later found to be living
together in Lahore. Police, on a report from Shahida’s husband , Khusi Mahammad arrested
them and prosecuted.
man who has carnal knowledge of her, knowing her to be married, even if the
marriage is subsequently declared void”. Adultery shall be punished by prison
correctional in its medium and maximum periods. However, in case a married
man keeps a concubine, both man and concubine are liable to punishment.
Article 334 says:
Concubinage: Any husband who shall keep a mistress in the conjugal dwelling
or shall have sexual intercourse, under scandalous circumstances, with a
woman who is not his wife, or shall cohabit with her in any other place shall
be punished by prison correctional in its minimum and medium periods.51 The
concubine shall suffer the penalty of destierro.
DECRIMINALIZATION OF ADULTERY
In most part of the European Union, including England, Austria and Italy
adultery is not considered to be a criminal offence anymore.52 The European
Union (EU) has condemned death penalty for adultery from time to time.53 It
had also criticized the Turkey’s introduction of punishment for adultery; it is
a clear indication of the stand taken by EU of considering adultery as a non-
criminal offence.54 In United States of America the law of adultery varies from
one State to another; however after the decision in Lawrence v. Texas55 by U.S.
Supreme Court the validity of adultery law is under debate. Though, Islamic
countries like Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arab, Iran
51 K.D. Gaur “The Indian Penal Code” Fourth Edition,2009 Universal Publishing Co. Pvt.
Ltd, Delhi, at p. 802.
52 See generally, Ruth A. Miller, The Limits of Bodily Integrity: Abortion, Adultery, and Rape
Legislation in Comparative Perspective at 122-23 (Ashgate 2007).

53 See for example, European Parliament resolution of 24 May 2007 on human rights in
Sudan, Official Journal 102 E, 24/04/2008 487 – 488 (European Parliament 2007), online
at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do? uri=CELEX:52007IP0218:EN:
HTML (visited July 14, 2014); Written Question E-3216/00 by María Izquierdo Rojo (PSE)
to the Council Maryam Arubi sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, Official Journal C
136 E , 08/05/2001 207 – 207 (European Parliament 2000), online at http://eur-lex.europa.
eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do? uri=CELEX:92000E3216:EN:NOT (visited July 14, 2014);
Written Question E-0517/03 by Miet Smet (PPE-DE) to the Commission Women’s rights
in Nigeria, Official Journal C 051 E , 26/02/2004 0030 – 003 (European Parliament2003),
online at http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:92003E0517:
EN:NOT (visited July14, 2014).
54 EU irked by Turkish adultery law, BBC News (accessed on July 09, 2010), online at http://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3641026.stm (visited July 14, 2014). 44 539 U.S. 558.

55 See, IPC Rep at 325 (cited in note 36); See also, Christopher Scott Maravilla, Prosecuting
Adultery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice after Lawrence V. Texas (self-published
manuscript, 2007), online at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1003689
have provisions for death penalty as the maximum punishment for adultery but
the concept is deeply rooted in the traditional, religious view of Shariah.56
CONCLUSION
Indian society is dynamic. Adultery as an offence is extremely gender biased,
and hence the punishment for it also follows the same pattern. The woman is
looked at as being incapable of taking care of herself or being self-sufficient if
her husband chooses to violate the marital bed. This law acts as furtherance to
this belief and suppresses any scope for achieving equality in laws governing
both men and women. When personal laws today are efficient and operate for
both sexes as being equals, and women are able to establish their own identity
in society without their husbands, there is no requirement to retain adultery as
a criminal offence as well.
In conclusion, it must be kept in mind that adultery was drafted into the
Indian Penal Code, 1870 during the existence of the Colonial Rule in India.
The prevailing conditions at this time were such that a woman was looked at as
being the mere property of a man. However, in the present day, women are not
mere chattel whose identities are defined by the men surrounding them, but by
their own individual personalities. Law, being dynamic in nature, must evolve
with society. Therefore, the dubious logic behind the adultery laws in India
cannot be accepted in today’s continuously evolving society. Thus the forgoing
legal analysis of provision related to ‘adultery’ under penal statures clearly
defines the substantive and procedural requirement and lay down that S. 497
has been drafted differently. It can further be stated that57 Even though, it may
be presumed that these practices are still prevalent in India, it is also doubtful
that to what extent the penal statutes are useful to eradicate or protect the
woman from such practices. Thus, retention of such penal provision to fulfill
56 Daniel Ottosson, Legal Survey on the Countries in the World Having Legal Prohibitions
on Sexual Activities Between Consenting Adults in Private (2006), online at http://www.
ilga.org/statehomophobia/LGBcriminallaws-Daniel_Ottoson.pdf (visited july 09, 2014);
See also Hugo Hotte and Geneviève King Ruel, A Comparative and Legal Analysis of the
Cambodian Law on Monogamy (2007), online at http://ieim.uqam.ca/IMG/pdf/etude-de-
cas-hotte-king.pdf (visited Sept 09, 2009 ).
57 Even though, it may be presumed that these practices are still prevalent in India, it is also
doubtful that to what extent the penal statutes are useful to eradicate or protect the woman
from such practices. Thus, retention of such penal provision to fulfill the objectives of
protecting a class of poor women from the made domination from the practices of bonded
labour is not justified in the situation where much development, progress and different
legislations come into play. Social evil in democratic county is advisable to eradicate by
good government policies and effective execution of strategic schemes.
the objectives of protecting a class of poor women from the made domination
from the practices of bonded labour is not justified in the situation where much
development, progress and different legislations come into play. Social evil in
democratic county is advisable to eradicate by good government policies and
effective execution of strategic schemes.58 Again, the provision of adultery
hardly helps to serve the general class as it is only protect the married woman,
only provide immunity to consented wife, and only give remedial measure
to aggrieved husband hardly serve very general purpose of protecting the
woman. The drafter of the provision itself appeared to be in dilemma and at
the present context it appeared to be more irrelevant. As the time passes, and as
the feminist jurisprudence making the women more empowered, the provision
that imbibe the protectionary prejudice attitude towards this class loosing its
relevance. Therefore, in the modern context such prejudice provisions needed
to be brought on the line of gender neutrality. In the modern era when the
society is too liberal with the sexual offences and gender equality is order of the
day, the provision of adultery has opened for debate. It fails to answer several
questions and leads to serve hardly any proper purpose. Thought, too some
extent, the gender neutral version of the provision of adultery as recommended
by Mallimath Committee and Law Commission would be appeared to be more
logical, incidental, relevant and able to serve better purpose, but looking to the
various context, social reality, it may be said that its complete deletion from
the penal statutes serve better purpose. In the modern society, penal statutes
must be kept beyond the reach of that civil matter, specially family matter,
where such provision are misused, misunderstood and hardly effective.
Thus it can be concluded that provision on ‘adultery’ under the different
legislative packages has ideology to promote marital harmony, strengthen
marriage institution, provide opportunity to husband to punish outsider,
provide a chance to both spouse to forgive and forget, and in turn, also form
one of the basis for dissolution of marriage under personal laws.
Therefore, the legislative package in present form also protects the women
considering her victim in the male dominated society. In the light of above
conclusions, this article has achieved the analysis of the concept of ‘adultery’
and its various facets, historical, philosophical, jurisprudential, the causative
rational that why the adultery as a legally prohibited act, development and
nature of act of adultery, the rational for making it prohibited by the society
at given moment of time with penal modality of the legislative package on
58 Again, the provision of adultery hardly helps to serve the general class as it is only protect
the married woman, only provide immunity to consented wife, and only give remedial
measure to aggrieved husband hardly serve very general purpose of protecting the woman.
adultery. At the same time it has been understood that ‘adultery’ either as
legally prohibited or permissible act is deeply influenced by the value system
especially the value determining ‘sexual morality’ in society. As the ‘morality’
as such is a relative phenomenon, it changes according to time, place and
society. It has been evidently proved that the attitude of the society towards the
adultery as an act has become liberal as compare to traditional age-old society.
Today, ‘live-in’ has not been taken as’ shock or surprise’ and government is
also in mood it legally recognized it. Therefore, there is also need to have a
second look to the provisions relating to ‘adultery’ in India, and better way
to decriminalize it and make it only as a civil wrong. No doubt that court has
used such discretions many a time to put marital interest over the individual
interest.
However, it is the legislature who should frame the clear policy and
provisions. It is their exclusive domain, which shall not proper to be substituted
by judicial law making. Women are no longer considered to be the chattel of
her husband. The law as it stands today violates the Indian Constitution that
includes equal justice for every citizen of India and would not discriminate
on the grounds of sex. The “special provision” clause under Article 15 (3)
for women cannot be extended so as to create arbitrary discretion for such
discrimination by the legislature, as in the case of adultery. The section 497
of the IPC which deals with adultery needs to be declared unconstitutional.
Suggestions from the various Law Reform Committees also give a hint that
essentially this section should be amended, or should be repealed altogether.
The policy makers should immediately repeal the current law on adultery based
on the suggestions from the various committees to give just and equal gender
justice to the citizens of India taking into consideration the injustice rendered in
the process. Further, in the present situation the marriage is considered to be a
civil contract between two consenting adults; the civil law gives a much wider
definition of adultery, and is sufficient and effective. Taking into consideration
that number of western and developed countries has decriminalized adultery
or has made it a civil wrong, there is a need to decriminalize adultery in India
as well. Looking into all these arguments, it is evident that adultery should not
be a criminal offence. This change should be done either through declaring it
unconstitutional by the Constitutional courts of the country or repealing the
debated section through legislative amendments immediately so that the marital
status and conjugal sanctity can be accomplished in the matrimonial life. Such
changes are required to translate the contemporary “social transformation”
assuring equality to women and the constitutional spirit of gender equality
into a reality.
9
A Gendered Approach to Understanding the

Development of India’s Medicinal Plant Sector
Garry Fehr
INTRODUCTION
Governments, industry, development agencies and NGOs regularly attempt to
achieve development goals through the scaling up of natural resource extraction.
Historically, the challenges of scaling up production are understood as a series of
problems that can be solved through the application of technological fixes, and
the deregulation and liberalization of regional economies. However, the social
landscape in which individual persons operationalise their livelihood options
during this time of transition, are structured by informal power relationships
which may support their efforts or conversely, define the roadblocks that limit
their capacity to adapt and hence increase their vulnerability to change. In the
case of forest resources such as trees, fruits, medicines and timber, each of
these products are gendered via access, harvest, processing, marketing and
consumption (Rocheleau, Thomas-Slayter & Wangari, 1996). As a result, any
change to any stage in the commodity chain of these resources will result in
potentially different outcomes experienced by men and women across various
stratums of society (Schroeder & Suryanata, 2004). Carney (2001) argues
that neo-liberal technologies and systems of production tend to dismantle
gendered livelihood systems that enable the extraction of ecological value for
the benefit of men. This chapter aims to show how the transfer of production
of safedmusli (Bot. Chlorophytumborivilianum) from collection in dense
forests to cultivation in fields far removed from the forest communities in
order to supply multinational pharmaceutical companies has transferred forest
wealth from Adivasi (Tribal) women into the fields of wealthier upper caste
men. This transfer of production from traditional forest harvesting practices
to commercial agriculture is one small sector in the uneven permutation of
India’s liberalization process, an increased market-oriented forest policy,

National Medicinal Plant Board schemes and rising demand for natural
medicines. Although we have to be careful not to generalize from a single case
study, this case study1 on safedmusli is only one part of a larger assessment of
the Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) sector in the underdeveloped central
Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and it clearly illustrates the range of gendered
impacts that are resultant of the processes in flux during this period in India.
This paper describes to show the shift of government policies and schemes
from a mixed economy to a more pronounced market-oriented strategy in
combination with increasing demand for medicinal plants has transferred
traditional forest livelihoods of Adivasi women to the fields of wealthier
male farmers and how the policies designed to protect the forest resources
and livelihoods have produced unintended consequences in the forests. By
examining the shift of policies and livelihoods through a political ecology
approach, this paper will show that official explanations of population increase
and local exploitation are insufficient to explain the socio-economic change that
is being experienced by rural Indian society. Since forests form only a portion of
the livelihood resources available to Indian rural society, the political ecology
approach will be linked to a livelihoods framework that takes into account
the changing forms and importance of other assets, the restructuring of socio-
economic contexts and the evolving social and administrative institutions that
are forcing the rural poor to alter their livelihood strategies. The second section
of this paper will provide the theoretical linkage between the sustainable rural
livelihoods framework and political ecology. Since the research explains local
level changes as intertwined with national and international dynamics, this
section provides the groundwork for showing how different forms of power
are exercised across multiple scales. Section 3 outlines the methodology that
was employed and describes the study site location. This section will explain
how a rolling methodology between quantitative household sample surveys,
secondary source analysis and qualitative methods were utilized to acquire the
1 This study on NTFPs is part of the research project “Globalization and the Poor: Sustaining
Rural Livelihoods in India” conducted jointly by the Centre for the Study of Regional
Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Council for Social Development, the
University of the Fraser Valley, and the University of Guelph. The project carried out
quantitative and qualitative studies in 18 villages of Betul, Panna and Sehore districts,
Madhya Pradesh, as well as other topical case studies on the soybean sector and migration.
The research project is part of the Shastri Applied Research Project (SHARP) of the
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) that was undertaken with financial support of the
Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA). Opinions and views expressed in this paper, however, are not necessarily those of
SICI or CIDA but solely those of the author.
A Gendered Approach to Understanding the Development of India’s Medicinal ... 145
data needed to triangulate information and simultaneously analyze changes

across multiple scales.
The analysis begins in Section 4 with an overview of the changes in
international and domestic demand for medicinal plants, including the central
government’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to integrate Indian
Systems of Medicine (AYUSH – Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani,
Siddha and Homeopathy) into the mainstream beside the allopathic medical
system. This is followed by an examination of the National Medicinal Plants
Board (NMPB) Contractual Farming Scheme, which in actuality is little more
than a subsidy to wealthy farmers cultivating potentially lucrative products.
This section then shifts gears and examines the privatization and market re-
alignment of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department’s Minor Forest Produce
Federation (MPMFPF) as it makes a conversion to the promotion and production
of high-value low-volume forest products. The section ends with an overview
of the recent evolution of India’s medicinal plant commodity chain. Section
5 provides the details of the safed musli case study beginning with a history
of the plant’s traditional uses, followed by the recent changes in production
systems and finishing with market responses. Since these changes in the NTFP
sector do not occur in a vacuum, the sixth section places these changes in the
wider context of the modernization of Indian rural society which includes the
dominant agricultural sector and the growing diversity of rural livelihoods. The
final section will draw on the case study to demonstrate through the political
ecology approach how various forms of power across multiple scales are used
to simultaneously impact various levels of society.
POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOODS

The political ecology approach is useful because of its propensity to consider
the influence of multiple variables acting at a number of scales upon local
decisions. Individual livelihood strategies are often influenced by regional
policies that are embedded in global contexts (Bryant and Bailey, 1997).
Classical political ecology studies that have been built on a “marginalization
and degradation” thesis(Robbins, 2004) and use a “chain of explanation”
(Blaikie, 1985; Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987) demonstrate that the poor remain
poor because they have been limited to producing a livelihood on marginal
lands, with limited assets and limited opportunities to change their position in
society. As a result, they tend to overexploit their immediate resources, which
in turn further degrades their environment and exacerbate their marginalized
position. The poor remain in this position because their livelihood activities are
rooted in the social and cultural relationships among their community, within
systems of production and within the limits of their environment.
The “external imposition of unsustainable regimes of extraction” (Robbins,
2004, p.51) are hypothesized to be primarily responsible for the resulting
environmental and social stresses. But political ecology looks beyond political
economy meta-narratives of causality between capitalism (or the capitalist
state) and the environment. It also incorporates the importance of local context
(Forsyth, 2003). Political ecology integrates factors of class, caste, ethnicity,
religion, age and gender to understand the power relations that are embedded
within society, state and the economy simultaneously at multiple scales. It is
important to caution against universal conclusions: the wider context does not
automatically or evenly cause local environmental degradation and conflict.
Instead, the researcher must seek to understand the institutional factors at
multiple scales that contribute to environmental and social change. The political
ecology approach therefore presumes that external economic and political
forces are powering the social marginalization and environmental degradation,
but it is the local context which produces local patterns of livelihood change in
uneven patterns for men and women.
The sustainable rural livelihoods framework views “livelihood outcomes
“in relation to livelihood strategies that are a response to perceived situations
created by a combination of resources and institutions within a variety of
contexts (Chambers & Conway, 1991; Scoones, 1998). The livelihood approach
thus goes beyond paying attention to individual or household decision-
making to analyse the role of institutions and organizations that influence
access to assets such as land, water or Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs).
Institutions are more than just recognized state organizations but also include
accepted patterns of behaviour that represent values of social groups that
form a dynamic process of social negotiation (Scoones, 1998; Sharp, 1992).
Within the Indian context, Harriss-White (2003) explains how the power of
capital is reinforced through state institutions and the social structures of class,
caste and gender. Understanding the role of institutions is integral because
institutional processes form both barriers and opportunities to the formation
of livelihoods, plus institutional forms of social relationships are embedded
within power relationships that underpin livelihood sustainability (Scoones,
1998). The analysis of the manner in which institutions influence livelihood
access to resources separately for men and women of various economic classes
is also central to this paper.
METHODOLOGY AND STUDY AREA

Initially, this study assesses the forest policy changes and market re-orientation
of both the state and central government forest departments. The assessment of
secondary data is supplemented by four semi-structured interviews with senior
forest policy-makers at the state level. This paper is based on seven months of
in-depth research in two villages in Chicholi Block of Betul District, Madhya
Pradesh. The first field season took place from September to December 2004,
the second round of field work was conducted from January to April 2006, with
follow-up field visits in 2008 and 2010. The project “Globalisation and the
Poor”, of which this research has been part of, selected Betul District in order
to investigate livelihoods situated within the predominantly tribal populated
and densely forested zones of Madhya Pradesh apart from studies in the less
forested zones of Panna and Sehore. The data collection relied on a combination
of household surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions,
social and environmental mapping exercises and participant observation. Since
NTFP livelihood activities are only one portion of total livelihood strategies
in rural India, the research investigated the particular changing roles of NTFP
livelihoods within the broader context of general livelihood change.
The safed musli case study follows a commodity chain approach from
forest and fields to pharmaceutical manufacturers and ayurvedic practitioners
via the complex and guarded trail of traders, commission agents and commodity
brokers to bridge the gap between macro-scale processes of government policy
transformation and micro-scale livelihood adjustments. This investigation
included semi-structured interviews with ten medicinal plant cultivators,
15local NTFP traders, seven commission agents and brokers in Jabalpur,
Indore and Delhi and eight representatives of pharmaceutical companies in
Nagpur, Indore and Delhi. To determine how forest policy is being actually
implemented in the forests, fields and villages, semi-structured interviews
were conducted with ten forest officials at the divisional and range levels and
also with five representatives of community-based forest user organizations.
Although a case study of a single NTFP cannot be considered representative
of the entire sector, the medicinal plant safed musli was chosen because of its
importance to Adivasi women, and its pronounced market volatility in response
to government promotion and cultivator adoption. The relatively rapid response
to government and market forces enables the research to capture significant
livelihood changes that are effectively embedded within the environmental
change and broad livelihood transitions of India’s liberalization and reform of
the past 15 years. Likewise, the two villages at the centre of this research are
not likely to be fully representative of NTFP livelihood change in India, and

this paper does not intend to present conclusions of this order. Instead the aim
is to suggest sets of contributory relationships between reform, environmental
change and gendered livelihoods.
Betul District is located in southern MP and occupies the breadth of the
Satpura Range and forms the western edge of the state’s densely forested
region. This geologically old landscape is characterized by fields of thin stony
mountain soils and hillsides of dense teak forests which resist all but the most
determined efforts of intensive agriculture (Dept. of Agriculture, 2004). Despite
predominantly poor soils, agriculture has become the predominant source of
livelihoods as 41% of district land is cultivated primarily for soybean, maize,
wheat and paddy (District of Betul, 2003). Approximately 29% of the district
is comprised of dense forest and a further 11% is classified as open or scrub
forest. The forests are organized into three Forest Divisions, containing 13
Timber Production Units and are co-managed by 638 Joint Forest Management
Committees (Dept. of Forests, 2004).
The study villages of Khetpuram and Jangalbari were purposively selected
for this research to represent different levels of reliance on forest resources and
differing levels of livelihood diversity. The names of the study villages have
been changed so as to protect the confidentiality of the project participants.
Khetpuram is less than ten km from the Block Headquarters of Chicholi on
pacca (all weather) road which enables daily access to construction employment
opportunities in the growing rural town. The degraded forests have been
pushed back two km from the village’s houses and fields making even the
collection of daily firewood an extended chore. Jangalbari on the other hand,
is located a further 23 km along a less than smooth road which requires nearly
one hour by motor vehicle to travel. Since none of the residents can afford to
purchase a motorcycle, this distance poses a significant barrier to holding even
unskilled wage labour that requires daily travel beyond a 10 km radius. On the
other hand, the dense forests are located very near the houses of Jangalbari and
form a significantly larger proportion of local livelihood resources than do the
forests of Khetpuram.
Khetpuram consists of 80 households of which there are 49 Scheduled
Tribes (ST) of the Gond group, 17 Scheduled Castes (SC), and 14 Other
Backward Classes (OBC).The OBC households of Khetpuram are significantly
less likely to be landless or essentially landless (insufficient land to sustain a
family) than SC or ST households. In addition, OBC households are three times
more likely to hold skilled Rural Non Farm Employment2 than ST households
and 50% more likely than SC households. Furthermore, OBC men hold all of
the positions of political and economic power in the village except for one ST
reserved seat on the local Panchayat Council. Men have been elected to all
of the positions of power such as the other two remaining panchayat council
seats, president and treasurer of the Village Forest Protection Committee and
president of the Watershed Committee.
The 52 households of Jangalbari on the other hand, 15 OBC (Yadav)
and 37 ST of the Korku group are socially, politically and economically
structured in reverse order compared to Khetpuram and Madhya Pradesh
generally. In Jangalbari OBC households are four times more likely to be
landless or essentially landless than ST households and ST households hold
all of the administrative positions of power. This power reversal is the result
of the historical order in which the two groups came to settle in this valley.
Approximately 50 to 60 years ago, some Yadav (OBC) cattle-herding families
migrated from the degraded forests near Chicholi to join the handful of houses
that comprised the then homogeneous Korku village. The OBC Yadavs were
content to survive on the living their herds provided in the local forests.
The Yadavs were so confident in their herds that they refused to apply for
agricultural land in the last round of land reforms whereas the Korkus seized
the opportunity to legitimize and expand their holdings. Since that time the
herds of the Yadavs have declined, water for milk production has been in
short supply and the Forest Department has more stringently enforced grazing
restrictions in the forest. Consequently, the Yadavs have not only remained
as a numerical minority but their economic power within the village has also
waned.
The distance separating Jangalbari from the nearest town-sized settlement
significantly limits the capacity of people to engage in many construction
labour opportunities and RNFE. RNFE comprises a considerable proportion
of livelihoods in Khetpuram for all castes in comparison to a single person
in Jangalbari who was appointed by her husband to work at the Anganwadi.
In addition, electrification of Jangalbari began much later than in Khetpuram
and is still incomplete. This has limited the ability of landholders to develop
2 In this paper, Rural Non-Farm Employment is used to classify government jobs and skilled
work such as carpentry as opposed to including unskilled construction work. The reason
for this is to draw attention to the concentration of government employment and skills in
the OBC versus the relative nearness of unskilled daily labour available to all castes in
the nearby town. It also denotes a level of status to skills which gives such a person more
economic power than an unskilled labourer possesses.
irrigation which is dependent on electrically driven pumps in Jangalbari and

attain agricultural self-sufficiency. These factors in combination with a nearer
and denser forest have encouraged the villagers of Jangalbari to rely more
heavily on forest resources in the recent past than those from Khetpuram.
EXPANDING MARKETS AND POLICIES IN TRANSITION

According to the World Health Organization (2004), over 80% of the world’s
population relies on plants for their medicinal needs. In addition to medicines,
indigenous populations use NTFPs for food, building materials and household
goods, whereas pharmaceutical companies view the forests as natural
storehouses for their production units. The world market for herbal products
in 2003 exceeded US $62 billion and this market is expected to exceed US
$5 trillion by 2050. India’s exports of herbal medicinal products and plants
reached US $100 million in 2000 and grew to US $700 million by 2005
(NMPB, 2005). India’s domestic market for natural alternatives to allopathic
medicines was US $950 million in 2000 and this did not include the growing
markets for natural food supplements and cosmetics (Ibid).
A portion of this domestic growth can be attributed to the promotion
of the Indian Systems of Medicine by the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga
& Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH). This central
government administrative unit of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
has allocated more than Rs. 189,000, 000 (US $4,200,000)to establish AYUSH
dispensaries and clinics in mainstream allopathic hospitals, plus they also
initiated a program to supply alternative medicines to rural villages in the
form of “Home Remedy Kits”(Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2005).
Although the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been attempting to
‘mainstream’ AYUSH since 1983, it was the 10th and Five Year Plan which
attempted to standardize and improve the supply of alternative medicines.
The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) was instituted in 2000 as
a sub-unit of AYUSH to ensure the supply of raw materials for the expanding
demand for natural medicines, to increase India’s share in the expanding
global marketplace and to coordinate and standardize the vast number of
research programs operating in this sector throughout India. The NMPB
recognized that the forests could not continue to be the primary source of plant
materials in the face of this increasing demand. Accordingly, they developed a
Contractual Farming Scheme that was intended to shift pressure from the forest
environment by encouraging production of 32 prioritized species of potentially
profitable medicinal plants in farmers’ fields. In practice, the scheme operated
more as a subsidy to wealthy farmers than a contractual cultivation and buy
back scheme, as many farmers associated with the scheme complained that the
NMPB never returned to inspect fields or follow up with marketing information.
Payments of 30% of the evaluated costs are made to farmers over three years.
Some of the plants (such as safed musli) require investments of hundreds of
thousands of Rupees per acre and other medicinal plants such as amla trees
do not produce a harvest for at least four years. Although safed musli can
be harvested eight months after planting the propagules, the crop cannot be
considered organic until three years after the last application of pesticides or
chemical fertilizers. Considering that farm labour in Betul District pays only
Rs 25 to 50 per day, depending on the crop and the gender of the labourer, the
rural poor are essentially excluded from the scheme as they can neither afford
the initial investment nor can they wait three years for the complete payment
of the subsidy or a harvest four years later, in the case of tree crops. Although
one of the NMPB’s goals is to support rural livelihoods, it appears that this
scheme unintentionally excludes the rural poor by raising a barrier that is too
high for them to overcome.
Contemporaneous to these changes in the medicinal plant market have been
national and state level policy shifts that have called for improved conservation
of natural resources and increased citizen participation in the management
of the resources. The National Forest Policy (1988) announced that India’s
burgeoning population was imposing unsustainable levels of consumption
on the nation’s forests and subsequently called for improved conservation of
the remaining forests. Although the central government recognized that the
Adivasis have traditional claims to the harvest of NTFPs, it also limited such
harvest to the “carrying capacity” of the forest as determined by state forest
departments. In an attempt to motivate populations located in or near forests to
adopt a conservation-minded attitude towards the forest, the 1990 Government
of India Resolution for Joint Forest Management (JFM) demanded state level
forest departments to introduce legislation that advancedthe joint management
of forest resources by the Forest Department and local people.
By 1991 the Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh had produced new
regulations guaranteeing usufructory rights to people living near forests over
the harvest of fodder,fuelwood, fruits and medicines in exchange for managing
and protecting those forests (Department of Forests, 2003). Access to the forest
resources by citizens of villages near the forests depend upon participation in
the JFM Forest Protection Committees and Village Forest Committees. Ideally
these forest-user committees are meant to provide a forum where all members
regardless of caste, class or gender can partner with the Forest Department
to develop a forest management plan that ensures equitable and sustainable
distribution of benefits and improved ecological health.The state has formally

established more than 14,000 of these JFM committees (Ibid), but the feedback
from senior forest officials regarding the attainment of conservation goals is
mixed. They insist that it is too early to judge the effectiveness of the program
and things will improve with more time. On the other hand, these committees
appear to be joint in name only (Veron & Fehr, 2011).Throughout the fieldwork,
Forest Guards (ex-officio secretary of the committee) regularly complained
that the people “just don’t do what they are told” and “they are just too short
sighted”. In addition, the research showed that the village elites tend to capture
the lion’s share of benefits which flow from various committee employment
programs and the administration of regularized NTFP collection.
Additionally, the Bhopal Declaration (2003) signalled a paradigm shift in
the NTFP sector from direct state regulation towards privatization and market
orientation. In this declaration, the payment of royalties on non-nationalized
NTFPs was abolished, the need for intra-state NTFP transit passes was
eliminated and some nationalized NTFPs (harra and some gums) were
denationalized. The implementation of these revised rules has been partial and
uneven with various interpretations being applied in different locations. Most
interesting are the interview statements of a senior forest official who argued
that “the private sector would be a more efficient manager of resources than the
state” or that “[the state] should facilitate the efficiency of private interests”.
This shift to an increased market orientation is most strikingly observed
in the restructured operations of the Madhya Pradesh Minor Forest Produce
Federation (MPMFPF). The MPMFPF was originally created in 1984 to restrict
middlemen from exploiting village collectors in the trade and storage of NTFPs.
The Federation also administered the collection and trade of nationalized NTFPs
with the intention of returning profits to the collectors through the Primary
Co-operative Societies. But the new market orientation has prompted the
Federation to begin some interesting ventures. Since 2001, the MPMFPF has
been hosting annual herbal fairs for the purpose of disseminating information
and connecting cultivators, collectors, traders, manufacturers, exporters and
retailers. In 2003, the Federation began construction of the Madhya Pradesh
Minor Forest Produce Processing and Research Centre (MFP PARC). This
state enterprise is used to train traditional village medical practitioners in
their craft, train farmers to cultivate medicinal plants and train collectors in
Good Harvesting Practices. Additionally, they built a laboratory to ensure the
quality of raw materials for their new herbal medicine production facility.
The centre launched their own brand of herbal medicines under the name of
Vindhya Herbals in September 2005. They retail their 41 herbal products via
pharmacies and dispensaries throughout the state. The goal of these activities
is to continue protecting NTFP resources and ‘traditional’ livelihoods of
Adivasis, but it is unclear how increased marketization of forest resources
is contributing to conservation. Furthermore, no government department or
institution is monitoring the stocks of NTFPs in the forest and with fewer
nationalized plants; the state has even less information to work with. Instead,
the MPMFPF is expecting market forces to maintain biodiversity and the
ecological balance in the forests.
India’s medicinal plant commodity chain has been adapting to this
increased market demand and the forest policy changes. Prior to 1990s, this
commodity chain looked much like Figure 1 on the following page, without
the dashed connector lines and dashed boxes of Semi-Integrated and Integrated
Operations. Most collectors of NTFPs collected for their own subsistence and
sold surpluses to traders who then sold the products to commission agents,
ayurvedic practitioners and pharmaceutical companies. During the 1990s,
some pharmaceutical companies started their own cultivation operations in a
vertically integrated structure to facilitate research and also to ensure supply of
standardized raw materials. In addition, many larger farms started cultivating
medicinal plants to sell planting material to other farmers. Some of these Semi-
Integrated Operations provide training and guaranteed buy-back contracts
to their customers, but most leave the marketing of the harvest to the new
cultivators. Although it may seem like this shift to cultivated medicinal plants
from forest collection has relieved the harvesting pressure in the forests, the
initial demand for planting material created a ‘Gold Rush’ response for wild
plants which resulted in a swarming of the forests. For particularly lucrative
plants such as safed musli, the demand for planting material to supply new
cultivators was intense.
Figure 1: Indian Medicinal Plant Commodity Chain 154
Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century
Source: Fehr &Veron, 2007.

SAFED MUSLI CASE STUDY

The Adivasi populations have traditionally eaten the green leaves of safed
musli as a salad during the low food season of May and June, while women
depended upon the dried tubers as an essential post-natal energy tonic. Women
were the primary collectors of this plant form the forest and relied upon
seasonal sales to transient village level traders. Prior to the implementation
of the NMPB Contract Farming Scheme, the board estimated global demand
for powdered safed musli at 35,000 tons per year, but only 5,000 tons were
actually available. Of this amount, 98% was supposedly sourced from wild
forest stocks (NMPB, 2004). Furthermore, demand was expected to increase
with the persistent global promotion of safed musli as a “natural Viagra”. This
case study demonstrates how vulnerable the environment and women’s NTFP
livelihoods are in a time of reform and increasing exposure to domestic and
global markets.
Table 1
Safed Musli Prices Rs per Kg

Indore Traders Village Jangalbari
Year Dry Wet
Dry Forest Wet Forest Dry Forest
Cultivated Cultivated
1992 350-400
1996 1200 650
2000-01 1800-2400 700-1200 50-100 1000
2001-02 1800-2200 600-900 50-100
2002-03 900-1500 500-700 200 50
2003-04 700-1000 500-600 40-50 100-150
2005-06 300-400 300-400 100-150 40-50 100-150
Source: Own field research.
Thirty to forty years ago plentiful supplies of safed musli could be found
by men and women near the forest village of Jangalbari. However, by 1992
demand for safed musli was rapidly increasing and traders were coming to the
village to pay Rs. 350-400 per kg of dried tubers. Table 1shows that only eight
years later, the prices in Jangalbari peaked at Rs. 1000 per kg and all members
of the village plus outsiders from regional towns were going to the forest to
collect safed musli for the traders. Traders would park their scales and trucks
along forest roads waiting for men to emerge from the forest with their harvest.
Under this intense collection pressure, forest stocks began to dwindle and men
began to search deeper into the forests for up to one month at a time and
more than 50 km from the village. In addition, demand for “wet” safed musli
planting material increased as more farmers decided to cultivate this lucrative
crop as margins for soybean and maize shrunk as the agricultural sector was
liberalized. Harvest practices became unsustainable as male collectors intent
on maximizing their efforts in the forest dug up all they could find. This differed
from the past when local female collectors working near Jangalbari ensured
that they always left reproductive stock in the ground. During the fieldwork of
2004, villagers from Jangalbari claimed they had not seen wild safed musli in
the local forest for two years. Women have stopped collecting safed musli all
together and very few men will take the time to look for it in the forest.
As stated previously, some farmers in the mid-1990s determined that
cultivation of safed musli would be more profitable than growing soybean
or maize. This produced increasing demand for planting material and many
cultivators produced primarily for that market. By the time the NMPB
introduced the Contract Farming Scheme in 2002, many Semi-Integrated
Operations were well established and the market for planting material was in a
surplus position leading to a decline in prices for both wet and dry safed musli.
In 2003, the NMPB Contractual Farming Scheme subsidized 261 cultivators
a total of Rs. 63,000,000 in Madhya Pradesh to grow medicinal plants on
1311.4 acres. Of this total, 229 of the 261 contracts were for the cultivation
of safed musli and accounted for 97% of the subsidy paid to medicinal plant
cultivators. This scheme is so popular that urban professionals such as doctors,
lawyers and businessmen have invested in fields just to take advantage of the
scheme. This scheme has been repeated each year with a similar focus on
safed musli, including the present year, despite the falling prices for safed
musli. The situation for unsubsidized safed musli farmers in 2006 has become
so desperate that many have decided not to harvest their crop. Instead they
ploughed the crop to plant wheat. As can be seen in Table 1, the price for dried
safed musli had fallen to Rs300-400 per kg in 2006, which according to many
cultivators was about one half of their break-even point.
More importantly for the Adivasi women who depend on NTFP collection
to sustain them is the shifting of their livelihood not only from the forests to the
fields, but to fields in distant districts that are spatially removed from the dense
forests where the original safed musli planting material was sourced from. In
fact, only 25 (10.9%) of the 229 safed musli contracts allocated in 2003 are
located in districts (Betul, Chhindwara and Hoshangabad) where safed musli
dependent Adivasi communities are located. The majority of contracts 127
(86.6%) were located in the superior agricultural districts of the Malwa Plateau
(Indore, Dhar and Ratlam) hundreds of kilometres from the study villages.
In fields near the village of Khetpuram, some men and women are able to
find work in a few safed musli fields weeding, harvesting and processing at
low daily wage rates. This is minimal compensation for the shifting of their
livelihoods and subsistence wild food supplies, but no such opportunity exists
near Jangalbari. Women of Jangalbari have not only lost their supply of safed
musli for subsistence purposes in the low food months of May and June, but a
portion of their essential NTFP livelihoods have been transferred out of their
reach into the fields of wealthy farmers and urban professionals.
BEYOND SAFED MUSLI AND INTO THE BROADER CONTEXT

As cautioned earlier in the paper, NTFP collection is only one component of the
highly diversified livelihood strategies of the rural areas. The composition of
rural livelihoods has been in rapid transition for more than 15 years, primarily
due to the modernization of agriculture. This transition has come to Madhya
Pradesh later than most other regions of India and even later to the southern
districts where this research is focused.
Electrification of Jangalbari in 1992 enabled some farmers to begin irrigated
agriculture so that from 1992 to 2003 the acreage of irrigated land tripled, the
net acreage of productive land increased by 21%, the number of crops doubled
and the production of wheat and soybean tripled (District of Betul, 2003). This
has meant an increase of production for the market rather than for subsistence.
This marketization of agriculture has translated into increased cash payments
for daily labour instead of payments of ‘in-kind’ grains. Increased commercial
agriculture in other nearby districts of Madhya Pradesh has also required the
use of migrant labour. Consequently, many of the poor have come to rely on
the annual cash infusion labour migration provides their households.
The marketization of agriculture was not independent of the marketization
and commodification of forest resources. Many NTFPs, amla, mahua,
harra, tendu patta and chironji had previously been collected for household
consumption with surpluses sold to traders for small cash incomes. But
nationalization of some of these NTFPs and regulation of access to resources
by the Forest Department formalized the commodification of these products.
Collectors knew before they entered the forest that the government’s Primary
Collection Societies would guarantee minimum support prices for specific
products regardless of whether a collector’s household required the product.
Furthermore, the linkage of NTFP access rights to JFM participation by
the Forest Department compounds the commodification of the forest and
separates the Adivasis from their traditional land rights with the regulations
of state conservation goals (Veron& Fehr, 2011). These attitudes regarding
the marketization and commodification of forest resources were confirmed

when more than 40 male and female forest collectors of different social
standing from various villages were asked individually or in focus groups
whether they preferred working in the forests, fields or at construction sites.
Without a single exception, every person ranked the forests last and cited the
uncertainty of forest resources and better economic returns for labour invested
in the fields or at construction sites to justify their preference. Although they
ranked forest collection of NTFPs last, they still considered it as an essential
livelihood activity to maintain the economic stability of their households as
other livelihood opportunities are seasonal and highly unreliable.
Safed musli is not the only NTFP that has been unsustainably exploited
in the forests. Trees such as amla, harra and chironji have been cut for home
fuel wood and to fire the increasing number of illegal brick kilns. Some
collectors have cut branches or entire trees down when they could not reach
the fruit from the ground. Consequently, the collection of many NTFPs has
become uncertain as fewer resources mean longer journeys into the forests and
increased competition for the trees closest to the village.
The uncertain nature of NTFP collection has resulted in a stratified livelihood
response which reflects the social structure of the village. The landless and
essentially landless are most likely to include NTFP collection in their livelihood
portfolios, whereas those with greater landholdings or those that have access
to Rural Non Farm Employment are less likely to take part in this activity. In
addition, the extended journeys required to locate sufficient quantities of these
NTFPs are considered to be too great for women by themselves, whereas they
were once full participants in this activity. When women are alone, forests are
considered dangerous environments due to threats of violence from men. Also,
many women often have heavy household responsibilities which can limit their
time in the forest. As a result, the poorest of the poor, such as landless widows,
the physically disabled, and the unsupported elderly comprise the sector of
society which is most in need of this resource and yet they are the least capable
to participate.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has shown how government institutions and a shift to a more
pronounced market orientation has enabled the relatively more economically
and socially powerful members of society to capture benefits transferred
across multiple scales between different production activities and locationally
between environments. This transfer of benefits has been situated within the
modernization of agriculture and accompanied by an institutionally supported
shift of a commoditized view of the forest environment. But it is the local

context that has determined the responses of various segments of society to
the larger factors of global markets, institutional transition and environmental
change.
Applying a gendered multi-scalar political ecology approach to the safed
musli case study demonstrates how social and institutional power relationships
produce unintended outcomes for men than women across economic and social
stratums. Prior policies of the Forest Department and the MPMFPF had alienated
the collectors from any sense of ownership of the local forest. Collectors view
the forest as just one of many livelihood resources and access to the forest
resource is regulated by government. Even the Forest Department’s attempt to
promote joint management of the resource is undermined by the department’s
continued control of the committee through the Forest Guards. Furthermore,
the committee membership tends to be dominated by male village elites who
are likely the least dependent on the collection of NTFPs. Consequently,
women who tend to be the most vulnerable to livelihood destabilization are
also the weakest politically and economically in the village.
Denationalization of some NTFPs by the MPMFPF and its significantly
stronger market oriented approach to the sector compounds the commodification
of forest resources and diminishes any sense of ownership forest collectors may
have had for the local forest. Unlike farmers who understand their long-term
relationship to a specific landholding, the forest collectors have little incentive
to harvest sustainably as the collection of NTFPs is competitive and there are no
guarantees that a collector will find ripe produce before other collectors arrive.
This becomes particularly poignant when the activity is transformed from a
subsistence activity to one of potentially significant short-term profit-making.
In the case of safed musli, the harvesting competition was also stiffened by
the participation of “outsiders” lured by a false demand that was sustained by
the cultivation subsidy. Without a sense of long-term ownership over the local
forest, the local collectors were powerless to prevent unsustainable harvesting
practices of other collectors and instead were inclined to take a short-term
view of the wild safed musli stocks.
Secondly, the elimination of nationalized trading channels via the
denationalization of some NTFPs increased the activity and influence of private
traders over forest collectors. The collectors lost their collective bargaining
power and guaranteed minimum support prices of the Primary Collection
Societies. As Table 1 shows, traders were able to sell dry safed musli to brokers
in Indore for anywhere from 2 to 10 times more than they paid the forest
collectors in Jangalbari. Much of the traders’ power within the trading function
rests in the uneven flow of information, the trader’s storage capacity and the
inability of collectors to transport commodities to distant markets. As a result,
the greater integration of the sector with national and international markets
without the mediating effect of the MPMFPF diminished the position of local
collectors with respect to the traders and increased the collectors’ vulnerability
to the vagaries of the market.
The social structure outside the village has also limited the ability of
some farmers that lack political influence to obtain the subsidies which have
supported NMPB contracted cultivators throughout the safed musli price
crash. There are many farmers who have suffered significant losses because
the NMPB exacerbated market volatility by sustaining a regional false demand
that lacked viable linkages to international markets. Despite their losses, these
farmers will likely survive this experience due to their considerable resource
endowments. Unfortunately for many of the poor collectors, the continued
degradation of their resource base produces potentially deadly stresses upon
their households as they have so few resources to fall back on. Furthermore,
they lack sufficient political power to attract the attention of policy-makers
who have first of all exacerbated the situation and secondly possess the power
to mediate these unintended consequences. However, it is the forest dependent
Adivasi women who are most intensely affected by this combination of
economic liberalization and development schemes as their natural sources of
food, medicine and income are shifted from their local forests to the fields of
relatively wealthy men.
The Forest Department is well situated with the Joint Forest Management
program to mediate some of these unintended impacts and improve monitoring
of forest resources, but they must first overcome some of the limiting factors
embedded within the social structure. The NMPB Contractual Farming
Scheme is still in place and it is still subsidizing the cultivation of safed
musli in Madhya Pradesh despite the oversupply. This scheme has potential
to alleviate harvesting pressure on the forests and reduce the vulnerability of
Adivasi women, but it will need to first develop the necessary forward and
backward linkages fundamental to a healthy gender neutral commodity chain.
REFERENCES
Blaikie, P. (1985). The political economy of soil erosion in developing
countries. New York: Longman Group Ltd.
Blaikie P. & Brookfield, H. (1987). Land degradation and society. London:
Methuen.
Bryant, R. & Bailey, S. (1997). Third world political ecologies. New York:
Routledge.
Carney, J. (2001). Black rice: the African origins of rice cultivation in the
Americas.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chambers, R. & Conway, G. (1991). Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical
concepts for the 21st century. IDS Discussion Paper, No. 296.
Department of Agriculture. (2004). Government of Madhya Pradesh. Accessed
28 April 2006. Available at www.mp.nic.in/agriculture.
Department of Forests. (2004). Government of Madhya Pradesh. Accessed 28
April 2006. Available at www.mp.nic.in/forest.
Department of Forests. (2003). Government of Madhya Pradesh. Accessed 27
February 2004. Available at www.mp.nic.in/forests.
District of Betul. (2003). Government of India. Accessed 27 February 2004.
Available at www.betul.nic.in.
Forsyth, T. (2003).Critical political ecology: the politics of environmental
science. New York: Routledge.
Harriss-White, B. (2003). India working: Essays on society and economy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2005). Annual Report 2004-05.
Government of India. New Delhi, India.
NMPB (2005). National Medicinal Plants Board. Ministry of Health & Family
Welfare. Government of India. Accessed 21 October 2004. Available at
www.nmpb.nic.in.
Robbins, P. (2004). Political ecology: A critical introduction. London:
Blackwell.
Rocheleau, D., Thomas-Slayter, B. &Wangari, E. (1996). Feminist political
ecology: Global issues and local experiences. New York: Routledge.
Scoones, I. (1998). Sustainable rural livelihoods: A framework for analysis.

IDS Working Paper, 72, 1-22.
Schroeder, R & Suryanata, K. (2004). Gender and class power in agroforestry
systems. In Richard Peet and Michael Watts (eds.) Liberation ecologies:
environment, development, social movements (2nd Edition). New York:
Routledge, 299-315.
Sharp, R. (1992).Organizing for change: People-power and the role of
institutions. In J. Holmberg (ed.), Policies for a small planet. London:
Earthscan/IIED, 39-65.
Veron, R. & Fehr, G. (2011). State power and protected areas: Dynamics and
contradictions of forest conservation I Madhya Pradesh, India. Political
Geography, 30(5), 282-293.
WHO.(2004). World Health Organization.Accessed 14 May 2004.Available at
www.who.int/en
10
Ensuring Gender Justice through Equality of

Status and Protective Discrimination:
The Legislative and Judicial Role in India
Aneesh V. Pillai
“…there is a still a considerable gap between constitutional rights

and their application in the day-to-day lives of most women. Unless
attitudes change, elimination of discrimination against women cannot
be achieved…”.1
INTRODUCTION
The issues of gender justice have been a matter of great concern since a many
decades but have received much attention in the recent years. Women and
men do not enjoy equal status anywhere in this world. There is a considerable
difference in the opportunities available for both men and women. This
difference between male and female entitlements is clearly visible in work,
employment, earning, education, health status and decisions making process.2
In India this discrimination is very rampant and widespread in every walk
of life. It is visible in the sphere of home, education, place of work and the
society. In India on one hand the female form is worshipped in the form of
Goddess Laxmi, Durga, Saraswati, Parvati and Goddess Kali; but on the other
hand the society also abuses women by practicing several evils like child-
marriage, female foeticde and infanticide, domestic violence, dowry death,
sexual harassment and many more.3
1 Dimple Singla v. Union of India, (2002) 2 AISLJ 161.

2 Kumar, Hajira & Varghese, Jaimon. (2005). Women’s Empowerment, Issues, Challenges,
and Strategies: A Source Book. New Delhi: Radiant Printers.
3 Challa, Kaumudhi. ((2012). Promotion of Gender Justice in India and the Role of Indian
Judiciary. In Pandey, P. K. Human Rights and Gender Justice. New Delhi: APH Publishing
Corporation, pp. 245-256.
The framers of the Indian Constitution were well aware of the plight
of Indian women and the need to improve their status. As a result, special
provisions were incorporated in the Constitution for protecting the rights of
women and improving the status of women in India. In order to give effect to the
Constitutional provisions the Government has enacted various legislations like
Equal Remuneration Act, 1976; Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; Sati (Prevention)
Act, 1987; The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961; and Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act, 2005; etc. The Constitutional provisions, various laws,
and judgments of the courts have made their own contribution to the cause of
gender justice in India. One of the way to achieve the gender justice is by
ensuring equal status to women along with men and also by providing favorable
treatment wherever is required, i.e. by way of protective discrimination. In
India there are many Constitutional provisions and legislations for ensuring
equal status to women and to protect their rights. These provisions have also
been interpreted very widely by the Indian judiciary in order to achieve gender
justice in India. This paper examines various Constitutional provisions and
legislations for the promotion of gender justice. It also examines the role played
by Indian judiciary for the promotion of gender justice through conferring
equal status and allowing protective discrimination for women.
GENDER JUSTICE: CONCEPT AND MEANING:

Gender justice means that, ‘no one be denied justice or discriminated only
because of one’s gender (sex)’.4 The term gender justice implies a concept of
justice pertaining to the social and juridical relations that prevail between the
sexes.5 The concept of gender justice has a variety of meaning. In the area of
liberal philosophy, it is focused on thinking about subjective agency, rights and
capacities; whereas in political science it is concerned with the constitution,
processes of democracy and citizenship. In the area of law, the concept of
gender justice can mean formal equal rights between men and women.6 It
4 Singh, Justice Yatindra. (2001, October). Gender Justice – A Legal Panorama. Talk delivered
in the colloquium on ‘Gender and Law’ organised by the National Judicial Academy, British
Council and the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow.
5 Maxine Molyneux. (2007). Refiguring Citizenship: Research Perspetives on Gender Justice
in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. In Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee & Singh,
Navasharan (Eds.). Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development. New Delhi: International
Development Research Centre, pp. 58 -115.
6 Kapoor, Ratna. (2007). Challenging the Liberal Subject: Law and Gender Justice in South
Asia. In Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee & Singh, Navasharan (Eds.). Gender Justice, Citizenship
and Development. New Delhi: International Development Research Centre, pp. 116-170.
Ensuring Gender Justice through Equality of Status and Protective... 165
encompasses various components of justice, ranging from simple equality to

concepts of differentiated equality and protective discrimination.
Gender justice can be defined as ‘the protection and promotion of civil,
political, economic and social rights on the basis of gender equality. It
necessitates taking a gender perspective on the rights themselves, as well as
the assessment of access and obstacles to the enjoyment of these rights for
both women, men, girls and boys and adopting gender-sensitive strategies
for protecting and promoting them’.7 The term gender justice is often used
with reference to activities that advance women’s rights though legal change
or promote women’s interests in social and economic policy. However, the
term is rarely given a precise definition and is often used interchangeably
with notions of gender equality, gender equity, women’s empowerment and
women’s rights.8
Gender Justice envisions a society free of gender barriers – a society in
which individuals are not held back by implicit bias, stereotypes, or prejudice
and can reach their full potential, whether at school, in the workplace, or
in the community.9 Thus it is a process that hopes to eradicate the socially
constructed differences between men and women. It means elimination of
all forms discrimination, exclusion, oppression and exploitation of women.10
These injustices against women are related to the unequal power equation in
gender relations and stereo typed roles for men and women in the society.11 It is
also deeply rooted in all religious and cultural philosophy. Hence any attempt
to remove the inequalities and promote gender justice can be successful only
if the social and cultural reasons for such injustice are adequately addressed.
The Indian legislature has adopted various legislations in order to protect the
interests of woman and promote gender justice in the country.
7 Spees, Pam. (2004). Gender Justice and Accountability in Peace Support Operations.
Retrieved from http://www.international-alert.org/pdfs/gender_justice_accountability_
peace_operations.pdf
8 Goetz, Ann Marie. (2007). Gender Justice, Citizenship and Entitlements: Core Concepts,
Central Debates and New Directions for Research, In Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee & Singh,
Navasharan (Eds.). Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development. New Delhi: International
Development Research Centre, pp.15-57.
9 Neeraja, P. (2013). Sex Segregated Data: A Means to Measure Gender Gap. Radix
International Journal of Research in Social Science. Volume 2, Issue 12, pp. 1-7.
10 Nawaz, Faraha (2013). Global Gender Justice in 21st Century: Lessons and the Way
Forward, The Social Sciences, Vol. 8 (4), pp.290-294.

11 Chakrabarti, N.K. & Chakrabarty, Shachi. (2006). Gender Justice. Calcutta: R. Cambray &
Co. Pvt. Ltd.

GENDER JUSTICE AND LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK IN INDIA

The efforts to improve the conditions and status of women in India were started
during the British colonial era. The social reformers such as Mahatma Jyotiba
Phule; Iswar Chanrda Vidyasagar; Ram Mohan Roy; Shahu Chhatrapati; and
Swami Dayanand Saraswathi; etc. played a significant role in bringing about
awareness about the need for removing the evils against women prevailing
in the society. During the colonial rule various laws were enacted by the
government for abolishing certain evil practices against women. The effort
was made in 1829 by enacting a law for abolition of Sati. In 1856, widow
remarriage was made legal in the country. In 1870 female infanticide was
banned, in 1872, inter caste, inter community marriage were made legal and in
1891, the age of consent was raised to 12 years of marriage. In 1921, the Act
of granting voting rights to the women passed in Madras Province and in 1929
Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed.12 Though various such legislatives
initiatives were taken by British government, the position of women was not
good and was vulnerable to many atrocities and evils. After Independence
the Indian government introduced numerous provisions to improve the social
condition of women and to equip them with adequate means to utilize their
potential for their betterment and contribute positively towards the growth of
their country. The various provisions are as follows:
1. Constitutional Provisions
The farmers of Indian Constitution were well aware of the discrimination and
unequal treatment meted out to the fairer sex, from time immemorial. Thus
they included certain general as well as specific provisions for the upliftment
of the status of women. They provided equality of status and of opportunities
explicitly at some places and implicitly in all other places on par with men
as citizens of India.13 The mind of the framers of the Constitution and the
objectives of the Constitution can be understood from the wordings of the
Preamble of the Constitution. It declares the rights and freedoms which the
people of India intended to secure to all citizens. The Preamble begins with
the words “We, the People of India…” which includes men and women of all
castes, religions, etc. It wishes to render “Equality of status and of opportunity”
to every man and woman. The Preamble again assures “dignity of individuals”
12 Saikia, R. (2012). Gender Justice in India – From Emancipation to Empowerment. In

Pandey, P.K. Human Rights and Gender Justice. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation,
pp. 263-268.
13 Myneni, S.R. (2002). Women and Law, Hyderabad: Asia Law House.
which includes the dignity of women.14 The concept of equality before law
and equal protection before law is enshrined in Article 14. It confers on men
and women equal rights and opportunities in the political, economic and social
sphere. Further, Article 15 (1) prohibits discrimination against any citizen on
the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex etc. So also the Article 16 (1) & (2)
provides equality of opportunity for all in matters relating to employment and
prohibits discrimination against women in public employment. The framers
were also aware of the fact that women are not only to be treated equally but
that they also require special provisions to make up for their backwardness
imposed on them by the society. Thus the Constitution contains special
provisions enabling the state to make special laws in favor of women by way
of protective discriminations.15
The aspect of equality and gender justice is further emphasized in the
directive principles of state policy. Article 39 (a) provides that the state shall
direct its policy towards securing all citizens, men and women, equally, the
right to means of livelihood, while Article 39(c) ensures equal pay for equal
work. Further the state is directed to make provisions for ensuring just and
humane conditions of work and maternity relief.16
Article 326 provides that, every person who is citizen of India and who is
not less than 18 years of age and is not otherwise disqualified shall be entitled
to be registered as a voter at any election. So also in Article 325 it states that,
‘no person to be ineligible for inclusion in or to claim to be included in a special
electoral roll on grounds of race, religion, caste or sex’. Further, the political
empowerment of women has been brought by the 73rd and 74th Amendments
to the Constitution which introduced the Articles 243 D and 243 T. According
to Article 243 D (3), “not less than one-third, (including the number of seats
reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled up by direct election in every
Panchayat, shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by
rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat. Article 243 T (3) of the
Constitution provides similar provisions for reservation of seats for women in
direct election in every Municipality. Therefore, reservation of 33% of seats
for women candidates to hold office and perform all public functions at the
14 Mishra, Justice. Dipak. (2013). Women Empowerment and Gender Justice. Retrieved from
http://www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in/jacademy/Article/Women%20Empowerment%20and%20G
ender%20Justice-Dipak%20Mishra.pdf
15 See Article 15 (3) & Article 16 (3).
16 See Article 42.
Panchayat and Municipal level is within the constitutional mandate.17 Above

all the Constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen to renounce
the practices derogatory to the dignity of the women.18
Thus it can be seen that the Indian Constitution has its prime objective
the protection of rights of women and seeks to provide equality of status and
opportunity to women. It further seeks to remove all forms of discrimination
against women. However, most of the inequalities and discrimination against
women are deep tooted in the cultural practices and traditions of Indian
society.19 The Indian legislature has in consonance with the Constitutional
provisions enacted various welfare legislations for improving the status of
women and promoting gender justice.
2. Statutory Provisions
In India, several laws, legislations, policies and institutional reforms have
been enacted to promote gender equality and to ensure overall development of
women. Legislations are an important instrument for bringing about a change in
the society and removing unequal economic and social status of women in the
country.20 The various legislations adopted by Indian government for ensuring
gender justice can be classified into two categories: The first category includes
specific laws for the protection of women, such as the Maternity Benefit Act,
1961; The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961; Equal Remuneration Act, 1976; Sati
(Prevention) Act, 1987 and Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act,
2005; etc. The second category includes those laws which are general laws and
which applies to all individuals but also contains provisions for the protection
of women. For example, Factories Act, 1948; Plantation Labour Act, 1951;
Mines Act, 1952; Minimum Wages Act, 1948; and Inter-State Migrant Workers
Act, 1979, etc. Some of the important legislations are as follows:
a. Maternity Benefit Act, 1961: Maternity is a natural function of the
women and is treated as a contingency and insecurity requiring protection.
Maternity is entirely different from sickness and therefore maternity
coverage is more extensive than sickness coverage. In order to protect
17 Chantia, Alok. Gender Justice: The Constitutional Perspectives and the Judicial Approach.
Retrieved from www.airwebworld.com/articles/index.php?article=778.
18 See Article 51 A (e). Challa, Kaumudhi. ((2012). Promotion of Gender Justice in India and
the Role of Indian Judiciary. In Pandey, P.K. Human Rights and Gender Justice. New Delhi:
APH Publishing Corporation, pp. 245-256.
19 Myneni, S.R. (2002). Women and Law, Asia Law House: Hyderabad.
20 Fatima, Tanzeem. (2013). Gender Justice: A Conceptual Analysis. Excellence International
Journal of Education and Research, Vol.1 (4), pp. 274 -281.

the health of the mother and the child as well as to alleviate part of the
financial hardship caused by the birth of a child, the Maternity Benefit
Act, 1961 was enacted in India.21 This Act prohibits the employment of
any women workers knowingly by the employer in any establishment
during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery,
miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy. It further states that
no pregnant women shall be required by her employer to do during the
period specified in the section22 any work which is of an arduous nature
or which involves long hours of standing, or which in any way is likely
to interfere with her pregnancy or the normal development of the foetus,
or is likely to cause her miscarriage or otherwise to adversely affect her
health.23
Further this Act provides that, every woman shall be entitled to, and
her employer shall be liable for, the payment of maternity benefit at the
rate of the average daily wage for the period of her actual absence, that
is to say, the period immediately preceding the day of her delivery, the
actual day of her delivery and any period immediately following that
day.24 However no woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit unless
she has actually worked in an establishment of the employer from whom
she claims maternity benefit, for a period of not less than eighty days
in the twelve months immediately preceding the date of her expected
delivery.25
The maximum period for which any woman shall be entitled to maternity
benefit shall be twelve weeks of which not more than six weeks shall
precede the date of her expected delivery. In case of death of women, the
maternity benefit shall be payable only for the days up to and including
the day of her death. In case of a woman, having been delivered of a child,
dies during her delivery or during the period immediately following the
date of her delivery for which she is entitled for the maternity benefit,
leaving behind in either case the child, the employer shall be liable for the
maternity benefit for that entire period but if the child also dies during the
21 Myneni, S.R. (2002). Women and Law, Asia Law House: Hyderabad. p. 37.
22 Section 4(4) provides that the period referred to in sub-section (3) shall be: (a) the period of
one month immediately preceding the period of six weeks, before the date of her expected
delivery; (b)any period during the said period of six weeks for which the pregnant woman
does not avail of leave of absence under section 6.
23 Sec 4(3) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
24 Section 5.
25 Sec 5(2) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
said period, then, for the days up to and including the date of the death of
the child. In such cases the employer shall pay such benefit or amount to
the person nominated by the woman in the notice given under section 6
and in case there is no such nominee, to her legal representative.26
Further every woman entitled to maternity benefit under this Act shall also
be entitled to receive from her employer a medical bonus of one thousand
rupees, if no pre-natal confinement and post-natal care is provided for by
the employer free of charge.27 So also every woman delivered of a child
who returns to duty after such delivery shall, in addition to the interval for
rest allowed to her, be allowed in the course of her daily work two breaks
of the prescribed duration for nursing the child until the child attains
the age of fifteen months.28 If any employer fails to pay any amount of
maternity benefit to a woman entitled under this Act or discharges or
dismisses such woman during or on account of her absence from work in
accordance with the provisions of this Act, he shall be punishable with
imprisonment which shall not be less than three months but which may
extend to one year and with fine which shall not be less than two thousand
rupees but which may extend to five thousand rupees.29
b. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961: The dowry evil is essentially a
social one having relation with property rights of women. This practice
took away peace in every family. It has been a matter of serious concern
to every one in view of its ever – increasing disturbing proportions.30
In order to prohibit the evil practice of giving and taking of dowry the
Parliament has passed the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The Section 2
of the Act defines dowry, which means ‘any property or valuable security
given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly: (a) by one party
to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or (b) by the parent
of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to
the marriage or to any other person, at or before or any time after the
marriage in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but does
not include dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim
Personal Law (Shariat) applies’. Any person, who takes or gives or abets
the giving or taking of dowry, is liable to be punished with minimum
26 Section 7 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.

30 Myneni, S.R. (2002). Women and Law, Hyderabad: Asia Law House. p.219.
imprisonment of 5 years and with a minimum fine not less than fifteen
thousand rupees or the amount of the value of such dowry, whichever
is more.31 The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 is not a complete code that
deals with dowry prohibition. Apart from this Act, the Indian Penal Code
contains Section 304 B dealing dowry death and Section 498 A dealing
with cruelty, related to dowry.32
c. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976: This Act ensures payment of equal
remuneration to men and women workers for same or similar nature of
work.33 Further the Act prohibits any discrimination in recruitment and
service conditions except where employment of women is prohibited
or restricted by or under any law.34 In case of contravention of these
provisions the employer shall be punishable with fine which shall not be
less than ten thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty thousand
rupees or with imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than
three months but which may extend to one year or with both for the first
offence, and with imprisonment which may extend to two years for the
second and subsequent offences.35
d. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987: Sati is a traditional
practice of widow immolation. It is a practice in which the Hindu women
voluntarily ascends the pyre of her husband and sacrifices her and burns
her.36 This practice is a social evil and in the name of religion the widow
was forced to jump into the fire by the other family members or other
relatives. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 was enacted by
the Parliament to provide for more effective prevention of commission
of Sati and its glorification. The Act under Section 2 (c) defines Sati as
the ‘act of burning or burying alive of (i) any widow along with the body
of her deceased husband or any other relative or with any article, object
or thing associated with the husband or such relative; or (ii) any woman
along with the body of any of her relatives, irrespective of whether such
burning or burying is claimed to be voluntary on the part of the widow or
the woman or otherwise’. It also defines “glorification”, in relation to Sati
as: (i) the observance of any ceremony or the taking out of a procession in
31 Section 3.
32 Reddy, G.B. (2010). Women and the Law, Hyderabad: Gogia Law Agency. (7th Edition).
p.103.
33 Section 4 of the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
36 Myneni, S.R. (2002). Women and Law, Hyderabad: Asia Law House. p. 208.
connection with the commission of sati; or (ii) the supporting, justifying

or propagating the practice of sati in any manner; or (iii) the arranging
of any function to eulogies the person who has committed sati; or (iv)
the creation of a trust, or the collection of funds, or the construction of
a temple or other structure or the carrying on of any form of worship or
the performance of any ceremony thereat, with a view to perpetuate the
honour of, or to preserve the memory of, a person who has committed
sati.37 The punishment for glorification of sati is imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to seven
years and with fine which shall not be less than five thousand rupees but
which may extend to thirty thousand rupees.38
e. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: Domestic
violence is one of the leading causes of female injuries in almost every
country in the world and it occurs within the private sphere, generally
between individuals who are related through blood or law. It is always
a gender-specific crime, perpetrated by men against women.39 Domestic
violence manifests in the form of physical, sexual, psychological and
religious practices which are derogatory and prejudicial to women and
takes place at all stages of their life. The violence generally starts even
before a girl child comes into this world in the form of female feticide, if
the gender of the fetus is determined. If the girl is allowed to take birth
alive, she faces the danger of female infanticide. If she survives it, there is
always a danger that she becomes a victim of sexual abuse, unfortunately
perpetrated by her own near and dear. When a girl is married, she is
subjected to different kind of domestic violence related to dowry and
property. Even the elderly women also face domestic violence, which
includes physical, psychological and material violence. They become
victims of either active neglect or passive neglect. Unfortunately the
persons responsible for neglecting women of elderly age are mostly
women themselves.40 Thus in order to prevent and provide remedies to
those who are victims of domestic violence, the Protection of Women
from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 was enacted in India.
37 Section 2 (b).
38 Section 5.
39 Chakrabarti, N.K. & Chakrabarty, Shachi. (2006). Gender Justice. Calcutta: R. Cambray &
Co. Pvt. Ltd.

40 Reddy, G.B. (2010). Women and the Law, Hyderabad: Gogia Law Agency (7th Edition).
p.145.
The Act is primarily meant to provide protection to the wife or other

female members from domestic violence at the hands of the husband or
other relatives. It is the first significant attempt to recognize domestic
abuse as punishable. The Act defines ‘domestic violence’ as any act,
omission or commission or conduct of the respondent in case it (a)
harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well-being,
whether mental or physical, of the aggrieved person or tends to do so
and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional
abuse and economic abuse; or (b) harasses, harms, injures or endangers
the aggrieved person with a view to coerce her or any other person related
to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or
valuable security; or (c) has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person
or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned in clause (a) or
clause (b); or (d) otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or
mental, to the aggrieved person.41 Some of the salient features of this Act
are: a) It recognizes the woman’s right to reside in shared house hold;
b) Right to alternate accommodation, if required; c) Right to services of
protection officers and service providers; d) Right to get reliefs such as
Protection Order, Residence Orders, Monetary Relief, Custody Order for
her Children, Compensation Order and Interim/Ex-Parte Order.42
f. The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986:
Women have been depicted in the most respectable and aesthetic
manner on the one hand and on the other, they have been victims of
indecent, vulgar and obscene depictions.43 In order to prevent indecent
representation of women in numerous forms, the Parliament passed the
Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986. The object
of the Act was to prohibit indecent representation of women through
advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any
other forms.44 The Act defines the ‘indecent representation of women’ as
the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body or
any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or
derogatory to, or denigrating, women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or
injure the public morality or morals.45 The Act specifically prohibits the
41 Section 3.
42 Rao, Mamta. (2008). Law Relating to Women & Children, Lucknow: Eastern Book
Company, (2nd Edition).p. 170.
43 Ibid at p. 171.
44 Ibid at p. 175.
45 Section 2(c).
publication or exhibition of, any advertisement which contains indecent

representation of women in any form.46 It also prohibits publication
or sending by post of books, pamphlets, etc., containing indecent
representation of women.47 The punishment for violating the provisions
of the Act is imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to two years, and with fine which may extend to two thousand
rupees for first conviction; and in the event of a second or subsequent
conviction the imprisonment is for a term of not less than six months
but which may extend to five years and also with a fine not less than ten
thousand rupees but which may extend to one lakh rupees.48
g. The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948: This Act also contains
provisions for protecting right to maternity benefits of women workers.
Maternity benefits under this Act means any periodical payments to an
insured woman in case of confinement or mis-carriage or sickness arising
out of pregnancy, confinement, premature birth of child or miscarriage,
such woman being certified to be eligible for such payments by an authority
specified in this behalf by the regulations.49 Further the qualification of
an insured woman to claim maternity benefit, the conditions subject to
which such benefit may be given, the rates and period thereof shall be
such as may be prescribed by the Central Government.50
h. The Factories Act, 1948: The Factories Act deals with proper conditions
and facilities for women at place. The Act provides for separate latrines
and urinals for women,51 separate and screened washing facilities52 and
provides for crèches where more than 30 women are employed.53 Further
Sec 51 provides for working weekly hours not more than 48, with daily
hours nor more than 9 hours54 and intervals of rest and overtime.55 Sec 66
prohibits work by women worker between 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. unless State
Government specifically makes rules for certain factories where the raw
46 Section 3 of the Act.

47 Section 4.
48 Section 6.
49 Section 46 (b) of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948.
50 Section 50; For details of the criteria, see the Employees’ State Insurance (General)
Regulations, 1950, Chapter III

51 Section 19 of the Factories Act, 1948
54 Section 54 of the Factories Act, 1948.
55 Section 55 and Sec 59 respectively of the Factories Act, 1948.
material may be damaged; hence night work may be relaxed, but never
between 10 pm to 5 am. Under Sec 87, if the State Government is of the
opinion that work is dangerous, it can restrict employment of women,
adolescents or children in that factory.
i. The Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment &
Conditions of Service) Act, 1979: This Act imposes a duty on every
contractor employing inter-State migrant workmen in connection with
the work of an establishment to which this Act applies, to ensure equal
pay for equal work irrespective of sex56. If there is any violation of this
provision it shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which
may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand
rupees, or with both, and in the case of a continuing contravention, with
an additional fine which may extend to one hundred rupees for every day
during which such contravention continues after conviction for the first
such contravention57.
The role of Indian judiciary for empowerment of women assumes great
importance due to the fact that Indian society is male dominated and provisions
for protection of women are being poorly implemented. In such a situation
the judiciary has come forward to protect women by filling the gaps in the
legislations and giving liberal interpretations for protecting the equal status
and rights of the women.
ROLE OF INDIAN JUDICIARY

The principle of gender equality and protective discrimination for achieving
gender justice is enshrined in the Indian Constitution and various other legal
provisions. However, there still exists a very wide gap between the goals
enunciated in the Constitution and various legal provisions on the one hand
and the situational reality of the women on the other hand.58 There are many
instances where the ability of women is doubted and they are treated with
discriminations. The non implementation of the laws as well as the lack
of gender sensitivity in the society prevents the dream of constitutional
makers from becoming a reality. The Indian judiciary has realized that these
provisions reflect only de jure gender justice to women. They have not
56 Section 16(b) of the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment & Conditions
of Service) Act, 1979.
57 Section 25 of the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment & Conditions
of Service) Act, 1979.

58 Bhatt, Justice J.N. (1998). Gender Equality: Turmoil or Triumph? AIR (J), 81.
been able to accelerate de facto gender justice to the extent the Constitution
intended.59 Therefore the judiciary has by way of judicial activism interpreted
the provisions in a liberal manner and given landmark judgments. Judiciary
in India has reiterated the Human Rights of women by filling the vacuum in
municipal law by applying, wherever necessary, International instruments
governing human rights. In a series of cases the Indian judiciary has set some
remarkable standard of asserting the gender equality and Human Rights of
women.60 In Valsamma Paul vs. Cochin University,61 the Supreme Court held
that human rights are derived from the dignity and worth inherent in human
beings. The human rights of women including girl child are therefore an
inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full
development of personality and fundamental freedom of women and their
equal participation in political, social, economic and cultural life are important
for national development, social and family stability and growth-culturally,
socially and economically. All forms of discrimination on grounds of gender
are violation of fundamental freedom and human rights. This attitude of
judiciary has been reflected in a number of decisions given by it. Some of the
important instances are as follows:
a. Protective Discrimination: Protective discrimination means the policy
of granting special privileges to the downtrodden and the underprivileged
sections of society, in order to bring them at par with the mainstream
society. The objective is to remove the inequality caused such sections of
the society since ancient times. It is to be noted that due to their inherent
vulnerability, the women need to be given special favorable treatment so
as to make them equal with men in the society. The need for protective
discrimination was highlighted in the case of Ranghubans Saudagor
Singh v. State62. The Court opined that, the Constitution of India forbids
any discrimination on the ground of sex alone. However discrimination
is permissible on ground of sex when there are a variety of other factors
involved and there is a reasonable nexus with the object of classification.
Thus protective discrimination is permissible under Indian Constitution.
Judiciary. In Pandey, P.K. Human Rights and Gender Justice. New Delhi: APH Publishing
60 Manika & Sumitra. (2012). Role of Indian Judiciary towards the Protection of Human Rights
of Women, Research Expo International Multidisciplinary Research Journal. Retrieved

from www.researchjournals.in.
61 1996 (3) SCC 545.
62 AIR 1972 P & H 117.
In Dattatraya Motiram More v. Bombay,63 Section 10(1)(c) of the Bombay

Municipal Boroughs 1925 Act which provided for the reservation of seats
for women was challenged as violating Articles 14, 15 and 16. However
the Court upheld the provision and held that, Article 15(1) prohibited
discrimination ‘only on the ground of sex’, and that Articles 15(1) and
15(3) together allowed the State to discriminate in favour of women
against men, but not to discriminate in favour of men against women. The
Court held that the reservations did not constitute a classification only
on the ground of sex, but rather, was the result of ‘other considerations
besides the fact that the persons belonging to that class are of a particular
sex’.
In the case of T. Sudhakar Reddy v. Government of Andhra Pradesh,64
the petitioner challenged the validity of Section 31 (1) (a) of the Andhra
Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 and Rule 22 C, 22 A (3) (a) of
the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Rules 1964. These provisions
provided for nomination of two women members by the Registrar to
the Managing Committee of the Co-operative Societies, with a right
to vote and to take part in the meetings of the committee. The Andhra
Pradesh High Court quashed the petition and upheld these provisions
in the interest of women’s participation in co-operative societies and
opined that it will be in the interest of the economic development of
the country. In Associate Banks Officers Association v. State Bank of
India,65 the Apex Court held that women workers are in no way inferior
to their male counterparts, and hence there should be no discrimination
on the ground of sex against women. Further in Air India Cabin Crew
Association v. Yeshaswinee Merchant,66 the Supreme Court has held
that discriminatory treatment is prohibited by Articles 15 and 16 of the
Constitution. However preferential or special treatment of women which
is a positive measure in their favor is permissible. The employer is not
prohibited from considering the gender of the employee while making
employment decisions provided such consideration is done pursuant to
a properly or legally chartered affirmative action plan. So also in Vijay
Lakshmi v. Punjab University,67 the court observed that rules providing
for appointment of a lady principal in a women’s college is not violative
63 AIR 1953 Bom. 311.
64 AIR 1994 SC 544.
65 AIR 1998 SC 32.
66 AIR 2004 SC 187.
67 AIR 2003 SC 3331.
of Article 14 or Article 16 because the classification is reasonable and

it has a nexus with the object sought to be achieved. Moreover Article
15(3) of the Constitution confers power on the government to make such
special provisions for women and exercise of such power is not restricted
in any manner by Article 16.
In Om Narain Agrawal v. Nagar Palika, Shahjahanpur,68 a provision of
UP Municipalities Act providing for nomination of 2 women members
on Municipal Board was challenged. The Supreme Court held that the
nominations were protected by Article 15(3). Similarly, reservation
for women for the posts of Enquiry-cum-Reservation clerks was held
valid.69
In Government of Andhra Pradesh v. P.B. Vijay Kumar and Another,70 it was
held that making special provisions for women in respect of employment
or posts under the State is an integral part of Article 15(3). This power
conferred under Article 15(3) is not whittled down in any manner by
Article 16. The ‘Special Provision’ which the State may make to improve
women’s participation in all activities under the supervision and control
of the State can be in the form of either affirmative action or reservation.
Thus we can see that Indian Judiciary does not allow discrimination; but
allows protective discrimination in favour of women.
In Girdhar Gopal v. State,71 it was held that Section 354 of Indian Penal
Code, which makes an assault or use of criminal force whether by a man
or woman, with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman punishable,
is based on a valid classification under Article 14 and does not violate
Article 15 (1) as it did not discriminate on grounds only of sex but also
on consideration of propriety, public morals, decency, decorum and
rectitude.72
In Yousuf Abdul Aziz v. State of Bombay,73 the Supreme Court upheld the
validity of Section 497 of IPC which punishes only male participants in
the offence of adultery and exempts the women from the punishments.
68 AIR 1993 SC1440.

69 Union of India v. K.P. Prabhakaran, 1997(11) SCC638.
70 AIR 1995 SC 1648.
71 AIR 1953 MP 147.
72 Sadul, Manoj Kumar. (2012). Gender Justice through Protective Discrimination in India: A
Critique, in Pandey, P.K. Human Rights and Gender Justice, New Delhi: APH Publishing
73 AIR1954 SC 321.
The Apex Court relied upon the mandate of Article 15 (3) to uphold this
provision. In a similar case of Sowmithri Vishnu v. Union of India,74 the
Court observed that it is commonly accepted that it is the man who is the
seducer and not the women. Women were not punishable for adultery
because they were less likely to indulge in it. The court upheld the validity
of section 497 IPC by stating that, “the wife is a victim and not the author
of crime”.75
b. Equality before Law: In Pragati Varghese v. Cyril George Varghese,76
the full Bench of the Bombay High Court has struck down Section 10 of
the Indian Divorce Act, 1926 under which a Christian wife had to prove
adultery along with cruelty or desertion while seeking a divorce on the
ground that it violates the fundamental right of a Christian woman to live
with human dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Another instance in which the Judiciary tried to confer equal status and
dignity of women was in the case of Ms. Gita Hariharan & Another v.
Reserve Bank of India and Another,77 On a dispute regarding the natural
guardian of a child, the Court held that the mother can act as the natural
guardian even when the father is alive. The Court observed that the word
‘after’ does not mean only after death but it includes ‘in the absence
of father’ – be it temporary or otherwise or total apathy of the father
towards the child or even inability of the father by reason of ailment or
otherwise.
An essential component of gender justice is providing women with an
opportunity to work as well as providing a safe environment to work. One
of the landmark cases in this regard is C.B. Muthamma v. Union of India
and Others,78 In this case a successful candidate in the Indian Foreign
Service was refused appointment because she was married. Hence she
challenged the rules of the Indian Foreign Service, which prohibited the
appointment of married women, and required that unmarried women in the
employment of the Foreign Service obtain permission before marrying.
The Supreme Court held that the rule is discriminatory against women
and observed that, if the family and domestic commitments of a woman
74 AIR 1985 SC 1618.
76 [15] AIR 1997 Born. 349.
77 AIR 1999 SC 1149.
78 AIR 1979 SC 1868.
member of the Service is likely to come in the way of efficient discharge

of duties, then a similar situation may well arise in the case of a male
member. In these days of nuclear families, intercontinental marriages and
unconventional behaviour, one fails to understand the naked bias against
the gentler of the species. In Air India v. Nargesh Meerza79 an air hostess
challenged the discriminatory employment conditions for air hostesses
and stewards. The Supreme Court invalidated the condition that air
hostess be terminated from her services on her first pregnancy.
In the landmark case of Vishaka and Others v. State of Rajasthan and
Others,80 the Supreme Court through its activist role established that
sexual harassment of a working woman amounts to violation of rights
of gender equality and right to life and liberty protected under Articles
14, 19 & 21 and as a logical consequence, it also amounts to violation of
right to practice any profession, occupation or trade. The issue of paying
fewer wages to women is very common in many employments and was
discussed in the case of Randhir Singh v. Union of India and Ors.81 The
Court realizing the Indian scenario observed that non-observance of the
principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ for both men and women under
Article 39(d) of the Constitution is a violation of Article 14 and 16 as well
as against the concept of social justice enshrined in Indian Constitution.
A further important decision for protecting the working women is given
in Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Female Workers (Muster Roll) and
Anr.82 The Court discussed the issue of application of Maternity Benefit
Act, 1961 to female casual employees working on contractual basis.
Extending the scope of Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, the Court held that
not only women engaged in regular employment but also on casual basis,
on muster roll basis or daily wages are also eligible for maternity leave.
c. Right to Maintenance: The special provision for maintenance of women
under Section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 has been held to be
constitutionally valid in view of the provision of Article 15 (3). In Balan
Nair v. Bhavani Amma,83 the Kerala High Court held that this provision
is fully in consistent with Article 15(3). This provision is a measure of
79 AIR 1981 SC 1829.

80 AIR 1997 SC 3011.
81 AIR 1982 SC 879.
82 AIR 2000 SC 1274.
83 AIR 1987 Ker. 115.
social justice and specially enacted to protect certain sections of the

society including women.84
In Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum and Ors,85 it was held by
the Hon’ble Apex Court that if the divorced woman is able to maintain
herself, the husband’s liability ceases with the period of iddat, but if she
is unable to maintain herself after the period of iddat then she is entitled
to maintenance under section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code.86 It
is to be noted that the Muslim Personal law provides maintenance to a
divorced woman only during iddat period and after that she has to depend
on her relatives or wakf. However the Cr. PC is applicable to everyone
irrespective of their religion. Therefore if a Muslim woman is denied
protection of Section 125 of Cr. PC on the basis of personal laws, then
it amounts to violation of Article 14 of Indian Constitution. Hence the
judiciary in this case ruled in favor of divorced woman though it was
against the personal laws and thus protected the interests of Muslim
women.87 In a significant decision in Bhagwan v. Kamla Devi,88 the
Supreme Court held that a working woman can claim maintenance
from her separated husband, if her monthly income is not enough for
her maintenance. Further, the Court clarified that the term ‘Unable to
maintain herself’ does not require a woman to be absolute destitute, to
entitle her for maintenance.89
d. Right to Property: Property is one of the important endowments or
natural assets to accord opportunity, source to develop personality, to be
independent, thus helping to realize the right of equal status and dignity
of person to women. The case of Mrs. Mary Roy Etc. Etc v. State of
Kerala & Ors90 is one of the earliest cases in the country in which the
84 Sadul, Manoj Kumar. (2012). Gender Justice through Protective Discrimination in India: A
Critique, in Pandey, P.K. Human Rights and Gender Justice, New Delhi: APH Publishing
85 AIR 1985 SC 945.
86 See, Muslims Women’s Right to Maintenance u/s 125. Retrieved from http://www.tax4india.
com/indian-laws/marriage-n-divorce/muslim-women-right/muslim-women-right.html.
88 (1975) 2 SCC 386.
90 AIR 1986 SC 1011.
Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment promoting the constitutional

goal of gender equality by protecting the equal rights of Christian woman
over family property. In this case Mary Roy challenged the century’s
old practice of Keralaite Syrian Christian community, which bequeathed
only a minor portion of the family property to women members, under
the Travancore Syrian Christian Succession Act, 1916 and Cochin
Succession Act 1921 as violative of Constitutional provisions relating to
gender equality. The Apex Court over-ruled the two Acts and upheld the
supremacy of the Indian Succession Act of 1925. This decision heralded
a new era in the sphere of rights of women and gender equality.91
In Pratap Singh v. Union of India,92 the Hon’ble Supreme Court declared
that Sec. 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is valid and not violative
of equality clause under Indian Constitution. This Section provided that
any property possessed by a female Hindu, whether acquired before or after
the commencement of the Act, shall be as full owner and not as a Limited
Owner. The Court pointed out that, Sec. 14(1) was enacted to remedy
to some extent the plight of Hindu women with respect to her property
rights and that there was hardly any justification for the men belonging to
the Hindu Community to raise any objection to the beneficent provisions
contained in Sec. 14 (1) on the ground of hostile discrimination, since the
said section was protected by the express provisions contained in clause
(3) of Article 15 of the Constitution and was a special provision enacted
for the benefit of Hindu women. In Pratibha Rani v. Suraj Kumar,93 the
Supreme Court ruled that ‘Stridhan’ refers to property which must always
remain with the wife and that her husband or other family members have
no concern with the same.94
e. Right to Privacy & Modesty: Another very important issue that must
be considered particularly as regards women, although essential to the
life of every citizen and even non-citizen of India is in the context of the
protection of a woman’s privacy, for she too, has the right to privacy,
just as her male counterparts do.95 In Alika Khosla v. Thomas Mathew
91 Pillai, Aneesh V. (2012). Dichotomy between Constitutional Morality and Public Morality:
Judicial Stand in India. Paper presented in the Two Day National Seminar on Judiciary,
Ethics and Justice Delivery in India Organised by National Law University, Odisha.
92 AIR 1985 SC 1695.
93 AIR 1985 SC 628.
94 Chauhan, Justice B.S. Making Legal Aid a Justice for Women from Investigation to Decision –
A Reality through Sensitized Judiciary. Retrieved from http://upslsa.up.nic.in/speech2.pdf.

95 Ibid.
& Anr.,96 the husband asked his wife to carry out paternity test on her
aborted fetus. He had accused her of an illicit relationship. The High
Court of Delhi held that since the fetus was no longer a part of her body,
she could not claim a right to privacy. The case of Neera Mathur v.
LIC of India,97 was more supportive of a woman’s right to privacy, as
here it was held that, the questioning of a woman, by any employer, or
prospective employer, as regards her personal matters, was held to be not
only embarrassing and humiliating, but also against her modesty, dignity
and self respect.98
Another significant decision in this regard is State of Maharashtra v.
Madhulkar Narain.99 In this case a police Inspector visited the house of
one Banubai in uniform and demanded to have sexual intercourse with
her. On refusing he tried to have it by force. She raised a hue and cry.
When he was prosecuted he told the court that she was a lady of easy
virtue and therefore her evidence was not to be relied upon. The court
rejected the argument of the applicant and held that the ‘right to privacy’
is available even to a woman of easy virtue and no one can invade her
privacy.100
In the case of Surjit Singh Thind v. Kanwaljit Kaur,101 the Punjab and
Haryana High Court has held that allowing medical examination of a
woman for her virginity amounts to violation of her right to privacy and
personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is a
case, where the wife filed a petition for a decree of nullity of marriage
on the ground that the marriage has never been consummated because
the husband was impotent. The husband had taken the defence that the
marriage was consummated and he was not impotent. In order to prove that
the wife was not virgin the husband filed an application for her medical
examination. The Court held that allowing the medical examination of
a woman’s virginity violates her right to privacy under Article 21 of the
Constitution. Such an order would amount to roving enquiry against
96 (2002) 62 DRJ 851.

97 AIR 1992 SC 392.
98 Chauhan, Justice B.S. Making Legal Aid a Justice for Women from Investigation to Decision –
A Reality through Sensitized Judiciary. Retrieved from http://upslsa.up.nic.in/speech2.pdf.

99 AIR 1991 SC 207.
100 Jayakumar, Y.F. (2014). Liberty and Reproductive Healthcare Justice: Indian Perspective.
Retrieved from http://www.jus.uio.no/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences

/2014/wccl-cmdc/wccl/papers/ws7/w7-Jayakumar.pdf.
101 AIR 2003 P&H 353.
a female who is vulnerable even otherwise. The virginity test cannot

constitute the sole basis, to prove the consummation of marriage.102
f. Uniform Civil Code: In each community, women have been placed at
an inferior status and they are victims of male superiority. In order to
ensure equal status to women in various religions, the Indian Constitution
in Article 44 directs the State to give effect to a Uniform Civil Code.
However, the State has not taken any step for adopting a Uniform Civil
Code. In the absence of a legislative action, the judiciary has pointed out
the urgent need for such a Uniform Civil Code.
In Sarala Mudgal v. Union of India,103 a division bench of the Supreme
Court consisting of Kuldip Singh and R.M. Sahai, JJ strongly advocated
the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code in India. In this case the
Supreme Court held that conversion of a Hindu male to Islam only for the
purpose of contracting second marriage is in fact bigamy and circumvents
Section 494 of Indian Penal Code. Such marriages have been declared
as bigamous and void by the court. The court after referring to various
precedents on the point, categorically held that till uniform civil code is
achieved for all the Indian Citizens, there would be an inducement to a
Hindu husband who wants to enter in to second marriage while the first
marriage is subsisting to become a Muslim. Here the Court was pointing
out the injustice done to the first wife, legally wedded.104
g. Incorporation of International Human Rights Law: The Indian
judiciary has applied international instruments when there is no
inconsistency between the international norms and the domestic law
occupying the field in order to protect the rights and dignity of women. In
Apparel Export Promotion Council v. A.K. Chopra105 the Court held that,
in cases involving violation of human rights, the Courts must forever
remain alive to the international instruments and conventions and apply
the same to a given case when there is no inconsistency between the
international norms and the domestic law occupying the field.
102 Jayakumar, Y.F. (2014). Liberty and Reproductive Healthcare Justice: Indian Perspective.
Retrieved from http://www.jus.uio.no/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences
/2014/wccl-cmdc/wccl/papers/ws7/w7-Jayakumar.pdf.
103 AIR 1995 SC 1531.
104 Rout, Chintamani. (2013). Uniform Civil Code and Gender Justice: An Analysis Under
Customary Law. IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and

Literature. Vol. 1, Issue 5, pp. 29-34.
105 AIR 1999 SC 625.
In Nilabathi Behra v. State of Orissa,106 the Court referred to ICCPR and

observed that International Conventions and norms can be used for construing
the fundamental rights expressly guaranteed under the Constitution of India,
which embody the basic concept of gender equality in sphere of human
activity.107 One of the important case in which the Indian judiciary has applied
international law for protecting the rights of women is Madhu Kishwar and Ors.
v. State of Bihar and Ors.108 In this case the certain provisions of Chotanagpur
Tenancy Act, 1908 which provided succession to property in the male line
in favour of the male were challenged as discriminatory and unfair against
women. The Apex Court while referring to Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) held that, the State has
an obligation to enforce the provisions of the CEDAW and to take appropriate
steps to remove any form of discrimination against women.
The various Constitutional and legislative provisions in India provide the
legal foundation for equal status of women and gender justice. However, in
spite of these provisions and judicial pronouncements the attitude of society
towards women has not changed much. Moreover, the religious, cultural and
social norms are still discriminatory towards women. Under all the personal
laws, it is the man who is the head of the family and the law of succession
gives preference to the male. Similarly, under the personal laws the father
is the natural guardian of the children. Women do not have equal rights to
property or equal rights within the family. They do not have the right to decide
where they will reside after marriage. Often they are deprived of the right to
maintenance. A Hindu woman cannot be the Karta of the Hindu joint family
or inherit the ancestral properties. Under Islamic laws a Muslim man alone
has the right to have four wives and the law explicitly prohibits a woman to
marry more than one man at the same time. Although Muslim law recognizes
a women’s right of inheritance, it specifies that a daughter’s share should be
one half of a son’s share.109
In the absence of a Uniform Civil Code these discriminatory personal laws
are a challenge to the Indian legal system and particularly to the judiciary. One
of the judgments which clearly reveal the limitation of the judiciary to interfere
in matters of personal laws is the decision given in Ahmadabad Women Action
106 1993 (2) SCC 74 6.

107 Basu, Justice Palok. (2006). Law Relating to Protection of Human Rights, Allahabad:
Modern Law Publications.
108 AIR 1996 SC 1864
109 Kumar, Hajira & Varghese, Jaimon. (2005). Women’s Empowerment, Issues, Challenges,
and Strategies: A Source Book. New Delhi: Radiant Printers.

Group & Ors. v. Union of India.110 In this case different organizations had
challenged through various Petitions a number of gender discriminatory
aspects of personal laws – both codified and uncodified across religions. The
Court, relying on the earlier decisions111 held that the matters pertained to
legislative action and the Court could not interfere. It is to be noted that no
reasons were given as to why personal laws could not be susceptible to Part III
of the Constitution.112
In Lily Thomas v. Union of India,113 while dealing with the validity of the
second marriage contracted by a Hindu husband after his conversion to Islam,
the Supreme Court clarified that the court had not issued any directions for the
codification of a common civil code and that the judges constituting different
Benches had only expressed their views in the facts and circumstances of those
case. It appears that apex Court in India, which showed great judicial activism
initially with regard to Uniform Civil Code, has taken a backward step with this
clarification.114 Thus it can be seen that, in a country like India with multiple
religions and different cultures, the task of ensuring gender justice through
promoting equal status of women and protective discrimination is a daunting
challenge before the legislature and the judiciary.
CONCLUSION
Gender injustice is a problem that is seen all over the world and particularly
in India. The reasons may be varied and based on cultural, religious and social
practices. Though the Indian government has formulated various policies and
laws and liberal interpretation given by the judiciary in most of the cases, the
protection of rights of women and realization of gender justice still remains a
myth for lakhs of women in the country. Some of the suggestions for ensuring
gender justice in India are as follows:
1. For ensuring gender justice to women, the most important step must be
the codification of personal laws in our country. Thus it is suggested that
110 (1997) 3 SCC 573.

111 For example, Maharshi Avdhesh v. Union of India, 1994 SCC, Supl. (1) 713; Reynold
Rajamani v. Union of India (1982) 2 SCC 474; Pannalal Pitti v. State of A.P. (1996) 2 SCC
498; etc.
112 Pillai, Aneesh V. (2012). Dichotomy between Constitutional Morality and Public Morality:
Judicial Stand in India. Paper presented in the Two Day National Seminar on Judiciary,
Ethics and Justice Delivery in India Organised by National Law University, Odisha.
113 (2000) 6 SCC 224 (259).
114 Reddy, G.B. (2010). Women and the Law, Gogia Law Agency: Hyderabad (7th Edition).
p. 145.
a Uniform Civil Code must be adopted in the country so as to ensure the

equal status of women in India.
2. There is an urgent need to develop and implement properly, schemes and
policies which are women friendly in areas like education, employment
and health care system.
3. Right to property should be extended to all women and access to economic
resources should be ensured.
4. There is need for inclusion of women in every decision making process
in society.
5. NGO’s, and Media should come forward to sensitize the people and
create awareness about the need and importance of gender justice in the
society.
11
Debating Dowry Prohibition Act in a

Feminist Lense: Visions and Implications in
Indian Society
Kalindi Jena and Sipra Sagarika
“ …If the concept of fair deal to women in all walks of life were to
mean something more than a Utopian ideal, there is an urgent need
for taking other effective measures to enforce the co-parcenary rights
of women as regarded property and also the laws against payment of
dowry to women at the time of marriage and harassment of women
who fail to fetch dowry”.
The Deccan Herald
10th March 1995, p. 8
INTRODUCTION
The customs of giving dowry and receiving dowry is a deep rooted custom in
Indian society. It often leads to neglect of girl’s education and impoverishment
of her health. It has been condemned by social reformers and progressive
intellectuals of the society. The beginning of the eighties witnesses widespread
demonstration and fiery protests coupled with extended media coverage
against this evil custom. Parliament has enacted the Dowry Prohibition Act
in 1961, which was amended in 1984 and 1986 respectively. The insertion
of Section 498-A and 304- B in the Indian Penal Code , and consequential
amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code (Section 174 (3) and 176) and
the Indian Evidence Act ( Section 113-A and 113 –B) sought to strengthen the
existing law to curb dowry. Now the offence of dowry is treated as cognisable
and non-bailable. Giving and taking dowry both are tagged as illegal, and any
women doing suicide or compelled to take extreme steps within seven years
of marriage is analyzed through the prism of dowry harassment. Unfortunately
the law has remained only in paper and the practical implication of the law is
very less. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of these lapses of law is essential in

our Indian society. This paper thus, attempts to analyze the history of dowry as
a custom and its unprecedented results on women in Indian society.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Most of the recent works on dowry are framed by social scientists, so as to
explain the phenomena and its nature of existence. Majority of the historical
backdrop of dowry and the related dimensions of Indian Hindu marriage are
covered by their research works. Some of such works references help to widely
craft out the pillars of a defective system. This documents the social, cultural,
political and moral bases of dowry. Vander Veen (1972) explained the status,
power and the prestige theory. According to him dowry enhances the status of
the giver and brings prestige to him. As a consequence of which there exists
a reciprocal relation i.e. more is the dowry: greater is the prestige attended.
L. Dumont (1956) also explains dowry as a dakshina which complemented
a person’s merit. Moreover according to him, dowry as a total process of
humanization is based completely on the Brahminic ideology. Fruzzeti (1990)
in her recent work, “The Gift of a Virgin” explains dowry as an outcome of
purity and pollution theory. In marriages the gift of the virgin is the essential
part therefore, the imperatives for a daughter to be married upon the grounds
of purity and pollution is important. And the best way is to give them away in
right time. Dowry ‘physical’ and ‘changeable’ thus reflects the economic status
of the giver, while kanyadan is dedicated by caste and kinship principles and is
unalterable and scared. Wanda Teays (1991) in his work “The Burning Bride:
The Dowry Problem in India” explains multifaceted reasons responsible for
dowry. Dowry provides flexibility within a hierarchical system a rich girl with
large dowry may be able to arrest a higher – caste man and so dowry allows
people to climb the social ladder. Dowry could help to improve the financial
status of a poor family and in the ordinary course of events, the giving and
taking of dowry tends to even out. In a closed society with arranged marriage
the norm, dowry allows a girl with insufficient natural abilities or looks to find a
suitable mate. Most women regarded dowry as legitimate and equitable transfer
for property from a father to a daughter since almost never receives immovable
property”. Tambiahs’ work (1973) on dowry explains the hypergamous theory
of marriage mainly responsible for dowry in the North and South India. The
rules do not allow close cognates (Sapindas) marriage in case of North India
and the contrary legislates against cross cousin marriages and marriages
within equal statuses (Isegamous). M.N Srinivas (1984) in his short speech
on “Some Reflection on Dowry” traces the origin of dowry to the prevailing
Debating Dowry Prohibition Act in a Feminist Lense... 191
ideology of kinship structure, caste system, and hypergamous marriage. The

combination of these factors shaped the economic behaviour of the people
having daughters, brought about status asymmetry between affinial groups
and promoted the practice of dowry in the North India. To be more precise
dowry was synonymous to hypergamy. The bride’s family gained status by
establishing relationship with higher ranked groom’s kin by presenting a great
deal of cash, jewellery, clothing and other goods. The modern dowry or the
new dowry is the product of such additional factors such as the volatile money
economy, increased agricultural prosperity and the rise of “organized sectors”
on one hand and the customary rules of caste endogamy and pre- puberty
marriage on the other. Its rigid frame work has made dowry a social evil. Thus
he explained not to confuse the modern dowry with kanyadan or dakshina
as the purpose of the same were different. Srinivas points to the factor of the
increasing emulation of higher caste by the lower castes for contributing to the
legitimacy to the spread of dowry... Even those heterogamous communities
where bride price was practiced shifted to dowry system. However such
imitations cannot be termed as part of Sanskritization as Brahmins themselves
have borrowed the system from the West. Therefore Srinivas pours all the
structural rigidities of dowry to Westernization process. Veena Das (1975)
confirms to the theory of kinship with hypergamy as determinants for dowry
.Arguing against purely economic explanations. She writes that stratification
in status, wealth and power which determines the rank and lineage within a
caste group, such as the Rajputs gave impetus to hypergamous marriage to
gain social prestige. The social costs of such marriages for bride’s family are
met through political.
John Hopkins (2013) in his writings in the Public magazine explains that
women engaged in daily wage labour in metropolis cannot afford for the legal
system. They spend their whole time in earning their livelihood, so cannot run
from door to door to heir a lawyer. So, the legal system cannot be utilized by
the poorest of the poor section of dowry victims. Radhika &Ananda (2011),
studied in their work ‘An Autopsy Study of Socio-Etiological Aspects of Dory
Deaths marked that violence affects lives of millions of woman worldwide,
in all societies, one of the most heinous and shocking forms among them is
DOWRY DEATH. It is one among the various reasons for suicidal (i.e. abetted
suicide) and homicidal deaths of women in India, other being marital infidelity,
sexual jealousy etc. This study was done at Kempegowda Institute of Medical
Sciences and Research Hospital, Bangalore South. It was conducted during
the period July 2006 to January 2008. It aims and objectives were to know the
magnitude, socio etiologic profile and methods used for committing suicide/
homicide, and various other factors affecting the alarming rise in incidence of
dowry death. It lends valuable suggestion to concerned authorities to prevent
this heinous social evil of society. It was marked that most of the victims were
aged between 18 to 25 years of age, maximum of the victims died within three
years of married life, most commonly between 1 to 2 years of married life.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF DOWRY IN INDIA

The historical background of dowry in India can be viewed through a
triangular relation between the property, marriage, and women on one hand,
inheritance rights, streedhan and women on the other and forms of marriage
and dowry on the other area. Historically the sexual subordination of women
was framed through ideology, force, economy and dependency on the male
head of the family (Gerda: 1986). Within a patriarchal set up characteristics
forms of kinship and inheritance of property are developed. These perpetuated
subordination of women. Thus, property in all its forms came to be regarded as
a crucial indicator of balance of power between men and women. The evolution
of dowry must be seen not only as social practices and cultural symbols but
also as a result of structural patterns of gender and property hierarchy.
WOMEN AND LAW: AREAS OF ENGAGEMENT

The very basic ideology of protection of the vulnerable and the oppressed by the
constitution of India through the legal enactments has brought the confluence
of law and women. The task of the social reconstruction, development and
nation building, calls for major changes in the social order. It can act directly
as a norm setter or indirectly, provides institution which accelerates social
change by making it more acceptable.
Feminist necessarily view that the progressive laws are minimal assurance
of women’s well being. However, some of the other enactments of women
and law are Hindu Marriage Act, The Hindu Succession Act, The Indecent
Representation of women Prohibition Act, The Domestic Violence Act, The
Equal remuneration Act, and 1976. There are wide attempts to create legal
rights awareness among women.
PROMINENT POSTULATIONS OF THE DOWRY

PROHIBITION ACT
To prohibit the demanding, giving and taking of dowry, the dowry Prohibition
Act 1961, was enforced in 1st July 1961. It extends to the whole of India
except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The enforcement is based on such
date which central Government may notify in official Gazette –
• To stop the offenses of cruelty by husband or his relatives on wife, section
498-A has been added in the Indian Penal Code and Section 198-A has
been added in the criminal procedure code since the year 1983.
• Dowry in this act means any property or valuable security given or agreed
to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to marriage to other
party to the marriage , or by the parents of either party to a marriage or
by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person
on , at or before or any time after the marriage in connection with the
marriage of the said parties but does not include dower or meher in the
case of person to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat ).
• It explains that a person who gives or takes or helps in the giving or
taking of dowry can be sentenced to jail for 5 years and fined Rs 15000/-
or the amount of the value of dowry, whichever is more. Because of the
Dowry Prohibition Act to give or to agree to give, directly or indirectly
any property or valuable security in connection to marriage is prohibited.
The giving or agreeing to give any amount either in cash, jewellery,
articles, properties etc.
• It also bans the public advertisement of the dowry demands.
• The demanding of dowry itself is a cruel act and can be a ground of
divorce. A husband or his relatives can be punished for behaving cruelty
with the wife by demanding dowry and can be sentenced for 3 years
imprisonment and also fined.
• On account of the Dowry Prohibition Act, a wife or her relatives can now
take resource of law and if dowry is demanded or a wife is harassed on
account of dowry, the person doing so can be punished.
Genuine presents offered to the bride or to the bridegroom at the time of
marriage are however not prohibited by this act .The giving of such presents
however must be customary. The value of such presents should not however
must be customary. The value of such presents should not however exceed the
financial status of the parties giving such presents. A list of such presents is
also required to be maintained wherein the name of the person who has given
the present, his relationship with the bride or bridegroom, description of the
presents given and the values of the presents are to be mentioned and signed
by both the bride and the bridegroom side.
DOWRY LAWS AND STATISTICAL REALITIES: A PARADOX

Unfortunately, despite of all these legislation and enactments, till treatments
of Women in our society still continues. The System of dowry, the evil of
dowry, still exists. Dowry deaths and cases of dowry demands hog the
newspaper headlines. For instance-Dowry death: Life ends for young woman
(India Express, 20th February 2006), Suspected dowry deaths: Who can save
women? (The Deccan Herald, 20th March 2007). Jean Dreze and Amartya
Sen conducted an extensive statically survey about the frequencies of dowry
deaths in nearly thirteen States, which shows a complete failure of the legal
enactment. Haryana counts for 865 females out of 1000 males in 1991 and the
dowry deaths reported in the same year was 336. In case of the largest state of
Uttar Pradesh, when the count of female per 1000 is 879, the reported cases
of dowry deaths are 1398. In case of Punjab the count is 882 out of which
177 were reported to be died out of dowry deaths. For Kerala the count of
female goes as 1036 out of which only there are four cases. Legal expert Dr.
Anand J therefore, explained that the alarming increases in case relating to the
harassment, torture, abetted, suicide and dowry death of young innocents and
new brides has always sent a shocking message of failure of judicial initiations
for dowry prevention. Widely it reflects to the fact that there is a considerable
divergence between what the law pronounces and what the society practices.
ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES
Madan C Paul in 1989 made a study on “Dowry and Position of Women in
India”. The sample of the study consisted of 100 married males and 100 female
respondents. Since marriage is an alliance of male and female, both may be vital.
He also accounted the nature and attitude of both old and young respondents.
He had 51 percent of person failing in age category above 45 years.
Findings of the study were:
• Education, social position, economic status and demographic factors are
major determinants of dowry.
• “Pizza” (prestige) is important in marital alliance making and the
transaction of dowry is related to it significantly. For instance dowry is
increasingly resorted as a prestige in Urban Delhi.
• Almost all respondents opine that the richer and the affluent sections
expect and give more dowry than the poorer counterparts and also spent
lavishly in pomp and show. Therefore, pros porous families become an
agent of carrier of dowry.
• Urban residing respondents transacted generally higher quanta of

dowry.
• Similarly the study shows that, people from nuclear family demand for
more dowries rather than joint households.
AREA AND METHODS OF STUDY

In an attempt to encapsulate the experiences of women who have faced atrocities
due to dowry demand from in laws, ‘Basundhara: A Home for Abandoned and
Destitute Children and Women’ was taken as field. 100 female inmates of the
destitute house were interviewed and their experiences through the phases of
dowry tortures were discussed. The total women destitute in the centre are
more than 800, out of which 150 destitute are marked with dowry problem.
Thus, the study concentrates on 100 female destitute who are victims of dowry
system. Basundhara is a Non Governmental Organization situated at Cuttack.
Cuttack is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in Eastern India. As per the
census 2011, it is the second most populous district after Ganjam in Odisha.
The district covers an area of 3932 km square. The district has a population of
all total 2,341,984. The demographic details of Cuttack accounts for literacy
rate to be 84.20% and sex ratio as 955 per thousand populations.
Basundhara works for abandoned and destitute children and promotes
foster care and sponsorship programs. It encourages inter country adaptations
and provides a shelter home to the destitute and dowry sufferers. It also
provides family counselling, legal aid for socially oppressed women and
provides rehabilitation places for unwed mothers and destitute women. Later
it provides vocational trainings to the destitute women and makes them self
sufficient to earn their livelihood. There were mainly three reasons behind
choosing ‘Basundhara’ as the area of study. First, it is the area which helps
in understanding the difficulties women faced during the dowry tortures
Secondly; it is accessible at ease and helps in finding the registered victims
of dowry as an evil system. Thirdly, Basundhara tries to engage the destitute
women in a very innovative manner in order to make them self sufficient and
helps them to stand upto their economic requirements in an easier way. The
study uses in-depth interview method and analyses the responses of the victims
in a through manner. It also uses method of observation and tries to analyse
the responses in terms of statistical output. The study also derives its extensive
information from secondary sources such as internet and newspaper clippings.
Thus, a binary approach of analysis from both primary and secondary sources
helped to understand the details of dowry system and its prohibition law.
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

Unveiling the experiences of the women who had gone through the mental
trauma of dowry atrocities it was marked from the responses that:
1. Most of the women had a rough idea before marriage that there may be
chances of dowry atrocities after marriage, with the families they were
going ahead as they were negotiating for more money and the girl’s
family were not able to meet their demands.
2. According to them, the parents out of pressure in getting their daughters
married, try to convince the grooms side to reduce their demands and
promise them to fulfil it after the marriage and once the marriage is over,
they explained their daughter that she would face what the fate is waiting
for her and that they can no more pay the remaining money to her in-
laws.
3. Majority of the respondents explained that there has been physical torture
to them for not fulfilling the dowry demands and that the in-laws become
greedier when their initial demands are fulfilled. The whole process works
in a cyclical manner where the demands of in-laws are fulfilled and again
they demand for dowry. Ultimately, when the daughter’s parents get
exhausted out of resources and patience, the daughter suffers.
4. On querying about the awareness of dowry prohibition act, invariably all
responded that its only in pen and paper and the practical applicability of
the such legal acts in day to day social interactions tends to be too less.
They even shared their experiences where the local police at Cuttack had
denied taking a First Information Report (FIR) and instead blaming the
women for being incapable to handle the in-laws.
5. On a note of relive the respondents shared their views that ‘Basundhara’
has rescued them in a crucial situation where their own parents were
reluctant to help them to get off the hard situations. ‘Basundhara’ has
not only provided them shelter but also has provided them vocational
trainings, so that they can make their own income.
6. ‘Basundhara’ initiates vocational training for honey making, clothes
stitching, pickle and papad (snacks) making. It also engages the
destitute women in a very constructive manner by giving them the
responsibility to handle and nurture the orphan children of the shelter
home. With such kind of an approach both the destitute women and the
orphan children happen to develop an affectionate relationship of care
and development.
STATISTICAL REPRESENTATION
The total respondents of dowry victims were divided into two parts i.e. 20-
30 years and 30-50 years. Statistical analysis of the data collected would
help in understanding the details of experiences of the women inmates of the
rehabilitation centre. Analysis and interpretation of the Figure-1 depicts that
in the case of women from age group of 20 to 30 years 49% are not aware of
the Dowry Prohibition Act and only 1% of the respondents are aware of such
an act. Further in age group of 30 to 50 years of women 20% explain that they
are not aware of such an act and 30% explain that they are aware of such an
act. Assistance of police towards dowry victims is a clear indication of state
agents’ role in helping the dowry victims. It is essential to take an account of
such role because it will determine the loophole in the execution of any law or
act prepared by our law guardians. Analysis of the table shows that there has
been a very pessimistic assistance from police towards the dowry victims of
the rehabilitation inmates. Only 4% of the respondents opine that they had got
assistance from police in fighting against the dowry atrocities and rest 96%
opined that their complaints were not taken seriously by the cops of the local
police station. This depicts a very gloomy atmosphere of the execution of the
Dowry Prohibition Act.
Figure 1: Representation of age wise division of respondents regarding the
awareness of Dowry Prohibition Act
Source: Based on data collected from field, 2012

Table 1: Table Depicting Police Assistance to Dowry Victims
Police Assistance to Respondents

Count in percentage
Women Age Group
Total
20-30 years 30-50 years
Police
No 49 47 96
Assistance
Yes 1 3 4
Total 50 50 100
Source: Data collected from field, 2012
DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT AND ITS LOOPHOLES

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 too symbolizes the failure of the State as
is evident in its dithering on Hindu Code Bill, to bring about transformation
in women’s status. The Act promulgated as an acknowledgment of dowry as
a major social evil and witnessed women’s right through a phase of further
expansion of dowry demands. The lack of States commitment to the principle
of equal inheritance rights for women provides to a large extent, the contextual
background and perspective for the dowry problem. The State even in modern
context upholds the concept of ‘straphang’ as an integral part of the matrilineal
system and attempts not to disturb it. The assumption that a woman loses the
membership of her parental family in the post marital phase makes things
difficult reiterates the traditional linkages of property, patriliny and marriage.
Thus, the inherent contradiction in the State’s posture is evident. State on
one hand seeks to dispense the equal inheritance rights although in limited
scopes and on the other hand it promotes the concept of streedhan as a separate
property.
The definition of dowry in the act i.e. any presence made at the time of
a marriage, to either party to the marriage in the form of cash, ornaments,
cloths or articles, shall not be deemed to be dowry, unless they are made as
consideration of the parties. This shows the comprehension of dowry within
the framework of the state ideology, and its legal enactment.
The lack of evidences of dowry deaths is another pleasing means for the
court to turn their side off from the victims. The clause which extends the
“seven year” tenure for dowry deaths is questionable as evidence reflects
dowry deaths even after seven years.
Towards equality: Committee on the Status of Women In India, it reported

that we are compelled to record our findings that the dowry prohibition act 1961,
passed with the ostensible purpose of curbing this evil, if not of eradicating has
signally failed to achieve its purpose. The soft peddling attitude of the agents
and the Government officers compelled the act to be a failure. Moreover the
intention of benefit of doubt plays a type of emotional black mailing for the
victim’s family. Provisions of the 1961 Act were porous and lacked effective
measures to deal with the dowry cases. It singularly failed to achieve its
objectives. Dowry demands and dowry deaths, remained not only unabated
but frightfully expanded forcing the sate to receive its anti dowry legislation.
Even though the dowry prohibition ( amendment ) act 1984, 1986 were passed
with several recommendation such as family court, remoulding of time frames
for complaints., authorization of social organization, appointment of dowry
prohibition officer and setting up off National Commission for women, etc.
The incidence of dowry deaths did not reduce.
The Report of the Joint Committee of Parliament traces dowry to be a
complementary asset to ‘varadakshina’ that accompanies the ‘kanyadan’. The
‘varadakshina’ was given away as “streedhan” which was the property of
the wife constituting of gold ornaments, cloths in order to provide financial
protection. But with gradual changes in time now status of women is degraded
and what was previously considered as a part of dakshina is now a price for
alliance. The report also expresses that the changes caused by modernization,
urbanization and industrialization did not uproot dowry as an evil but further
encouraged it. All the stricter amendments, failed to curb dowry and it remained
unabated. The State initiatives continued to be directed only at anti-dowry
legislations and amendments of enactments which treats dowry as a criminal
offense dealing with suicide and deaths, while the problem transcended mere
legislation. The failure is most demonstrated in the legal interpretation of the
provisions of the act. In spite of changes in the Indian Evidence Act of the
appropriation of circumstantial evidences and Supreme Court observations
regarding the rare availability of direct evidences in dowry cases given the
cultural and social constraints on a young married woman, insufficient evidence
was the reason given for the acquittal of many of the prosecuted.
Police as a vigilant arm of the State often neglects recording the First
Information Report in collecting evidence or chandelling post-Mortem of an
unnatural death. It often registers a case only after all attempts at reconciliation
fail. The lower rate of conviction of dowry cases along with long wait cases to
be decided have made the entire process sluggish.
Even the National Commission for women constituted after 15 months of

the passing of the Bill and it declared the Act as a ‘Toothless tiger’, which was
easily thrown out by the societal orthodoxies. Critique to the commission said-
while the activities were particularly concerned about the commission making
its recommendations without consulting anti- dowry campaigners, an urgent
need in plugging loopholes of the existing law were needed.
FEMINIST CRITIQUE TO DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT

“Today, I find it irrelevant to talk of abolishing dowry.
Instead we should single-mindedly work to ensure
Effective inheritance rights for women – not on paper only”
(Kiswar, 1988:13)
Madhu Kiswar explained that endurance of better property rights would
alleviate the dowry problem. She explains dowry problem as not primarily
a male – female binary rather a social problem. Kapur and Cossman(1996)
critiqued The Dowry Prohibition Act in South Asian countries through a
structural model of protectionism, equality and patriarchy.
PROTECTIONISM
Perhaps the most problematic articulation of gender justice in law is the
one that positions the relationship between women and law as one of the
protection. Scholar who endorses this approach has reinforced an essentialist
understanding of gender difference assuming that women are naturally weaker
than men (Anthony: 1985, Atray: 1988, Despande: 1984). The protectionist
approach accepts the traditional and patriarchal discourses that construct
women as weak biologically inferior, modest and incapable of decision
making. Such feminine characteristics are perceived as natural, immutable and
thus as the appropriate starting place for legal regulations. Law that continues
to treat women differently than men are accepted as a necessary part of this
protection. This approach reflects judicial back grounding to the question
of gender difference. Since, women are seen as weak and subordinate – and
thereby in need of protection – they must be treated differently in law. Any
differential treatment of women is directed or intended for women protection
and therefore for their benefit. The legal recognition of this difference within
a protectionists approach tend to both reflect and reinforce the commonsense
understanding of this discrepancy as natural and inevitable.
EQUALITY
This literature has primarily focused that even laws meant for equalizing
stature of women were acting adversely as against women and affected them. A
range of legal provisions starting from personal to criminal to labour laws have
their effects on women. This highlights both laws that continue to discriminate
against women successfully challenges to such discriminatory actions. This is
what connoted as the positive and negative functional mechanism of the legal
procedures in relation to women. (Venkataramiah1987, Singh 1987, Jethmelani
1986) the deception of law that emerges with this literature is its role in social
engineering. For example, the 1975 Report of the Committee on the Status
of Women in India placed considerable importance on the whole of law for
the social change. But with sweeping legal reforms can social engineering
be canalized? Legislation alone cannot change society by itself. The judicial
agents, executive instruments and the purpose behind legislations have broken
down in a together way.
PATRIARCHY
Enslaves examines the Dowry Act and the entire system. He attempts to
highlight the extent to which the police, public prosecutors and judges who are
products of patriarchal society, are largely biased against women and help to
perpetuate are preserve the oppression of women. For instance, see some case
studies mentioned below.
CASE STUDIES
Jethmelani(1995:30) reported that in Neelam Varma and others v. Union
of India, a supreme Court writ petition 1983, seven dowry victims and two
women’ organization had moved to the Supreme court of India, alleging that
their rights under Article 21 and 14 of the Constitution of India had been
violated. These are the right to life and the right to equality before the law.
The petitioner submitted that the police authorities had not compiled with
their statuary obligations under the criminal laws and under the constitution,
by refusing to register their complaints regarding dowry harassment thereby
not carrying out the necessary investigation enjoined upon them under the
Criminal Procedure Code. It was contended that the right to life included the
right to live with human dignity. In the entire process, though recent cases have
convictions essentially but then the dowry complaints were marked under
weak strengths of evidence and benefit of doubt was extended to it.
Gonslaves (2000) examines a broad range of law affecting women
succession, maintenance, custody, divorce, rape and dowry and attempts to
illustrate the patriarchal bases in the courts interpretation of these laws. The
study reflects the basis and unstated assumption about women that informs
the courts mentality. Gonslaves believes that law is unimportant in women’s
struggle. Her focus is on the need to eliminate the patriarchal biases affecting
the implementation of laws. She explains that not only the law fails to intend to
address against women but also it has achieved little transforming in the social
order in uprooting dowry.
Law therefore is an instrument of patriarchy. It can be seen to be antithetical
to a feminist approach. Several structural dependencies of law on patriarchy
are clearly marked out. Supriya Akerkar (1992) further describes the context
of dominance feminism is that gender inequalities are the outcome of an
autonomous system of patriarchy and that gender inequalities are the primary
forms of social inequalities. Laws thus essentially legitimate patriarchy as
historical, universal and all pervasive elements. It seems as if the lawmakers
were sexists and therefore these legislations reflect less over how women can
use law.
CONCLUSION: AN ALTERNATIVE TO DOWRY PROBLEM

The six points programmed to eradicate Dowry and Bride burning in India was
originally adopted on 2nd October 1995 at the First International Conference
on Dowry and Bride Burning in India, held at Harvard University.
A) Immediate life saving action:
1(a) Construct dignified high rise protected buildings in number of cities
and towns and operate “Job centres for Dowry Victims” equipped
with telephone hot lines and specialists to handle distress calls. A
dowry victim, there within will receive effective security, respectable
accommodation, food and clothing, legal protection, clothing etc

along with job oriented training until she became economically
independent.
1(b) Construct apartment buildings for independent, working
women.
1(c) Laws formulated should protect women in real essence.
B) Long term plans:
• Reform Indian legal system to safeguard a daughters inheritance rights
to the estate of her parents, forefathers and other ancestral
• Enhance the Indian legal system to declare a marriage null and void, as
soon as dowry is demanded.
• Strengthen the Dowry Prohibition Act of India to fortify it as an effective
deterrent ti the practice of dowry and bride burning. The dowry giver
must be exempted from punishment.
C) Organize “Student against Dowry” (Scads): mutual support groups of
students in colleges and universities to promote the refusal of marriage in
case of dowry demand.
D) Organize “Parents against Dowry” (PADs): mutual support groups of
parents who wish to resist dowry and whose daughters have been victims
of dowry.
E) Originate a “Service Loan Fund” to provide loans to wages – earning
males of marriageable age who wish to pay off their parents, thereby
curtailing dowry demands.
F) Originate an “Old Age Fund” so that old people no more depend on their
sons for livelihood.
G) Promote research to identify and diagnose the dowry problem in India,
recommended legal, economic, psychological, spiritual and social
remedies, hold interview, group discussions, meetings, seminars.
H) Promote mass communication and education programme to publicize
anti-dowry ideology through drama, music, movies radio and television
shows, books periodicals, journals, hand bills and other media. Along
with all these strategies there has to be wide consensus among the bride
and grooms’ family to make India dowry free. And with such an optimistic
vision the slogan of “Drop Dowry: Dream Daughter Daintily” can be
both be realized and practiced.
Thus, with spread of awareness and proper alternatives to dowry victims, dowry
atrocities can be curtailed and the real implication of the Dowry Prohibition
Act can be made. It thus requires a Clarian call for all activists, think tanks,
civil society, governmental and nongovernmental agencies in the society.
REFERENCES
Amarjit Singh v. State of Punjab, 1989, Cr L.J (NOC) 13 (P & H); see also
Shyam Devi v. State of West Bengal, 1987, Cr. L.J. 1163.
Anand K. & Radhika R.H. (2011). Original Research Paper: An Autopsy Study
of Socio-Etiological Aspects in Dowry Death Cases. Journal of Forensic
Medical. July-Sept issue.
Anthony, Atray & Deshpandey (1988). Gender Justice, Citizenship &
Development. New Delhi: IDRC, Zuban Publication House.
Das, Veena (1975). Marriage among Hindus. New Delhi: Devaki Jain
Publication.
Dumont Louis (1959). Dowry in Hindu Tradition. EPW. April 11th, Vol. 2,
No. 48.
Fruzetti, Amali & Phillips (2004). Gendering Colour Identity, Feminity &
Marriage in Kerela, Anthropologia, Vol. 6, No. 2, July 1st, p. 253.
Gonsalves, Lina (2000). Women and Human Rights. New Delhi: APH
Publishing House.
Hopkinson, J. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Social Science Fiction. SFE Ltd.
Magazine, pp. 11-23.
Iyer, Padma. 2006. Women in Developing Countries. Jaipur: Aviskhar
Publication.
Jethmelani Rani & Dey, P.K. (1995). ‘Dowry Deaths to Justice’ in (edt)
Empowerment, Law and Dowry by Rani Jethmelani. New Delhi: Kalyug
Press.
Jeyeraj, Nirmala (2001). Women and Society: A reader in Women’s study.
Tamil Nadu: Lady Book Press.
Kapur & Cossman (1996). Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating
International Law. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Kiswar, Madhu (1989). Rethinking Dowry Boycott, Manushi, No. 48, Sep-Oct
issue.
K.W. Van Der Van (1972). Ritual, State and History in South Asia: Essays in
Honour of J.C. Heaserman. Netherlands: Congress Street Press.
Lerner, Gerda (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. USA: Oxford University
Press.
Mehta, Sushila (1997). Revelations of the Status of Women In India. New

Delhi: Vistar Publication.
Menski, Werner (1998). South Asians and the Dowry Problems. New Delhi:
Vistar Publications.
Palriwala, Rajni (1989). Reaffirming the Anti Dowry Struggle, EPW, Vol. 24,
No. 17, pp. 942-944.
Paul, C. Madan (1987). Dowry Problem and Position of Women in India. New
Delhi: Pustak Publications.
Ranjan, R.S. (2003). The Scandal of the State: Women, Law, Citizenship In
Post colonial India. New Delhi: Paul Press.
Sheel, Ranjan (1999). The Political Economy of Dowry: Institutionalization
and Expansion in North India. New Delhi: Manhor Publication.
Srinivas, M.N. (1984). Some Reflections on Dowry. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Supriya Akrekar. (1992). Gender, Justice, Citizenship and Development (edt)
by Maitrayee Mukhapadhya and N. Sharma. New Delhi: IDRC.
Tambiah & Goody (1973). Bride Wealth & Dowry. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Teays Wanda (1991). The Burning Bride: The Dowry Problem in India, Journal
of Feminist studies in Religion, Vol 7. No. 2, pp. 29-52.
12
Gender and Livelihood: An Impact Study of

Tripura Forest Environment Improvement and
Poverty Alleviation Project
Sharmila Chhotaray and Rajeev Dubey
INTRODUCTION
The significant role of forest towards securing livelihoods of locals living in
and around the forest has been ascertained through various studies.The reliance
of forest dwellers on these forests for raw materials, rituals, shelter, and
medicinal purpose is well known. Tripura is one of the pioneers in formulating
an innovative JFMC and SHG program. These programmes are devised with
the aim of ensuring active participation and invlovement of local communities
in the protection and development of the forest,which in turn generate incomes
for them. Tripura is the first among North Eastern states to receive an ODA
loan assistance from the Government of Japan. Sustaining the state’s natural
resources and promoting livelihood opportunities are the twin objectives of the
Project, which is being implemented over 7023 square kilometres constituting
70 % of the total land mass of the state. The concept of “Care, share and
prosper” of the JFM mechanism is followed in the Project. In less than two
years, strategies were implemented through the formation of Joint Forest
Management Committee (JFMC) mechanisms to protect reserved forests, and
more than 1, 301 Self-Help Groups (SHG) were formed in seven districts of
Tripura. This project is one of Tripura’s most successful development ventures,
and 35, 700 households both above and below the poverty line are its targeted
beneficiaries. The members of JFMC and SHGs are financially supported in
the form of a grant, loan, capacity building, and skill development imparted
through various trainings.
The basic tool in the Project component of Tripura JICA Project is called
Income Generating Activity (IGA). IGAs are expected to trigger enhancement of
income levels, livelihood security, standard of living, and reduce unsustainable
dependence on forest resources among Project beneficiaries, all of whom are

villagers of forest-fringe communities. The Government has initiated number of
developmental programmes for poor people living in the tribal areas. For this,
diversified tribal livelihood strategies aiming to increase household income,
reduction in poverty, reduction of vulnerabilities and natural resource based
sustainable development have been promoted to eradicate poverty. The present
study report offers a critical impact assessment and a better understanding of the
social consequences of anti-poverty policies, plans, programmes, and projects.
This paper is borne out of an extensive field work examining the Social
Impact Assessment of Income Generating Activities (IGA) of Tripura Forest
Environment Improvement and Poverty Alleviation Project (TFIPAP) in
Tripura. It endeavors to analyse the livelihoods diversification in a forest-
dependent economy. It is argued that with the transformation of the economies
in the region, gender relations are also altered in a diverse and complex manner.
This is primarily because gender relations are deeply embedded in the economy
and the politics of control over resources – a dimension which is often neglected
in the mainstream discussions on economic development and change (Mishra
2007:65). More often than not, livelihood diversification of households and
individuals has been described as an additive process with large multiplier
effects, as if in a given context all individuals and households can diversify their
livelihoods without much contestation. Livelihood diversification, whether
under distress or in response to new opportunities, could be a highly complex
process, particularly because of the intra-household conflicts of interests
between men and women. The gendered nature of livelihood diversification
get further complicated because of the specificities of livelihoods resources and
also because of class, ethnic and regional identities. Therefore it is pertinent to
address issues like- How does the differential location of stakeholders in terms
of gender, class and region affect their ability to participate or benefit from
the proposed project? Is the self-help movement empowering the poor/tribal
and women? What assets are created for beneficiaries/households after the
coming into being of SHGs through bank loans and savings and their gendered
implications for the tribal women? This study has challenged the notion that
economic empowerment of women will ensure their safety as well; on the
contrary, it predisposes them to various forms of abuse. At times women were
not only fearful of their failure but gradually develop fear of success as well.
THE FIELD AND METHODOLOGY

Keeping in view the scope, coverage, and issues to be addressed, extensive
investigation was carried out to collect information that can reveal the social
Gender and Livelihood: An Impact Study of Tripura Forest Environment... 209
impact of the Project to understand the changing livelihood situation among

the rural women. To achieve the objectives, both qualitative and quantitative
research techniques were deployed to collect the requisite data. The study has
been exploratory in nature, relying on descriptions, and used a participatory
method to gauge the changes in stakeholder’s lives. The Quantitative methods
used in the present study were: Socioeconomic Survey; Set of structured
questionnaires concerning JICA officials, SHG members, and leaders; JICA
information and training booklets. The Qualitative methods used in the present
study were: Key Informant Interviews; Focus Group Discussions (FGDs);
Rapid Rural Appraisal.
In terms of the sources of information, the study has relied on secondary as
well as primary data. The availability of and access to government schemes and
programs, information on supporting institutions (JFMCs and SHGs) were the
main components as secondary source of information. The existing data from
secondary sources cannot however be a substitute for Project-specific surveys.
In addition, the proposed study derived much more relevant information directly
from surveys of various kinds including socioeconomic survey, and meetings
with the affected people. Through a Purposive-Stratified Random Sampling
method, Khowai and Gomati were the two districts selected for a comparative
assessment of the rural, urban, and semi-urban based SHGs. The Project area
includes the two DMUs: Gomati and Teliamura. The random samples of
SHGs from the DMUs include Taidu, Tirthamukh, Karbook and Amarpur of
Gomati division. Similarly SHGs from Khowai division, Teliamura, Khowai,
Mungiakami, Padmabill and Champaknagar were selected. Three members
from 45 SHGs in both the divisions were selected for interview. During the
three months of study, out of 393 SHGs, 45 SHGs and 134 primary stakeholders
were selected from two districts on the basis of purposive sampling so that the
sample was representative and respondents were not ‘cherry-picked’. To assess
the impact on different social, ethnic, gender, and economic groups within the
Project, samples were selected from different categories of SHGs and the JICA
officials (Range officer, Community Organiser, Field Facilitator and Member
Secretary) based on specific variables and parameters to understand successful
and/or unsuccessful implementation of TFIPAP.
SOCIOECONOMIC PROFILE OF SHGS

The following analysis is based on information collected through field survey,
interviews, and involved observations with SHG members. The results are
based on data collected from 134 sample beneficiaries of the two sample
DMUs, Gomati and Teliamura of Gomati and Khowai district respectively.
Socio-Economic Factors in Project Participation

Diverse socio-economic factors have influenced primary stakeholders
to participate in this Project. In this section, variables such as gender, age,
caste, religion, family types, marital status, economic status, occupations,
household, and assets of the respondents are considered in analyzing the
socio-economic profile of participants in livelihood programs. The above table
indicates a diversified composition of beneficiaries with respect to gender,
age group, caste, religion, educational status, economic status, occupational
status. More women as compared to men participate in the Project. In terms
of age composition, those between the ages of 30 and 40 seem to dominate
the sample. Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries dominate the sample because the
primary activities of JICA Project and its’ focus is on forest conservation where
tribal families are in majority. In terms of the number of religions represented
in the sample, almost three-fourths of the sample was Hindu, while just under
a quarter of the simple practiced Christianity. The most commonly reported
educational qualification was primary schooling, reported by 43.28% of the
sample beneficiaries, followed by 23.88% who passed Madhyamik, 19.40%
who could not read or write, 11.19% who could read and write, and 2.24%
who had passed High School. No one amongst the sample beneficiaries
attended college. The economic status of the respondents shows almost equal
participation of those classified in the Project as being APL (above the poverty
line) and BPL. The occupational status of respondents’ shows that 44.03%
of the respondents worked in MGNREGA, 41.04% worked on farm-land,
3.73% worked as Anganwadi workers, 2.24% were shopkeepers, while others
form 8.96%. Most respondents earn a livelihood through manual labour since
they do not own any land. Respondents also reportedly made a living through
shifting cultivation, farming on their own land, keeping shops, and most women
reported their occupation as home-makers. People participate in the Project to
a large extent due to social factors. Women in particular appear to value the
financial power that Project-work brings in its wake, and they therefore tend
to work more enthusiastically than their male counterparts. Women value the
difference they can make to their families through this income, which also
makes them feel an equal part of the community. Besides, women find willing
shoulders to lean on among the other women, and the emotional and psychic
support they receive within the group cannot be discounted. This is particularly
true since most respondents were reportedly married. It indicates that they feel
a greater responsibility in looking after their families, and the Project allows
them to take care of the family’s basic needs. Often, the Project is a steadier
source of income in comparison to what the men earn.
Table 1: Socio-Economic Parameters of Sample Bene�ciaries
Number
Sl. No. Socio-Economic Parameters of SHG Percentage
Bene�ciaries
Male 37 27.61%
1.1. Gender Female 97 72.39%
Total 134 100.00%
Below 30 Years 54 40.30%
30-40 Years 50 37.31%
1.2. Age
Above 40 Years 30 22.39%
Total 134 100.00%
ST 129 96.27%
SC 2 1.49%
OBC 3 2.24%
1.3. Caste
General 0 0.00%
Others 0 0.00%
Total 134 100.00%
Hindu 98 73.13%
Muslim 0 0%
1.4. Religion Christian 33 24.63%
Buddhist 3 2.24%
Total 134 100.00%
Nuclear 103 76.87%
1.5. Family Type Joint 31 23.13%
Total 134 100.00%
Married 123 91.79%
Unmarried 10 7.46%
1.6. Marital Status Divorced 1 0.75%
Widow 0 0.00%
Total 134 100.00%
Illiterate 26 19.40%
Literate 15 11.19%
Primary 58 43.28%
Madhyamik 32 23.88%
Educational
1.7. Higher 3 2.24%
Status
Secondary 0 0.00%
Graduate or 134 100.00%
above
Total
APL 63 47.01%
Economic
1.8. BPL 71 52.99%
Status
Total 134 100.00%
Contd...
Number
Sl. No. Socio-Economic Parameters of SHG Percentage
Bene�ciaries
Farmer 55 41.04%
MGNREGA 59 44.03%
Shop owner 3 2.24%
1.9. Occupation
Anganwadi 5 3.73%
worker 12 8.96%
Others
Source: Field data
PROJECT’S IMPACT ON PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS LIFE

The indicators identified for analyzing the social impact of the Project are impact
on household strata, change in asset creation, annual household income and
expenditure, savings, impact on empowerment, behavioral changes amongst
women, and changed access to amenities. Here, social impact of the Project
refers to the socio-economic changes experienced by the individual and the
family. Socio-economic upliftment is strongly influenced by their individual
assets (such as land, housing status, livestock, savings) and capabilities of
all kinds, namely social (such as confidence to face any problem, a sense of
helping others, decision making ability) and psychological (self-esteem, self-
confidence, the ability to imagine and aspire to a better future), and Amenities
(such as Medical facilities, sanitation facilities, Drinking water facilities
and education, market and transportation facilities). Although these have
been discussed separately but they certainly have a bearing on each other. A
significant improvement on household has been observed as a result of the
project intervention. For the purpose of present analysis we would like to
describe the impact of project on overall social empowerment. The table- 2
highlights the Social Impact of respondents before Project intervention and
after Project intervention. Earlier, 25.37% of respondents reported that they
were confident in facing problems. But after JICA’s intervention, 85.07% of
respondents report that they have the confidence to face any problem. Before,
25.37% of respondents could face financial problems but after intervention the
percentage has increased to 76.87%. This is a commendable increase of around
51%. Similarly, 10% of those interviewed reported that they were now more
likely to help their neighbors if they were in financial trouble. In case of taking
decisions, 21% of the respondents are now making their own decisions in their
life after joining the group. After JICA’s intervention, SHG member’s incomes
have increased, and for these reasons their social condition has also enhanced.
Social empowerment and economic development are closely related.

Securing an income plays a major role in facing various problems apart from
those pertaining to finances. However, social development is equally important
and this is reflected in the SHG member’s view. The people’s confidence to
face problems has increased. The capacity to help others and of taking various
decisions have also increased among the women members. A major part of their
new-found confidence can be attributed to the changes that have come through
JICA’s Project. The above table-3 shows the behavioral changes among the
women respondents associated in SHG groups.
The data shows that facing verbal abuse has increased from 10.31%-
14.43% after the project intervention. Sometimes economic progress brings an
inverse impact especially to women, causing difficulty in the family. Before
JICA’s intervention, 8.25% SHG members were beaten by family members
but after JICA intervention this has decreased by 2%. Earlier, 15.46% of all
women faced negligence from family, but after intervention, the percentage
has decreased to 9.28%. When the assessment was made about their reaction
to abuse, some SHG members’ i.e.1% remained calm while some resist the
abuse. Some SHG members complain to relatives and some members said that
they also warn the culprits. It seems to be that after JICA’s intervention, the
mental resolve and confidence have increased among women SHG members
in asserting themselves.
Table 2: Impact on Social Empowerment
Before After
Sl. No. Item No. of SHG No. of SHG
% %
members members
Con�dence Yes 34 25.37 114 85.07
1. to face
problem No 100 74.63 20 14.93
Con�dence
Yes 34 25.37 103 76.87
to face
2.
�nancial
No 100 74.63 31 23.13
crisis
Helping Yes 84 62.69 97 72.39
3.
Neighbours No 50 37.31 37 27.61
Taking Yes 65 48.51 91 67.91
4.
decisions No 69 51.49 43 32.09
Source: Primary data collection 2013* Difference due to JFM.
Table 3: Behavioral changes (only for women members)
Before After
% %
members members
Facing verbal Yes 10 10.31 14 14.43
1.
abuse No 87 89.69 83 85.57
Beaten Yes 8 8.25 6 6.19
2. by family
member No 89 91.75 91 93.81
Face any Yes 15 15.46 9 9.28

3.
negligence No 82 84.54 88 90.72
Yes 27 27.84 26 26.80
4. Remain calm
No 70 72.16 71 73.20
Yes 22 22.68 35 36.08
5. Resist
No 75 77.32 62 63.92
Complain to Yes 17 17.53 28 28.87
6.
relatives No 80 82.47 69 71.13
Warn the Yes 16 16.49 23 23.71
7.
culprits No 81 83.51 74 76.29
It has been observed that the tendency to use verbal abuses has increased,
which is basically a perverted attempt by family members to curtail women’s’
empowerment through group activities. But it is noteworthy that the tendency
of being beaten by husband and other family members and facing negligence
has reduced. It is because earlier women were frequently beaten by their family
members without any protest, but at present, when women feel empowered,
they protest vehemently against beatings. They now complain to relatives
and on occasion warn the culprits. This protest is influenced by the different
capacity building programs of JICA and improvement of economic condition
of women through different enterprises.
Table 4: Impact on Access to Amenities
Before After
% %
members members
Medical Yes 50 37.31 115 85.82
1.
facility No 84 62.69 19 14.18
Sanitation Yes 62 46.27 102 76.12
2.
Facility No 72 53.73 32 23.88
Water Yes 12 8.96 50 37.31
3.
Supply No 122 91.04 84 62.69
Send
Yes 75 55.97 103 76.87
4. children to
No 58 43.28 30 22.39
school
Adequate
Yes 29 21.64 98 73.13
5. Market
No 105 78.36 36 26.87
facility
Transport Yes 30 73.13 102 76.12
6.
facility No 104 26.87 32 23.88
Table 4 reflects the latent impact of JICA on access to various amenities.

Before JICA’s intervention, only 37% of the SHG members could avail
medical facilities. But after JICA’s intervention, 86% of SHG members avail
medical facility. This can be attributed to their securing their economic life and
improving their financial capacity to afford treatment. A similar trend is visible
in case of sanitation facilities. There has been approximately a 30% increase
in sanitation facilities after JICA’s intervention. After JICA’s intervention 29%
SHG members have their own water supply facility. Through SHG business
they have financial mobility and now more members (21%) can send their
children to school. After JICA’s intervention 73% of SHG members reported
that they get adequate market facility, whereas before JICA intervention, it was
22%. A similar trend has been noticed in terms of improvement in transport
facility after JICA intervened.
After JICA’s intervention the access to basic amenities has improved.
People are now more aware about the importance of these amenities in their
life. They get this awareness through JICA’s different educational training
programmes. Since their income has increased, they now feel free to access
medical facility, sanitation facility, water-supply facility, educational facility,
market facility, and transport facility. This will certainly lead to the emergence
of a strong and self-sufficient group of entrepreneurs among the rural poor,

which will act as a step for socio-economic improvement in underdeveloped
parts of the state.
MARCHING TOWARD ‘EMPOWERMENT’: SUCCESSFUL CASE

STUDIES OF WOMEN SHGS
The empirical data reveal the growth towards empowerment. By and large,
the ‘before and after’ analysis has reflected the Projects’ positive impact in the
life of its stakeholders. In terms of asset creation, social empowerment, and
behavioral aspects, it has left a positive mark among the forest dwellers who
were suffering to access minimum needs in their daily life.
As part of this endeavor, Tripura-JICA project identified SHG groups as
primary stakeholders. With the goal of alleviating poverty, SHG groups were
formed under project. These groups were engaged in plantation work on daily
wages, and plantation work assigned to them for safeguarding forest land. A
pilot study was conducted to find out how many SHG’s formed by the JICA
have succeeded. The two districts selected for the study, i.e. Gomati and Khowai
Tripura, were identified through purposive-stratified random sampling. There
are 198 SHGs in Teliamura DMU and 242 SHGs in Gomati DMU. Of the
404 SHG’s, only 45 successful SHGs, including two of unsuccessful SHGs,
were selected from the two districts. The case studies were completed through
meetings with SHG members.
The case study template was developed on the basis of three phases in
evaluating the SHG intervention. The three phases are pre-intervention status,
process followed to change the problem, and their present or post-intervention
status.
In the pre-intervention status phase, the socio-economic conditions and
social relationships of the group and the group members are collected, and
various problems faced by the potential beneficiaries are identified. Processes
followed by the JICA Project to solve their problem forms the second phase.
These include forming SHGs, enrolling group members, identifying leaders,
conducting meetings, selecting activities, organizing and conducting training,
and procurement of the loan. The third phase i.e. the present status of the
group or group members implies the changes made in their lifestyle or the
development of their socio-economic condition due to JICA’s livelihood
promotional programme. Following are the success stories of SHGs studied in
this impact study.
It has been largely observed that there is a close interdependency of forest,
diversification of livelihood amongst tribal women and the selection of their
entrepreneurship through JFMCs and SHGs. Despite being trained in several

trainings from the Project, the traditional activities like piggery, fishery and
broom making are the most commonly practiced and profit oriented business
activities. Piggery tends to be the most common activity in every SHG, and they
prefer it since they are traditionally knowledgeable in pig-rearing which pays
them high returns. Fishery comes a close second in terms of work preferred by
groups, with the important rider that very few all-women SHG’s like fishery
or have taken to it. This makes the modern livelihood options of such projects
different from the SHG movement in other states in India.
Khapurma SHG
The Khapurma SHG of Rupini colony village in Teliamura DMU was formed
on 1st October of 2009. It has 10 female members. Before Project intervention,
the primary source of income was Jhum cultivation and piggery. The village
was not electrified. They had no mobile or PCO facility, so they had walk
down a long distance for communicating outside the village or through post
office. But during the Project Intervention, the villagers came to know about
JICA Project through meeting conducted by JICA team members. All the SHG
members first faced the Gradation Test. After qualifying the test they got the
loan of Rs.50000 with which they have started piggery. After repayment of first
gradation loan amount, they have availed a second gradation loan of Rs.50000
to extend piggery. Their early turnover is Rs.38000. The group savings are
Rs.500 per month. They get training for their present activities where they
learn new concepts and find it beneficial.
So, after Project intervention there are some changes in their lifestyle.
They now have mobile phones at home, so they can now easily communicate
After Project intervention, some members have bought pigs, goats, another
has bought a mobile phone and yet another member has purchased a cycle.
Now group members have confidence to face any financial crisis. The female
members now take decisions at home. Some group members now send
their children to school and now they have adequate drinking water facility,
sanitation facility, and transportation and market facilities. They have repaid
the whole loan amount along with the interest at the end of the year.
Aitorma SHG
The Aitomorma SHG of Harikumar Chowdhary Para village in Teliamura
DMU was formed on 15th November of 2010. It has 11 female members.
Before Project intervention, their primary source of income was farming,
selling vegetables and pigs. Before Project intervention, their main source of
water was a hand pump, and the village was not electrified. They had no mobile
or PCO facility, so they rely on the post office as a means of communication.
The SHG members heard about the JICA Project through meeting conducted
by JICA officials. During Project intervention, the group members chose their
leaders, Secretary, Cashier since members already knew each other well before
SHG formation. Leaders tended to have extra duties like maintaining the SHG
register, going to the bank, and conducting meetings regularly. All the SHG
members first faced the Gradation Test. After qualifying the test they got the
loan of Rs.20000 with which they started fishery. They also got a check dam
from JICA for fishery. After repayment of 1st gradation loan amount, they
availed their second gradation loan of Rs.30000 for piggery. They sell the fish
to a vendor who purchases them at wholesale prices. Their activity is profitable
and the yearly turnover from fishery is Rs.10000.The group savings are Rs.550
per month. They get training for their present activities where they learn new
concepts and find it beneficial.
After Project intervention there are some changes in their lifestyle. Now
they get drinking water from water supply. Now they have electricity in their
houses and they have mobile phones at home. Some of the members have
bought pigs, television and almost all the members purchase mobile phones
after Project intervention. The most important thing is that now some members
have a saving bank account where they save money on a monthly basis. They
have repayed the whole loan amount along with 6% interest at the end of the
year.
These case studies represent the cycle of growth, where enterprises in groups
are successful. The reason is the selection of SHG activity by the concerned
group as per their capacity to enhance their enterprising capabilities through
the capacity building trainings. The training in piggery was most popular since
this was easily the highest earning business activity. The Project provided
training in rearing of pigs and marketing strategies to the beneficiaries. Pig
rearing does not need much attention or time, but fishery on the other hand is
a time consuming method in earning money.
After Project intervention, the percentage of respondents in the program
has increased after training received from JICA. The level of participation
among the beneficiaries has substantially increased due to training inputs by
JICA, and they have gained knowledge in new occupational activities such as
fishery. This has encouraged and helped them to rear fish systematically and
helped them earn a better income from fishery.
IMPACTS: Developing the Economy of the Households

The economic status of the SHG members has improved after JICA’s
interventions. JICA’s intervention has facilitated incremental class mobility
amongst SHG members (economic). This implies that income generation
activities of SHG members has enabled the creation of personal assets such as
land, construction of house, domestic animals, furniture, mobile phones, and
other household accessories. Annual income from cultivation has also increased
after project intervention. SHG members have started their own business
after JICA’s intervention. This demonstrates that their enterprising skill has
increased. Joining a group or the creation of a group makes a significant impact
in terms of loan capacity and awareness amongst the beneficiaries. Many SHG
members have taken loans from either a Bank or from within the SHG group.
A negligible number of people continue taking loans from money lenders.
This indicates that awareness about the high interest rate and exploitation
at hands of non-institutionalised means of money lending among the people
has increased. Besides, now reasons for taking loans has also multiplied.
Entrepreneurship is an activity that enables the rural poor to earn their living
besides participating in the process of development. Entrepreneurship helps
both men and women to feel economic independence and improves their social
status. It is not easy for the rural poor to find jobs with their comparatively low
educational qualification, which leaves them with very few options, chiefly,
daily wage labour. But with the help of enterprise, rural people get a chance
to earn money and take good care of both home and business. Around 6% of
SHG members have started their own business after JICA’s intervention. But
the most significant changes that have been observed was that income from
enterprise/business has increased and people who did not work earlier are now
earning money from group enterprise activities. This has happened because
of JICA’s intervention in the village, which reflects on the increase in their
expenditure as well.
IMPACTS: Building capacity and Group Management

There is a tremendous impact on the confidence level of the SHG members
after JICA’s support for microfinance/credit activity. A large number of
respondents are confident about facing any kind of financial crisis. A steady
growth in group members desire and ability to help neighbours in their time
of financial crisis has been also observed. The importance of regular meetings,
interlending, book keeping, and group bonding have strengthened the group.
Most group members attend meetings actively and regularly because they feel
that attending regular meetings helps them keep abreast with progress in work
and group activity. This leads to the growth of group cohesion.
Meetings are conducted mainly to arrive at solutions to problems faced by
a member or the members of the group. Individually, poor people are weak and
lack adequate resources to resolve their problems but when a group tries to do
it for the sake of its members, it becomes easier to face difficulties and come
up with solutions. Meetings are also conducted as a way of encouraging and
sharing members’ difficulties. All beneficiaries were found to be interested in
meetings as it helped them discuss about different aspects and requirements
for sustaining and extending group work. But it has been found that some
beneficiaries have to miss meetings sometimes for certain unavoidable family
reasons.
IMPACTS: Protecting Reserved Forest Land

The above findings reveal that the Project has achieved its objective by
forming and nurturing SHGs. The multiple objectives of preserving forest
land and the socio-economic development of forest-dependent communities
through the introduction of income generating activities are both being met.
This is basically due to Patta land provided to primary stakeholders by JICA
for safeguarding the forest and also for income generation. With Patta lands,
people- both APL and BPL- are allowed to carry out agro forestry through
which they are able to earn some monetary benefits.
IMPACTS: Empowering and Enterprising Women

Regardless of occupation, we found that a higher proportion of women than
men fall into the low-income categories. Likewise, a higher proportion of
men than women fall into the high-income categories. It is observed that
almost 50% of the male beneficiaries are engaged in MGNREGA work when
compared to other occupations. It shows that both men and women are equally
contributing to economic growth. If men are engaged in agricultural or other
activities, then women are also forming groups and SHG’s which coordinate
income generating-activities. The Project is helping women to participate
equally in the process of contribution, so that not only men but women can
also contribute to their own and their family’s economic stability and become
socio-economically empowered.
There is an inclusion in decision making at family level. The growth of
economic activities especially among women of both the impact areas has
helped change attitudes. This change pertains to the decision making process at
the household level, increased confidence about self-employability, and lesser

tolerance to gender discrimination and mental abuse. Women empowerment
through SHG formation and immediate access to credit can be counted as a
major achievement.
Thus, with the capacity building process, women are able to articulate their
concerns in public forums as well as within the family. The study revealed
that people from almost every age group were beneficiaries and engaged
in MGNREGA work. As JICA implements its work like cleaning of forest,
excavating pond and plantation through MGNREGA, it is making income-
generation easier for men and for women. Economic capability of an individual
is, to a very large extent, employment. Employment not only ensures economic
security but also promotes participation of an individual in society and in the
economy. If men are engaged in running shops, then women are also engaged
in working as Anganwadi workers and entrepreneurs.
However, on the contrary, it has been observed that the tendency to
use verbal abuses has increased, which is basically a perverted attempt by
family members to curtail women empowerment through group activities.
The tendencies of being negligent and being beaten by husband and family
members have reduced. Earlier women were frequently beaten by their family
members without any protest, but at present, when feeling empowered, woman
protest vehemently against domestic violence. They now complain to relatives
and on occasion warn the culprits. This protest is influenced by the different
capacity building programs of JICA and improvement of economic condition
of women through different enterprises.
By and large, the ‘before and after’ analysis has reflected the Projects’
positive impact in the life of its stakeholders. In terms of asset creation, social
empowerment, and behavioural aspects, it has left a positive mark among
forest dwellers who were struggling to access minimum needs in their daily
life. The key findings of the Project emphasise the achievement of its objective
to demonstrate the process of quality group formation and the elements of
nurturing. It has also succeeded in enhancing the capacity of department staff
towards maintaining good quality SHGs.
Impediments to SHGs
Despite successful intervention by the Project, structural inequalities have
enforced barriers in promoting microcredit. The following key structural
inequalities/impediments emerging from the initial SIA of Tripura JICA project
at the formation and functional level of SHGs have been major obstacles for the
stakeholders to initiate various business strategies for a sustainable livelihood.
The impediments inhibiting the desired outcome of poverty alleviation through

livelihood interventions are:
Social Exclusion: Social exclusion cuts across all others forms of exclusion.
Social exclusion is a cause of poverty, conflict, and insecurity and also a
consequence of these. This entails addressing societal divisions on the basis
of tribe, gender, religion, and political affiliations that affect the poor gravely,
creating barriers that significantly impact their ability to remove poverty.
The poor face many types of exclusion which intersect in complex ways,
creating barriers that the poor are unable to overcome. The poor, especially
tribal groups face geographic, economic, social, political, and identity-based
exclusion. Their geographical position predisposes them to further exclusion.
In rural areas, geographic or spatial exclusion is associated with remoteness,
poor connectivity, difficult terrain (including hills, mountains, forests and
deserts), low agricultural or resource potential, and poor access to services.
These may in turn be due to the lack of formal education, technical skills, and
access to technology. Lack of formal education sometimes prevents them from
exploring avenues of growth facilitated through capital investment and better
marketing strategies in the SHG movement.
Institutional Barriers: Both formal and informal, institutional barriers
need to be turned around from working against the interests of the poor and
heightening their exclusion to giving them space, voice, confidence, economic
and social support, and power. Formal institutions are those that provide basic
services (health, education, water and sanitation, while informal ones include
traditional, social, religious, recreational and political associations that perform
various economic and non-economic functions for their members. Some of
the key constraints that the poor face in accessing services are: poor physical
access, affordability, and social distance including discriminatory attitudes
from service providers. Many institutions that are intended to serve the poor,
often exclude them.
Insufficient accessibility to Sanitation, Health, and Drinking water facilities
among stakeholders persists. Although there is significant improvement
in financial support for medical treatment precisely because of improved
financial securities, only a marginal section of stakeholders have accessed
better sanitation, health, and drinking water facilities.
Problem of Transportation: While village markets appear to have experienced
significant growth levels recently, poor transport facilities continue to fail
villagers in forming economic linkages with urban areas.
Insufficient supply of Raw material: It has also been observed that there
is a resource crunch for raw materials such as Bamboo poles, which poses
difficulties for stakeholders in utilising skill training pertaining to making
handicrafts. This results in underutilization of skills acquired by them in
training programmes.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Project has had a significant social impact over the underprivileged
population specially the tribal women in the forest areas of Tripura in a
short span of the Project period. However, certain action plans for effective
implementation and complete success of the Project focuses on poverty
alleviation and social inclusion through livelihood promotion are called for. The
following recommendations will accelerate the functionality and sustainability
of these SHGs which will in turn benefit the stakeholders.
Though Tripura-JICA project has learned from the short comings of
previous programs by other agencies and therefore, has created a significant
impact in a short span of time. However, Tripura-JICA project will be able to
meet its desired objective by identifying local contexts of poverty, delineate
specific actions for different groups and contexts, highlight challenges in
reaching the poor, and discuss the process of doing so. An important step in this
will be the Identification of the Target Beneficiaries. ‘Putting the Poorest First’
is non-negotiable and hence every effort must be made to select the poorest.
Further, as Biswajit Ghosh (2011:74) observes that ‘rural tribal women stand
marginalized in the growing modern economy’ Tripura as compared to the
urban tribal women, the strategy to accelerate the multipronged missions in
a large scale through implementations of such Projects of Government and
international funders has been commendable in one of the landlocked states
of North-East. Ghosh further argues that despite the development models
women face lives of excessive hardship poverty and unemployment. Thanks
to the Hindu tradition of patriarchy a marginal possibility of gender disparity
is present; however, development has heightened disparities along gender,
class and space. Though the present study in its impact assessment of Tripura-
JICA project finds that it has economically empowered women, it has however
also been observed that with economic empowerment women have been
predisposed to various forms of abuse. For continuing success of the project, it
is important to initiate and implement strategies such as ‘vigilance groups’ or
mapping of ‘danger zones for women’ to prevent such abuse.
REFERENCES
A merron. International forestry review 5(2): 106-117.
Bahuguna, V.K. 2000.Forests in the economy of the rural poor: An estimation
of the dependency level. Ambio 29 (3): 126-129.
Becker, H. and Vanclay, F. (Eds). 2006. The International Handbook of Social
Impact Assessment: Concept and Methodological Advances. Edward
Algar. Cheltenham UK.: 74-91.
Bhattacharjee, R.P. 2002. Forest resources in north eastern region of India – A
case study of Arunachal Pradesh. Om-sons, New Delhi: 268-269.
Chambers, R. and Convey, G.R. 1991. Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical
concepts for the 21st century, IDS Discussion Paper 296: 1-29. Brighton.
Institute of development studies.www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/dp/dp296.pdf
Chopra, K. and Dasgupta, P. 2008. Nature of household dependence on
commonpool resources: an empirical study. Economic and political
weekly 23(2): 58-66
Council for Social Development. 2010. Social Impact Assessment: Report of
a Research Project on Social Impact Assessment of R&R Policies and
Packages in India. New Delhi.
Directorate of Economics and Statistics Planning (Statistics) Department,
Govt. of Tripura, Agartala, 2006. Some Basic Statistics of Tripura-2006.
Dutta, M., Roy, S., Saha, S. and Maity, D.S. 2004. Forest protection policies
and local benefits from NTFP: lessons from West Bengal. Economic and
political weekly (7): 587-591.
Economic and Social Development Department. 1999. Conducting PRA
Training and Modifying PRA Tools to Your Needs. An Example from
a Participatory Household Food Security and Nutrition Project in
Ethiopia.).
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x5996e/x5996e06.htm
EDA Rural Systems Private Ltd. 2006.Self Help Groups in India: A Study of
the Lights and Shades. Gurgaon
Franks, DM. 2011. Management of the Social Impacts of Mining. In P.
Darling (Ed.). SME Mining Engineering Handbook. Society for Mining,
Metallurgy, and Exploration. Colorado.
Hanifan, L. J. 1916. The rural school community center, Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 67: 130-138.
Hanoi. 2006. Capacity Building on Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis &

Participatory Rural Appraisal.http://library.enaca.org/mangrove/outputs/
wp1-mangroves-sag-draft.pdf
Hulme, D., and Mosley, P. 1997. Finance against Poverty. London and New
York, Routledge.
Ghosh Biswajit and Tanima Chowdhuri, 2011,Gender, Space and Development:
Tribal Women in Tripura, EPW, Vol. XLVI No. 16, April 16
Kabeer, N. 2001. ‘Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the
Measurement of Women’s Empowerment’. Discussing Women’s
Empowerment-Theory and Practice. SIDA Studies No. 3.
Kala, C.P. 2009. Roots, barks and leaves. Down to Earth, 31 (10):46-47.
Kumar, Asutosh. 2013. Mahila Bank to focus on women entrepreneurship,
empowerment: UshaAnanthasubramanian.7:01 IST | Agency: DNA.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/interview-mahila-bank-to-focus-on-
women-entrepreneurship-empowerment-usha-ananthasubramanian-
1922899
Kumar, N., Saxena, N., Alagh, Y. and Mitra, K. 2000. Indian Alleviating
Poverty through Forest Development: Evaluating Country Case Study
series. World Bank, Washington.
Ministry of Environment and Forests. 2003. Forest Survey of India (FSI),
Dehradun.
Mitra, Suranjana and Amit Kundu, Assessing Empowerment through
Generation of Social Capital, www.thejournalofbusiness.org/index.php
Office of the Chief Economist. 2012. Group lending or individual lending?
Evidence from Mongolia, EBRD.
Pimental, D., Mc Nair, M., Buck, L., Pimentel, M., and Kamil, J. 1997. The
value of forests to world food security. Human Ecology 25(1): 91-120.
Poffenberger, M. 2000. Community and forest management in south Asia- A
regional profile of the working group on community involvement in forest
management. Forest, people and policies, IUCN, Switzerland.
Prasad, R. and P., Bhatnagar. 1998. Non-wood forest products of central India.
Paper presented to the workshop on sustainable NTFP management.
Indian institute of Forest Management.
Prasad, R. and Kant, S. 2003. Institutions, forest management and sustainable

human development experiences from India. Environment, development
and sustainability, Netherlands (5): 353 367. “Project Management Unit”,
Tripura JICA Project. http://tripurajica.com/PMU.htm
Purkayastha, Bratati (2013) Livelihood Promotion under Tripura JICA Project
(Unpublished workshop paper): 1-35.
Putnam, R. 2000. ‘Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Community’. New York.
Singh, K.D., Sinha, B. and Sutar, P.C. 2009. Community based forest
management with micro enterprise for poverty reduction. Bishen singh
mahendra pal singh publication, Dehradun, India.
Singh, K.D., Sinha, B. and Mukharji, S.D. 2005. Exploring options for joint
forest management in India, Forestry policy and institutions. Working
Paper 7, FAO, Rome.
Sinha et al. 2010.Enhancing Livelihood of Forest Dependent Communities
through Synergizing FDA Activities with other Development Programmes.
http://www.iifm.ac.in
Sobel, J. 2002. Can we trust social capital? Journal of Economic Literature
40(1): 139-154.
Sunderline, W.D. and Ba, H.T. 2006. Poverty alleviation and forests in Vietnam.
Forest policy and economics 8 (4): 386-396.
Swain Ranjula Bali (2007) Can Microfinance Empower Women? Self-Help
Groups in India, Ada Dialogue, No. 37, May 161-182
The Economic Times, 2013, Tripura tops in MGNREGA implementation,
April 9, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-04-09/news/
38404427_1_job-card-holders-agartala-tripura. Tripura JICA Project
Overview, TFIPAP.
Vanclay, F. 2002. Conceptualising Social impacts. Environmental Impact
Assessment Review, 22 (3): 183-211.
Vanclay, F. 2003. International Principles for Social Impact Assessment,
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 21(1): 5-11.
Vanclay, F. and Esteves A.M. (Eds). 2011. New Directions in Social Impact
Assessment: Conceptual and Methodological Advances. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar.
13
Surrogacy Practices and Gender Concerns:

Issues and Challenges in India
Kaumudhi Challa
INTRODUCTION
In human beings, there is a strong natural desire and biological instinct
to reproduce and to have an offspring not only because of natural reasons
but also because of psychological and social needs to have children. Right
to procreation is an innate right of an individual however a large section
of the population is not able to enjoy this right and have a child because of
various reasons. The developments in science and technology have come
to the rescue of childless couples and helped them to have a child through
various techniques which are collectively and popularly known as Artificial
Reproductive Technologies (ART’s). Of these new technologies, surrogacy is
arguably the most controversial.1 Surrogacy is the practice in which a woman
bears a child for another couple or individual and on successful birth of the
child hands over the child to them.
Surrogacy is considered as a blessing for many childless couple who
wishes to have a genetically related child. However it is criticized on various
ethical, moral and legal grounds. It is argued that surrogacy would lead to
commodification of women and motherhood and exploitation of poor women.
The critics argue that due to the involvement of monetary benefits poor woman
may be forced to act as surrogate and rent their wombs and thus act as an
incubator for producing babies. It is also criticized that, surrogacy is similar to
prostitution due to the fact that the woman’s body is being utilized for the desire
of another individual on payment of money. It may also amount to adultery
because of the involvement of a third party male. Further it is also argued that
1 Pillai, Aneesh V., (2011). Surrogate Mother and its Challenges to the Indian Legal System.
The Legal Analyst, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 89-94.
the conditions imposed by the intended parents on the surrogate woman may
be violating the dignity of the woman and may amount to modern practices of
slavery.2 It is to be noted that most of the criticisms are gender based criticism
due to the fact that, a woman is involved in the surrogacy process. Due to
these criticisms it is necessary to examine the practice of surrogacy and the
gender based concerns which it raises. This paper focuses on the gender based
concerns involved in surrogacy practices. It also analyses the adequacy of
existing legal system in India for dealing with the various legal and human
right issues and gender based challenges relating to surrogate women. Further
it attempts to provide some practical solutions for the protection of rights and
welfare of surrogate women in India.
SURROGACY: AN OVERVIEW
The practice of surrogacy has had a long history and it has been accepted in
many cultures. For example, the ancient Babylonian legal code of Hammurabi
(18th century BC) recognized the practice of surrogacy and actually laid down
detailed guidelines specifying when it would be permitted and the respective
rights of both wife and surrogate mother.3 Surrogacy is an important method of
assisted human procreation for those who cannot, or choose not, to procreate
in the traditional manner.4 It is an arrangement by which a woman agrees
to be impregnated by assisted conception, carries the resulting foetus, and
relinquishes all parental rights to the child at birth.5 According to the Warnock
Report6, surrogacy means, “the practice whereby one woman carries a child
for another with the intention that the child should be handed over after birth”.
2 Pillai, Aneesh V., (2013). Surrogacy and Gender Based Human Rights Concerns: A Dilemma
for Legal System. S.P. Law Review, Vol.1, pp. 30-35.
3 Emmerson, Glenda. (1996) Surrogacy: Born for Another, Brisbane: Queensland
Parliamentary Library.
4 Venturatos Lorio, Kathryn. (1984). Alternative Means of Reproduction: Virgin Territory for
Legislation. Louisiana Law Review, 44, pp. 1641-1676 at p. 1655.

5 Lieber, Katherine B. (1992). Selling The Womb: Can The Feminist Critique of Surrogacy
Be Answered?, Indiana Law Journal, 68, pp. 205-232 at p. 207.

6 The full name of the report is ‘Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilization
and Embryology’. This Committee was set up by the UK Government following the
birth of the first test tube baby in 1978. The object was to consider recent and potential
developments in medicine and science related to human fertilization and embryology; to
consider what policies and safeguards should be applied, including consideration of the
social, ethical and legal implications of their developments; and to make recommendations.
See, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. (2004-05). Human
Reproductive Technologies and the Law. Retrieved from www.publications.parliament.uk/
pa/cm200405/.../cmsctech/491/491.pdf
Surrogacy Practices and Gender Concerns: Issues and Challenges in India 229
Surrogacy agreements may be reached between strangers, usually involving

the payment of expenses; or a woman may offer to act as a surrogate for a
friend or relative. The surrogate agrees to transfer the child after birth to the
infant’s biological father and his wife, according to terms of a contract that
was signed before the woman becomes pregnant. Some experts refer to this
practice as “contractual parenting”.7 The woman who agrees to carry the child
for another is known as surrogate woman or surrogate mother. The couple or
individual who initiate the process for begetting the child are called intended
parents or parent.
Surrogacy practices can be classified into two major types, i.e. commercial
surrogacy and altruistic surrogacy depending upon the financial transactions
and relationships involved between the surrogate mother and intended parents.
Commercial Surrogacy refers to arrangements which include payment of
money or other benefits to the surrogate mother and, in some cases, her agents.
Altruistic Surrogacy refers to less formal arrangements between friends and
relatives which involve no financial reward for the surrogate mother. According
to Meggitt, every woman involved in surrogacy is motivated by altruism,
although some are paid.8 Further, it is argued that money alone is insufficient
to motivate a woman to become a mother in a surrogacy arrangement, and
paid surrogacy just “perverts woman’s altruism”. The procedure of surrogacy
involves the use of genetic material of the intended father or mother or surrogate
mother and hence depending upon such use of genetic material surrogacy
can be classified into the two main types such as Traditional and Gestational
Surrogacy.9
Traditional surrogacy is the most widely used method of surrogate
pregnancy, as well as the most historically prevalent. Before the era of assisted
reproductive technology and IVF, traditional surrogacy was the only form of
surrogacy available. However this method was used in the ancient cultures and
communities without the application of technology. The husband of the infertile
woman would have access to another woman and after the birth of the child,
the woman would hand over the child to the husband and his wife. The modern
science and technology has made it possible for procuring a biological child
7 Challa, Kaumudhi. (2012). Contentious Issues in Surrogacy: Legal and Ethical Perspectives
in India. Christ University Law Journal, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 117-126.
8 Meggitt. (1991). Lessons to be learnt in parallels between Adoption and Surrogacy. Policy
Issues Forum.
Retrieved from http://www.210.8.42.131/documents/explore/ResearchPublications/.pdf.
9 Pillai, Aneesh V. (2013). Surrogacy under Indian Legal System: Legal and Human Rights
Concerns (Unpublished Doctorial Thesis). Cochin University of Science and Technology,

Kerala.
with the help of another woman without sexual intercourse. In this process the
woman is artificially inseminated with the semen of the husband of the ‘genetic
couple’. Because it is her own egg that is being fertilized, the surrogate mother
is genetically related to the foetus that she conceives. Therefore any resulting
child is genetically related to the male partner of the ‘commissioning couple’
but not the female partner.10 Thus it is also known as Partial Surrogacy or
Natural Surrogacy, as the surrogate mother contributes genetic material to the
resulting child and gives birth to it as her own child.11
Gestational surrogacy is preferred by couples who desire a biological
connection to their child, assuming the husband and/or wife have viable
gametes. Gestational surrogacy, is defined as the treatment in which the
gametes of the ‘genetic couple’, ‘commissioning couple’ or ‘intended parents’
are used to produce embryos by the process of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). These
embryos are subsequently transferred to a woman who has agreed to act as a
host for these embryos. In this case, the ‘surrogate host’ is therefore genetically
unrelated to any child that may be born as a result of this arrangement12. Thus
it is also known as Total Surrogacy or Full Surrogacy because the foreign
genetic material is implanted into a woman who gestates the child for another
couple who are the genetic parents.13
NEED FOR SURROGACY AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Children are the flowers in the garden of life. They bring cheer and joy in the
family. Their innocent pranks and sweet smile spreads happiness. They are the
future of the world and give hope to the society for a better tomorrow. They
are considered as a means through which the parents fulfill their dreams and
aspirations. The profound significance of child in a family is also recognized
by the various international human right documents which identify the
recognition of right to procreation as a human right. Similarly, all over the
world the different cultures and societies attach great importance to the need
to have children in a family. Newly wedded couples are often wished by elders
10 Brinsden, Peter. (2003). Clinical Aspects of IVF Surrogacy. In Cook, Rachel, Day Sclater,
Shelly & With Felicity, Kaganas, (Eds.), Surrogate Motherhood: International Perspectives
(pp. 99-112). Oxford: Hart Publishing.
12 Brinsden, Peter. (2003). Clinical Aspects of IVF Surrogacy. In Cook, Rachel, Day Sclater,
Shelly & With Felicity, Kaganas, (Eds.), Surrogate Motherhood: International Perspectives
(pp. 99-112). Oxford: Hart Publishing.
that they should be blessed with children. It is considered normal to have a

child and start a family within a reasonable time after marriage and deviation
from this normal accepted way of life is met with various questions. If the
newly wedded couples fail to have children within a reasonable time, they
have to face tremendous pressure from the other family members and society.
It is to be noted, though procreation is a natural process, a large section
of the population is not able to enjoy this right and have a child because of
various reasons. Infertility is the major reason for deprivation of this right
leading to childlessness. Both men and women suffer greatly from infertility,
but the emotional impact of this crisis is very severe on women wearing away
at their sense of femininity. Even if it is the husband who has been diagnosed
with infertility problem, the women is the ultimate sufferer. Majority of women
irrespective of their social and professional status have a natural desire for
motherhood and thus the inability to bear a child threatens their very object
of life.14 The impact of infertility on male may not be seen apparently but
nevertheless it is also having very serious repercussions. An infertile male may
feel a sense of guilt and shame for not having a child. For some men it may
be a blow to their ego and they may consider it as an impaired masculinity.
In most of the cases of male infertility, the women are held responsible by the
family members and have to suffer mental torture and harassment.15
In reality, infertility is much more than just a medical diagnosis. Infertility
is a stigma. For men infertility is an assault on their manhood. For women
infertility is equated with barrenness and viewed as a curse. Since the
interpretation of the term infertility is socially constructed, the meaning of
infertility has changed with the passage of time and changes in society.16
Throughout the world, infertility – the inability to have desired children – is
stigmatized and viewed by fertile and infertile alike as a failure to achieve
important cultural goals. Because the concern with fertility is so intimately
involved with other cultural institutions, interpretations and treatments, the
social consequences of infertility will vary from one society to another society
14 Cooper, Susan & Glazer, Ellen. (2000). Choices and Challenges: The Psychosocial aspects
of the New Reproductive Technologies. Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, 13,
p.13.2.2.

Kerala.
16 Bliss, Carol. (1999). The Social Construction of Infertility by Minority Women (Unpublished
Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/personal/family/dissertation.

pdf.
and from culture to culture.17 Childless women are generally blamed for their
infertility, despite the fact that male factor causes contribute to at least half of
the cases of infertility around the world. In developing countries, especially,
motherhood is often the only way for women to enhance their status within
the family and community. In Asia, being childless has more negative social,
cultural and emotional repercussions for women than, perhaps, any other
non life-threatening condition.18 Thus infertility causes great hardship and
difficulties to the infertile men and women.
Since the ancient times mankind has always searched for finding solutions
to overcome the problem of infertility. Childlessness was considered to be
a curse or a judgment passed by the God on the couple. Therefore various
measures were undertaken to please the different Gods and Goddess by people
and many of these practices are still prevalent in India. For example, fasting,
visiting temple, making offering to God, doing penance, giving alms to poor
people, wearing charms, gems, and amulets, etc.19 With the development in
science and technology, rapid strides have been made in medical field and
new technologies have developed to help such infertile couples to beget a
child. These developments gave rise to various techniques to assist human
reproduction and are collectively called as Assisted Human Reproductive
Technologies. Assisted Reproductive Technology gives hope to couples who
have been trying unsuccessfully since years to conceive and beget a child. It
offers various solutions such as Artificial Insemination, In – Vitro Fertilization,
and Surrogacy suiting to the needs of the couples or individuals.20 Among the
various types of ART’s, surrogacy is the most widely used method all over the
world and particularly in India. Some of the major reasons for opting surrogacy
are as follows:
a. Infertility Factor: In situations where the couple is unable to conceive
due to physical problems/diseases or infertility which is not amenable to
treatment.
17 Culley, Lorraine, Hudson, Nicky & Rooij, Floor van. (2009). Marginalized Reproduction
Ethnicity, Infertility and Reproductive Technologies, UK: Earthscan Publishers.
18 Daar, Abdallah S. & Merali, Zara. (2001).Infertility and Social suffering: The case of ART
in Developing Countries in Current Practices and Controversies in Assisted Reproduction.

In Vayena, Effy, Rowe, Patrick J. & Griffin, P. David (Eds.), Current Practices and
Controversies in Assisted Reproduction, pp. 15-21, Switzerland: WHO.

Kerala.
20 Pillai, Aneesh V. (2011-12). Assisted Human Reproductive Technologies and Its Challenges
to Indian Legal System. National Law News, Vol. 19-20, p. 3-6.

b. Genetic Link: in surrogacy practice as genetic material is taken from both

the parents or at least from one parent, the child would be genetically
related to the intended parents.
c. Medical Factor: In situation where it is impossible for woman to carry a
pregnancy to viability or pregnancy that is life threatening due to physical
problems or diseases.
d. Genetic Factor: In cases where any of the parents or both the parent may
have any genetic disease which may be transmitted to the child. The only
method of avoiding such a risk would be surrogacy using a donor genetic
material.
e. Lifestyle Factors: Female intending parent unwilling to undergo
pregnancy because of her career or any other reason.
f. Single Parent or Homosexual Couples: Surrogacy can be a choice
to become a single parent or a parent in case of a male homosexual
couple.21
SURROGACY IN INDIA
India is fast becoming a hub for surrogacy and emerging as an international
surrogacy capital. This is due to the fact that, India offers such services
with modern technologies and medical expertise22 at low-cost,23 along with
a permissive regulatory legal framework. Further the easy availability of
surrogate woman at a low cost compared to other countries has also contributed
to India’s rise in popularity as a top destination for individuals/couples seeking
surrogacy services.24 The Indian Council of Medical Research estimates that
surrogacy is almost a $450 million a year industry in India. The Confederation
of Indian Industry estimates that medical tourism, including surrogacy, will
generate $2.3 billion in annual revenue by 2012. As of 2009, India had 350
facilities that offered surrogacy as a part of a broader array of infertility-
21 Editorial: Surrogate Motherhood: The Uptrend Continues [Editorial]. (2008) MWCD

Newsletter Sampark, Vol. 4 (4), pp. 4-5.
22 Dawn, Dr. Suman Kumar & Pal, Swati. (2011). Medical Tourism in India: Issues,
Opportunities and Designing Strategies for Growth and Development, ZENITH –

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1 (3), pp. 185-202.
23 Smerdon, Usha Rengachary. (2008). The Baby Market: Crossing Bodies, Crossing Borders:
International Surrogacy between the United States and India”, Cumb. L. Rev. 39, pp. 15-
86.
24 London, Catherine. (2012). Advancing a Surrogate-Focused Model of Gestational Surrogacy
Contracts”, 18 Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, 18, pp. 365-396.

treatment services, triple the number in 2005. In 2009, approximately 1,500

pregnancy attempts using surrogates were made at these clinics.25
The Law Commission of India in its report stated that, the usual fee for
surrogacy arrangements is around $25,000 to $30,000 in India which is around
1/3rd of that in developed countries like the USA.26 According to a study report
given by Centre for Social Research (CSR),27 New Delhi in the year 2012,28
the fees for surrogates are estimated to range from $2,500 to $7,000 and the
total costs for surrogacy arrangements can be anything between $10,000 and
$35,000. Therefore it is a lot less than what intended parents pay in the United
States, where rates fluctuate between $59,000 and $80,000.29. Thus the strongest
incentive for foreigners to travel to India is most likely to be the relatively low
costs involved in the process. This has made India a favorable destination for
foreign couples who look for a cost-effective treatment for infertility and a
whole branch of medical tourism has flourished on the surrogacy practice.30
THE CURRENT LEGAL POSITION IN INDIA

The first reported surrogacy in India, took place in 1994 in Chennai.31 In
1997, an Indian woman acted as a surrogate for money and this is considered
as the first reported instance of commercial surrogacy in India.32 During the
past one decade the number of children born through surrogacy in India has
increased enormously.33 It is pertinent to point out here that, the first case of
25 Mohapatra, Seema. (2012). Achieving Reproductive Justice in the International Surrogacy

Market, Annals Health L., 21, pp. 191-243.
26 Law Commission of India.(2009). Need for Legislation to Regulate Assisted Reproductive
Technology Clinics as well as Rights and Obligations of Parties to a Surrogacy. Report No.
228.
Retrieved from http//:www.lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report228.pdf.
27 Centre for Social Research is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in New
Delhi founded in 1983. Retrieved from http://www.csrindia.org.

28 Centre for Social Research. (2012). Surrogate Motherhood- Ethical or Commercial.
Retrieved from http://www.womenleadership.in/Csr/SurrogacyReport.pdf.

29 Ibid.
30 Law Commission of India. (2009). Need for Legislation to Regulate Assisted Reproductive
228.
Retrieved from http//:www.lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report228.pdf.
31 Padmanabhan, Geeta. (2006, January 19). Hope in the Test Tube. The Hindu.
32 Srinivasan, Sandhya. (1997, July 6). Surrogacy Comes Out of the Closet. Sunday Times of
India.
33 Centre for Social Research. (2012). Surrogate Motherhood- Ethical or Commercial.
Retrieved from http://www.womenleadership.in/Csr/SurrogacyReport.pdf.

commercial surrogacy in India in 1997 generated a huge debate on the legality

of surrogacy practices.34 As a response to these debates, the Indian Council for
Medical Research framed certain guidelines and submitted a ‘Draft Guideline
for Accreditation, Supervision and Regulation of Assisted Reproductive
Technology Clinics in India’ to the Ministry of Health, Union of India in the
year 2002.35
The 2002 Guidelines were further updated and adopted by ICMR in 2005.
These guidelines contain provisions specifically dealing with the surrogacy
practices in India. At present this ICMR guideline is the only regulatory
framework available in India to deal with surrogacy practices. However these
guidelines are not binding and are only voluntary in nature. Moreover, they are
silent on various issues raised by surrogacy practices. Further, in 2008 though
the Indian Government adopted ‘The Assisted Reproductive Technology
(Regulation) Bill and Rules, 2008, it was not officially enacted as an Act.36
Recently, ‘the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill and Rules,
2010’ was drafted by the Indian Government and ICMR; however this draft
bill is not yet presented before the parliament. Thus in the absence of binding
legal framework, it is a daunting challenge before the Indian judiciary to deal
with various disputes arising in surrogacy practices. As most of the disputes
and criticisms are centered on the surrogate mother it raises gender concerns
and sensitive issue of women’s rights which cannot be ignored.
GENDER CONCERNS IN SURROGACY

Surrogate mothering is a service generally sought by married couples who are
incapable of having children. The husband has a normal sperm count, however,
the wife, for various medical reasons is either incapable of conceiving or
unable to carry a child to term. In order that the couple may have a child who
is biologically related to at least its father, a surrogate mother is artificially
inseminated with the semen of the husband. This procedure is performed
pursuant to a contract which provides that the surrogate, in consideration for
substantial fee, will carry the baby to term, at which time she will give the
child to the natural father. His wife then has the option to adopt the child. The
34 Pande, Amrita. (2010). Commercial Surrogacy in India: Manufacturing a Perfect Mother-

Worker. Signs, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 969-992.
35 Davis, Erica. (2012). The Rise of Gestational Surrogacy and the Pressing Need for
International Regulation. Minn. J. Int’l L. 21, pp. 120-144.

36 Kulkarni, Ashutosh & Bhakare, Shamsundar, et al.. Ethical, social and legal issues
surrounding Artificial Reproductive Technology – Indian Perspectives. Retrieved from

http://www.drjayantkulkarni.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/24.pdf.
practice of surrogate motherhood dates back to biblical times. Barren wives

would send their husbands to their handmaids so that the husband could have
children of his own body.37 For example, the Bible notes two occasions where
surrogate mothers provided infertile women with children.
The first occasion is in which Abraham’s wife Sarah had borne him no
children. Sarah asked Abraham to beget a child with the help of Hagar, her
maid. In another incident Rachel who had borne no children with her husband,
asked him to beget a child with her maid Bilhah. Thus in both these situations,
the infertile women were provided with children by a surrogate mother.
Surrogate motherhood has continued through the centuries, and it is likely
to remain a viable alternative for infertile couples.38 In the present times this
practice has become more widely used due to the advancement in medical
technology. But as it involves the interference of a third party, i.e. surrogate
women in the reproduction process, the gender concerns must be addressed.
The motivations for acting as a surrogate may be different for different women.
Some women find enormous satisfaction and significance in pregnancy and
childbirth, even if they never see or rear the child. The importance to them of the
gestational experience goes beyond gene transfer, for they have literally brought
the child into the world.39 Surrogate mothers enter into such arrangements for
a variety of reasons; money, however, is of primary importance. Surrogate
mothers express other reasons such as, maternal instinct, a sense of altruism
in the unique ability to help an infertile couple obtain a child and closeness to
persons with infertility problems may induce a woman to become a surrogate
mother.40 The various gender concerns in surrogacy practice are as follows:
1. Right to be a Surrogate
One of the first gender concerns in every surrogacy practice is whether a
woman has a right to act as a surrogate for another. The right to be a surrogate
can be derived from various human rights documents at international level.
Initially, the right to act as a surrogate can be derived from the woman’s right to
privacy in making an intimate personal decision about reproduction. A strong
37 Wilt, Valerie. (1986-1987). A Surrogate Contract and Its Enforceability under Ohio Law, 12
U. Dayton L. Rev. 12, pp. 575-644.
38 York, Stephen G. (1991). A Contractual Analysis of Surrogate Motherhood and a Proposed
Solution, Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 24, pp. 395-419.

39 Robertson, John A. (1983). Procreative Liberty and the Control of Conception, Pregnancy,
and Childbirth, Virginia Law Review, 68, pp. 405-464.

40 Carney, Brain J. (1988). Where Do the Children Go? – Surrogate Mother Contacts and the
Best Interests of the Child, Suffolk U.L. Rev. 22, pp. 1187-1198.
commitment to procreative liberty ensures that women’s interests are protected.

Consequently, many Western societies place a high priority on private discretion
and choice in reproductive matters. Thus it is argued that, if a woman has a
recognized right to procreate, that right should also encompass the women’s
right to procreate for the benefit of others,41 i.e. to act as a surrogate.
A number of international documents recognize and protect the women’s
right to decide whether to procreate. If they recognize the general right to
procreate, those documents should be interpreted to also recognize the right
to act as surrogate. The right to procreate or more specifically, the right to
decide the number and spacing of children was first declared as a human right
in 1968 in the Proclamation of Tehran. Other declaratory instruments also
recognized this right, most notably the 1969 Declaration on Social Progress
and Development.42 The rights became enforceable in 1981, upon ratification
of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, 1979. Moreover, the right to act as surrogate is also grounded
in both individual liberty and the integrity of a woman, and is viewed as a
“fundamental” right, one that is essential to the notion of liberty or justice.
The judiciary has not explicitly considered whether there is a positive right
to be a surrogate i.e., whether every woman has a right to actually to act as a
surrogate. It has, however, considered a wide range of related issues, including
the right of the State to interfere with procreative ability by forcible sterilization,
the right of individuals to prevent conception or continued pregnancy, and the
right of individuals to rear children.43 Further right to be a surrogate can be
reasonably inferred from personal liberty of woman; Right over one’s own
body; and the Right to take advantage of Scientific Development; etc.44
2. Right to Rent Womb

The second major gender concerns in surrogacy is that, whether a woman has a
right to rent her womb. Right to make reproductive choices is an important facet
41 Capron, A.M. & Radin, M.J. (1988). Choosing Family Law Over Contract Law as a
Paradigm for Surrogate Motherhood. In Larry Gostin. Surrogate Motherhood: Politics and
Privacy (pp. 59-70). Bloomington: Indiana Press.
42 United Nations (1974). The Population Debate: Dimensions and Perspectives Papers of
the World Population Conference. Bucharest: UN Department of Economic and Social

Affairs.
43 U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1988). Infertility: Medical and Social
Choices. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.


Kerala.
of individual autonomy. Reproduction indeed matters to people; it is indeed a

part of life in which they express their deepest beliefs.45 This philosophy led
to the recognition of right to reproduction as basic human right at International
level. The Judiciary in India has also recognized the reproductive rights
of humans as a basic right. In B.K. Parthasarthi v. Government of Andhra
Pradesh,46 the Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld “the right of reproductive
autonomy” of an individual as an aspect of his “right to privacy”. Further in
Javed v. State of Haryana,47 though the Supreme Court upheld the two living
children norm to debar a person from contesting a Panchayati Raj election it
abstained from stating that the right to procreation is not a basic human right.48
Article 21 guarantees fundamental right to privacy49 that could be invoked
to protect the right of individuals to reproductive health care information,
education and services to a degree of privacy, and to confidentiality with regard
to personal information given to service providers.50
Recently the Supreme Court of India in Suchita Srivastava & Another
v. Chandigarh Administration51 has declared that, a woman’s right to make
reproductive choices is also a dimension of ‘personal liberty’ as understood
under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In this context the question which
arises is whether there is a right to use the reproductive process for financial
gain i.e. right to rent a womb for money. The first case in India, in which this
issue was discussed, is the case of Nirmala from State of Punjab in which the
woman Nirmala sought permission of the Chandigarh Court for renting her
womb in order to raise money for treatment of her paralyzed husband. The
Court granted her the permission to do so.52 This decision has been highly
criticized on the grounds that it would lead to renting of womb by women in
return for money which is morally and ethically wrong. It is also argued that
legalization of renting of womb for money may lead to exploitation of poor
women by their own husband, or other family members or agents similar to
45 O’neill, Onora. (2002). Autonomy and Trust In Bioethics. United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press.
46 2000 (1) ALD 199 &1999 (5) ALT 715.
47 AIR 2003 SC 3057.
48 Law Commission of India. (2009). Need for Legislation to Regulate Assisted Reproductive
228.
49 S.R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1994) 6 SCC 632.
50 Chagai, Raju Prasad. (2008). Judicial Response to Reproductive Rights Experience of
Public Interest Litigation in Nepal. Journal of Health Studies, I: 2(3), pp. 24-47.
51 Civil Appeal No. 5845 of 2009 and decided on August 28, 2009.
52 Srinivasan, Sandhya. (1997, July 6). Surrogacy Comes Out of the Closet. Sunday Times of
India. p. 1.
organ trafficking or sale. Further it is also an important concern that how many
times a woman can rent her womb. This gives rise to the important question
whether right to rent womb should be allowed and if so to what extent. These
questions are unanswered till now by the Indian legal system.
3. Who can be a Surrogate Mother?

A surrogate mother is a woman who agrees to conceive a child through the
artificial insemination of sperm, carry the child to term, and relinquish custody
of the child in exchange for money.53 It gives rise to the concern, who can be
a surrogate mother; whether every woman can act as a surrogate or whether
there has to be criteria regarding who can be a surrogate. It is a very sensitive
issue that who can act as a surrogate mother for another. This is because the
right to reproduction and right to use the body for procreation is a facet of right
to privacy of a woman.54
The indiscriminate use of this right by each and every woman will raise a
bundle of legal issues. For example, if an unmarried girl divorced or widowed
women are allowed to act as a surrogate mother it will come into conflict with
the social and moral values of the society. If married women only are allowed
to act as a surrogate the question is whether it amounts to adultery. It will also
raise the issue of acceptance by husband and other relatives and its effect on
her own children if any. In cases where, a disabled or post menopausal women
acts as a surrogate, it may have an adverse effect on the health of the child
as well as health of the women. Another significant issue is whether prisoner
women can act as a surrogate. Because of the various social, ethical and moral
issues raised by surrogacy, it is criticized that surrogacy is actually renting of
the womb for money and amounts to commodification of a women’s body,55
it is similar to prostitution56 as well as slavery.57 Further it is criticized that
acting as a surrogate will degrade the dignity of the women and reduce her
53 Carney, Brain J. (1988). Where Do the Children Go? – Surrogate Mother Contacts and the
Best Interests of the Child. Suffolk U. L. Rev. 22, pp. 1187-1198.
54 K.L. v. Peru No. 1153/2003, paras. 2.1-2.6, UN Doc. CCPR/C/85/D/1153/2003 (Nov. 22,
2005).
55 Niekerk, Anton van & Zyl, Liezl van. (1995). The Ethics of Surrogacy: Women’s
Reproductive Labour, Journal of Medical Ethics, 21, pp. 345-349.

56 Sera, Jean M. (2011). Surrogacy and Prostitution: A Comparative Analysis., Journal of
Gender & the Law, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, pp. 315-342.

57 Patterson, M.R. (1996). Surrogacy and Slavery: The Problematics of Consent in Baby M.,
Romance of the Republic, and Puddnhead Wilson. American Literary History, Vol. 8, No.
3, pp. 449-470.
body to that of an incubator. Hence it is essential to determine who can act as

a surrogate mother.
A potential surrogate mother must be in good overall health and be able
to undergo a pregnancy with the minimum amount of risk to her own health.
Some medical conditions will prevent a woman becoming a surrogate mother,
for example, if there are any known medical problems which could lead to
complications with the pregnancy, or put the woman at risk. Also those who
are considerably overweight are heavy smokers; drinkers or substance abusers
are not suitable as surrogate mothers because of the associated risks both to the
woman and the baby. As the risks of illness and problems are much higher in
the first pregnancy it is strongly recommended that surrogate mothers should
have born at least one child previously and preferably have completed her own
family. This also means that the woman is able to give her informed consent to
the arrangement, since a woman who has experienced pregnancy prior to the
surrogacy arrangement has that knowledge on which to base her decision.58
4. Rights of Surrogate Mother

One of the main gender based concerns in surrogacy arrangements is with
respect to the rights of the surrogate mother. Surrogacy is an arrangement
between the surrogate mother and the intended parents and ideally the terms
and conditions of such arrangement should be clearly laid down. At the same
time it is necessary that the rights of the surrogate mother are considered by
such arrangements. There are certain rights which are very essential and must
be made available to the surrogate mother who is giving nine months of her
life for procuring a baby for another. Some of these rights are as follows:
Right to Compensation
An important issue which is to be considered in surrogacy arrangements is
that whether the surrogate mother is entitled to receive any compensation for
rendering nine months service by carrying the baby of another in her womb. It
is generally criticized that accepting money for acting as a surrogate mother is
equivalent to selling of womb. It is to be noted here that due to this reason some
of the countries have expressly prohibited surrogacy which involves financial
transactions i.e. commercial surrogacy (for e.g. UK). It is pertinent to point out
here that it is unfair to deny compensation to the surrogate mother who is giving
service of nine months. There is no legal prohibition for commercial surrogacy
58 Retrieved from http://www.delhi-ivf.com.

in India, but at the same time there are no provisions for the regulation of
financial transactions involved in commercial surrogacy.59
Right to have Medical Care

The surrogate mother accepts the terms and conditions of the surrogacy
arrangements due to her own financial need. It is necessary that the
commissioning parents should provide all the required medical care and
assistance to the surrogate mother during the term. However due to the absence
of any legal provisions regulating surrogacy in India the rights of the surrogate
mother are also uncertain and it is not clear to what extent she is entitled to get
medical care and assistance.60
Right to Remain Secret

Due to the very nature of surrogacy it is of utmost importance that the
anonymity of the surrogate mother should be maintained. This is essential
because the Indian society is traditional and conservative society and may not
accept surrogate motherhood. The surrogate mother may face social pressure,
public disgrace or hostile behavior of family members. In some cases it may
lead to disruption of her own married life and humiliation by her own children,
if any. At the same time it is pertinent to point out here that a child has the
right to know about its origin. Thus the right of the surrogate mother to remain
secret comes into conflict with the right of the child to know. It is very essential
that in order to protect the interests of the surrogate mother as well as the
interests of the child, a balance should be struck between these two competing
and conflicting rights. But in India there are no legal provisions for dealing
with this issue.
5. Relationship between Surrogate Mother and Child

The issue of relationship between surrogate mother and the child is a very
sensitive issue. In case where the surrogate mother has not contributed genetic
material, the problem is not so severe because the surrogate mother may not
develop a strong emotional bond with the child. But in cases where the surrogate
mother has contributed genetic material there are high chances of developing
Kerala.
60 Ibid.
a strong emotional bond with the child. This may have psychological impacts
on the surrogate mother who may not be ready to hand over the child to the
commissioning parents. In some cases she may seek a right to visit the child. It
is pertinent to point out here that if right to visitation is allowed, it may affect the
normal development of the child and the relationship with the commissioning
parents. On the other hand if this right is totally denied then the service rendered
by the surrogate mother would become equivalent to a hired labour. Further,
it is important to examine the relationship between the surrogate mother and
child because it has an important bearing on the relationship of the surrogate
child with the other children and relatives of surrogate mother particularly in
cases of altruistic surrogacy practices. Thus it is essential to define clearly the
relationship of surrogate mother vis-à-vis the child.61
6. Duties of Surrogate Mother

Another important gender based concern in surrogacy is the duties of
surrogate mother. Surrogacy procedure usually involves agreements between
the surrogate mother and commissioning parents. However in the absence
of any specific legal provision for regulation of surrogacy agreements, the
terms and conditions in such agreements are usually determined by the parties
themselves. It is very essential that the conditions and duties imposed on
the surrogate mother are not derogatory to the inherent human rights of the
surrogate mother.
Generally in surrogacy agreements the surrogate mother has to follow the
duties like, abstaining from taking alcohol, drugs and practices which may
affect the child, and in case of a married surrogate mother even abstain from
sexual intercourse with her husband. She also has to take proper care of her
health, undergo regular medical check ups and allow the commissioning parents
to visit her. In some cases there is a condition that she should not terminate her
pregnancy. It is criticized that the various conditions in a surrogacy agreement
have the effect of violating the personal autonomy of the surrogate mother.62
7. Risks to Surrogate Mother

The most important gender based concern in surrogacy is the chance of harm
or risks to surrogate mother in surrogacy process. The motivation for most of
61 Moss, S.Z. & Moss, M.S. (1975). Surrogate Mother-Child Relationships. Am. J.
Orthopsychiatry, 45 (3), pp. 382 - 90.
62 Ragone, H. (1994). Surrogate motherhood: Conception in the Heart. Oxford: West view
Press.
the women to act as a surrogate mother is their economic necessity. In fact

many of the Indian women are forced to act as surrogates due to reasons of
poverty or other economic needs.63 The process of surrogacy involves use
of technology to transfer either genetic material or developed embryo to the
womb of the surrogate. There may be repeated trials and attempts so as to be
successful. It is also seen that surrogacy process often results in the woman
giving birth to triplets or quadruplets. Thus surrogacy process may involve
some complications and pose a risk to the health or life of the surrogate women.
The important question which arises is therefore whether the surrogate woman
is entitled to compensation for the harm she may suffer during the term of
pregnancy or during delivery of child. It raises the important question as to
who is to be held liable in case of any harm caused to the health or life of the
surrogate mother. This is a very difficult question to answer because a doctor
and other medical personals cannot be held liable unless and until there is
a negligence on their part. Further, it is difficult to impose liability on the
commissioning parents if they had fulfilled all their responsibilities towards
the surrogate mother.
8. Adultery
Another major gender based issue is whether surrogacy amounts to adultery or
not. This question arises because of the fact that a woman bears the child of a
man other than her husband. The commonly accepted definition of matrimonial
offence of adultery is consensual sexual intercourse between a married person
and a person of the opposite sex, not the other spouse, during the subsistence
of the marriage.64 Adultery is sexual intercourse between two parties either or
both of whom is married but not married to the other and for sexual intercourse
to take place there must be some degree of penetration of the female organ by
the male organ.
In India the offence of adultery is defined under section 497 of Indian
Penal Code.65 The Supreme Court of India has defined adultery as ‘consensual
63 See the case of Nirmala, noted in Kumari, T. Sita. Surrogacy and its Legal Implications in
India. Retrived from http://airwebworld.com/articles/.
64 Diwan, Paras. (1980). Technological Niyoga and Nirodh and Social Engineering through
Law. JILI, 22, pp.445-465.

65 Section 497 of Indian Penal Code defines Adultery as : whoever has sexual intercourse with
a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man,
without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the
offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment
of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In
such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.
sexual intercourse between married person and another person of the opposite
sex during the subsistence of the marriage’.66 So the sexual intercourse is
necessary to constitute this offence. But what amount to sexual intercourse is
another difficult question, after a long time now it is settled that for constituting
sexual intercourse penetration is necessary, however it is minimal. So for
constituting the offence of adultery the element of penetration is necessary.
Then the question is whether the act of surgeon to insert the semen in a woman
will amount to penetration. At present no one has answered this question in
affirmative.
9. Prostitution
Many authors have criticized that surrogacy is like prostitution, as it involves
selling of the reproductive capacity of a woman and the use of her body in
return for a payment of money. It is argued that if surrogacy or renting of womb
is legalized then prostitution should also be legalized because in both the cases
there is use of a woman’s body for the benefit of another and in both cases
some financial transaction is also involved. Further it is argued that similar to
a prostitute who has no choice and control before a customer who has solicited
her favour and paid money; the surrogate mother also has no choice and has
to abide by all the terms and conditions put forward by the commissioning
parents.67 It is to be noted that, in case of prostitution, the main objective is the
sexual satisfaction of male partner. However, in case of surrogacy there is no
involvement of any sort of sexual act or sexual pleasure. Thus any attempt to
compare surrogacy with prostitution is untenable.
10. Surrogacy Degrades the Dignity of Woman

Right to dignity is one of the inherent and cherished rights of every human
being. It is argued that surrogacy degrades the inherent dignity of a woman.
Surrogacy involves the use of a woman’s body for producing a baby which is
handed over to the commissioning parents. During the term of pregnancy the
surrogate mother has to abide by the conditions laid down in the contract and
has no right to take any decision affecting her body. Moreover the surrogate
mother also considers the pregnancy as a means of earning money and tries to
avoid developing a special bond with the child in her womb. Thus the natural
66 Gitabai v. Fattaoo, AIR 1966 MP 430. Cited in Kusum. (1977). Artificial Insemination and
Law. JILI, 19, pp.283-295.
67 Sera, Jean M. (2011). Surrogacy and Prostitution: A Comparative Analysis., Journal of
Gender & the Law, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, pp. 315-342.

mother-child bond is either absent or suppressed and the entire process is

viewed as a commercial transaction. The critics argue that the women’s body
is reduced to being an incubator68 or breeder machines and thus it degrades the
dignity of women. It is to be noted that, the question of degrading the dignity
or violating the dignity arises when some one perform an action against his/her
own will. In case of surrogacy, surrogate woman voluntarily agrees to act as
surrogate, and prior to he r acceptance she is also given counseling. Hence
surrogacy arrangements cannot be criticized as degrading the dignity of the
surrogate woman.
CONCLUSION
Surrogacy as a method for begetting a child has been practiced from ancient
times. However, the developments in science and technology have led to the
increased use of this method for begetting a biological child not only by infertile
couples but also by any one who wishes to have a child. In India, the surrogacy
is becoming a booming industry due to the fact that surrogate mothers are
easily and cheaply available in India and the entire cost of this method is very
less when compared to other countries. This increasing use of surrogacy has
raised legal, ethical, moral and religious debates all over the world including
India. Much of the criticisms against surrogacy are gender based, i.e. centered
around surrogate women’s rights and duties and whether it amounts to violation
of a women’s dignity. Though these concerns are very important and need to
be addressed urgently for the protection of rights and interests of surrogate
woman, the Indian legal system has not yet responded adequately. At present,
in India, there is no specific law which regulates the practice of surrogacy. An
attempt was made by ICMR by adopting certain guidelines for the regulation
of surrogacy. But these are not sufficient as well as lacking legal force. Another
significant attempt in this regard is the ART Bill, 2010. However it’s yet to
become a statute and does not deal with the method of surrogacy in detail.
Thus the need of the hour is to enact a specific law dealing with surrogacy and
resolving the various contentious gender based issues raised by it. Such a law
should consider the following recommendations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The law should declare specifically there is a right to act as a surrogate.
68 Gostin, Larry Ogalthorpe. (ed.) (1990). Surrogate Motherhood: Politics and Privacy.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2. The criteria for being a surrogate should be laid down clearly. Some of the
conditions can be that, a surrogate mother must be in good overall health,
she should have no medical problems which could lead to complication
with pregnancy.
3. The rights and duties of surrogate woman should be laid down clearly.
The duties should not be against the rights and interests of the surrogate
woman and they should not be derogatory to the dignity of surrogate
woman.
4. The law should take care of the fact that there may be risk or harm to
surrogate woman and should make provisions for compensation. One
way to protect the surrogate woman is a compulsory health insurance
scheme.
5. Due to the promising benefits offered by surrogacy technology to the
mankind it should be specifically exempted from the purview of any law
relating to regulation of prostitution and adultery.
14
International and National Policies for
Climate Change and Sustainable Development:
An Analysis with Reference to Gender in
South Asian Countries
Azim B. Pathan
INTRODUCTION: AN OVERVIEW
At the outset, it is significant to note that the gender is the state of being male
or female typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather
than biological ones (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). With reference to meaning of
the gender, it would be proper to say that the women and their role in international
legal instruments and policies are considered inadequately. Due to this fact
still there is inequality persisting towards social and cultural development of
women especially in South Asian countries. Women are more vulnerable to
climate change than men. This is because they make up the majority of the
world’s economically poor, do most of the agricultural work, bear unequal
responsibility for household food security, carry a disproportionate burden for
harvesting water and fuel for everyday survival, and rely on threatened natural
resources for their livelihoods (UN Women Watch, 2009). It is pertinent to
note that in the national or international policy making the role of women
and women’s issues were considered inadequately especially in the context
of national and international instruments to prevent the menace of climate
change induced problems. Of course, through the different programs of
United Nations Organization (UNO), United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) and Women’s Environment and Development Organization, (WEDO)
attempts are being made to ameliorate the situation of women all over the
world and especially in developing countries including South Asian countries.
Despites the efforts by different international organizations, still the problems
like, climate change induced migration, human trafficking, unemployment,
etc. in Bangladesh, China and India, are persisting. A report of United Nations
Organization points out that women constitute half of the world population,
perform nearly two-thirds of work hours, receive one-tenth of the world’s

income and own less than one-hundredth percent of world’s property. During
the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Summit, a General Assembly
Resolution stated that “Achieving gender equality and empowerment of
women is both a key development goal and an important means for achieving
all of the Millennium Development Goals (U.N.G.A, 2010)”.
Moreover, it is significant to take into consideration the basic idea of
‘sustainable development’ which was reflected through different international
conferences and declarations. Brundtland Commission Report of 1987 has
clearly stated about the sustainable development as the development which
meets the needs of present generation without compromising the needs
and aspirations of future generations. The principle related to sustainable
development which was reflected through United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development, 1992 in Rio-de-Janaero, had mainly
emphasized on the inclusive development, taking into consideration society,
economy and environment, based on the Brundtland Commission Report.
Despite the efforts of United Nations Organization especially to prevent
the menace of climate change in 1992, through framing the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) problem still persists.
Conversely, different issues are cropped up due to rising global warming such
as climate change affected migrations and problem of refugee mainly in South
Asian countries. International legal instruments such as UNFCCC, 1992 or
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee, 1951 (Refugee Convention),
do not address the issue of climate change induced migration and refugee
and interrelated issues such as unemployment of women, human trafficking,
etc. The most severe impact of climate change is being felt by vulnerable
populations of South Asian countries who have contributed least to the problem
as compared to developed countries such as U.S.A. and European countries.
Climate change is an inevitable and urgent global challenge with long-term
implications for the sustainable development of all countries including South
Asian countries. Climate change is expected to impact nearly every aspect of
life; natural disasters are becoming more frequent and intense, agricultural
conditions are changing, and diseases are becoming more prevalent.
A key challenge in responding to climate change is the increasing number
of events of floods. From 1999 to 2008, floods affected almost 1 billion people
in Asia (UN Women Watch, 2009). The corresponding figures were about 4
million in Europe, 28 million in the Americas and 22 million in Africa. For
instance, the 2010 flood in Pakistan affected more individuals than the combined
impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Kashmir earthquake (2005)
International and National Policies for Climate Change and... 249
and the Haiti earthquake (2010). Flash floods in the Himalayas are estimated
to cause the loss of at least 5,000 lives every year (UN Women Watch, 2009).
Women in the South Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the
impacts of disasters due to skewed power relations and inequitable cultural
and social norms. At the same time, women are essential for sustainable
development and developing sustainable adaptation options due to their
knowledge, multiple and simultaneous responsibilities and as well as roles
in productive areas. These include all sectors from agriculture, rangelands,
biodiversity and forests, to households, income-generation, livelihoods and other
socio-cultural and political-economic institutions and relations. Worldwide,
women are an estimated 43% of the work force in agriculture. In South Asian
countries, this proportion is higher, often above 50%, especially in mountain
regions. Hence, women play a key role in adaptation efforts, environmental
sustainability and food security as the climate changes (UN Women Watch,
2009). Besides, their roles must be reflected through international policies and
legal instruments which are mainly neglected.
Moreover, there are different dynamics which make the sustainable
development and adaptation measures to combat with climate change induced
problems more difficult for some women, due to a lack of access to formal
education, economic poverty, discrimination in food distribution, food
insecurity, limited access to resources, exclusion from policy and decision-
making institutions and processes and other forms of social marginalization.
Women generally have far less access to and control over the resources they
depend upon. Nor do they have opportunities for direct governance and
effective influence in politics from the household to community, national,
regional and international levels. In some contexts, women are often subject
to gender based violence, harassment and psychological violence within the
household (UN Women Watch, 2009). Some studies suggest that 95% of
women and girls surveyed reported first-hand knowledge of violence with
77% by family members. Such situations affect women in negative ways, and
further impede women’s ability to adapt to extreme events and changes in their
environment (UN Women Watch, 2009). Women and girls also face even more
serious risk with the onslaught of climate-induced disasters such as organized
trafficking of women. It is emerging as a potentially serious risk associated
with environmental problems. It also affects the effective participation of
women in combating climate change and climate change induced problems.
1. Prevailing Status of Women in Bangladesh

To many from outside, Bangladesh is almost synonymous with disasters. In
a country smaller than Britain, around one-third of the land is flooded every
summer. In 1998 nearly half of the land area of Bangladesh was under water. It
shows the effect of climate change and climate change induced environmental
problems in Bangladesh. In general, women, especially poor women, are more
likely than men to suffer injuries or death when a natural disaster occurs,
with more severe disasters correlating with wider gaps in relative risk. Poor
women have been found to be more exposed to direct harm from flooding or
hurricanes compared to other socio-economic groups (UN Habitat, 2011:81).
In 1991, a cyclone in Bangladesh killed five times as many females as males
(UN Habitat, 2011:81). It shows the graveness of the climate related hazards
and dismal condition of women to cope up with such natural and man-made
disasters.
Disasters happen only when a natural hazard impacts negatively on
vulnerable people. The severity of a disaster is therefore a reflection both of the
location and intensity of the hazard and of the number of people of given levels
and types of vulnerability. For instance, tropical storms of similar intensity
affect the USA and Bangladesh, but those are with very different outcomes.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck Florida, and caused more than 28 billion
pounds’ worth of damage, but killed fewer than 20 people. The cyclone that
struck the south-east coast of Bangladesh killed 1,14,000 people, and ruined
the livelihoods of millions. This does not mean that the people of Florida were
unscathed and that they did not suffer physically and mentally from loss of
homes, schools, jobs, and possessions. But the illustration shows how the
impact of an equivalent hazard on different communities is related differing
levels of social vulnerability. This vulnerability can be considered to have five
components, which vary from higher to lower levels according to political
and social factors affecting different groups of people: namely, the initial
conditions of a person, the resilience of their livelihood, their opportunities for
self-protection, and their access to social protection and social capital. These
differ hugely between the contexts of Bangladesh and the USA.
There are some significant questions such as how these components
of vulnerability are affected by gender relations and how different are the
vulnerabilities of men and women in relations to disasters in Bangladesh?
From an analysis of existing gendered vulnerabilities, can we project what may
happen in terms of climate change and the possible increase in frequency and
intensity of climate change hazards? Vulnerability in Bangladesh correlates
strongly with poverty, and it is widely accepted that women make up a
disproportionate share of poor people. How much of women’s vulnerability
to hazards can be apportioned to them being poor, and how much is due to
specific ‘gendered’ characteristics of self protection, social protection, and

livelihood resilience? And how will this be affected by climate change?
In fact, it is difficult to separate these two aspects of female vulnerability,
precisely because gender plays a significant role in determining poverty. A
recent Asian Development Bank report suggested that over 95 per cent of
female-headed households are below the poverty line. The proportion of
female-headed households in Bangladesh was officially reported as ten per
cent, but other evidence cited suggests that a more realistic figure is 20-30
per cent. Many of these households consist of women who are culturally
discouraged from remarrying. Ninety per cent of those who are single as
the result of bereavement or divorce are women. As a result, vulnerability to
hazards involves a complex interaction between poverty and gender relations,
in which women are likely to experience higher levels of vulnerability than
men.
1.1. Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (2009) of the

Government of Bangladesh
The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) took the initiative to prepare the Climate
Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009 (“the BCCSAP 2009”) to carry forward
and coordinate climate change activities in the country. BCCSAP 2009 has
identified six broad areas of actions (i) food security, social protection and health;
(ii) comprehensive disaster management; (iii) infrastructure; (iv) research and
knowledge management; (v) mitigation and low carbon development; and (vi)
capacity building and institutional strengthening (Bangladesh Climate Change
Strategy and Action Plan, 2009). In BCCSAP 2009 one missing link is that of
gender approach, especially the main issue of women, such as climate change
induced problem is not taken into consideration. A Climate Change Unit has
been established at the Department of Environment and Forests to coordinate
the overall activities on climate change in the country. The implementation of
the BCCSAP 2009 will be financed through GOB’s own resources, including
Climate Change Trust Funds and bilateral and multilateral support. US $10
billion will be required to implement BCCSAP 2009 during five years. Even
though strong action plan was devised by the Government of Bangladesh for
combating climate change, still there is gap between climate change adaptation
resilience and sustainable development, including the social progress, avoiding
social problems of women such as climate change induced women trafficking,
migration, unemployment etc.
2. Status of Women in China and their Role in

Environmental Disasters
At the time of understanding the status of women in China, it is pertinent
to note that lack of gender approach in many capacity building tools related
to environment and environmental related catastrophe like climate change
and climate change induced problems, worsened the situation of women. It
is significant to note on the basis of the research conducted by the various
researchers that during the Wenchuan earthquake, which occurred in 2008,
findings indicate more women, compared with men, died in the disaster. The
researchers believe there are three reasons to explain their findings: First, the
earthquake occurred at 2 p.m., when women tended to be at home and men
tended to be at work. Second, after the earthquake occurred, the women had
to rescue their children and elderly family members, which lowered their
chance of survival. Third, given traditional Chinese culture, women tried to
get dressed before fleeing their collapsing homes, and that prevented many
from getting out in time. Chinese have only recently started studying gender
as it pertains to climate change, especially the progress of disaster prevention
and mitigation.1
In terms of disaster prevention, there is a substantial difference in the ability
of men and women to survive natural disasters. There is also a difference in
their ability to access relevant information about natural disasters.
According to a survey, men in rural China are more willing compared with
the women to learn about disaster prevention. In fact, most of the respondents
said men should make it a priority to learn about disaster prevention.
Furthermore, women are burdened with housework and, as a result, have
no time to attend disaster-prevention lectures. In addition, women’s education
level tends to be lower than men and, as such, they have a harder time
understanding some lectures.
Second, in terms of disaster relief, gender differences are not taken into
consideration when relief facilities are established and materials are allocated.
For example, most of the disaster-relief shelters in China do not provide specific
rooms for women; the women, especially pregnant women, breastfeeding
women and menstruating women can’t protect their privacy. Some shelters
don’t provide toilets especially for women.
When it comes to the distribution of relief supplies, women sometimes
cannot obtain the materials they need. For example, during disaster-relief
1 See <http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/womenofchina/report/174240-1.htm>, Last

visited on 25.07.2014.
efforts that followed the Wenchuan quake, some women were not able to
receive enough milk powder for their babies.
Third, there is a substantial difference in the ability of men and women to
participate in and make decisions about post-disaster reconstruction, and to
seize development opportunities.
As women are more likely to perform housework due to the traditional
stereotypes, they are less likely, compared with men, to have job opportunities
and to have benefit from the house-distribution system during post-disaster
reconstruction. For instance, a local government provided reconstruction
funding to a village, and told the villagers’ congress to decide how to spend
the money. Most of the village’s men wanted to build a road, while most of
the women wanted to build public toilets as they had no access to toilets when
they did farm work. In the end, the road was constructed, because most of the
villagers’ congress members were men.
These above examples shows the situations of women and their voice in
the decisions making relating to local matters which are directly connected
with people and more particularly women. Most of the time decisions are not
based on gender concern. On the basis of many examples, the situation of
Chinese women is portrayed in this article. It shows that role of women in
decision making and especially policy making were not considered adequately.
It is also significant to note here that even in the matter of natural disasters and
climate change induced problem many time women become prime sufferer
rather than the men.
2.1. China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change,

2013
The National Development and Reform Commission have organized China’s
Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change the compilation of the
National Plan for Addressing Climate Change (2013-2020).2
After an overall analysis of the trends and impacts of climate change in
China, as well as the current situations and challenges in addressing climate
change, the National Development and Reform Commission proposed the main
target, major tasks and safeguarding measures for addressing climate change
by 2020.3 Additionally, it has outlined the general framework for addressing
climate change in China. All provinces (including the autonomous regions and
2 See <http://www.ccchina.gov.cn/archiver/ccchinacn/UpFile/Files/Default/2013110809121
8654702.pdf>, Last visited on 23.08.2014.
3 Ibid.
municipalities directly under the central government) have taken active steps in
carrying out the formulation of mid and long-term plans for addressing climate
change at the provincial level.4 It is significant to note here that National Plan
for Addressing Climate Change (2013-2020) does not specifically take into
consideration gender approach. It has not specifically dealt with the problem
of women such as women trafficking, migration, unemployment etc. cropped
up by climate change.
3. A Scanning of Gender Approach in Twelfth Five Year Plan

(2012-2017) of Indian Government
It is significant to note that the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017) of
Government of India recognizes the primacy of India’s Women and Children,
who constitute over 70 per cent of India’s population (Twelfth Five Year
Plan, 2012-2017). Twelfth Five Year Plan focuses on Women’s Agency and
engendering of development. The key strategies for women’s agency in the
Twelfth Plan have been identified as:
1. Economic Empowerment (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017);
2. Social and Physical Infrastructure (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017);
3. Enabling Legislations (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017);
4. Women’s Participation in Governance (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-
2017);
5. Inclusiveness of all categories of vulnerable women (Twelfth Five Year
Plan, 2012-2017), and
6. Engendering National Policies/Programmes (Twelfth Five Year Plan,
2012-2017).
Twelfth Five Year plan states that there are gender perspectives in all
aspects of climate change (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017). It also
suggests that Gender and climate change adaptation strategies will be made
a part of all ongoing poverty reduction and development policies, including
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) planning and implementation at local,
national and regional level, country’s Nation Adaptation Programmes of
Actions (NAPAs); and in numerous climate change related funds that are in
the process of being established (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017). This
4 Ibid.
Five Year Plan also identified the climate change induced problem such as
trafficking of women.5
Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is one of the worst forms of
crimes against women and children as it exposes them to a life of humiliation
and sexual abuse. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of livelihood options, natural/man-
made disasters and lack of social and family support, migration are among
the factors which make women and children vulnerable to such trafficking.
A study entitled ‘Girls and Women in Prostitution in India’ (2002-2004) by
Gram Niyojan Kendra (GNK), sponsored by the Ministry of Women and Child
Development, estimates that primary means of entry into prostitution of about
three fourths of the women and children is through trafficking and that there
are about 2.8 million sex workers in the country of which 36 per cent are
children (Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017). Cross-border trafficking from
Bangladesh and Nepal to various cities in India is another area of concern
(Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2012-2017).
The Government has ratified the United Nations Convention on
Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) and its Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons especially trafficking in Women
and Children. The Protocol casts an obligation on the State Parties to undertake
measures for prevention of trafficking as also for providing physical,
psychological and social recovery of victims of trafficking in persons. The
Government has also ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and
Combating Trafficking of Women and Children for Prostitution. However,
it is apparent from the study conducted by Ministry of Women and Child
Development that the problem of women trafficking still persists. Even if
climate change is not direct reason for women trafficking but many times it
becomes one of the main factors responsible for women trafficking.
4. Climate Change Regime, Sustainable Development and

Gender Approach
It is significant to note that the United Nations Development Programme,
(UNDP) has a strategic approach to address climate change through the
principles of inclusion such as economy, environment and society and sustainable
development. However, the situation of women in South Asian countries
including China, Bangladesh and India represents the dismal conditions.
5 Trafficking of women in India is not only because of climate change but there are also
other factors responsible for the same. Environmental disaster/climate change is one of the
factors/reasons for trafficking of women in India and abroad.
The Social, cultural and economic background of human beings is

embedded in the natural environment. In the different countries of the world,
the local environment, combined with the socio-economic and cultural scene,
has shaped the process of development. The process of development has
been, unfortunately, coupled with the exploitation of the natural resources and
biodiversity from the environment. This had an adverse impact on the ecology,
economy and society at the global level and having more effect in developing
countries including South Asian countries. The depleting natural resources and
a rise in the level of pollution have given rise to the concern of environmental
security locally, regionally and globally. This has forced the global community
to adopt the concept of sustainable development (Segger & Khalfan, 2004:3).
Thus sustainable development encompasses not only the economic issues
but also the social and environmental issues and the environmental laws play
an important role in realizing the process of sustainable development. In
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and United Nations Organizations’
efforts women and their issues were considered. Efforts were made to
ameliorate the situation of women providing education, eradicating poverty
and considering gender in international efforts, but still the reality in China,
Bangladesh and India is little different.
During the past few decades numerous incredible and devastating events
have focused the domestic and global attention to the impending danger of
environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction
of species. Issues such as climate change, global warming, ozone depletion,
acid rain, deforestation, desertification, toxic wastes and loss of biological
diversity have resulted in increasing global awareness of the problems facing
the planet earth. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened
ecological and social systems. Moreover, the foundations of global security
are threatened. The global concern has been aptly echoed in the assertion made
at the Earth Summit in the year 1992:
“Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted

with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations,
a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the
continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our
well-being (Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development).”
The traditional approach to complex environmental issues is to establish a

regulatory regime and the institutional capacity to manage the environmental
problems over time. Climate change related international treaties and
conventions are silent on the gender approach and especially, not dealt
with the issues of women adequately. Particularly with respect to pollution
issues, environmental regulators generally reach compromises between the
environmental and public health costs of the pollution on the one hand with the
economic costs of abating the pollution on the other. The resulting environmental
policy only rarely forbids all pollution, but instead looks for levels that do not
cause an unreasonable risk to public health or the environment.6
To date, the international approach to climate change has largely mirrored
the management approach taken to other complex environmental problems.
The overall approach of the climate regime is that scientists will identify safe
levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations and by extension, safe
levels of greenhouse gas emissions and the climate regime will align countries
to reach those levels through a variety of management tools, including most
notably the Kyoto Protocol’s cap-and-trade system.7
This is reflected in the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, 1992 (UNFCCC) which is to achieve
“stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level
that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system.” The objective links the determination of what is “dangerous” to goals
of ecosystem conservation, food security, and sustainable development, but
it does not suggest that the climate regime will be concerned with harms to
individual rights or especially rights of the women or with seeking compensation
or demonstrating liability.8
The management approach is also reflected in the growth and focus
of the climate change secretariat, located in Bonn, Germany. The climate
change secretariat is charged with supporting the annual meetings of the
Conference of the Parties (CoP) and otherwise implementing the UNFCCC
and the Kyoto Protocol. The climate secretariat is an impressive collection of
technical experts, scientists, and policy analysts who have formed a significant
6 See Michael R. Anderson, Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection: An

Overview, in Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection, (Alan E. Boyle &
Michael R. Anderson eds.), (1996), at p. 21-23.
7 See Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change art.
6, Dec. 11, 1997, 2303 U.N.T.S. 148.

8 The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the
Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions
of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a
level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
Such a level should be achieved within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt
naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable
economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
bureaucracy for managing the carbon market and other aspects of international
climate policy.9
Besides, it is significant to note that climate policy and climate change
related international instruments do not address the issues like climate change
induced migration, trafficking of women and girls, etc.
4.1. Role of United Nations Organization: Hunt for the Gender

Approach in Policy Making
United Nations Organization (UNO) has contributed immensely towards the
protection of global environment. It has intelligently shaped the development
of international environmental law by way of bringing different nations
together on one platform to discuss the global problem of climate change and
environmental degradation. Despite continuous efforts of UNO, developed
country like United States of America has not come to the platform of binding
obligation, accepting Kyoto Protocol for reduction of Green House Gases.
Efforts of UNO are outstanding to combat with the menace of climate change.
UNO has emphasized mainly on the economic, social and environmentally
sustained development, sustainable development to combat with the problem of
climate change. Sustainable development is most commonly defined according
to the Brundtland Commission’s Report as “development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.10
The need for balancing environmental and economic policies was first
addressed in an international setting at the U.N. Conference on the Human
Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972 (Roch & Perrez, 2005:1). Since then
the international community met at the U.N. Conference on Environment
and Development, held in Rio de Janiero in 1992, the Millenium Summit in
New York City in 2000, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
held in Johannesburg in 2002, to further highlight the importance of these
issues and to take action (Galizzi, 2006:952). Sustainable development is said
to encompass three pillars: environmental, economic, and social aspects of
development (World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg,
2002). Climate change is a matter affecting these very same issues.
It is important to note here that the U.N. Conference on Human Environment,
held in Stockholm in the decade of seventies has contributed a lot to the
environmental jurisprudence of developing countries including India, China
9 For a diagram of the Secretariat’s structure, see UNFCCC, Secretariat Structure, available
at <http://unfccc.int/secretariat/programmes/items/2098.php>.
10 See World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, (1987), at
p. 8.
and Bangladesh. However, the efforts of the same conference with regard to
gender were not specific and had not come apparently through UN Declaration
on Human Environment, 1972. Further, even in UN Conference on Environment
and Development, held in Rio-de-Janaero, 1992 the issue like environment
and development were considered extensively but the gender approach was
missing from the policy documents. Even the major outcome of Rio-de-Janaero
i.e. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 had not
considered climate change induced problems like migration, human trafficking,
unemployment, right to livelihood of climate change affected people including
women and girls. From the following discussion we can trace out the gender
approach in international policy documents, declarations and conventions.
4.2. United Nations Conference on the Human Environment:

A Search for Gender Approach
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, having met at
Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972, having considered the need for a common
outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the
world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment. The
conference provided a declaration which has laid down some important
principles which are discussed below:
Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate
conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity
and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve
the environment for present and future generations. In this respect, policies
promoting or perpetuating apartheid, racial segregation, discrimination, colonial
and other forms of oppression and foreign domination stand condemned and
must be eliminated (Principle 1).
The natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, land, flora and
fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems, must be
safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful
planning or management, as appropriate (Principle 2).
It is apparent from the above principle that the concept of the sustainable
development was proclaimed which will be legitimized in the national
legislative and administrative measures for the biodiversity and environment
protection.
The declaration also provided that the capacity of the earth to produce vital
renewable resources must be maintained and, wherever practicable, restored or
improved (Principle 3). Man has a special responsibility to safeguard and wisely
manage the heritage of wildlife and its habitat, which are now gravely imperiled
by a combination of adverse factors. Nature conservation, including wildlife,

must therefore receive importance in planning for economic development
(Principle 4). This was the principle which was very paramount for any nation
as far as concerning to the protection of the biodiversity and the wildlife. It
was specifically mentioned that the man has the responsibility to protect the
wildlife and its habitat. It was indeed very necessary principle to adhere in the
situation of the huge deforestation and the unplanned urbanization.
The non-renewable resources of the earth must be employed in such a way
as to guard against the danger of their future exhaustion and to ensure that
benefits from such employment are shared by all mankind (Principle 5).
The discharge of toxic substances or of other substances and the release
of heat, in such quantities or concentrations as to exceed the capacity of the
environment to render them harmless, must be halted in order to ensure that
serious or irreversible damage is not inflicted upon ecosystems. The struggle
of the people against pollution should be supported (Principle 6).
States shall take all possible steps to prevent pollution of the seas by
substances that are liable to create hazards to human health, to harm living
resources and marine life, to damage amenities or to interfere with other
legitimate uses of the sea (Principle 7).
Economic and social development is essential for ensuring a favorable
living and working environment for man and for creating conditions on earth
which are necessary for the improvement of quality of life (Principle 8).
Environmental deficiencies generated by the conditions of under-development
and natural disasters pose grave problems and can best be remedied by
accelerated development through the transfer of substantial quantities of
financial and technological assistance as a supplement to the domestic effort
of the developing countries and such timely assistance as may be required
(Principle 9).
For the developing countries, stability of prices and adequate earnings
for primary commodities and raw materials are essential to environmental
management, since economic factors as well as ecological processes must
be taken into account (Principle 10). The environmental policies of all States
should enhance and not adversely affect the present or future development
potential of developing countries, nor should they hamper the attainment of
better living conditions for all, and appropriate steps should be taken by States
and international organizations with a view to reaching agreement on meeting
the possible national and international economic consequences resulting from
the application of environmental measures (Principle 11).
The Stockholm Declaration further also provides that resources should be

made available to preserve and improve the environment, taking into account
the circumstances and particular requirements of developing countries and any
costs which may emanate- from their incorporating environmental safeguards
into their development planning and the need for making available to them,
upon their request, additional international technical and financial assistance
for this purpose (Principle 12).
In order to achieve a more rational management of resources and thus to
improve the environment, States should adopt an integrated and coordinated
approach to their development planning so as to ensure that development is
compatible with the need to protect and improve environment for the benefit of
their population (Principle 13). Rational planning constitutes an essential tool
for reconciling any conflict between the needs of development and the need to
protect and improve the environment (Principle 14).
Planning must be applied to human settlements and urbanization with a
view to avoiding adverse effects on the environment and obtaining maximum
social, economic and environmental benefits for all. In this respect projects
which are designed for colonialist and racist domination must be abandoned
(Principle 15).
Demographic policies which are without prejudice to basic human
rights and which are deemed appropriate by Governments concerned
should be applied in those regions where the rate of population growth or
excessive population concentrations are likely to have adverse effects on the
environment of the human environment and impede development (Principle
16). Appropriate national institutions must be entrusted with the task of
planning, managing or controlling the environmental resources of States
with a view to enhancing environmental quality (Principle 17). Science and
technology, as part of their contribution to economic and social development,
must be applied to the identification, avoidance and control of environmental
risks and the solution of environmental problems and for the common good
of mankind (Principle 18).
Education in environmental matters, for the younger generation as well
as adults, giving due consideration to the underprivileged, is essential in order
to broaden the basis for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by
individuals, enterprises and communities in protecting and improving the
environment in its full human dimension. It is also essential that mass media
of communications avoid contributing to the deterioration of the environment,
but, on the contrary, disseminates information of an educational nature on the
need to project and improve the environment in order to develop in every

respect (Principle 19).
Scientific research and development in the context of environmental
problems, both national and multinational, must be promoted in all countries,
especially the developing countries. In this connection, the free flow of up-to-
date scientific information and transfer of experience must be supported and
assisted, to facilitate the solution of environmental problems; environmental
technologies should be made available to developing countries on terms which
would encourage their wide dissemination without constituting an economic
burden on the developing countries (Principle 20).
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources
pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure
that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the
environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction
(Principle 21). States shall cooperate to develop further the international law
regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other
environmental damage caused by activities within the jurisdiction or control
of such States to areas beyond their jurisdiction (Principle 22).
Without prejudice to such criteria as may be agreed upon by the international
community, or to standards which will have to be determined nationally, it will
be essential in all cases to consider the system of values prevailing in each
country, and the extent of the applicability of standards which are valid for the
most advanced countries but which may be inappropriate and of unwarranted
social cost for the developing countries (Principle 23). International matters
concerning the protection and improvement of the environment should be
handled in a cooperative spirit by all countries, big and small, on an equal
footing (Principle 24).
Cooperation through multilateral or bilateral arrangements or other
appropriate means is essential to effectively control, prevent, reduce and
eliminate adverse environmental effects resulting from activities conducted
in all spheres, in such a way that due account is taken of the sovereignty and
interests of all States. States shall ensure that international organizations play
a coordinated, efficient and dynamic role for the protection and improvement
of the environment (Principle 25).
Man and his environment must be spared the effects of nuclear weapons
and all other means of mass destruction. States must strive to reach prompt
agreement, in the relevant international organs, on the elimination and complete
destruction of such weapons (Principle 26).
On the basis of above discussion, it is clear that despite the efforts with
reference to environment and environment related issues were taken by
Stockholm Conference on Human Environment, many issues such as climate
change induced problems and role of women were not specifically stressed
upon in the declaration. Besides, declaration does not specifically mention
about the women’s rights in case of any environmental disaster. It has not dealt
with the specific measures for the women in case of catastrophic events such
as climate change.
4.3 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:

An Overview with Reference to Gender
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known
as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992. The
objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference
with the climate system. However, the treaty does not specifically stress upon
the role of women and their issues especially at the time of dealing with the
climate change induced problems.
It is significant to know that the treaty itself set no mandatory limits on
greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement
mechanisms. In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding. Instead,
the treaty provides for updates which are called “protocols” that would set
mandatory emission limits. The principal update is the Kyoto Protocol which
has become much better known than the UNFCCC itself.11
The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992, after an
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework
Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from April 30 to
May 9, 1992. It entered into force on March 21, 1994.
The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged
with supporting the operation of the Convention, with offices in Haus
Carstanjen, Bonn, Germany. From 2006 to 2010 the head of the secretariat
was Yvo de Boer; on May 17, 2010 his successor, Christiana Figueres from
Costa Rica has been named. The Secretariat, augmented through the parallel
11 Kyoto Protocol which is legally binding document and presently its commitment period is
over but still it is in force till the acceptance of further legally binding agreement.
efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), aims to

gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies.
The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences
of the Parties (CoP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997,
the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations
for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Parties to UNFCCC are classified as:
• Annex I countries – industrialized countries and economies in transition
• Annex II countries – developed countries which pay for costs of
developing countries
• Developing countries.
Annex I countries which have ratified the Protocol have committed to reduce
their emission levels of greenhouse gasses to targets that are mainly set below
their 1990 levels. They may do this by allocating reduced annual allowances to
the major operators within their borders. These operators can only exceed their
allocations if they buy emission allowances, or offset their excesses through a
mechanism that is agreed by all the parties to UNFCCC.
Annex II countries are a sub-group of the Annex I countries. They comprise
the OECD members, excluding those that were economies in transition in
1992.
Developing countries are not required to reduce emission levels unless
developed countries supply enough funding and technology. Setting no
immediate restrictions under UNFCCC serves three purposes:
• It avoids restrictions on their development, because emissions are strongly
linked to industrial capacity
• They can sell emissions credits to nations whose operators have difficulty
meeting their emissions targets
• They get money and technologies for low-carbon investments from
Annex II countries.
Developing countries may volunteer to become Annex I countries when they
are sufficiently developed.
Some countries argue that the split between Annex I and developing
countries is unfair, and that both developing countries and developed
countries need to reduce their emissions unilaterally. Country like USA
claims that their costs of following the Convention requirements will stress
its economy. Other countries point to research, such as the Stern Report, that
calculates the cost of compliance to be less than the cost of the consequences
of doing nothing.12
The climate change Conventions and Protocol substantially produce the
fact that the gender approach in the above documents were not specifically
considered. The issue of climate change and reduction of green house gases was
taken into consideration establishing common but differentiated responsibility
principle and taking into consideration the historical fact of more emission
committed by developed countries, rather than developing countries including
India, China, Bangladesh, etc. The major issues of women affected by climate
change induced problems hardly got the attention in the policy documents and
treaties related to climate change. It has worsened the situation of women rather
to ameliorate it. On the basis of above discussion it is apparent that women are
affected by various climate change induced problems such as deprivation of
their livelihood, unemployment, human trafficking, prostitution etc.
4.4. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee, 1951:

A Glance from the Window of Gender
If we will have a glace of Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee, 1951
(Refugee Convention) from the window of the gender, it will be appropriate
to say that this international treaty was not designed indeed to deal with
issue of climate change induced problems such as climate change refugees
and migration. It is pertinent to note here that United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, 1992 and Refugee Convention, 1951 does
not concretely deal with the issue of climate change refugee and has not
substantially considered this issue as violation of human rights or violation of
women’s rights.
The refugee regime’s narrow definition of refugee restricts its power to
help with the climate change situation. The 1951 Refugee Convention defines
a refugee as someone with a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons
of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion”. Most commentators do not believe that environmental refugees, a
concept that gained traction decades after the Refugee Convention’s adoption,
fall within its scope. They argue that climate change refugees have not been
persecuted in the same way that traditional refugees have. There has also been
little political mobilization to amend the Refugee Convention’s core definition,
leaving the Convention too narrow an instrument to look to for protection for
12 See for details Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, available at <http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Report>.
climate change refugees. The UNFCCC applies directly to climate change,

but it too has legal limitations for dealing with climate change refugees. As an
international environmental law treaty, the UNFCCC primarily concerns state-
to-state relations; it does not discuss duties that states have towards individuals
or communities, such as those laid out in human rights or refugee law. It is also
preventive in nature and less focused on the remedial actions that are needed in
a refugee context. Although the UNFCCC has an initiative to help states with
adaptation to climate change, that program does not specifically deal with the
situation of climate change refugees and problems. Like the refugee regime,
the UNFCCC was not designed for, and to date has not adequately dealt with,
the problem of climate change refugees including women.
5. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

It is paramount to note here that climate change is a hot issue globally. In fact,
it is an issue that affects all of us, even in daily life. Climate change knows
no boundaries. Many suggest it harms people, regardless of race and gender,
while others suggest climate change, at least in part, contributes to the rising
number and severity of natural disasters. The effects of such disasters are not
limited by gender. However, bias embedded in society emerges during such
disasters. We have seen from the examples of Bangladesh, China and India
how gender bias have an impact over the conditions of women and especially
at the time of disasters including climate change induced floods. In China,
most of the governments’ statistics regarding victims of natural disasters fail
to identify the victims by gender and gender approach is missing. That may
be the result of ignorance about gender perspective when dealing with climate
change and natural disasters. Same is the case in the Bangladesh, even in policy
documents of Government of Bangladesh gender approach has been reflected
but the situations of women is dismal, especially at the time of natural disasters
such as climate change induced floods and droughts.
Moreover, on the basis of above discussion it is significant to note here that
international legal instruments and policy documents such as United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992, Refugee Convention,
1951, Stockholm Declaration, 1972 do not specifically address the issue of
climate change induced problems such as unemployment, women trafficking
etc. It is significant to note that the concept of sustainable development, which
has emerged through the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, 1992 in Rio-de-Janaero and has its basis from the Brundtland
Report of 1987, includes the Economic aspect, Ecology and Society as an
integral part of development. However, the gender perspective has not been
reflected through the Rio Conference and Declaration. Women and different
climate change induced problems were not considered by Rio Conference.
Sustainable development including society and its progress though were
considered, but the main component of society like women and gender
perspective is missing from the Rio Conference and Declaration.
Gender inequality especially in terms of accessing social resources,
enjoying opportunities and rights, participating in social development, and
having fair access to salaries and benefits still exists in most regions of South
Asian countries including Bangladesh and China and it has an impact at the
time of environmental disasters including climate change and climate change
induced problems.
In order to tackle climate change induced problems, the goal of sustainable
development must be attained at a much faster pace, since economic growth
produces the funding to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Besides,
international legal instruments must contain the gender approach specifically
to deal with the issue of climate change induced problems.
From the research documents of World Bank, UNEP and UNDP, we can
see that women play an important role in combating climate change, even
though they are victims of climate change. Policy documents and development
strategies at national and international level should specifically consider a
gender perspective to deal with climate change. We must empower women to
ensure they use their full potential as we deal with climate change and it will
help women rise above their insecurities, and it will lead to increase society’s
ability to cope with climate change, so that we can guarantee society’s
sustained development. Sustainable development will be a reality when
the gender concern and the social problems of the women such as women
trafficking, migration, unemployment etc. cropped up due to climate change
will be addressed in the climate change related legal and policy documents.
REFERENCES
Galizzi, P., (2006). “From Stockholm to New York, Via Rio and Johannesburg:
Has the Environment Lost Its Way on the Global Agenda?” Fordham
International Law Journal, 29, at p. 952.
Global Report on Human Settlements 2011. Cities and Climate Change: United
Nations Human Settlement Programme, UN Habitat, (2011), at p. 81.
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Climate
Change Strategy and Action Plan, 2009. <http://www.moef.gov.bd/
climate_change_strategy2009. pdf>, Last visited on 22.08.2014.
Marie-Claire, C. Segger, A. Khalfan (2004). “Sustainable Development Law
Principles, Practices and Prospects”, New York: Oxford University Press,
at p. 3.
Oxford Dictionary, available at <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/
english/gender?q=gender>, Last visited on 24.07.2014.
Planning Commission, Government of India, (2013). Twelfth Five Year Plan
(2012-2017), Social Sectors: Vol. III, at p. 164.
Principle 1, 2, 3......26, (1972). Stockholm Declaration on Human
Environment.
Roch, P., F.X. Perrez, (2005). “International Environmental Governance:
The Strive Towards a Comprehensive, Coherent, Effective and Efficient
International Environmental Regime”, Colorado Journal of International
Law and Policy, 16, at p. 1.
U.N.G.A., Draft Outcome Document Millennium Development Goals, U.N.
Doc. A/64/L.72 (Sept. 10, 2010), in Lucy Wanjiru, Gender, Climate
Change and Sustainable Development, 23 Fordham Envtl. Law R. 1
(2012).
UN Women Watch (2009). Women at the Frontline of Climate Change-
Gender Risk and Hopes, UNEP, Center for International Climate and
Environmental Research, also available at <http://www.grida.no/files/
publications/women-and-climate-change/rra_gender_screen.pdf>, Last
visited on 25.07.2014.
World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, S. Africa., Aug. 26-
Sept. 4, 2002, Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
1, U.N. Doc A/CONF.199/20, available at <http://www.unctad.org/en/
docs/aconf199d20&c1_en.p df>.
15
Role of Gender Quotas in Indian Political System

Swadesin Mahapatra
“Quotas are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they oblige men
to think about including women in decision-making, since men must
create spaces for women. On the other hand, since it is men who are
opening up these spaces, they will seek out women who they will be
able to manage—women who will more easily accept the hegemony
of men”.
Anna Balletbo, former MP, Spain
The struggle for political rights by women’s groups has been the longest in the
history of independent India as the proposed constitution amendment bill had
been deferred several times by successive governments since 1996. While the
Indian constitution is one of the most progressive in the world and guarantees
equal rights for men and women, Indian women have always waited anxiously
for their equal dreams to be translated into reality. Women’s empowerment is
a new phrase in the vocabulary of gender literature. Women empowerment
refers to enhancing their position in the power structure of the society .The
word women empowerment essentially means that the women have the
power or capacity to regulate their day-to-day lives in the social, political and
economic terms-a power which enables them to move from the periphery to
the center stage. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian
Constitution in its preamble, fundamental rights, fundamental duties and
directive principles. Women empowerment refers to enhancing their position in
the power structure of the society. The word women empowerment essentially
means that the women have the power or capacity to regulate their day-to-
day lives in the social, political and economic terms, a power which enables
them to move from the periphery to the center stage. The principle of gender
equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its preamble, fundamental

rights, fundamental duties and directive principles.
Women constitute slightly more than half of the world population. Their
contribution to the social and economic development of societies is also
more than ha lf as compared to that of men by virtue of their dual roles in the
productive and reproductive spheres. Yet their participation in formal political
structures and processes, where decisions regarding the use of societal resources
generated by both men and women are made, remains insignificant. Presently,
women’s representation in legislatures around the world is 15 percent. Despite
the pronounced commitment of the international community to gender equality
and to the bridging the gender gap in the formal political arena, reinforced
by the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform of Action, there are only twelve
countries where women hold 33% or more seats in the parliaments (UNDP
Report, 2005).
The global debate on the promotion of women’s political participation/
representation has been surrounded by intrinsic and instrumentalist argument.
The former argues for equal participation of women in politics from the human
rights perspective. Women constitute half of the world population and therefore,
it is only fair that they should have equal participation and representation in
world democracies. Instrumentalist argument pushed for women’s greater
participation on the essentialist ground that men and women are different.
Women have different vision and concepts of politics owning to their sex and
their gender roles as mothers. Therefore, it is assumed that women in politics
will bring a special caring focus and female values to politics.
Not-withstanding the remarkable changes in the position of women in free
India, there is still a great divergence between the constitutional position and
stark reality of deprivation and degradation. Although, gender discrimination
has been banned by the Constitution and women have been guaranteed
political equality with men, yet there is a difference between the constitutional
rights and the rights enjoyed in reality by women. Even after half a century of
independence, barring a few exceptions, women have mostly remained outside
the domain of power and political authority. Although they constitute about
half of the citizen and over the years their participation by way of voting has
increased, yet their participation and representation in law making and law
implementing bodies are not very satisfactory.
Incidentally, India, the largest democracy, lags much behind other
countries including its neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan, when it comes to
Role of Gender Quotas in Indian Political System 271
the participation of the fair sex representation in politics. With only 10.8 (11%)
per cent of women representation in the Lok Sabha (61seats out of 543) and
10.6% in the Rajya Sabha currently, India ranks 108th among 188 countries,
according to the comparative data by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The
global average of women in parliaments as of November 2013 stood at 21.3%,
a slight increase over the numbers in the immediately preceding two years
(20.3% and 19.5%). The IPU is an international organization of parliaments
and works for the establishment of representative democracies.
Countries are ranked by the IPU based on percentage of women in the
lower house of parliament. India fared poorly even when compared with her
immediate neighbours. Here, Nepal, ranked at 24, led the pack, followed by
China (55) and Pakistan (66).
Source: IPU, 2013
Source: PRS Legislative Research, 2014

As the world’s largest democracy, and one that have taken important steps
to open opportunities for the marginalized groups, including women, to lead,
India is an important case study for global policy dialogues around good
governance. This research paper not only contributes to our understanding of
how quotas mandating women representation on local governing bodies – the
Panchayati Raj Institutions(PRIs) – are playing out for the individual show
comprise them and for the policy making process. India has witnessed the
world’s largest experiment in grassroots local democracy, triggered by the 73rd
and 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution, which created a third tier of
governance – Panchayati Raj Institutions (Village Councils) and urban local
bodies. These are elected bodies and cannot be dissolved by administrative
order. Much of the strongest evidence on the impact of political quotas comes
from India, specifically because the design of the India reservation system allows
for causal analysis. A constitutional amendment in 1993 made it mandatory
for Indian states to decentralize a significant amount of policy influence to a
three-tier system of local governance. The lowest tier is the village council or
Gram Panchayat (GP), where villagers elect members of the village council
and its leader. The key factor for analysis is that the 1993 amendment required
that one-third of leader positions be reserved for women, and that reservation
be rotated between elections. While different states chose different ways of
implementing reservation, in most cases the process was, in effect, random.
This implies that the difference in average outcomes between reserved and
unreserved GPs reflects the causal impact of female leadership. This design
of the legislation allows a natural experiment for measuring the causal impact
of mandating a female leader. Since 1995, three rounds of elections have been
held; and as one-third of seats (proposed to be increased to 50 per cent) are
reserved for women, more than 1.5 million women have been elected to office
in each round.
In reality women representatives are ornamental in nature and political
consciousness is found lacking among them. They are affected by the caste
and class divisions, feudal attitudes, patriarchal nature of the family and
village-social, environmental, ethnic, religious separatism and the like framing
the ‘rules of the game’ and creating an understanding about them have been
addressed.
The value of gender quotas as an important tool for moving towards the
goal of gender responsive governance as, the mere presence of women in
politics so far can transform the patriarchal framework. Quotas present one
such mechanism to increase, and safeguard, women’s presence in parliaments
and are now being introduced all over the world The simple adage of “add
women and stir” is insufficient of its own- women cannot be solely expected
to carry out the burden of governing process along with the additional work
at prescribed individual role that transforms truly democratic and gender-
equitable realms.
GENDER QUOTA
Quotas for women entail that women must constitute a certain number
or percentage of the members of a body, whether it is a candidate list, a
parliamentary assembly, a committee or a government. Quotas aim at increasing
women’s representation in publicly elected or appointed institutions such as
governments, parliaments and local councils. Gender quotas draw legitimacy
from the discourse of exclusion, according to which the main reasons for
women’s under-representation are the exclusionary practices of the political
parties and the political institutions at large. Quotas place the burden of
candidate recruitment not on the individual woman, but on those who control
the recruitment process, first and foremost the political parties (Dahlerup, &
Freidenvall, 2005). The core idea behind quota systems is to recruit women
into political positions and to ensure that women’s political participation no
longer remains as a token.
Candidate quotas specify the minimum percentage of candidates for
election that must be women, and apply to political parties’ lists of candidates
for election. Legal candidate quotas are laid down in the constitution, in electoral
laws or in political party laws. Such quotas as are enacted in legislation force
all political parties to recruit the required percentage of women. Reserved
seats set aside a certain number of seats for women among representatives in
a legislature, specified either in the constitution or by legislation
In general, quotas for women represent a shift from one concept of
equality to another. The classic liberal notion of equality was a notion of
‘equal opportunity’ or ‘competitive equality’. Removing the formal barriers,
for example, giving women voting rights, was considered sufficient. The
rest was up to the individual women. Following strong feminist pressure
in the last few decades, a second concept of equality is gaining increasing
relevance and support—the notion of ‘equality of result’. The argument is
that just removing formal barriers does not produce real barriers rather it
prevents women from getting their share of political influence. Quotas and
other forms of active equality measures are thus a means towards equality of
result. The argument is based on the experience that equality as a goal cannot
be reached by formal equal treatment as a means. If barriers exist, it is argued,
compensatory measures must be introduced as a means to reach equality of
result/equal opportunity. Direct discrimination, as well as a complex pattern of

hidden barriers, prevents women from getting their share of political influence.
Quotas and other forms of active equality measures are thus a means towards
equality of result. The argument is based on the experience that equality as a
goal cannot be reached by formal equal treatment as a means. If barriers exist,
it is argued, compensatory measures must be introduced as a means to reach
equality of result.
TOKEN WOMEN
In India, the 74th constitutional amendment requires that 33 percent of the seats
in local elected bodies in the towns and in the countryside (the Panchayats) are
reserved for women. The policy of reservation, as well as of quotas, is a well-
known, and much disputed, measure in Indian politics. Gender quotas are thus
combined with reserved seats for scheduled castes as part of a rotation system,
according to which it is decided in advance which category will be allowed to
contest for the seat of every ward. This system has resulted in the election of
several million Indian women to local councils. The Indian women’s movement
has mobilized and educated women candidates. Quotas for women in the Lok
Sabha (the lower house of the national parliament) have been proposed but
rejected again and again by the parliament.
The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on March
9, 2010 is a momentous, heartwarming step not only for India, but is likely to
be an inspirational for women’s empowerment in the entire region. Although
it is only the first step, the ripples from the smashing of a glass barrier are
bound to be felt in virtually all areas of traditional male dominance. Like its
democracy, therefore, India will also be a beacon in the matter of women’s
emancipation. The bill faces other barriers, of course, of which the securing
of the Lok Sabha’s approval is the most crucial. But the expectation among its
proponents is that the momentum it has acquired by clearing the roadblocks
put up by its critics should make the subsequent passages much easier.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMEN’S RESERVATION BILL

1996: Women’s reservation bill is introduced as 81st Constitutional Amendment
Bill by Deve Gowda’s government.
1998: The bill is re-introduced as the 84th Constitutional Amendment Bill by
the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed - National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government.
1999: The NDA government re-introduces the bill

2002: The bill fails to get clearance in the house.
2003: Bill is introduced twice in parliament.
2008: The UPA government tables the Bill in the Rajya Sabha to save from
getting lapsed.
2010: The cabinet clears the bill and the Bill is passed by the Rajya Sabha
also.
The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice
to which the Bill was referred had submitted its report on December 17, 209.
Various political parties, academics and activists have argued the pros and
cons of the Bill threadbare. Whether reservation for women in Parliament
is the right for empowerment may be debatable, but it is certainly true that
women of this country have a long way to go before they can achieve their
potential. They are hampered by low levels of education, lack of aces to health
care, lack of employment, and low social status which manifests in crimes
such as female foeticide, dowry deaths and domestic violence.
Women constitute 1% of the newly elected House. Of the larger states
Madhya Pradesh has the highest percentage of women MPs (21%), followed
by West Bengal (17%) and Uttar Pradesh (15%). Bias against women and girls
is also reflected in the demographic ratio of 940 females for every 1,000 males.
Also, 1 in 5 women dies during childbirth and such deaths account for more
than 20 percent of the global maternal deaths. In India the legal age for marriage
is 18 years for females and 21 years for males. However about 4 percent of
females, and 37 percent of males are married before the legal age. There are
areas in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar
where the average female age at marriage continues to be below 16 years.
Census 2001 reveals that 54.2% women are literate in our country. The NSSO
data shows huge disparity between urban and rural population. About 64% of
rural males and 45% rural females were literate. The literacy rates among their
urban counterparts were much higher at 81% and 69% respectively.
The proponents of the policy of reservation, states that although equality
of the sexes is enshrined in the Constitution, it is not the reality. Therefore,
vigorous affirmative action is required to improve the condition of women.
Also, there is evidence that political reservation has increased redistribution
of resources in favour of the groups which benefit from reservation. In India,
women elected on the basis of quotas have been labeled ‘proxy women’,
because they could be placed in the local council as stand-ins for their
husbands, who might even participate in the meetings in their place. In other
parts of the world as well, women in politics, especially those elected through
quotas, might be seen as ‘token women’. Research on ‘quota’ women has
revealed many cases of purely symbolic representation of women, especially
if the women elected have no power base in a constituency of their own, or in
the parties or in strong movements outside the political institutions. However,
there are also many success stories of women who felt totally isolated and
powerless in the beginning but eventually gained confidence and influence. It
seems to be crucial for the effectiveness of women politicians that capacity-
building programmes are offered by women’s movements or by international
organizations (Hassim, 2003).
Double standards are at play, however, when women politicians are accused
of being too dependent on their parties to which they owe their seat, as if this
were not the case for most male politicians as well. Women politicians are also
accused of being in politics just because of their family connections—as if this
is not the case for male politicians, too, especially in client list systems.
First, quotas can and do increase female leadership in politics sphere. This
provides prima facie evidence that the primary constraint on female leadership
is not a lack of interest in leadership positions by women. Second, female
leadership influences policy outcomes. The evidence for this is clearer in the
policy arena where it reflects gender differences in economic status and work
responsibilities. To the extent that equitable representation in policy-making
is desirable, quotas are a good policy tool to achieve it. In politics, there is no
evidence that such representation has come at the cost of efficiency. Third,
gender quotas do not seem to create a sustained backlash among citizens –
rather, evidence from political quotas suggests that voters use new information
about how female leaders perform to update their beliefs about women.
In terms of participation of female candidates, using data from Mumbai,
(Bhavani,2009) shows that in non-reserved areas, the average was less than
one female candidate per constituency, reflecting the extremely low level of
female participation as candidates without the quota policy. When only female
leaders are allowed in a district, the participation of women as candidates
increases substantially: there were an average 7.5 more female candidates in
reserved constituencies versus non-reserved in the 1997 elections. Over 95%
of candidates in unreserved districts were male. When the quota mandated
that only women were permitted to run for seats in reserved districts, thereby
removing competition from men, the random assignment of reservation
indicated that there was an estimated 10-fold increase in women running for
office.
In addition, Bhavani (2009) provides causal evidence that the number

of female candidates was 7.4% higher in open districts in the election cycle
following a cycle where the seat was reserved for a woman, indicating that
there was a sustained effect of increased female participation even when the
reservation policy was no longer directly in effect in a specific constituency.
Expanding on this evidence, Beaman et al. (2009) evaluated electoral outcomes
in unreserved constituencies to find that in twice-reserved (but not once-
reserved) Panchayats in West Bengal, the number of female candidates elected
more than doubled (from 4.8% in never-reserved to 10.1% in twice-reserved).
The delay of the effect to occur after having a female leader twice suggests that
discrimination takes time to diminish in order to lead to sustainable impacts.
In citizen participation, Beaman et al. (2010) uses the random assignment
of reservation to show that the likelihood that a woman speaks in a village
meeting in India increases by 25% when the local political leader position is
reserved for a woman. This increased willingness may result directly from
the quota policy requiring the presence of a woman leader at the meeting, or
indirectly from changes in the social setup resulting from female leadership.
Regardless, the quota reservation policy is responsible for the increase in
female citizen participation.
PROVISION OF GOODS
Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004) identify male- versus female-preferred
goods through the fraction of formal requests made by villagers to the village
council in districts in Rajasthan and West Bengal, demonstrating that men
and women differ in their policy preferences. For example, petitions for
investments in drinking water in West Bengal account for 31% of requests
made by women compared to 17% by men (54% versus 43% in Rajasthan),
a gap largely explained by the fact that women are typically responsible for
collecting drinking water in India. In the case of quota studies, evidence of such
heterogeneity already exists in Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004). In Rajasthan
there is a relative male preference for road improvement (mentioned by 23%
of men to 13% of women) while there is a female preference for the same
policy issue in West Bengal (31% women to 25% men). These differences are
not surprising when one considers that women provide much of the labor on
roads in West Bengal, and men use roads more to travel in Rajasthan, often
in search of work (Jameel,2006) Using these demonstrated preferences by
gender, Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004) shows a 10% difference in frequency
of mention of a policy issue by women versus men at the public village council
meetings results in a .16 standard deviation change in provision of that good in
West Bengal and a .44 standard deviation increase in Rajasthan. This equates
to an estimated 9.09 more drinking water facilities in reserved districts in West
Bengal and 2.62 more in Rajasthan. As expected, investments in roads were
greater in reserved districts in West Bengal but less in Rajasthan compared
to unreserved. Essentially, the study demonstrates that the reservation
policy increased investment in goods favored by women in areas where the
leadership position was reserved for a female; thereby increasing the quality of
substantive representation (i.e. the interests of women are better represented).
The new women leaders were on average less educated, less experienced, and
less wealthy than previous candidates (who were largely male), but controlling
for these characteristics did not eliminate the impact of gender on the policy
outcomes. This indicates that the differences in policy outcomes were driven
by gender rather than these specific characteristics.
Beaman et al. (2010) expand on this as well, using village survey data from
West Bengal to demonstrate the women leading in twice-reserved districts not
only provides a greater level of female-preferred goods (i.e. water infrastructure
and sanitation), but also provides a greater level of male-preferred goods (i.e.
irrigation and schools), indicating that experience may strengthen political
performance. The evidence shows women maturing as leaders over time and
expanding the scope of their investments (while continuing to emphasize
drinking water, the primary female-preferred well), resulting in an efficiency
gain of a higher overall level of public service provision.
Iyer et al. (2010) uses the random assignment of female reservation and
variation in timing of political decentralization in India to show how the quota
policy led to a 44% increase in reported crimes against women and a related
increase in number of arrests for these crimes. There was no increase in crimes
against men or areas of gender-neutral crime, such as burglaries, riots, arson,
or counterfeiting, indicating that the effect was not redistributive but, in fact,
resulted in an efficiency gain. In other words, there is an overall net increase
in the quality of public service provision to constituents as a whole. The lack
of an increase in other crime areas provides evidence against the idea that
crime rates might have increased after women leaders took office because they
were less effective leaders in controlling crime. The results in the Iyer et al.
(2010) study on crime-reporting at least partly reflect a change in attitude.
Having a female leader caused women to report more crimes against them.
Data from the Millennial Survey showed that women living in a village with
a female head are slightly more likely to approach the police, suggesting that
part of the increase in reported crimes was due to a greater confidence among
women in having their voice be heard in areas with a female leader. The data
also indicates that women were significantly more likely to say that the police
solved their case, less likely to pay bribes to the police, and less likely to say
that the police refused to register their complaint, which suggests an overall
change in police attitude toward women when there is a female leader.
CORRUPTION
Using the Millennial Survey, Beaman et al. (2010) finds that local female
leaders in reserved districts accept fewer bribes than their male counterparts
across India. The model estimates that 10.2% of all villagers surveyed had to
pay a bribe, but when they had a female leader, male villagers reported paying
bribes 2.7 percentage points less and female villagers reported bribes 3.2
percentage points less. This lower cost, combined with the greater provision
of public goods, implies an efficiency gain from the quota system. Similar
results are presented in Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004) for the districts in
West Bengal and Rajasthan. Still, it is possible that inexperience rather than
preferences limits corruption on the part of women.
ATTITUDES
Causal evidence on political quotas and attitudes is also largely limited to the
Indian case. Beaman et al. (2009) utilizes validated social psychology Implicit
Association Tests (IATs) to measure the impact of the Indian reservation
policy on discrimination among villagers. A key finding is that reservation-
induced exposure to female leaders caused a decrease in implicit gender
discrimination among male respondents. This is demonstrated through an IAT
that determined that men in never-reserved villages (i.e. they were not exposed
to a female leader) subconsciously associate women with domestic activities
0.11 standard deviations faster than leadership abilities, while exposure to a
female leader through reservation causes the speed to fall between the range of
0.016 to 0.024 standard deviations. Among male villagers, quotas essentially
reduced subconscious biases about beliefs on the appropriateness of women
being leaders.
In contrast, Beaman et al. (2009) measures both explicit and implicit
taste preferences and finds that after reservation, male villagers increase their
preferences against female leaders. This suggests that male villagers react
negatively to “being forced to have a female leader” through the reservation
system, which supports the backlash hypothesis. This effect, however, is
eliminated after two rounds of reservation. The backlash theory seems to hold
some validity in the short term, but is eliminated in the long run. This study
also presents survey evidence that even when women leaders bring higher
quality goods, constituents are less satisfied if it is a female leader. First-time
female leaders elected under the reservation system in India also report their
gender as creating more on-the-job difficulties. This effect similarly disappears,
however, among females elected in second-time reserved districts. Essentially,
constituents get used to quotas over time and there is no evidence of a sustained
backlash. Continuing research is needed on the long-term impacts of quotas on
taste discrimination.
A key outcome of interest is whether the reduction in discrimination
from quotas is able to translate into increased votes for female candidates,
signifying a sustainable long-term impact of quotas on female representation.
Along these lines, Beaman et al. (2009) presents causal evidence that the
number of female candidates elected more than doubled from 4.8% to 10.1%
after two rounds of reservation. The fact that there was no increase in votes
for women after one round of reservation is not surprising, given that some
measures of discrimination did not improve until after two rounds. It indicates
that it takes time for voters to adjust to quotas, learn about the abilities of
women leaders, and update their beliefs. The quota was able to generate a
change in the attitudes of voters such that, after being exposed to female
leaders, a greater portion of them voted for a female candidate even without
a quota requirement. Some of this may also be due to a party effect, where
it may take time for parties to adjust, particularly to remove incumbents or
change their systems and priorities in candidate selection to adequately back
female candidates. Similarly, this same study demonstrates that the proportion
of female candidates running for office in unreserved districts also increased
by 3.3 percentage points after two rounds of reservation, which signifies a
change in the aspirations of potential female leaders. Whether because of
increased female role models or the increased opportunity to lead, there is
causal evidence that quotas have generated a greater propensity for females to
run for office in India.
EXPERIENCE – WISE
The Indian studies on gender quotas also shed some light on the relevance of
political experience for leadership performance. Beaman et al. (2010) shows
that women as Panchayat leaders are more effective at delivering public goods
at a lower price (i.e. with less corruption), despite their lack of experience.
The same results are also demonstrated in Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004).
While this does not negate the value of experience, it demonstrates that a lack
of experience doesn’t preclude effective leadership. However, the findings in

Beaman et al. (2010) do suggest that political experiences causes women to
expand the ambit of public goods provision; this finding is consistent with
experience making women more willing to take a broader view of policy-
making. Similarly, Ban and Rao (2008) find that while women without previous
political experience perform slightly worse than their male counterparts, this
difference disappears once women gain1.3 terms of experience.
While it remains unclear whether experience is necessarily a prerequisite
of good performance, the evidence across studies agrees that quota-induced
experience increases effectiveness of women political leaders and can result in
efficiency gains for the constituency through female representatives.
Existing evidence demonstrates how quotas can change attitudes through
providing information to reduce statistical discrimination and increasing the
confidence of female constituents or leaders. These studies reflects that Quotas
that reserve seats for women are effective in changing proportions of legislators
in government, and over time, changing attitudes towards woman legislators.
Moreover, the low proportion of female legislators in many countries is not
a consequence of an absence of willing female candidates. Women have
responded to opportunities afforded by quotas to run for, and assume, elected
office. The barriers to women getting elected appear to be persistent negative
attitudes towards female leaders and a (possibly linked) failure by political
parties and systems to promote female candidates.
Furthermore, while female leaders (elected via quotas) have significantly
less experience than male leaders, this does not translate into worse policy-
making. While women do make different policy choices than men, these choices
typically reflect their willingness to put a greater weight on the preferences of
women.
Quotas rules are not enough. Whether a quota system meets its objective
depends largely on the process and method of implementation and enforcement.
While reserved seats are by their nature enforceable, candidate quotas are
often not enforced. If the method of implementation is not clearly defined and
enforceable, a candidate quota requirement of 30, 40 or 50 percent is not likely
to be met. The quota must be embedded in the selection and the nomination
processes of political parties from the very beginning.
One of the landmark events in history during the women’s movement
particularly in the late 80s was the vision of former Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi who incorporated the 73rd and 74th Amendments in the Constitution of
India providing reservation of 1/3rd seats in the Panchayats and Nagarpalikas
for women. Such reservation ensured that women at the grassroots level,
occupying prominent position in the Panchayats and Nagarpalikas, take

decisions for their own life and for their rural/urban communities on many
issues of concern. It also imparted a gender perspective to issues concerning
social and economic life of women. Therefore, the concerns of some experts
that women will be only proxy to men, after reservation was given to women
in Panchayats and Nagarpalikas, often leading to misuse of their position,
have in time turned out to be baseless and that the track record of most of the
elected women representatives has been proved commendable. Earlier notions
of women being mere proxies for male relatives have gradually ceded space to
the recognition that given the opportunity to participate in the political system,
women are as capable as their male counterparts.
This Bill is a crucial affirmative step in the right direction of enhancing
the participation of women in the State legislatures and Parliament and
increasing the role of women in democratization of the country. In the true
Democratic spirit, no class/community should be excluded from the decision
making due to the social and economic barriers placed upon that gender as a
whole, and merely hypothetical tokenism or symbolic participation should be
avoided. ‘Reservation’ is a sociological concept evolved to bring about social
reengineering and that reservation for women is therefore needed to make the
democratic process inclusive.
Reservation of seats in Parliament restricts choice of voters to women
candidates. Therefore, some experts had suggested alternate methods such
as reservation in political parties and dual member constituencies. Their
alternatives have been suggested by some experts: reservation for candidates
within political parties; dual member constituencies where some constituencies
shall have two candidates, one being a woman; and increasing the number
of seats in Assemblies and Parliament o accommodate sufficient women
candidates.
The Gill Formula, which was a proposal of the Election Commission
of India to make it mandatory for the recognized Political Parties to ensure
putting of minimum agreed percentage for women in State Assembly and
Parliamentary election so as to allow them to retain the recognition with the
Election Commission as Political Parties, is unacceptable to the majority of
parties and women’s groups in the country. It is believed that it might lead to
political parties giving seats to women, which they perceive are not wining
seats, thereby negating actual representation of women in elected bodies.
There is kind of a consensus that reserving seats for women in Assemblies
and Lok Sabha should not be left to the discretion of Political Parties, rather it
should be guaranteed in the Constitution itself and enforced by al means.
The reservation bill has been undoubtedly one of the most controversial
pieces of legislation to ever get passed in any house of the Indian parliament.
This is notable as being one of the rarest occasions when a political consensus
was reached among the three major national parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party,
the Congress, and the Left parties. The passage of the Women’s Reservation
Bill in the Rajya Sabha is not only a heartwarming step for India but is likely to
be an inspirational for women’s empowerment in the entire region. One of the
challenges that the bill faces among other barriers is of course getting the Lok
Sabha’s approval. However, with the kind of momentum it has acquired in the
last few days, the subsequent passage in the lower house should be relatively
easy.
For the women of India, the sight of a huge influx of women into the
august body of parliament will be an exhilarating sight, at least initially,
irrespective of how they perform as MPs or what signs of improvement they
provide. Since not only parliament, but the assemblies, to, will se a large body
of women as members, Indian politics will experience a seminal, unexpected
change. Research suggests that having more women lawmakers makes a huge
difference, not only to women, but o society in general, especially in poor
countries. In the Indian context, research by Raghabendra Chatopadhyaya and
Esther Duflo of the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
shows that reserving seats for women in Panchayats made a substantial
difference to governance and brought hitherto-neglected areas into focus.
The matter is urgent because women will assuredly bring greater
commitment and integrity to the unfinished and increasingly urgent task of
implementing rights based legislation – to food, education, health, sanitation
and water supply, clean energy, demographic change, and employment. Those
nominated are not at all going to be wives, daughters and sisters of powerful
political families. This could happen up to a point but not for long and women
will increasingly come into their own. Parties that wish to see more OBC
and Muslim representation are free to nominate more candidates from these
categories. It is also likely that corruption and misbehaviour in the House may
also come down with a proportionate increase in women members.
Quotas for women do not remove all barriers for women in politics.
Stigmatization of women politicians may even increase in quota systems.
Difficulties combining family life, work life and politics still remain as severe
obstacle to women’s full citizenship. Further, political representation cannot
stand alone, but must be complemented with necessary socio-economic
changes in society at large. The future use of quotas depends on a detailed
understanding of how robust these long-run impacts are.
“That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are

enabled to maximise their potential, and to contribute to the evolution
of society as a whole.”
Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General
REFERENCES
Ban, R. & Rao, V. (2008). Tokenism or Agency? The Impact of Women’s
Reservations on Village Democracies in South India. Economic
Development and Cultural Change, 56: 501-530.
Beaman, L., Chattopadhyay, R., Duflo, E., Pande, R., & Topalova, P. (2009).
Powerful Women: Does Exposure Reduce Bias? Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 124(4).
Beaman, L., Duflo, E., Pande, R., & Topalova, P. (2010). Political Reservation
and Substantive Representation: Evidence from Indian Village Councils.
India Policy Forum, Brookings and NCAER.
Bhavnani, R. (2009). Do Electoral Quotas Work after They Are Withdrawn?
Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India. American Political Science
Review, 103(1).
Chattopadhyay, R. & Duflo, E. (2004). The Impact of Reservation in the
Panchayati Raj: Evidence from a Nationwide Randomized Experiment.
Economic and Political Weekly, 39(9): 979-986.
Clots-Figueras, I. (2007). Are Female Leaders Good for Education?: Evidence
from India Economics Working Papers we077342, Universidad Carlos
III, Departamento de Economía.
Costantini, E. (1990). Political Women and Political Ambition: Closing the
Gender Gap. American Journal of Political Science, 34: 741-770
Dahlerup, D & Lenita Freidenvall,(2005). Quotas as a “Fast Track” to Equal
Representation for Women. International Feminist Journal of Politics.
Vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 26-48.
Edlund, L. & Pande, R. (2002). Why Have Women Become Left-Wing? The
Political Gender Gap and the Decline in Marriage. Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 117: 917-961.
Eagly, A. & Caril, L. (2003). The Female Leadership Advantage: An Evaluation
of the Evidence. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6): 807-834.
Hassim, S.(2003). Representation, Participation and Democratic Effectiveness:
Feminist Challenges to Representative Democracy in South Africa.
London: Zed Books.
Iyer, L., Mani, A., Mishra, P. & Topalova, P. (2010). Political Representation
and Crime: Evidence from India’s Panchayati Raj. Working Paper.
Jameel, A Poverty Action Lab (2006). Ain’t No Stopping Us Now—Women As

Policy Makers. Policy Briefcase Number.
McKinsey & Company (2008) Women Matter: Female Leadership, a
Competitive Edge for the Future. McKinsey & Company.
Mumtaz, K.(2005).Women’s Representation, Effectiveness and Leadership in
South Asia. London : UNIFEM
Nanivadekar, M (2003). Dual-Member Constituencies: Resolving Deadlock on
Women’s Reservation. Economic and Political Weekly, 203: 4506-4510
Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public
Grievances, Law on the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth
Amendment) Bill, 2008. Government of India.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008.
Government of India.
16
Legalizing Prostitution in India:

An Acrimonious Debate
Shyamtanu Pal
INTRODUCTION
Though the present society claims to be strong, reasoned, unprejudiced and
asserts to accept certain things very easily but the reality is something converse.
Sometimes while taking a sip during the coffee break or while brushing up
through the pages of the morning daily, one feels contented and complacent
because we feel the civilization has changed, the people and the world around
in which we live has changed. Yes, a lot has changed and it is true. So is
true that seldom it leads to another thought that whether the world is moving
towards a better tomorrow for everybody? On a meticulous breakdown the
answer to it will undeniably be negative. Still there are certain things that
are inevitable and the problem becomes graver when we either try to deny it.
One such example is Prostitution. Prostitution is a reality and the chance of
eliminating it is practically nil. Prostitution might be illegal in India, but the
business of life goes on. Its form of existence might have changed but it still
remains a bitter truth to the society. Or in other words its form might have
changed but the perspective and the vision with which it is seen is all the
same. The reality is that she can be found waiting under a tree at the bus stop,
railway station, just adjacent to a bar/liquor shop/restaurant or any busy place
in the town or sometimes at a remote place far away from the chaos. She stares
directly into the eyes for any sign. A slight response and she flashes a welcome
smile – This is a familiar picture of prostitutes in India.
Prostitution is commonly referred to as “the oldest profession”, which is,
unfortunately, far from an exaggeration. Prostitution has been ubiquitous from
the times of the epic tale of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to today’s “red
light” districts. It has gone from being praised, to being tolerated, prosecuted, or
ignored (Trifiolis Kristie, 2014). Prostitution in India is a serious social problem

widely rampant and its solution has been rendered difficult by the ever existing
problems. Like other forms of violence committed by men against women,1
prostitution is a gender-specific phenomenon; the overwhelming majority
of victims are women and girls, while the perpetrators are invariably men.
Moreover, due to so much of clandestine prostitution at every level it becomes
an arduous task to find out an accurate and comprehensive picture/statistic. It
is a trade that exploits the vulnerability of human beings, especially women
and children, in complete violation of their human rights, and makes them
objects of financial transactions through the use of force and duress, whether
for the purpose of sex, labour, slavery, or servitude. In today’s globalised
climate of human rights, the world community has taken a unanimous stand
condemning this gross human rights violation and has exhorted governments
to take effective action against it.2 This work basically tries to focus on the
very point that the only way to curb the problem is to legalize prostitution in
India. Presuming the very fact that, whether it is a developing or a developed
economy, whether the government is a liberal or conservative, republican or
democrat, the flesh trade is being carried out in different ways either in the
form of human trafficking, exploitation or forced prostitution. Thus giving it a
legal mandate will lead to a better and safe society for the woman.
The point is to be understood from an altogether different perspective.
The prostitutes needs to be made aware about their rights and interests,
health education, their freedom to choose or deny/say no to their clients,
giving them regular medical checkups, financial aid, they should be protected
under the normal labour/worker laws not entitled to minimum wage benefits,
1 A total of 3,09,546 cases of crime against women (both under various sections of IPC and
Special & other Local Laws) were reported in the country during the year 2013 as compared
to 2,44,270 in the year 2012, thus showing an increase of 26.7% during the year 2013.
These crimes have continuously increased in reporting during 2009 - 2013 with 2,03,804
cases in 2009 and 2,13,585 cases in 2010 and 2,28,649 cases in 2011, 2,44,270 cases 2012
and 3,09,546 cases in the year 2013. Andhra Pradesh with 7.3% share of country’s women
population has reported nearly 10.6% of total crimes committed against women at all India
level, by reporting 32,809 cases, and Uttar Pradesh accounting for nearly 16.7% of the
country’s women population, has accounted for 10.5% of total cases of crimes against
women in the country by reporting 32,546 cases during the year 2013. [National Crime
Record Bureau, (2013). Crime against Women (Chapter 5), p. 79, Crime in India 2013,
Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India].
2 Judicial Handbook on Combating Trafficking of Woman and Children for Commercial and
Sexual Exploitation. Report prepared jointly by Government of India, Ministry of Human

Resource Development, Department of Women & Child Development, National Human
Rights Commission, New Delhi and United Nations Children’s Fund. Report developed by
Centre for Women and the Law National Law School of India University Banglore, India.
Legalizing Prostitution in India: An Acrimonious Debate 289
compensation for injury or other benefits. They should be given a platform like
unions, organizations or associations who would give them the proper justice
in case of any gross violation. Prostitution is often characterized as abuse of
human rights, irrespective of it being committed by the use of force, coercion
or whether it be voluntary; people have always fought for or associated with
movements related to its abolition. But the researcher tries to shift the focus
from the concept of abolition of prostitution or abolition of sex work to the
human rights of the prostitutes/sex workers which are more desirable and
pragmatic.
ISSUES
The basic issues of the work revolve around some elementary yet important
aspects and they are discussed systematically. Firstly, with the changing
dynamics of our society or also keeping the cultural disparity in mind are we
ready to accept the very fact that prostitution is a big reality and thus the term
should be rightly construed. Are we really matured enough to face the truth
that prostitution had left its impact all throughout the ages and thus trying to
eliminate it would definitely be a mission impossible. While dealing with a
Public Interest Litigation was filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan3 with regards
to the position of uncontrolled child trafficking in the country, the Supreme
Court Bench (comprising of J. Dalveer Bhandari and J. A K Pattnaik) advised
the Solicitor General that ‘when you say it is the world’s oldest profession
and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don’t you legalise it?’ This
clearly highlights about the gravity of the matter itself. Secondly, through this
initiative or approach it should not be construed that the system encourages
prostitution; instead it lays down the concrete foundation for proper regulatory
structure. When we are saying to legalise prostitution does it mean that a
prostitute can open a sex-shop anywhere she likes and can advertise for her
services? Moreover does it mean that men and women supplying call girls
should be able to set up an office in any neighborhood they wish to just as other
professionals do? (Mahaparta D, 2012) The society doesn’t accept legalization
of prostitution per se as it is of a separate genus so it’s very pertinent to
understand the scope and extent of the term ‘legalisation’ as far as the Indian
context is concerned.
Now in furtherance of the initial point, the only way to curb this problem is
to regulate it and any regulatory regime in order to be successful and effective
should be flexible enough so to acclimatize as per the situation demands. The
3 Bachpan Bachao Andolan v. Union of India, AIR 2011 SC 3361.

law makers should be open or the system should be responsive enough to

trigger certain changes within. The objective of the study is not to keep these
sex-workers/prostitutes at the receiving end, instead it should aim in utilizing
their strength and counter this problem thereby giving it a sanction/recognition
in the form of an effective mechanism so that they are provided with a platform
to recognize and utilize those rights within their domain. The current state of
affairs could be best highlighted or understood through an analogy and at the
inception of it, we need to consider the government as a business and the
reason behind such presumption is that it is nothing but a work in progress.
The politicians would be the executives/manager and the aspect relating to
prostitution (in any form) would be just like a procedure, undertaking that
the company needs to manage. Now keeping the prudent business principles
and ideologies in mind, a successful business would never have ignored a
procedure or leave it unattended when it needs some special attention. Would
a poor procedure be allowed to continue or would an entrepreneur rethink on
it, improvise it, make strategies that are practically effective to revive it? Thus
treating it as an industry will do justice to all the stakeholders.
Moreover the current hitch regarding prostitution is not an isolated issue.
It has some ancillary aspects which needs equal attention as well. Keeping
the socio-economic dimension of our country a lot of it has to deal with
other existing menaces of the society like of poverty, wide spread illiteracy,
unemployment, homelessness, drug dependency, domestic conflicts, sex and
racial discrimination, lack of cultural awareness etc. Thus the issue should be
thought about as a whole keeping all the cumulative factors into consideration.
The approach with which one needs to counter the existing problem should
be something unique and pragmatic. The legal framework needs to be more
specific and precise.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Before we move to the historical insight of prostitution, let us quickly know
about the term as to how it has been construed. Prostitution the word itself speaks
about the plight of a woman. The word Prostitution has been derived from the
Latin word prostituere, meaning to expose publically, and as a word it may
well be well defined as promiscuous unchasity for gain. It’s not a hefty task to
find the exact definition or meaning of the term ‘prostitution’ but unfortunately
very limited efforts have been taken by us to stop or to regulate it. As per
the Blacks Law Dictionary, prostitution can be defined as “the act or practice
of engaging in sexual activity for money or it’s equivalent; commercializes
sex” (The Blacks Law Dictionary: 1238) . The Oxford Dictionary defines a
‘prostitute’ as “a woman who is devoted, or (usually) who offers her body to

indiscriminate sexual intercourse, especially for hire”. It defines Prostitution
as “to offer (oneself or another) to unlawful, especially for hire, to devote
or expose to lewdness” (The Oxford English Dictionary: 673). It can also be
said to offering sexual intercourse for payment. The Britannica Encyclopedia
defines prostitution as “the act of engaging in sexual intercourse or performing
other sex acts in exchange for money, or of offering another person for such
purpose”. It further states that it is “the use of a skill or ability in a way that is
considered unworthy, usually for financial gain” (The Encarta Encyclopedia:
2008). Prostitution means “the offence of a man or a woman offering his or
her body for payment (The Osborn’s Concise Law Dictionary: 2003). Sexual
intercourse need not be involved.
The Thesaurus defines a prostitute as a call girl, whore, woman of the
streets, street walker, loose woman, a woman of illrepute, fallen woman or a
courtesan (The Concise Oxford Thesaurus). According to The Law Lexicon,
“a prostitute is a woman who exhibits herself or other prominent part of her
house to attract people” “A public prostitute is a woman who usually and
generally offers herself to sexual intercourse for hire and openly advertises and
acknowledges her occupation by word of mouth, deportment or conduct” (The
Law Lexicon: 2128). To prove a case of prostitution, the prosecution has to
prove only that in premises a female had indulged in the act of offering her body
for promiscuous sexual intercourse for hire. The Webster New Encyclopedic
Dictionary defines a prostitute as “to devote to corrupt or unworthy purpose,
a person who engages in sexual activities for money. It further states that,
prostitution refers to the acts or practice of a prostitute or the state of being
prostituted (The Webster New Encyclopedic Dictionary). Prostitution can also
be called as the system that commodifies and dehumanizes the bodies and
persons of women and children of both sexes for the use and profit of men,
is today the object of an intense and international mainstreaming campaign
that is working for the social and political acceptance of the hugely profitable
industries of sex.
In other words, prostitution means giving or receiving of the body for sexual
activity for hire but excludes sexual activity between spouses. Performing for
hire, or offering or agreeing to perform for hire where there is an exchange
of value, any of the acts such as sexual intercourse, sodomy, or; manual or
other bodily contact stimulation of the genitals of any person with the intent to
arouse or gratify the sexual desires of the offender or another. It is the common
lewdness of a woman for gain. The definition and understanding of prostitution
has been changing in the women’s movement, as the movement itself is not a
homogeneous one. The traditional position has been that prostitution is female
slavery; its logical conclusion has been that the practice should be abolished.
Feminist and the woman’s movement have raised their voice assertively on
issues such as a woman’s control over her body, and raising their concerns
about ‘commodification’ of woman’s bodies.
As far as the international perspective is concerned the problem of human
trafficking for the purpose of prostitution also was also taken seriously at the
world stage was a matter of public debate. This is very relevant as far as the
Indian context is concerned because the very definition of “prostitution” in
Section 2(f) of the ITPA includes the element of sexual exploitation or abuse of
persons for commercial purposes, the word “prostitute” as defined in the ITPA
can be termed as synonymous with a trafficked victim.
In 1990s, international instruments, conventions and the human rights
movement4 brought the issue into greater international focus and exerted
very positive pressure on national governments, facilitating commitment to
accelerate awareness and the need for proactive interventions. This sustained
international momentum acted as a powerful catalyst for advocacy and for
demanding greater accountability from governments to take stringent action
against the trafficking of women and children that had for long, eluded serious
public attention. In India, public debate on the issue of trafficking of women
and children for commercial sexual exploitation emerged in the 1990s after
the landmark decisions of the Supreme Court in the cases of Vishal Jeet v.
Union of India (1990) and Gaurav Jain v. Union of India (1997), in which the
Supreme Court issued directions to the Union and State Governments to study
trafficking in depth and prepare a national plan to address the problem. In
1998, the Government of India (GoI) formulated the National Plan of Action
to Combat Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children. This
prescribes an exhaustive set of guidelines to Central and State Governments,
covering the entire spectrum of prevention, law enforcement, awareness
generation and social mobilisation, health care, education, child care services,
housing, shelter and civic amenities, economic empowerment, legal reform,
and rescue and rehabilitation. The 1990s also witnessed a significant shift
in the perception of the flesh trade, by differentiating ‘prostitution’ from
`trafficking’, seeing it not merely as a moral or law enforcement problem, but
4 The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, issued by the World Congress on Human
Rights (1993) (Para. 18); The World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation
of Children held at Stockholm (1996); The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 2000; World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children at Yokohama (2001); The UN Universal
Declaration on Human Rights (1948).
as a human rights (including legal and democratic rights) violation linked to

gender discrimination and disparity in development.5
Prostitution is one of the oldest professions of the world practiced since the
birth of the organized society. Prostitution has a long history in India right from
the ancient times till the 19th Century in British India and a widely recognized
social reality today. Indian Courts have also recognized prostitution in society
has not been an unknown phenomenon. The victims of the trap are the poor,
illiterate and ignorant sections of the society and are the target group in the
flesh trade; rich communities exploit them and harvest at their misery and
ignominy in an organized gangster, in particular, with police nexus. It was also
said that a class of women is trapped as victims of circumstances, unfounded
social sanctions, handicaps and coercive forms of flesh trade, optimized as
‘prostitutes’ (C Dharmendra, 2009). Prostitution is practiced in almost all the
countries and every type of society. In India, the Vedas, the earliest of the
known Indian literature, abound in references to prostitution as an organized
and established institution. In Indian mythology there are many references of
high-class prostitution in the form of celestial demigods acting as prostitutes.
They are referred to as Menaka, Rambha, Urvashi, and Thilothamma. They
are described as perfect embodiments and unsurpassed beauty and feminine
charms. They are highly accomplished in music and dance. They entertained
divinities and their guests in the court of Lord Indira, the Lord of Hindu Gods.
They were also sent to test the real depth of ‘tapasya’ (penance) and devotion of
great saints (Biswanath, 1984) (K. Jaishankar and Debarati Haldar, Prostitution
In India: Issues And Trendshttp). An apsara named Menaka caused the downfall
of the great sage Vishwamithra, and became the mother of Shakuntala, the
immortal heroine of the greatest drama of the world, Abhigyan Shakuntalam
written by the great poet Kalidas of India. Aryan rulers of India followed
the system of celestial court and developed the system of guest prostitution.
They presented well-accomplished maidens in token of friendship of kings.
They were also offered as ransom to the victor to part with his most beloved
prostitute. Empires fell and came up for her sake. Another class of girls from
infancy were carefully selected and fed on poisonous herbs and venomous
foods. They were called Vishkanyas (Poisonous virgins). The kings to destroy
their enemies utilized these prostitutes.
5 Judicial Handbook on Combating Trafficking of Woman and Children for Commercial and
Sexual Exploitation. Report prepared jointly by Government of India, Ministry of Human
Resource Development, Department of Women & Child Development, National Human
Rights Commission, New Delhi and United Nations Children’s Fund. Developed by Centre
for Women and the Law National Law School of India University Banglore, India.
The reference to prostitutes also comes in Mahabharata and Jataka

stories, and all Hindu Shastrakaras such as Manu, Gautam, and Brihaspati
recommended for suppression of prostitution. During Mohammad King had
their Harem. However, the rapid urbanization and industrialization during
the British period increased this evil, and certain legislative measures were
taken to stop it (Madan G.R. 2002: 210). During the reign of the Pandavas
and Kauravas (Historical Indian rulers), they were an important part of the
court and both dynasties possessed harems of aristocracy in Brahmanic India.
Having concubines is common among the aristocracy. Kautilya’s famous
‘Arthasasthra’ contains rules for prostitutes and their activities and gives an
account of how prostitutes should behave and how their lives are ordered.
Vatsyayan, the noted Indian sage of the Third century B.C. devoted a number
of pages on prostitutes and their amorous ways of life in his monumental
treatise Kamasutra. Rules of conduct for popular and successful practice of
their trade have been prescribed. His classification of the prostitutes indicates
that the common, private, and the clandestine prostitutes of today had their
prototypes in those olden days.
In ancient India prostitutes have been referred as to Devdasis. Originally,
devadasi were celibate dancing girls used in temple ceremonies and they
entertained members of the ruling class. Religious prostitutes were attached to
the famous temples of Mahakala of Ujjain and the system of holy prostitutes
became common. This class consisted of girls who had been offered by the
parents to the service of the God and their religion. But sometime around the
6th Century, the practice of “dedicating” girls to Hindu gods became prevalent
in a practice that developed into ritualized prostitution. Devadasi literally
means God’s (Dev) female servant (Dasi), where according to the ancient
Indian practice, young pre-pubertal girls are ‘married off’, ‘given away’
in matrimony to God or Local religious deity of the temple. The marriage
usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty and requires the girl to become a
prostitute for upper-caste community members. Such girls are known as jogini.
They are forbidden to enter into a real marriage.
The medieval period gave great importance to women and wine. The
Muslim rulers with the exception of Aurangazeb recognized prostitution
and the profession flourished under royal patronage. After the downfall of
the Mughal Empire, hoards of concubines, dancing and singing girls women
came out of the royal palaces. They were not trained for any profession and
society had no jobs to offer them. When faced with economic problem they
had no choice but to take recourse to the laziest of all the trades, the trade of
sex. The place of women in India did not improve during the British regime.
Conditions continued to deteriorate and in the absence of state control and
regulation, prostitution thrived on a large commercial scale. Social disabilities
and economic hardships of women made them an easy victim to the gangsters
of this profession. So in some form or the other we had witnessed this practice
all throughout the ages.
India is home today to Asia’s largest red-light district – Mumbai’s infamous
Kamathipura, which originated as a massive brothel for British occupiers and
shifted to a local clientele following Indian independence. The Mughal Empire
(1526-1857) also witnessed prostitution the word “tawaif” and “mujra” became
common during this era. During the Mughal era in the subcontinent (1526 to
1857) prostitution had a strong nexus with performing arts. Mughals patronized
prostitution which raised the status of dancers and singers to higher levels
of prostitution. King Jahangir’s harem had 6,000 mistresses which denoted
authority, wealth and power. Even during the British era prostitution flourished
the famous ‘kamathipura’ a red light area in Bombay was built during this era
for the refreshment of British troops and which was later taken over by Indian
sex workers.
The international cooperation to end the traffic in women for the purposes of
prostitution began in 1899. In 1921, League of Nations appointed a committee,
The committee on the Immoral Traffic in Women and Children .In 1949 the
United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention for the suppression of
prostitution. In 1977 in America’s Los Angeles an international conference was
organized. Around 1000 sex workers participated in this conference. It drew
the international attention towards prostitution and the problem of prostitutes.
THE PRESENT POSITION

In the current pretext, when we examine sex as a trade, the combination of
philosophy, cultural precedence, religious influence and politics made each
country select how to handle it in its own way. In Singapore, sex for money
is open and commonplace. Denmark women can be legal prostitutes so long
as it is not their sole means of income. Canada, France and Mexico allow it.
Prostitutes must be contained within brothels in the Netherlands, unlike within
England and Wales where prostitution is limited to individual providers.
Israel, the historical stage for the Bible, allows it, too. Meanwhile, the United
States has made prostitution illegal (misdemeanor) in all states, except certain
counties of Nevada, (L. Mark, 2004). In India, every now and then we get
to see the sight of girls with their faces covered with dupattas or cloth and
such a sight is not uncommon to television viewers.6 The newspapers and

magazines are also not far away. Even we don’t miss out the chance in giving
our expert comment in saying that our society is just not the right place to live.
And finally we conclude by saying that if not more than, the politicians these
girls/prostitutes are equally responsible for the degradation of the society as
a whole. But the truth is that these young women have a very ordinary dream
of a peaceful life with two meals a day, sell their bodies and routinely have
to face the law in its annoying, unsparing form. Existing laws allow clients
caught with sex workers to be let off easily while the women are held guilty
of promoting, furthering and committing moral blasphemy. So before pointing
fingers to them let us one try to find out the reasons which forced them into
this cruel world of prostitution where there is no place for emotions, feelings,
willingness or mercy. They are just treated as commodities to be used and
thrown. It is quite logical and evident that no person will choose such a life on
their own.
This shows that prostitution existed in India in some form or the other from
time period to period but the evil has continued to persist. Today prostitution
exists in almost every big city of the country. Women from third world countries
are given allurement to work in India, as waitresses, models, artists and cabaret
performers which subsequently lead to their exploitation by the flesh traders.
Besides there are “high class call girls” who are engaged on lucrative jobs and
yet return to these vice activities during nights in every discrete manner. Other
than the high class call girls the different types of prostitutes that are found in
India are street walkers, bar prostitutes, brothel prostitutes, elderly prostitutes
etc. Apart from traditional brothels or red light areas are on the wane, the evil
of prostitution has manifested itself in posh localities of Metropolitan cities in
the guise of singing and dancing schools. Prostitution in India can therefore
be called as an “Ancient Vice in Modern Garb”. There are three strata of
prostitutes. Within the top layer rests discrete call-girls for the affluent, much
like the services Heidi Fleiss offered (Copeland, 1997). The middle layer holds
bordello-dwelling prostitutes or others in less subtle environments such as
strip clubs and massage parlors that offer backroom services. Streetwalkers
(harlots, hookers, nightwalkers etc.) occupy the lowest layer. Some people
entertain a controversial notion that the role of wife is akin to being a prostitute
(Mechelen, 1992); their placement within the strata may depend on what socio-
economic class they reside once married.
6 Notorious red light districts of India include GB Road in Delhi, Sonagachi in Kolkata,
Kamathipura in Mumbai, Budhwar Peth in Pune and Reshampura in Gwalior.
The lowest layer prostitutes are plagued with the most problems. It is the
group that usually remains perpetually vulnerable. They work in conditions
that make them prone to violence due to a lack of supervision. And, there are
healthcare risks due to unsafe sexual contact with unscreened clients. These
lower strata prostitutes are the women who require help. The others benefit
from physically safe environments, decent to lucrative wages, and operate
among clients that are more likely to be healthy. Lower strata prostitutes
cannot afford decent medical services and are frequently physically assaulted
by pimps or clients. These women are either lured into the industry by drugs
or they turn to drugs as a means to cope with their hellish lives (David, n.d.).
Most lower strata prostitutes exist within economically static careers. They
contribute large portions of their revenue to pimps or drugs, making their
condition inescapable.
The bottom strata prostitutes remain trapped, but the upper two-thirds
are far less constrained. For the upper two strata of prostitutes, free will is
present. They are able to carefully parlay their gains into real estate or financial
investments even within localities having laws against prostitution. They
can choose to leave prostitution for other careers or simply retire. Since it is
impossible to stop prostitutes, the upper two-thirds will continue to make a
fiscally respectful living from it and the lowest third will suffer (Prakash H.,
2013: 31-39).
Numerous surveys done on the prostituted women in India reveals that,
their reasoning for staying in prostitution were poverty, unemployment, lack
of proper reintegration services, lack of options, stigma and adverse social
attitudes. Apart from that there were several other reasons and some of them
can be jotted down as, family expectations or the family pressure to start
earning, resignation and acclimation to the lifestyle. Most of the research done
by several NGO’s indicates that the majority of sex workers in India work as
prostitutes due to lacking resources to support themselves or their children.
Most do not choose this profession out of preference, but out of necessity,
often after the breakup of a marriage or after being disowned and thrown out
of their homes by their families. The children of sex workers are much more
likely to get involved in this kind of work as well.
Keeping the other factors aside let us discuss regarding the prime reason
that acts as a catalyst behind the constant growth of prostitution in our country.
And for guessing this factor one need not be a Sharlok Homes. Yes, the factor
is ‘Poverty’ and it can be undoubtedly said that it is and has been the India’s
most striking reason in the grooming of this prostitution industry. Young girls
are sold at nominal prices by their near and dear once. It takes up to fifteen
years for girls held in prostitution via debt-bondage to purchase their freedom
(Freidman, 1996). Poverty does not create imbalances in gender and sex. It
only aggravates already existing imbalances in power and therefore increases
the vulnerability of those who are at the receiving end of gender prejudice.
In a patriarchal set up, the section in families in societies that is affected is
women and girl children. Caste wars, political strife, domestic conflicts
through their manifestations and repercussions reflect strong gender prejudice
against women. Violence against women, assault and rape on women are
not individual sexual or physical crimes. It has become a tool of a political
statement for aggression and gender persecution, which amply reflects on the
degree of human degradation and commoditization of women in the eyes of
the state, community, and society.
Indeed, such poverty belongs to an almost surreal world in which only the
“wealthy” are certain to meet basic needs. Desperation seems to characterize
the lives of India’s poor. This desperate poverty is often cited as the root of
India’s growing prostitution problem. In some cases, a woman may prostitute
herself in order to obtain material possessions she could not otherwise afford.
While fundamental needs like food, clothing, and shelter may be provided,
some girls pursue dreams of greater prosperity and economic opportunity
through prostitution (K. Jaishankar and Debarati Haldar,
Haldar,). But depending on
the socio economic structure, the cultural milieu this definitely could be said
to be an exception in India. While some women may enter prostitution to pay
for their own, and, often, a partner’s or pimp’s drug habit, the experience leads
to a vicious circle of drug and alcohol dependency in order to numb the effects
of prostitution itself. While some women may enter prostitution to pay for
their own, and, often, a partner’s or pimp’s drug habit, the experience leads to
a vicious circle of drug and alcohol dependency in order to numb the effects of
prostitution itself.
To have a grip over the entire plight of prostitution in India, effective
regulation also includes the rehabilitation measures taken by the government
and other agencies in this direction. Recently in August 2012, the Supreme
Court, while adjudicating a petition for rehabilitation of sex workers, clarified
on the last order7 that gave an impression that it seeks to legalise prostitution.
The legal background of these orders is Article 21 of the Constitution, in which
the word ‘life’ has been interpreted by this Court to mean a life of dignity, and
not just an animal life. These sex workers should be given an opportunity to
avail the rehabilitation measures of the government and other related agencies.
7 Budhadev Karmakar v. State of West Bengal 2011(3)ACR3474(SC).

In a leading case8 the Supreme Court delivered that “segregating children

of prostitutes by locating separate schools and providing separate hostels”
would not be in the interest of the children and the society at large. This Court
directed that they “should be segregated from their mothers and be allowed to
mingle with others and become a part of the society”. This was felt particularly
because the body and mind of these young girls would likely to be abused with
growing age if they are supposed to be staying with their mothers who are
admitted into the profession.
Apart from that, there are several other factors which somehow or the
other leads a woman or a girl into the hell called prostitution? These factors
can be jotted down as ill treatment by parents, bad company, family prostitutes,
social customs, inability to arrange marriage, lack of sex education, prior
incest and rape, early marriage and desertion, lack of recreational facilities,
ignorance, and acceptance of prostitution. Psychological causes include desire
for physical pleasure, greed, and dejection.
The factors mentioned in the preceding paragraphs are the factors, which
directly leads to the pathway toward prostitution. But keeping these factors
aside, there are certain other social factors which can be to some extent be
held responsible. The view that a woman is a commodity is very pervasive
in popular manifestations of Hindustan culture in India. Women who have
had sexual experiences are considered to be ‘used goods’ and are unlikely
to ever marry. Without a husband, a woman has no source of income; she
also cannot wear the marriage ‘bindi’. She is an impoverished cultural outcast.
The prevailing line of reasoning is that she at least has a useful place as a
prostitute. Women who have been widowed or divorced are also confronted
with this social stigma. If a woman’s husband dies, she has essentially outlived
her purpose. Since she is not a virgin, she obviously cannot marry again. When
strong cultural notions are combined with the potency of religion or poverty,
even more people are pressured into prostitution. For example, a girl may
become a street child because her mother died and her father’s new spouse will
not accept her. As a street child, she may be periodically arrested along with
her fellow vagabonds for crimes, which they may or may not have committed.
While in police custody, instead of simply being beaten as her male cohorts
are, she may be sexually abused by the police officers. She may decide to
become a prostitute to support herself and to find her place in the broken world
in which she is fated to reside. Her children will likely be prostitutes as well.
So its not only about the present but also ruins the future as well.
8 Gaurav Jain v. Union of India, AIR 1990 SC 292.

EXISTING LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

The current laws in India that legislate sex workers are fairly ambiguous and
also to a certain extent ineffective. As far as the Constitution is concerned
Trafficking is prohibited under Article 23 of the constitution. ‘Traffic in human
beings’ means selling and buying men and women like goods and include
immoral traffic in woman and children9 for immoral or other purposes.10 Though
slavery is not expressly mentioned in Article 23, it is included in the expression
‘traffic in human being’.11 Article 24 bans the practice of employing minors in
hazardous occupations. These fundamental rights under the Indian constitution
are inalienable as well as positive in nature and are strictly enforceable. Some
other objectives that the constitution lists down are the right to livelihood for
all individuals, protection of women and children against all forms of abuse,
right to practice any occupation in a free and fair manner and under humane
and just work conditions. They are ambiguous in the sense that they are a
complete failure in regulating this flesh trade within the country. It can be very
rightly said that India has a system where prostitution is legally allowed to
thrive, but which attempts to hide it from the public. The primary law that was
dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as the “The
Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA)”. According to this law, sex work
in India is neither legal nor illegal; it is tolerated since prostitutes can practice
their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. The Act was
amended in 1978 to make good some inadequacies in the implementation of
the Act and in the light of the experience gained during the period the Act was
9 A total of 58,224 cases of crimes against children were reported in the country during 2013
as compared to 38,172 cases during 2012, showing an increase of 52.5%.Some IPC crimes
have shown a substantial increase during 2013 as compared to 2012. These crimes were
kidnapping & abduction (54.2%), procuration of minor girls (51.3%), abetment to suicide
(49.3%) and rape (44.7%). Uttar Pradesh accounted for 16.9% of total crimes committed
against children reported in the country. The next in order was Madhya Pradesh (14.2%),
Delhi (12.4%) and Maharashtra (11.0%). Moreover, a total of 12,363 cases of child rape
(Sec. 376 IPC) were reported in the country during 2013 as compared to 8,541 in 2012
accounting for an increase of 44.7% during the year 2013. Maximum of child rape cases
were reported in Madhya Pradesh (2,112 cases) followed by Maharashtra (1,546 cases) and
Uttar Pradesh (1,381 cases). These three States together accounted for 40.8% of the total
child rape cases reported in the country. On an average, 3 children out of one lakh children
population are victims of rape. For every one lakh children population, maximum of such
incidents were reported in Mizoram and A & N Island (16 children each) followed by Delhi
(14 children), Sikkim and Goa (12 children each). National Crime Record Bureau, (2013).
Crime against Children (Chapter 6), p. 98, Crime in India 2013, Ministry of Home Affairs,
Govt. of India.
10 Raj Bahaduar v. Legal Remembrancer, AIR 1953 Cal. 522.
11 Dubar Goala v. UOI
UOI, AIR 1952 Cal. 496.
being implemented. In particular, the law forbids a sex worker to carry on her
profession within 200 yards of a public place. Unlike as is the case with other
professions, however, sex workers are not protected under normal workers
laws, and are not entitled to minimum wage benefits, compensation for injury
or other benefits that are common in other types of work. They do, however,
possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they desire and possess all the
rights of other citizens. In practice this is not common.
Despite the amendments of the Act it was felt that enforcement of the Act
had not been effective enough to deal with the problems of immoral traffic in
all its dimensions. Suggestions had been made to Government by voluntary
organisations working for women, advocacy groups and various individuals
urging the enlargement of the scope of the Act, to make penal provisions
more stringent and to provide for certain minimum standards for correctional
treatment and rehabilitation of the victims. The Act was, therefore, further
amended in 1986 making it more wide based. The Act is now called as Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) which predates
the SITA is often used to charge sex workers with vague crimes such as “public
indecency” or being a “public nuisance” without explicitly defining what these
consist of. Sec. 366,12 Sec. 366 (A)13 and Sec. 366(B) of Indian Penal Code, are
intends to punish the export and import of girls for prostitution. Sec. 366(A)14
deals with procuring minor girls from one part of India to another. Sec. 366(B)
makes it an offence to import into India from any country outside India girls
below the age of twenty-one (21) years for the purpose of prostitution. Section
12 Section 366 of IPC – Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage,
etc. – Whoever kidnaps or abducts any woman with intent that she may be compelled, or
knowing it to be likely that she will be compelled, to marry any person against her. will, or
in order that she may be forced or seduced to illicit intercourse, or knowing it to be likely
that she will be forced or seduced to illicit intercourse, shall be punished with imprisonment
of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to
fine; and whoever, by means of criminal intimidation as defined in this Code or of abuse of
authority or any other method of compulsion, induces any woman to go from any place with
intent that she may be, or knowing that it is likely that she will be, forced or seduced to illicit
intercourse with another person shall be punishable as aforesaid.
13 Section 366(A) of IPC – Procuration of a minor girl – Whoever, by any means whatsoever,
induces any minor girl under the age of eighteen years to go from any place or to do any
act with intent that such girl may be, or knowing that it is likely that she will be, forced or
seduced to illicit intercourse with another person shall be punishable with imprisonment
which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
14 Section 366A of IPC – Whoever, by any means whatsoever, induces any minor girl under
the age of eighteen years to go from any place or to do any act with intent that such girl may
be, or knowing that it is likely that she will be, forced or seduced to illicit intercourse with
another person shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to ten years, and
shall also be liable to fine.
373 of the IPC talks about buying a minor for purposes of prostitution, etc.15
Whoever buys, hires or otherwise obtains possession of any person under the
age of eighteen years with intent that such person shall at any age be employed
or used for the purpose of prostitution or illicit intercourse with any person or
for any unlawful and immoral purpose, of knowing it to be likely that such
person will at any age be employed or used for any purpose, shall be punished
with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten
years, and shall also be liable to fine.
According to the statistical report published by the National Crime Record
Bureau (2013), 1,224 cases under Sec. 366A IPC (Procuration of minor girls
for prostitution) were reported in the year 2013 as compared to 809 such cases
in the year 2012, accounting for an increase of 51.3% over 2012.16 Procuration
of minor girls Incidence-1,224 Rate 0.3) West Bengal has reported 486 such
cases indicating a share of 39.7% at the national level followed by Bihar (193)
and Assam (129). 6 cases of ‘buying of girls under section 373 of IPC’ and
100 cases of ‘selling of girls under section 372 of IPC’ for prostitution were
reported in the country during the year 2013 against 15 and 108 such cases
respectively in the year 2012. Jharkhand and Maharashtra (2 cases each)
accounted for 33.3% each of total cases of ‘buying of girls for prostitution’
and West Bengal has accounted for 69.0% (69 cases out of 100 cases) of the
total cases of ‘selling of girls for prostitution’ reported in the country.17 Apart
from these legislations which specifically address the issue of women and
child prostitution and trafficking the Government has very recently passed
an entirely new legislation in the name of Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act 2013.18
The Act defines certain important terms such as, ‘Brothel’, it says “brothel”
includes any house room, (conveyance) or place or any portion of any house,
15 The other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code than relates to the subject matter are
Section 367, Section 370, Section 370, Section 372.
16 West Bengal has reported 486 such cases indicating a share of 39.7% at the national level
followed by Bihar (193) and Assam (129).

17 National Crime Record Bureau, (2013). Crime against Children (Chapter 6), p. 98, Crime
in India 2013, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India.

18 Annual Report, (2013-14), (Towards a New Dawn), Ministry of Woman and Child
Development, Government of India, (p. 9). The constitutional guarantee of gender equality
includes protection from sexual harassment and the right to work with dignity. It seeks to
provide a safe and secure environment to women at work place. The Act came into force
on 9th December 2013. The rules under this Act have been notified as well. The Act seeks
to cover all women, irrespective of their age or employment status and protect them against
sexual harassment at all workplaces both in public and private sector whether organized or
unorganized.
room, (conveyance) or place, which is used for purposes (of sexual exploitation
or abuse) for the gain of another person or for the mutual gain of two or more
prostitutes. Section 2(f) of ITPA, 1956 defines “Prostitution” means the sexual
exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes, and the expression
“prostitute” shall be construed accordingly. Sec. 3 of the said act provides the
punishment for keeping a brothel or allowing any premises to be used as a
brothel. Sub Sec. (1) of Sec. 3 states that Any person who keeps or manages, or
acts or assists in the keeping or management of, a brothel, shall be punishable
on first conviction with rigorous imprisonment for a term of not less than one
year and not more than three years and also with fine which may extend to two
thousand rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent to conviction with
rigorous imprisonment for a term of not less than two years and not more than
five years and also with a fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.
Section 5 of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, defines procuring,
inducing or taking persons for the purpose of prostitution. Section 6 of the
Act, provides punishment not less than seven years for detaining a person in
premises where prostitution is carried out. Now let us discuss some of the
important provision of the said Act. Sec. 5 prescribes the punishment in case of
procuring, inducing or taking person for the sake of prostitution. It states that
any person who:
a. Procures or attempts to procure a person whether with or without his/her
consent, for the purpose of prostitution; or
b. Induces a person to go from any place, with the intent that he/she may for
the purpose of prostitution become the inmate of, or frequent, a brothel;
or
c. Takes or attempts to take a person or causes a person to be taken, from
one place to another with a view to his/her carrying on, or being brought
up to carry on prostitution; or
d. Causes or induces a person to carry on prostitution; shall be punishable
on conviction with rigorous imprisonment for a term of not less than
three years and not more than seven years and also with fine which
may extend to two thousand rupees, and if any offence under this sub-
section is committed against the will of any person, the punishment of
imprisonment for a term of seven years shall extend to imprisonment for
a term of fourteen years.
Sec. 6 deals with detaining a person in the premises where prostitution is
carried on. It states that, any person, who detains any other person, whether
with or without his consent:
a. in any brothel, or
b. in or upon any premises with intent that such person may have sexual
intercourse with a person who is not the spouse of such person
c. shall be punishable on conviction, with imprisonment of either description
for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may be for
life or for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable
to fine, provided that the court may, for adequate and special reasons to
be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a
term of less than seven years.
However, the provisions under Sections 7 and Section 819 are very specific to
prostitution being carried on in public places.20 Sec. 7 of the said Act deals
with the punishment of carrying prostitution in the vicinity of public places.21
It categorically says that, any person, who carries on prostitution and the person
with whom such prostitution is carried on, in any premises,
a. which are within the area or areas, notified under sub-section (3), or
b. which are within a distance of two hundred meters of any place of public
religious worship, educational institution, hostel, hospital, nursing home
or such other public place of any kind as may be notified in this behalf by
the Commissioner of Police or Magistrate in the manner prescribed, shall
be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three
months.
19 Section 8 of ITPA: Seducing or soliciting for purpose of prostitution — Whoever, in any

public place or within sight of, and in such manner as to be seen or heard from, any public
places, whether from within any building or house or not:a. by words, gestures, wilful
exposure of her person (whether by sitting by a window or on the balcony of a building
or house or in any other way), or otherwise tempts or endeavour to tempt, or attracts or
endeavour to attract the attention of, any person for the purpose of prostitution, or b.
solicits or molests any person, or loiters or acts in such manner as to cause obstruction or
annoyance to persons residing nearby or passing by such public place or to offend against
public decency, for the purpose of prostitution, shall be punishable on first conviction
with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may be
extended to five hundred rupees, or with both, and in the event of a second or subsequent
conviction, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, and also with fine
which may extend to five hundred rupees”.
20 Some of the relevant cases that can be referred are Bai Shanta v. State of Gujrat AIR 1967
Gujrat 211; In re Ratnamala AIR 1962 Mad 31; Smt. Rama Devi v. State 1963 All L.J. 894;
T. Jacob v. State of Kerala AIR 1971 Ker 166).
21 Public Place is defined under Section 2(h) of the ITPA as any place intended for use by, or
accessible to, the public and includes any public conveyance.

Another important section within this said Act is Sec. 8 and it deals with any
person who is found guilty of seducing or soliciting somebody for the purpose
of prostitution. It states, whoever, in any public place or within sight of, and
in such manner as to be seen or heard from, any public place, whether from
within any building or house or not:
a. by words, gestures, willful exposure of her person (whether by sitting by
a window or on the balcony of a building or house or in any other way),
or otherwise tempts or endeavors to tempt, or attracts or endeavors to
attract the attention of, any person for the purpose of prostitution; or
b. solicits or molests any person, or loiters or acts in such manner as to
cause obstruction or annoyance to persons residing nearby or passing by
such public place or to offend against public decency, for the purpose of
prostitution, shall be punishable on first conviction, with imprisonment
for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may
extend to five hundred rupees, or with both, and in the event of a second
or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to five hundred rupees, and also with fine which may extend to
five hundred rupees:
Provided that where an offence under this section is committed by a
man he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a period of not less
than seven days but which may extend to three months. 22
Apart from the legislative framework, the society as a whole also need to share
the responsibility of making sure that such exploitation does not take place. If
we do so it will also act as a support to the government and also motivate the
representatives to take positive steps. Let us not forget that making legislation
is not at all hard. Not only one but several complementary legislations can be
made on the same topic. But the real test lies in the proper execution of these
laws. It is very necessary that a mass revolution is very essential in order to
completely eradicate this evil from our society.
22 Section 9 ITPA, 1956 Seduction of a person in custody. Any person who having the custody,
charge or care of or in a position of authority over any person causes or aids or abets the
seduction for prostitution of that shall be punishable on conviction with imprisonment of
either description for a term, which shall not be less than seven years but which may be for
life or for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine: Provided that
the Court may, for adequate and special reasons to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a
sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than seven years.
In India, despite these laws against the sex industry and traditional caste-
bound prostitution, prostitution and trafficking23 is still common. However,
Indian laws are little ambiguous when it comes to the issue of defining
prostitution. The sale of one’s own bodily sex to a male customer by an adult
woman on her own free will in her private premises is not illegal and hence
not punishable as per the Indian laws. At the same time, Indian law does not
give a special recognition by way of registration, documentation or license for
the sale of one’s own bodily sex to a male customer in her private premises
or in public premises on her own free will. Organized prostitution is illegal in
India. The text and spirit of the existing law does not allow anyone (e.g. the
anti social elements) to take disadvantage of the helplessness and vulnerability
of a woman and therefore it makes brothel keeping, procuration of person
for prostitution, living on earning of other person’s prostitution, giving ones
premises for the business of prostitution, detaining anyone in brothel etc illegal
and punishable. Thus there are two views in India regarding of prostitution.
One view is to further criminalize it, and other to totally decriminalize it.
The researcher is of the view that a total eradication of prostitution is
impossible. It is time to repeal laws used to punish prostitutes in seeking to
protect public decency and order. Legalizing prostitution is one solution, though
not a panacea. Legalized” prostitution refers to a wide range of situations.
It can simply mean that prostitution is not against the law. More often the
case, though, legalization is synonymous for regulation, with laws enforced
by police. Licenses can be issued, for example, with mandatory health-checks.
Zoning laws may set up “prostitution centres” should be removed from
residential areas. Total prostitution elimination would require restructuring
social setup, which would give greater sexual freedom to men and women
in which women’s identity is respected as a human being. Education and
economic independence of women will counter their vulnerability and lead to
the recognition and respect of women’s dignity as that of a human being.
The road in front of us is not so smooth, so we need to be extra careful and
extra cautious. But having said this, it is very important for us that we should
not lose hope and the situation in front of us wants us to always remain focused.
It will be a foolish thing to ask for a huge change in only a matter of few days,
23 In the year 2013 the total number of cases under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 Act
were 2,579. An increase of 0.6% during the year 2013 has been observed as compared to
the previous year (2,563). The highest incidents of 21.3% (549 cases out of 2,579 cases) of
such cases were reported from Tamil Nadu followed by Andhra Pradesh 19.0% (489 cases).
Daman & Diu UT has reported the crime rate of 6.0 as compared to the national average
of 0.4. [National Crime Record Bureau, (2013). Crime against Women (Chapter 5), p. 84,
Crime in India 2013, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India].
but what can be assured is that if there is a strong amount of dedication, and
patience is followed by us, then better results are waiting for us.
IMPACT ON PROSTITUTES – NEED FOR LEGALIZATION

Prostitution, in itself, is a form of violence against women that is intrinsically
traumatizing. There are many levels of harm implicated as well as the physical
harm and damage; there is the emotional and psychological harm of being
sexually objectified. Studies found that while there is more physical violence
in street, as distinct from, brothel prostitution, there is no difference in the
psychological trauma. The psychological damage is intrinsic to the act of
prostitution. When a human being is reduced to a body, objectified to sexually
service another, whether or not there is consent, violation of the human being
has taken place. As well as the harm to each individual, there is the social,
cultural and global impact; the damage to the social position and perception of
women both nationally and globally.
International studies have proved that women in prostitution experience
extremely high levels of violence such as beatings, rape, torture and terror
Farley et al (1998) and Lawless, K. & Wayne, A., and Ruhama (2005) Ch. 7.
and Raymond, J., (1998)] and India is not an exception to it. Indian women
in prostitution are constantly subjected to humiliations of all kinds, theft,
physical and sexual assault, as well as the health risks from being sometimes
required to have unprotected sex. It is not claimed that all men who use women
in prostitution are violent but, essentially, what they purchase is the power to
be violent with the likelihood that there will be no sanctions. Even when the
violence does not occur, the threat and the lack of protection are always there.
Sexual and other physical violence is the normative experience for women in
prostitution. Several studies done in the United States of America reveals that,
the mortality rate of women and girls in prostitution at 40 times higher than
the national average [Farley et al (1998) and Lawless, K. & Wayne, A., and
Ruhama (2005) Ch.7. and Raymond, J., (1998)]. The same experiences are
reported across the globe, regardless of culture or race.
Prostitution often leads to many health problems for the prostitutes like
Cervical Cancer, Traumatic Brain Injury, HIV, STD, and many other Emotional
and Psychological disorders. In a country like India where most of the people
indulge themselves in unprotected sex with prostitutes it is very difficult to
eradicate the problem of aids. Historically, the AIDS epidemic in India was
first identified amongst sex workers and their clients, before other sections
of society became affected. World health officials are calling India the next
Africa, forecasting more Indians will die from AIDS in the next decade than
all the HIV-related deaths since the disease was discovered in 1981. With
an estimated million prostitutes in India, prostitution is the lit match of the
AIDS tinderbox (Briski, Z., 2002). Certain symptoms are very common to
the prostitutes and it include acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability,
flashbacks, emotional numbing, poor concentration and being in a state of
emotional and physical hyper-vigilance and alertness. Suicide attempts and
depression are also an addition to the list.
It can be roughly estimated that if a woman stays in prostitution an average
of nine years and takes an average of 5 customers a day, 6 days a week, she
will have sold sex in, on, and through her body 9,540 times to different men.
And let us not forget that she is not doing it with her due consent. The client
treats her as a commodity for which he has paid the price. Thus he exercises
his force, power and will. Prostitution is nothing but a form of slavery which
results in direct physical violence, trauma and it is caused by engaging in
multiple sex acts with strangers. Having to tolerate this on a regular basis,
bodily invasion requires psychological or chemical (with drugs or alcohol)
dissociation in order to cope. The very nature of prostitution as an act of
violence is compounded by the reality that many men specifically seek out
women in prostitution in order to be able to act out humiliating, degrading
and violent acts. After going through this entire discussion till now it can be
very well said that prostitution per se is a form of violence against women, it
is within itself an intrinsically traumatizing. At an individual level, the harm is
always physical, social, emotional and psychological. The harm extends to all
women and humanity as a whole – socially, culturally, and globally.
Besides that, the impact of prostitution also affects the life of their parents
and their children. The first and foremost effect is that their parents are looked
down in the society. There is always a social stigma attached to them. Their
parents are always under a fear that their child is alive or not, and if they are
alive, then in what condition are they forced to live their life. There is a constant
shame and difficulty in coping with the fact that their child is a prostitute and
they carry it with them wherever they go. This makes them to live their whole
life in the guilt as they keep on wondering if it was their fault. Similarly their
children also fall prey to such a social stigma and shame. The very first question
that they have to face is “what is the name of your father?” It is often seen that
due to these humiliations and hatred they get prone to drugs and alcohol and
other bad habits such as stealing, street fighting, pic-pocketing etc.
The researcher had conducted an empirical research among the few
students of HNLU which is the universe of his research work. This project was
based on empirical method of study and thus the researcher had prepared a set
of “questionnaire” in order to collect data for the research work. The universe
of the research work was the HNLU campus and the units of the study were
the students of this university campus (4 students from each semester were
taken as units of study). The empirical research includes the methodology
collecting facts through observation and other methods of data collection. The
questionnaire prepared for this project consisted of a list of preset questionnaire
to which the interviewers were asked to provide answers. Among them some
questions were close ended and some of them were open ended.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Thus before we talk about anything meticulously on the subject matter, it can
be primarily said that there are certain economic, social, psychological, marital,
biological and religious and cultural factors that encourages prostitution or is
involved with prostitution in India. Some economic factors are poverty, under
age employment, unhealthy working conditions, pollution and corruption in
industrial centers, immoral traffic in women and children. Some of the social
causes that encourage and promote prostitution are family causes, marital
factors, bad neighborhood and illegitimate motherhood etc. There are some
psychological facts which tend the person towards prostitution. A woman
who is frigid becomes desperate. She tries one man after another. Because of
frigidity she is unable to experience pleasure and becomes a prostitute by trial
and error.
During the course of almost any discussion on the subject of prostitution
and trafficking in women, one or more of those involved argues that the
solution is to legalize prostitution. The researcher feels that ligalisation will
enable criminal elements to be identified and removed from the sex industry;
will protect women’s rights; and will prevent a public nuisance. Moreover,
the state will benefit from the taxation of the sex industry. Since a number of
countries have gained practical experience in the legalization of prostitution,
a public debate on this question that whether prostitution should be legalized
in India or not. And if at all it is being legalized in India what should be the
possible arguments that can be given in order to satisfy those intellectuals
who are against such an act. At the outset it is to be understood that, the
“legalization of prostitution” should not be seen as a homogenous concept as
different countries have introduced widely divergent arrangements or systems
of legalization reflecting diverse approaches to prostitution.
The researcher before undergoing the study had framed a hypothesis
which states that, “Legalizing prostitution in India will reduce the rate of
prostitution and will also ensure the rights to the prostitutes”. Looking back
to the previous section we could see that the points supporting the hypothesis
were against the social stigma the prostitutes are facing now. It is difficult to
clamp down on expensive prostitutes and wealthy clients whose liaisons are
usually arranged and conducted in private (High-priced prostitutes sharing in
India’s new prosperity). So it will be easier to regulate the program if and
only if the trade is legalized. Rolling back the answers which were for the
legalization of prostitution we could see how and why one feels it logical to
legalize the business.
Most would agree that it is wrong. That is a moral judgment. But if we ignore
our moral revulsion and repulsion to the practice, then we could legitimize it as
a taxable business venture. It is for some business and for some disease. And
you can find prostitution in every corner of India as well as the World. Nobody
can stop this business or disease. Then it could be heavily regulated and the
women would be better off-healthy, provided with contraceptives, etc.
Also, the Govt. would tax it bringing in more money since it will take the
shape of a huge booming sector in economy. Legalizing prostitution in India
will reduce the rate of prostitution and will also ensure rights to the prostitutes.
It will also reduce the rate of trafficking and will also be beneficial to the
innocent children of the prostitutes. Thus by legalizing the act the prostitutes
will also be aware of their rights and will be able to fight against any ill done to
them and also can hope for a better future for themselves and their children. We
could also analyze that by legalizing prostitution since every detail will be kept
in record, rape and other heinous offence will also be lowered. Though it is
hard for the mass of people to believe that legalization the trade will benefit the
whole system of prostitution and they have their own opinions to vote against
the hypothesis, I myself find it logical and beneficial to legalise the trade which
will definitely help in order to curb all the ill of the running trade and help in
removing many problems from the existing scenario of the business.
There is no doubt that illegal prostitution takes away our individual rights
to be our own person. If a woman or a man chooses to sell their own bodies to
strangers, who are we to say they cannot do with their body as they wish? In
every form of society, women will continue to be prostitutes, whether it is legal
or not. Legalizing it would provide prostitutes with a license. This license would
require regular testing and minimize the possibility of transmitting diseases.
Licensing also screens out criminals, addicts, the diseased, and the under aged.
It would require and provide drug testing, medical checks and health education.
Legitimate solicitation would replace pimps and organized crime. In several
foreign countries like, Amsterdam, Holland etc. this procedure was tested and
worked phenomenally. The interesting point is that Amsterdam capital of the
Netherlands and is internationally known for its red light district. Critics to
prostitution might be stunned to learn that the Netherlands has the least number
of murders and rapes. It prosecutes a considerable amount of criminals but has
a low number of prisoners. It does not suffer from an HIV/AIDS epidemic, like
the U.S. and the U.K., and has the second lowest suicide rate listed (Liberator.
M, 2004). This news will literally stop critics (who are open to reason) in their
tracks when they are confronted with such information. Spreading diseases
was reduced and they set up zones’ where it was legal, and family oriented
people who did not want this occurring in their neighborhood, chose not to live
in those designated areas. This tight zoning therefore eliminated insecurity and
unsafe areas due to the immense security.
Many others feel that prostitution exploits women and gives them a bad
name’. The answer to this is that, there are so many things that give bad names
to a variety of people, of course, some will say that it exploits women. For those
who think that prostituting is immoral, this proves to be the least supported
argument. There are so many things considered to be immoral by large
numbers of people. Divorce is perceived to be an awful sin to the majority of
Christians. Tattoos, pornography and legalizations of guns are just a few things
considered immoral by much of society. Why then, if these are legal, should
prostitution be any different? The point is to be understood from an altogether
different perspective. The prostitutes needs to be made aware about their rights
and interests, health education, their freedom to choose or deny/say no to their
clients, giving them regular medical checkups, financial aid, they should be
protected under the normal labour/worker laws not entitled to minimum wage
benefits, compensation for injury or other benefits. They should be given a
platform like unions, organizations or associations who would give them the
proper justice in case of any gross violation.
Prostitution should be legalized for the simple reason that this will help
in improving the living standards of the women involved in this business.
Legalizing the business will help the govt. and NGOs to reach out to their
community and provide information and financial help so that the need and
necessity for using contraception filters down to the very darkest and dingy
alleys where this ‘business’ mushrooms. Instead of dreaming that we can and
we will stop prostitution one day, let us at least, move in that direction where
we could regulate and also monitor it. And the only way to do is to legalize it.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The very bitter reality is that prostitution can be combated and reduced, but not
eradicated. Taking the very presumption into consideration, in short we can
sum up in the way that if prostitution will be legalized in India the prostitutes
will be made aware of their rights, they will have an option to say “No” to
their clients. They will be provided with a platform where they can raise their
grievances and expect quick redress. Moreover legalization will lead with
efficiency and continuous discloser requirements will be emphasized on. The
brothels and the prostitutes can be asked to maintain proper databases with
respect to their customers and visitors. Those persons who visit a brothel now
fearlessly will then be under a pressure of disclosing their proper identity in
the books of the concerned brothel. This will lead to a more regulated and
more transparent system. Thus legalizing will make the entire system more
open and make it more manageable. Pimps would no longer control women,
teen prostitution would be prevented, required health and safety checks will
improve prostitutes’ quality of life, police will have more time for ‘important’
crimes, it lowers a country’s crime, healthcare, suicide and divorce rates and
the streetwalkers and ‘lower-level’ prostitutes will not feel abandoned by
society.
As has been mentioned earlier, Prostitution has existed ever since societies
started to form and it will exist whether or not it is legalized. So after legalization,
instead of using the term prostitutes, they can be called as the “professional
sex workers” hence just treating it as a one different profession. This would
spare the poor and forced “sex workers” from torture by the police. This would
also make the “sex workers” themselves take the money that they have earned
instead of their pimps taking away more than half of the share(which is the
present case scenario) and hence make them lead a better life (financially).
Right now, the sex workers can’t ask their clients to use protective measures
but if “prostitution is legalized” then a law can be introduced where the sex
workers are allowed to ask their clients to use protective measures so as to
prevent STDs (including AIDS) from spreading. This would automatically
improve the mortality rate and will ensure a better life to them.
The debate over this topic gets more interesting while we study the different
approaches that are attached to it. The first approach is the “Liberal Approach”
and it accepts prostitution as a legitimate part of life and emphasizes the right
of women to choose to work in the “oldest profession in the world.” This
approach argues that it is impossible to combat prostitution, and criticizes the
conservative approach for its hypocrisy and tendency to ignore the problem,
which only exacerbates the coercion and exploitation that accompany
prostitution.
It can’t be too wrong that as long as there are two opposite sexes prevail
this flesh trade will somehow or the other be practiced. Moreover it can also
be said that as long as there exist in our society ‘poverty’, ‘unemployment’,

‘illiteracy’, the problem of prostitution will have its existence. So till the day
we are able to eradicate those problem from its root, we can at least make
prostitution legal in India. And if it is done it will act as a boon to the women who
are already into this hell as because we, as well as they also know that in order
to sustain their livelihood they will have to be in that profession because the
society in no case accepts them once they are tagged as “prostitute”. Moreover
if prostitution is legalized in India, it will be mandatory for the Government to
conduct regular health check-ups for them will ultimately result in lessening
the rate of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases within our society.
Thus accountability along with transparency will also be maintained. The
other preventive measures to tackle the problem of Prostitution can be more
advanced sex education, economic empowerment, abolishing certain social
customs, establishing more venereal clinics, encouraging more sex awareness
programmes, to persuade the role of voluntary agencies24 (Mulgund I.C., 2009:
408-4014)/non profit organisations etc.
Therefore, the debate whether prostitution should be legalized; and whether
the pros of legalization outweigh the cons are definitely an important and a
relevant issue. There may seemingly many different opinions and approaches
to this heated discussion. It remains an acrimonious debate which can be
referred, analysed and argued from different angles and perspectives. But the
reality is that the arguments favouring the legalisation in India will always
outweigh the one against them. Thus, it can be concluded that for the sake of
our society, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the wellbeing of women
within our society, prostitution should be legalized in India. Probably, there
cannot be any other alternative to this.
24 Some important voluntary agencies are actively working to reform and rehabilitate
prostitutes and find them useful work. They are They Women Home, Chennai; Shardhanand
Anath Ashram, Mumbai; The good shepherd Home, Chennai; Chris pins Home, Poona;
The Salvation Army Home, Bengal; Khusalbagh Mission orphanage, Gorkhpur; Mahila
Anthalaya And Varanasi, They are some of the important centers that are dedicated to the
rehabilitation of fallen women.
REFERENCES
Annual Report, (2013-14). Towards a New Dawn, Ministry of Woman and
Child Development, Government of India (p. 9) Retrieved from http://
wcd.nic.in/publication/English%20AR%202013-14.pdf
The Blacks Law Dictionary, Seventh Edition, p- 1238
Briski, Z., Beauty and the Brothel : Prostitution & AIDS in India, 2002 APF
website
Retrieved from http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF2003/Briski/Briski.html
The Concise Oxford Thesaurus, Oxford University Press.
Copeland, J. (1997) Heidi Fleiss Gets 3 Years. E! Online News.
Retrieved from: http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,534,00.html
C. Dharmendra, (2009) Legalization of Prostitution In India
Retreived from: http://www.academia.edu/613653/Legalization_of_
Prostitution_in_India
Divorce Magazine (n.d.) U.S. Divorce Statistics.
Retrieved from http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS.shtml
Dharanjay Mahapatra, ““Not Encouraging Prostitution”. Times of India, July
26th, 2012
The Encarta Encyclopedia, 2008
Farley et al (1998) and Lawless, K. & Wayne, A., and Ruhama (2005) Ch.7.
and Raymond, J., (1998)
Judicial Handbook on Combating Trafficking of Woman and Children
for Commercial and Sexual Exploitation. Report prepared jointly by
Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Department of Women & Child Development, National Human Rights
Commission, New Delhi and United Nations Children’s Fund. Report
developed by Centre for Women and the Law National Law School of
India University Banglore, India.
Retreived from: http://www.wcd.nic.in/Judicial%20Manual.pdf
Freidman, Robert I., (1996). India’s Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political
Corruption Are Leading to An AIDS Catastrophe, The Nation, 8 April
1996.
High-priced prostitutes sharing in India’s new prosperity
Retrieved from http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/14/business/escort.php
K. Jaishankar and Debarati Haldar, Prostitution In India: Issues And

Trendshttp,
Retrieved from //www.erces.com/journal/articles/archives/volume3/v02/v03.
htm
Trifiolis, Kristie, ““Legalizing Prostitution: An Introduction” (2014). Student
Scholarship. Paper 139.
Retreived from: http://erepository.law.shu.edu/student_scholarship/13p
The Law Lexicon, Second Edition, p. 2128.
Liberator. M, (2004). Legalized Prostitution: Regulating the Oldest
Profession
Retrieved from http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html#effects
Madan G.R., Indian Social Problem, volume 1, 6th ed., Allied publishers Pvt.
Limited New Delhi, 210 (2002)
Mechelen, R. (1992) Prostitution.
Retrieved from http://www.backlash.com/book/prostit.html
Mulgund I.C.(2009) Reading in Indian Sociology, Publisher, Shrusti prakashan,
Dharwad, 408-4014.
National Crime Record Bureau, (2013). Crime against Women (Chapter 5), p.
84, Crime in India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India.
http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-CII2013/Chapters/5- Crime%20against%20Women.pdf
National Crime Record Bureau, (2013). Crime against Children (Chapter 6),
Crime in India 2013, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India.
Retrieved from http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-CII2013/Chapters/6-Crime%20against
%20Children.pdf
Prakash H, (2013). Prostitution and Its Impact on Society-A Criminological
Perspective
International Research Journal of Social Sciences, ISSN 2319-3565 Vol. 2(3),
31-39.
Retrieved from http://www.isca.in/IJSS/Archive/v2i3/6.ISCA-IRJSS-2013-
027.pdf
The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, Vol. XII, p. 673.
The Osborn’s Concise Law Dictionary, Eighth Edition, Universal Law
Publication, 2003.
The Webster New Encyclopedic Dictionary.
PART-III
Culture, Attitute and
Domestic Work
17
Capturing Unpaid Work: Labour Statistics and

Time Use Surveys
Ellina Samantroy and Sakshi Khurana
INTRODUCTION
The concept of unpaid work has attracted the attention of many feminist scholars
in the past and even in the contemporary period there is growing recognition
to unmask the statistical invisibility of unpaid work. Because unpaid work
is overwhelmingly women’s work, these contributions place women in a
subordinate economic position that disadvantages them in market production
in general, and in the labour market in particular (Beneria 1979; Lordes
Beneria and Gita Sen 1981 in Esquivel 2011: 223). Unpaid work is rendered
invisible because it is performed in the private sphere of the household, outside
money exchanges (Esquivel 2011: 223). In the Indian context, an important
reason for the low labour force participation rates (LPRs) of women is the
underestimation of their work in the national accounting systems. A lack of
statistical evidence on women’s unpaid work and time use patterns have led to
gross underestimation of women’s capabilities and status as workers.
Despite high growth rates of the Indian economy in the 2000s, women’s
participation in the labour force has been low and has seen a decline in the
recent decades (Himanshu 2011; Thomas 2012; Mazumdar and Neetha 2011;
Dreze and Sen 2013). Women’s labour force participation fell in rural areas
from 126.49 million in 2004-05 to 106.2 million in 2009-10. In urban areas,
women’s labour force participation declined from 26.50 million in 2004-05
to 24.2 million in 2009-10. There was a further decline in women’s labour
force participation in rural areas in 2011-12, as estimated by the 68th round
of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). The labour force
participation for women in rural areas was 103.6 million in 2011-12, though
there was a marginal increase (28.8 million) in labour force participation for
women in urban areas.1 Various arguments have been put across to explain
women’s low participation in paid employment. It has been pointed out that
an increasing number of women in rural areas are pursuing higher education,
which has led to their decreasing numbers in the workforce (Chowdhury 2011;
Rangarajan et al. 2011; Thomas 2012: 48). Neff et al. argue that an increased
number of rural women pursuing higher education might lead not only to a
temporary decline in their labour force participation (LFP) but could also lead
to underemployment and perhaps also a permanent decline in their LFP rates
in the long term. In India, there is a U-shaped relationship between educational
level and LFPR, with rising educational level, the labour force participation
of rural women declines; it only rises significantly again with a university
degree (Neff et al. 2012: 8) Neff et al., on the basis of an analysis of NSSO
data for 2004-05 and 2009-10, show that the number of rural women pursuing
higher education increased after 2004, which could explain the decline in rural
women’s LFP, but this trend was also seen for urban women, without a decline
in rural women’s LFPR. Hence, it is contended that education cannot be seen
as the main reason behind women’s declining labour force participation rates.
The effect of increase in income for men could be a stronger factor. Wages,
particularly, for lower income groups appear to have increased leading to an
increase in household income and withdrawal of women from paid work (Neff
et al. 2012: 26). Yet, an increase in income needs to be looked at in conjunction
with social and cultural factors.
With the introduction of liberalisation policies and an expansion of the
informal sector, women have been concentrated in low paying, non standard
and narrow range of sectors mostly vulnerable and insecure. The majority of
workers in India are in informal employment, though there are two diverging
underlying trends behind this phenomenon. Firstly, the share of workers in the
unorganized sector fell from 86.3 per cent in 2004-05 to 84.3 per cent in 2009-
10, and further to 82.2 per cent in 2011-12. At the same time, the new jobs
created in the organized sector were mostly informal in the sense that workers
do not have access to employment benefits and social security. From 2009-10
to 2011-12, employment in the organized sector increased by 17.2 million.
However, 84.9 per cent of this increase (or 14.6 million) was due to a rise
in informal work in the organized sector. (ILO, 2013).Here a question arises
1 The information on labour force participation was calculated from various rounds of
the Employment and Unemployment Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey
Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.
The rounds 61st (2004-05), 66th (2009-10), and 68th (2011-12) were analysed.
Capturing Unpaid Work: Labour Statistics and Time Use Surveys 321
on the quality of employment which remains a major challenge. Moreover,

women continue to remain in disadvantageous position as female labour force
participation continues to decline over the years as reflected in various NSS
rounds.
Within this background, a pertinent question which arises is about
identifying the available prospects to encourage women to participate and
sustain in the labour market. Since many factors have been identified about
this possible decline which broadly comprise of increasing educational
enrollment, increase in household level incomes, lack of part time and regular
employment options, addressing of domestic duties and unpaid and care work
due to unequal division of labour in the household coupled with statistical
invisibility and non-recognition for such work as discussed earlier. Many of the
sociological reasons include cultural and structural arrangements, institutional
practices, caste norms etc deeply embedded within the social structure and
discourage women to participate in the labour market. In fact, all these above
issues have contributed to the decline the female labour force participation and
have discourage them to choose paid employment.
The dilemma of unpaid work and women’s contribution to paid work
has contributed to many emerging debates on recognising women’s work
in general and understanding of various social and cultural realities where
women are socially located. Therefore the recognition of unpaid work and
its inclusion in national accounting statistics becomes an important policy
issue that need to be addressed. The present paper is contextualised amidst
the debates on unpaid work and its non-recognition vis-a-vis declining female
labour force participation. It tries to address the challenge of capturing unpaid
work through an analysis of national time use surveys. The paper is based on
a review of unpaid work and time use surveys conducted across countries. For
an analysis of Indian situation, the National Time use Survey conducted in
1998-99 is taken into consideration.2
2 The Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme

Implementation (MOSPI), Government of India conducted a pilot Time Use Survey through
State Directorate of Economics and Statistics in six states viz., Kerala, Meghalaya, Haryana,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat for the first time in 1998-99. The results of the TUS
pilot survey of 1998-99 brought to the fore the issue of inadequacy of data collected through
conventional Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS) and the Population Census
for measuring the quantum of unremunerated economic activities.
The paper also tries to draw its analysis from the Report of the Pilot Time
Use Survey in the States of Bihar and Gujarat, 2013 and the report of the Sub-
Committee on Time Use Activity Classification.3
UNDERSTANDING UNPAID WORK

Unpaid labour is usually considered as non-productive work and also at times it
is considered as performing production work not destined for the market. Such
an aspect leads to serious conceptual problems which needs clarification. There
has been invisibility non-accountability and non-remuneration of household
work. Invisibility relates to patriarchal ideology having managed to include
and legitimize under female roles everything connected with the care of family
and its social reproduction. Non-accountability refers to the assumption that
whatever does not directly produce wealth cannot be recorded as an economic
progress. Thus accountancy system are geared towards traditional economic
units, their purpose being to record the production of goods and services
tradable on national and international markets. And finally non-remuneration
refers to the abundance of manual labour available to perform domestic work
for free and its almost infinite elasticity to adjust to the changes taking place in
the macro-economic environment (Campillo, 2003).
Women’s normative responsibilities of child care and domestic work and
restrictions imposed on their movement and employment outside the house
affect their participation in paid employment. It is also noted that the proportion
of women involved in unpaid domestic and care work is higher in urban areas
and among the better educated groups of women who may face less social
constraints on their participation in paid employment (Thomas 2012: 47).
Thus, an increase in household income leads to women’s withdrawal from
paid work and their confinement to care and domestic work. Certain cultural
factors and social constraints might come to the fore as income rises (see Das
2006, Olsen and Mehta 2006; Chowdhury 2011).
3 As suggested by National Statistical Commission (NSC), the Ministry constituted an Expert

Group (EG), under the Chairmanship of S.R. Hashim primarily for finalization of National
Classification of Activities for Time Use Surveys (NCATUS) and to recommend the survey
methodology and identify agency (ies) for conducting the pilot survey for field testing of the
schedule as a prelude for conducting an All India Time Use Survey. In order to ascertain the
feasibility of an All India Time Use Survey and to test the National Activity Classifications
of Time Use Studies/Surveys (NACTUS), developed afresh in 2012, the methodology
and schedules, a pilot survey was conducted in two States, viz. Bihar and Gujarat in 2013
through the Directorate of Economics and Statistics under the guidance of Social Statistics
Division, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation
(MoSPI).
Apart from gender inequalities as seen in women’s concentration in certain

industries and sectors of the economy, the devaluation of their contribution as
unpaid workers has persisted. All of women’s work in the domestic sphere is
excluded from the realm of economic activity and not reflected in the work
force participation rate. Unpaid activities such as cooking, cleaning, shopping,
caring for children contribute to household maintenance. Viewed from the
point of view of classical economics, this work reduces the cost of labour:
it allows for a smaller wage fund and thus greater profits. Unpaid time spent
on these activities, then, can be thought of as a ‘subsidy’ to capital or as a
transfer or ‘gift’ from one institution (the household/family) to the institution
of the market. That unpaid work may be important at a personal level, both
to the giver and to the receiver, does not alter the fact that in its absence a
higher real wage would be necessary to maintain the same standard of living
for employees and their families, with consequences for cost structures and
wage-profit rates. At the same time, the subsidies’ unpaid work provides result
in lower overall levels of workforce participation, income that could have
been generated and lower levels of effective demand for goods and services
that could be providing employment and generating further economic activity,
especially in employment-intensive sectors (Antonopoulos and Hirway 2010:
7). Feminist economists have led the call for unpaid care work to be “counted”
in statistics, “accounted for” in representations of the economy, and “taken
into account” in policy making (Elson 2000). The non recognition of unpaid
care by the policy makers is reflected in various studies on missing labour
force conducted in India (Hirway 2012; Hirway and Jose 2011; Jain 2008).
These studies have been critical of the labour force surveys including NSSO
in capturing women’s work accurately.
CAPTURING UNPAID WORK: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF

TIME-USE SURVEYS
In this context the contribution of time use surveys as a potential tool for
capturing women’s work cannot be neglected in the context of larger policy
discourse on understanding women’s work. Time use surveys differ from
standard labour force surveys in that they ask respondents to report on all
activities carried out in a specified period, such as a day or a week. Time use
surveys, in contrast, tell us how much time an average person from a particular
social group (such as male or female, young or old, rich or poor) spends on
sleeping, eating, employment-related work, socializing, and unpaid care work,
such as housework and caring for children, the disabled, elderly, ill and so on,
in an average day or week. Time use statistics are thus, quantitative summaries
of how individuals allocate their time over a specified time period – typically
over 24 hours of a day or over the seven days of a week on different activities
and how much time they spend on each of these activities.Time use surveys thus
provide a good basis for discussing unpaid care work in more concrete terms,
and in exploring how responsibility for this interacts with the performance of
other activities, such as earning an income, and how it varies along a range of
individual and social characteristics (Budlender 2010).
Time use statistics provide detailed information on how individuals spend
their time, on a daily or weekly basis on activities that could form a part of the
SNA, Extended SNA and non-SNA or personal services.4 SNA activities are
those activities that fall within the Production Boundary of the UN System of
National Accounts. These activities constitute the activities which are included
in national income accounts. Non-SNA activities are not included in national
accounts but are covered under the General Production Boundary (The time
use survey conducted by India in 1998 by CSO followed the UN-SNA 1993 for
classification of activities). They include all delegable production of services
not covered under the national income accounts. Personal services are non-
delegable services, i.e. the services that cannot be delegated to others such as
sleeping, watching TV etc.
Prior to 1995, time-use surveys (TUS) had been collected for a number of
years and for a variety of purposes in some developed countries; however, time-
use data collection gained momentum after the 1995 United Nations Fourth
World Women’s Conference. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) – the
agreement reached by governments at that conference – appealed to countries
to ‘recognise and make visible the full extent of the work of women and all
their contributions to the national economy, including their contribution in the
unremunerated and domestic chores’ by ‘conduct(ing) regular time-use studies
to measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work’ (UN Fourth World
Conference on Women 1995: Strategic objectives A.4 and H.3, in Esquivel
2011: 216). Since then, further TUS have been conducted systematically
4 System of National Accounts Activities (SNA)(as per) Time Use Statistics (1998-99) I
Primary Production Activities includes Crop farming, kitchen gardening, etc. Animal
husbandry, Fishing, Forestry, Horticulture, Gardening Collection of fruit, water, plants etc.,
storing and hunting. Processing & Storage, Mining, quarrying, digging, cutting, etc. II.
Secondary Activities, Construction Activities, Manufacturing Activities, III Trade, Business
and Services.
Extended SNA Activities include Household Maintenance, Management and Shopping
for Own Household, Care for children, the sick, elderly and disabled for own household,
Community Services and Help to other Households.
Non-SNA Activities include Learning, Social and Cultural Activities, Mass Media, etc.
Personal Care and Self-Maintenance.
in many developed countries and have been initiated in many developing

countries.
Time use statistics were first produced in the early decades of the 1900s
in social surveys reporting on the living conditions of working class families.
The long working hours that left little time for leisure was a concern for
workers’ organisations, who wished to advocate for reduction in working
hours. According to Finnish time use expert Iiris Niemi, time use surveys have
their origins in studies of family budgets in the early decades of 1900s. The
accounting method used for research on living conditions among working class
families in England and France at the end of the nineteenth century developed
into a time budget or time use research tradition in which people’s behaviour
is measured in terms of their use of time in hours and minutes. The countries
with the longest traditions of time use studies are the countries of the former
Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the USA where some time use surveys
were carried out before World War II (Niemi, 1995: 2). For example, in the
USA during the 1920s and 1930s, diaries were used to investigate the non-
market activities of farm families, urban living patterns, and the lifestyles of
the unemployed (Gershuny, 1995: 530).
Time use surveys were undertaken sporadically until the late 1960s, when
a comparative time use study involving 12 countries was initiated. This was the
Multinational Comparative Time-Budget Research Project, undertaken under
the direction of Alexander Szalai (Szalai, 1972). With the emerging interest
in women’s unpaid work and gender inequalities in the 1970s, and the World
Conferences on women thereafter, time use data were seen as major inputs
in estimating and valuing women’s unpaid work and their contribution to the
economy and well-being of the family. Time use data was thus, seen as useful
for designing policies for gender equality (Hirway 2010: 254).
It is estimated that more than 100 countries in the world have conducted
small or big time use surveys. These include 40 developed countries located in
America, Australia, Asia and Europe or transitional economies of Europe and
former USSR. Yet, time use surveys are not yet fully institutionalized, leaving
aside Canada and Australia, they are not conducted regularly and periodically
in any of the developed countries (Collas-Monsod 2008 in Antonopoulos and
Hirway 2010: 255). In the developing countries, some of the earlier time use
surveys were conducted by research scholars, university teachers or others.
Time use surveys in developing countries are still in the exploratory stage, they
are far from mainstreamed in their respective national statistical systems.
There are clear differences in the objectives of conducting time use surveys
in developed and developing countries. In developed countries, where it is
assumed that conventional surveys are able to provide reliable estimates of the
labour force, time use data are found useful in estimating non-SNA work, such as
estimating and valuing unpaid work in satellite accounts, and in understanding
number of socio-economic issues such as gender inequalities, transportation,
balancing family and work, loneliness of the old, social capital etc. The most
common objective of the time use surveys in 56 developing countries is ‘to
improve workforce estimates’ in the country by getting improved estimates of
informal work (employment) and subsistence work (Hirway 2010: 256).
The second major objective is to get accurate estimates of ‘all forms of
work of men and women’ including unpaid domestic work and community
services. The other objectives are to understand quality of life of people
(China), to study status of poverty and human development of people (Nepal,
Nicaragua, India), to collect information on the time use patterns of different
socio economic groups residing in different regions (Palestine), ‘to measure
happiness of people’ (Bhutan), ‘to promote better provision of people
infected by HIV/AIDS (Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe), to estimate
contribution of voluntary work etc. Several countries have also made their
statistical objectives explicit. These objectives have been stated as ‘to develop
sound methods for the future time use surveys’ (India), ‘to test alternative
methods of data collection on time use’ (Pakistan, Malaysia) or to develop
globally comparable time use data (Thailand) (Hirway 2010: 261).
TIME-USE SURVEYS IN INDIA

There have been micro-level attempts to document care work and to measure
the unpaid work of women in India– both ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic.’
Notwithstanding the efforts of feminist social scientists and activists since the
1970s, it is only in the late 1990s that documentation at the national level was
initiated. The Time Use Survey of 1998-1999, which was largely the outcome
of these efforts, provided the first opportunity to estimate the time spent on
and value of care work and unpaid labour of women in general (Neetha and
Palriwala 2010: 92). However, the Report of the Pilot Time Use Survey 2013
provides new insights on the use of context variables5 in documenting women’s
time use patterns.
5 Context variables explain the context in which a particular activity was undertaken
(questions include ‘with whom’, ‘where’ etc.). They can contribute immensely in terms of
understanding the physical, social, economic and temporal features of the environment in
which the activities take place and enrich time use statistics.
TIME-USE SURVEY 1998-99

The Central Statistical Organization undertook a pilot time use survey in
the period July 1998 to June 1999 with the stated objectives of: capturing
activity patterns of individuals within households; assessing the extent of
SNA,6 extended or conditional SNA and Non-SNA activities in terms of time
spent; providing alternative estimates for work force participation (WFP)
rates; estimating the extent of paid and unpaid work and providing an estimate
of value added by women. Taking into account the diversity of the country,
six states were selected for the survey, namely, Haryana, M.P, Gujarat,
Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya. The survey covered 18, 591 households
selected through a three-staged stratified random sampling, including 77, 593
individuals of whom 40, 187 were males and 37, 406 were females (Central
Statistical Organisation 2001). Three sets of schedules were used: one for
collecting data on characteristics of the selected households, the second on
details of individual members of these households, and the third on time use
pattern of all members aged 6 years and above (Neetha and Palriwala 2010:
93). To capture the seasonality in the work pattern, the survey was spread over
one year and was conducted in 4 sub-rounds of three months duration each.
A specially designed classification schedule was used for the survey to ensure
adequate coverage of activities, as well as compatibility and comparability
with other national and international data. The Indian classification did not
follow the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) (1997) classification
which distinguishes between economic categories in terms of whether the
work was done in establishments or not. A 7 day reference week was used,
with separate time use patterns recorded for normal days, a weekly variant
allowing for a day off, and abnormal days, that could be days that saw the
arrival of a guest, illness, local festival, etc. Recall method was used through
trained investigators, who were mostly women. Responses from all persons
of age 6 years and above were captured from the sample households. This
allowed an exploration of child labor issues as well (Khativan 1999).
Table 1 clearly shows that the time spent by males in SNA activities is quite
high as compared to females in both rural and urban areas. The difference is
more glaring in urban areas. With respect to Extended SNA activities the trend
reverses. The amount of time spent by females in Extended SNA activities
are more than eight times as compared to males in both rural and urban areas.
If the Extended SNA activities (presently not included in the computation of
6 The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in India follows the UN-SNA system that divides
the different activities of individuals into primary, secondary and tertiary.
the National Income) are taken into account women’s contribution will go up
substantially. Data indicates gender discrimination in leisure and personal care
activity (such activities are categorized as Non-SNA). The average time spent
on Non-SNA activities by females is about
Table 1: Weekly Average Time Spent on SNA, Ex-SNA & Non-SNA Activities
by Sex & Place of Residence (full sample)
Place of
Sex SNA Extended SNA Non-SNA
Residence
Male 42.02 3.51 122.42
Rural Female 23.46 29.52 114.99
Total 32.77 16.53 118.71
Male 43.28 2.70 121.94
Urban Female 11.02 32.08 124.89
Total 27.07 17.44 123.47
Male 42.54 3.19 122.27
Total Female 18.97 30.46 118.61
Total 30.68 16.87 120.45
Source: R.L. Narsimhan and R.N. Pandey, Central Statistical Organisation http://wwwhostlb.undp.org/
content/dam/india/docs/some_main_results_pilot_time_survey_india_their_policy_implications.
pdf (Accessed on 25.7.2014).
Seven hours less in rural areas than that of males, while there is no difference
in urban areas between males and females. Women’s contribution to domestic
activities is much higher than men which reinforce the feminist critiques on
the problem of women’s double burden. Feminist economists refer to concepts
like Housewifization which has been detrimental to women’s participation in
the labour market. The construction of women as mother, wife and housewife
was the trick by which fifty percent of human labour was defined as free
resource. It was female labour (Mies, 1998). Research findings pointed out
that ameliorating gender disparities in paid and unpaid work, a goal in its own
right, is a contributing factor to promoting gender equality and also pro-poor
growth, social cohesion, and improvements in overall human development. As
all women also do housework apart from the other work they may do, a lot of
their work disappears from the statistics and therefore from public perception
(Mies, 1998).
However, the development of an economy revolves around both the
production economy and the economy associated with care, reproduction and
human welfare. It includes people who are contributing to the tasks and the
amount of time spent by them and also their allocation of time among different
types of unpaid activities. The present Indian experience is required to be
reinforced and established by conducting such surveys in various countries
for identifying the exhaustive list of activities and recording of time spent on
such activities for estimation of their contribution for national accounts. The
concept of time spent in multifarious activities emerges as a vital parameter
to assess the overall human development of women. The feminist concept
of labour unravels the notion of time to be burdensome labour for women.
Women have by now realized that the reduction of the time spent in commodity
production does not lead to more freedom, but rather to more housework, more
non-wage work in household production more relationship or emotional work,
more consumption work (Mies, 1998). The engagement of women in various
activities and the amount of time spent on them addresses many pertinent
issues related to women’s participation in the labour market and their overall
wellbeing.
It is also a fact that time use surveys are not conducted frequently in
India. Carrying out the survey within an interval of 4-5 years will facilitate the
capturing of the activities of women more accurately and also help in informing
policies that encourage women’s participation in the labour market. The labour
force surveys or household surveys conducted in India have been unable to
capture unpaid work due to the limited scope of the definition of work and
the methodological problem in making a distinction between household work
and informal work. Moreover, the socio-cultural structure of India and the
patriarchal setup have institutionalized certain activities as part of culture and
tradition and therefore women fail to report such activities in the category of
work.
TIME USE SURVEY 2012

The Government of India envisaged to carry out the Time Use Survey
across the country and for this purpose, constituted an Expert Group under
the chairmanship of Prof. S.R. Hashim, former member of the Planning
Commission. Since the classification used in the pilot survey was not fully
matching with the National Industrial Classification (NIC), which in turn, was
not comparable with the data sets collected through conventional surveys on
labour and employment. As a result, a need was felt for developing a separate
classification of activities to support and facilitate conduct of time use studies
in India.In order to study in detail the various classifications of activities for
Time Use survey, the Expert Group decided to hand over the work of evolving
a National Classification of Activities for Time Use Survey (NCATUS) to

a small group of experts in the form of a sub-committee. The Expert group
decided to conduct a pilot study to test the schedule and the NCATUS in 2
states, viz. Gujarat and Bihar in 2012. Assam, Haryana and Tamil Nadu were
kept as standby states.
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN TIME USE SURVEYS:

A COMPARISON OF TWO SURVEYS (1998-1999 AND 2012)
The above discussion identifies important methodological issues that demand
a thorough understanding while planning and executing gender sensitive
surveys like the time use surveys.
Existing evidence in 1995 and subsequent TUS to date have shown the
striking gender differences in the distribution of this unpaid care work, which
is overwhelmingly done by women (UNDP 1995; Beneria 2003; Budlender
2008). Since 1995, and following advances in time-use data collection, some
developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia,
Finland, and Spain (Madrid and Basque Country), have been able to produce
Household Sector Satellite Accounts (Dennis Trewin 200; Statistics New
Zealand 2001; Sue Holloway, Sandra Short, and Sarah Tamplin 2002; Eustat
2004; Maria Angeles Duran 2006; Johanna Vorjonen and Kristiina Aalto
2006 in Esquivel 2011: 218). In developing countries, there have been some
exercises in unpaid work valuation that have not become fully fledged satellite
accounts because of insufficient information on household inputs other than
unpaid work. This is the case for South Africa, Mexico, Argentina (Buenos
Aires), Nicaragua, Tanzania, India and Korea (Budlender and Brathaug
2002; Budlender 2008; Barbara Faumeni 2010; Maria Eugenia Gomez Luna
2010). But there is no evidence of household sector satellite accounts, or the
more limited valuation exercises, being much used for policy purposes, even
though some feminists have tended to assume that measuring and valuing
women’s unpaid work would more or less automatically have an impact on
macroeconomic policy (Esquivel 2011: 218).
However, in the Indian context the Time use survey conducted in the
year 1998-99 did not use context variables. The results of the time use survey
conducted in 2012 and the experience gained from the pilot survey revealed
that female informants are able to provide more accurate information than the
male informants as most of the females stay in the household premises due to
household activities they have to perform during day time.
To ensure that women’s responses are correct, it was recommended that
the composition of the investigators team may be of one male and one female.
Wherever the female investigators are not available, the assistance of the local
ANM or Anganwadi worker could be taken.7
It was also felt that publicity of the survey is necessary to convince the
people to come out with reliable information. A few common misclassifications
or absurd classifications were reported in the schedules due to lack of general
understanding or may be common misunderstanding of a particular concept.
Hence it was suggested that the survey materials including the TUS Activity
classifications could be translated into local languages for their use in the
full-fledged survey.8 Such issues in the field raise important methodological
questions with regard to gender sensitivity in the design of the survey and
the methodology adopted to gather information. For instance, sometimes
local dialects may convey several meanings for a similar word which may
distort the meaning of the information conveyed by the informant. Therefore
it becomes very important to depute investigators from local areas who are
well versed with the local dialects and cultural arrangements prevailing in
the region in order to gain accurate information. Knowledge of language in
research area can facilitate direct communication with the informants. Some
scholars have also raised concerns on the linguistic barriers in fieldwork with
regard to interpretations of terms and phrases by those who are unfamiliar
to local contexts especially when it is conducted in rural areas. Similarly,
preconceived notions of power, empowerment and gender can take entirely
different meanings and affect the quality of data (John, 1996). Keeping in
view the structural and cultural arrangements of different regions in India,
it becomes very important to understand the cultural practices, institutional
arrangements, geographical and regional differences in order to understand
the household dynamics, intra- household division of labour since they have
significant impact on the time disposition patterns of women.
TIME USE SURVEYS AND CONTEXT VARIABLES

At a global level, two conceptual frameworks for designing time use activity
classification are considered. Time use surveys are basically of two types:
Independent time use surveys or standalone surveys and Non-independent
surveys, i.e surveys conducted as a part (module) of a major survey. An
independent time use survey collects comprehensive information on the time
7 The Expert Sub-committee was led by S. Jeyalaksmi, additional Director General, Social
Statistics Division (SSD), Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).
8 These issues were reported in the Report of the Pilot Time Use survey in the States of
Gujarat and Bihar,2013,Social Statistics Division, Ministry of Statistics and Programme

Implementation.
use of the reference population without missing out any details. It has three
components: a background schedule that collects information on the respondent
and her/his household; the time use schedule/diary that collects data on the
time use of the respondents on a single day; and context variables that elicit
information on the context of the different activities of the respondent.
In the surveys conducted in India the reference period for filling up the
detail schedule was last 24 hours and time slot for recording was half an hour.
The number of contextual variables in the 2012 pilot survey was limited to three.
The background information of the household was a part of the detail schedule
and was not a separate schedule. An abridged classification of activities was
used in the pilot round accompanied by a summary list indicating the code
strings for major groups. For example the time disposition schedule apart
from including background characteristics of the household has followed both
the detailed and abridged TUS classification In order to minimize the recall
time in enumerating the activity pattern, maximum of 24 hour recall time was
proposed to be taken and to catch the variation in the activity pattern, time use
data was collected for all the individuals aged 6 years and above.
Contextual variables are an important and unique feature of time use
surveys and help in interpreting the multidimensional context and thereby help
in classifying activities. These context variables can contribute immensely in
terms of understanding the physical, social, economic and temporal features of
the environment in which the activities take place and enrich time use statistics.
They also help in classifying activities, reducing the list of activities in the
activity classification, and help in recall and thereby reduce under reporting.
Context variables have the potential to capture the multiple and simultaneous
activities of women, and in what contexts they multitask. They also enable an
understanding of the time that women spend in paid and unpaid work and how
it differs from men’s time use patterns.
For example, the context variable “for whom” of “with whom” or for
“what purpose” helps in identifying whether an activity is an SNA activity
or an extended SNA activity, by providing information on whether it is
performed for own household consumption or for sale. Also whether an
activity is performed for government or quasi-government organisation, for
corporate, for cooperative or household unit, helps in identifying the status
of an economic activity. Context variables on location help in determining
characteristics of an SNA activity, particularly in the present context when work
is done at home. Context variables are used differently in different countries as
per country specific requirement. In the context of a developing country like
India “for whom”, and “where” are important context variables. Therefore, the
sub-committee recommended the use of three context variables viz. for whom
(household enterprises, public enterprise, private enterprise etc), (b) Paid or
Unpaid and (c) Where (inside or outside household premises) (GOI, 2012).
The time dairy included columns on number of activities with a time
recording cycle of 30 minutes. The context variables were appropriately
captured through questions on where the activity took place (within or outside
household) and for whom? The context variable ‘for whom’ included options
like not for payment, self development/care etc.-1, for subsistence/own account
enterprise-2, for family enterprise(s)-3, taking care of family members-4.
Another context variable captured whether the activity was paid or not
and the mode of payment (in cash or kind.9 This pilot time-use survey in
2012 in Bihar and Gujarat follows a more comprehensive methodology than
the previous pilot survey conducted in 1998-99 in six states of India. Hence,
the experience gained in the recent pilot survey can be utilized in designing
national time-use surveys which can be undertaken on regular intervals for
capturing women’s unpaid work. Such surveys would not only contribute in
improving labour force statistics, but have the potential of addressing larger
concerns of women’s overall well-being.
CONCLUSION
In view of the above discussion, it can be stated that over representation of
women as unpaid workers makes them vulnerable in terms of their socio-
economic status depriving them of many rights. Since India has a higher share
of women workers as unpaid workers, there is a need to unmask the statistical
invisibility pertaining to such kind of work. It is also important to find out the
willingness of women to participate in labour force and if they are unable to
do so then what may be the reasons? Also, in India most of the population is
engaged in informal sector, therefore, it becomes imperative to redesign time
use surveys to capture effectively the working lives of women. Moreover, the
surveys should be formulated in such a manner that it takes into account the
cultural impediments across regions which institutionalize the invisibility of
women’s work.
India still has a long way to go since its Statistical systems need to adopt a
more gender sensitive approach in designing and planning large scale sample
surveys. The new pilot survey in 2012 has provided fresh insights and the
experience gained from the survey would enable in addressing larger policy
9 Time Disposition Schedule of the Pilot Time Use Survey conducted in Gujarat and Bihar in
2012 by Central Statistics Office, Government of India.
concerns of understanding women’s declining labour force participation,

recognition of unpaid and care work and encouraging women to participate and
sustain in the labour market. The time use surveys would not only contribute in
improvement of national accounts but would also help in formulation of working
time policies, formulation of gender and family policies, understanding the
relationship between women’s domestic division of labour and participation in
labour force and reconciliation of the demands of work and family life.
REFERENCES
Antonopoulos, Rania (2009), The Unpaid Care Work-Paid Work Connection,
Working Paper No. 86. International Labour Organization: Geneva.
Antonopoulos, Rania and Indira Hirway (2010), Unpaid Work and the
Economy, Gender, Time Use and Poverty, Palgrave: Macmillan.
Bardhan, P. (1989), ‘The New Institutional Economics and Development
Theory: A Brief Critical Assessment’ World Development, 17(9), pp.
1389-95.
Bardhan, P. (1990), ‘State and Economic Development’, Journal of Economic
Perspectives. 4(3), pp. 3-7.
Budlender, Debbie and Ann Lisbet Brathaug (2002). ‘Calculating the Value
of Unpaid Labour: A Discussion Document’. Working Paper 2002/1,
Statistics South Africa, Pretoria. Budlender.
Debbie (2008). ‘The Statistical Evidence on Care and Non-Care Work across
Six Countries’. Paper 4, Gender and Development Programme, United
Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva.
Budlender, Debbie (2010), ‘What Does Time Use Studies Tell Us About Unpaid
Care Work? Evidence From Seven Countries’ in Debbie Budlender (ed.)
Time Use Studies and Unpaid Care Work, Political and Social Economy
of Care, United Nations :UNRISD.
Beneria, Lourdes. (1979), ‘Reproduction, Production and the Sexual Division
of Labour.’ Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 203-25.
Beneria, Lourdes and Gita Sen (1981), ‘Accumulation, Reproduction and
‘Women’s Role in Economic Development’: Boserup Revisited.’ Signs:
Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 203-25.
Campillo, F. (2003), ‘Unpaid Household Labour: A Conceptual Approach,’ in
Martha Gutierrez (ed.) Macro Economics: Making Gender Matter, Zed
Books: London and New York.
Central Statistical Organisation (2001), ‘Time Use Survey 1998-99,’ Ministry
of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Central Statistics Office,
Social Statistics Division, New Delhi.
Chowdhury, Subhanil (2011), ‘Employment in India: What Does the Latest
Data Show?’ Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 46, No. 32. pp 23-26.
Collas-Monsod, Solita (2008), ‘Integrating Unpaid Work into Macroeconomics:
Some Indian Experiences,’ in Mainstreaming Time Use Surveys in
National Statistical System in India. New Delhi: Ministry of Women and

Child Development, Government of India.
Das, Maitreyi Bordia (2006), ‘Do Traditional Axes of Exclusion Affect
Labour Market Outcomes in India?’ Social Development Papers, South
Asia Series, 97, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank: Social Development
Department.
Dex, S. and McCulloch, A. (1995), Flexible Employment in Britain: A
Statistical Analysis, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.
Drew, Eileen and Emereck, Ruth (1998) ‘Employment, Flexibility and Gender’
in Drew, E., Emereck, R. and Mahon, E. (eds), Women, Work and Family
in the Europe, Routledge: London and New York, pp. 89-99.
Dreze, J. and A. Sen (2013), An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions.
New Delhi: Allen Lane and Penguin.
Duran, Maria Angeles, coord (2006). La cuenta sate´lite del trabajo no
remunerado en la comunidad de Madrid [The satellite account of unpaid
work in the community of [Madrid]. Direccioń General de la Mujer.
Madrid: Consejeria de Empleo y Mujer, Comunidad de Madrid.
Elson, D. (1995), ‘Alternative Versions’ in W. Harcout et al (eds), Towards
Alternative Economies from an European Perspective, Brussels: WIDE.
Elson D. (2000). Progress of the World’s Women 2000: UNIFEM Biennial
Report. United Nations Development Fund for Women, New York.
Esquivel, Valeria (2011), ‘Sixteen Years after Beijing: What Are the New
Policy Agendas for Time-Use Data Collection?’ Feminist Economics,
Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 215-238.
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
(2006), Reconciliation of work and family life and collective bargaining
in the European Union – An Analysis of EIRO articles, Dublin. Retrieved
from http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/public
Eustat, Instituto Vasco de Estadı´stica. (2004), La cuenta sate´lite de la
produccioń dome´stica del Paı´s Vasco [The satellite account of the
domestic production in Basque country]. Donostia-San Sebastiań:
Eustat.
Fraumeni, Barbara (2010), ‘Household Production Accounts for Canada,
Mexico, and the United States: Methodological Issues, Results, and
Recommendations’, in Pan American Health Organization (PAHO),
ed. The Invisible Economy and Gender Inequalities: The Importance

of Measuring and Valuing Unpaid Work, pp. 19-30. Washington, DC:
PAHO.
Gomez Luna, Maria Eugenia. (2010), ‘Satellite Account for Unpaid
Household Services: An Approximation for Mexico’, in Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO), ed. The Invisible Economy and Gender
Inequalities: The Importance of Measuring and Valuing Unpaid Work,
pp. 31-52. Washington, DC: PAHO.
Government of India (2012), ‘Report of the Sub-Committee on Time
Use Activity Classification,’ Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation, Central Statistics Office, Social Statistics Division, New
Delhi.
Gray, Matthew, Lixia Qu, David de Vaus, and Christine Millward (2002),
Determinants of Australian Mothers’ Employment: An Analysis of Lone
and Couple Mothers, Research Paper No. 26. Melbourne: Australian
Institute of Family Studies.
Himanshu (2011), ‘Employment Trends in India: A Re-examination,’ Economic
and Political Weekly, Vol. 46, No. 37, pp. 43-59.
Hirway, Indira and Charmes, J. (2006), ‘Estimating and Understanding
Informal Employment Through Time Use Studies, ‘Paper Presented at
Delhi Group Meeting, New Delhi.
Hirway, Indira (2010), ‘Time-Use Surveys in Developing Countries : An
Assessment’ in Rania Antonopoulos and Indira Hirway (2010), Unpaid
Work and the Economy, Gender, Time Use and Poverty, Palgrave:
Macmillan, pp. 252-324.
Hirway, Indira and Sunny Jose. (2011), Understanding Women’s Work Using
Time Use Statistics: Case of India, Feminist Economics, Vol. 17, No. 4,
pp. 67-92.
Holloway, Sue, Sandra Short, and Sarah Tamplin. (2002), Household Satellite
Account (Experimental) Methodology. London: Office for National
Statistics.
ILO (2013), India Labour Market Update, ILO Country Office for India
accessed from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/---asia/---ro-bangkok/-
-srnonew_delhi/documents/genericdocument/wcms_232565.pdf
(Accessed on 22.8.2014).
Jain, Devaki (2008), ‘Integrating Unpaid Work into Macroeconomics: Some

Indian Experiences’, in Report of the International Seminar on Towards
Mainstreaming Time Use Surveys in National Statistical System in India,
pp 168-87, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of
India, New Delhi.
John, Mary E. (1996), Discrepant Dislocations: Feminism, Theory, and
Postcolonial Histories. Berkeley-Los Angeles-Oxford: University of
California Press.
Mazumdar Indrani and Neetha N. (2011), ‘Gender Dimensions: Employment
Trends in India: 1993-4 to 2009-10,’ Occasional Paper No. 56. New Delhi:
Centre for Women’s Development Studies.
McHugh, Marilyn and Jane Millar (1997), ‘Single Mothers in Australia:
Supporting Mothers to Seek Work’ in Simon Duncan and Rosalind
Edwards (eds.), Single Mothers in an International Context: Mothers or
Workers, London: UCL Press.
Mies, Maria (1998), Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, Women
in the International Division of Labour, Zed Books: London and New
York.
Olsen, Wendy, and Smita Mehta (2006), ‘A Pluralist Account of Labour
Participation in India, Working Paper, Global Poverty Research Group,
Manchester: University of Manchester.
NCEUS (2007), Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods
in the Unorganised Sector, National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector, New Delhi.
Neff Daniel, Kunal Sen and Veronika King (2012), ‘The Puzzling Decline in
Rural Women’s Labour Force Participation in India: A Re-examination,’
Working Paper, GIGA Research Unit: Institute of Asian Studies, May
2012, No. 196, pp. 1-29.
Palriwala, R. and Neetha N (2010), ‘Care Arrangements and Bargains:
Aanganwadi and Paid Domestic Workers in India,’ International Labour
Review, Vol. 149 No. 4.
Rangarajan, C, Padma Iyer Kaul and Seema (2011) ‘Where is the Missing
Labour Force?’ Economic & Political Weekly, 24 September, Vol. XLVI,
No. 39.
Srivastava, N. and R. Srivastava (2010), ‘Women, Work, and Employment

Outcomes in Rural India,’ in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 45, no.
28, pp. 49-63.
Statistics New Zealand. (2001), Measuring Unpaid Work in New Zealand
1999. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (2010), ‘Developing Gender
Statistics: A Practical Tool,’ reference manual prepared by UNECE Task
Force on Gender Statistics Training for Statisticians with contributions
from various experts, United Nations : Geneva
Thomas, Jayan Jose (2012) ‘India’s Labour Market During 2000s,’ Economic
and Political Weekly, Vol. 47, No. 51, pp. 29-31.
Trewin, Dennis. (2000), Unpaid Work and the Australian Economy: 1997.
Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Varjonen, Johanna and Kristiina Aalto (2006), Household Production and
Consumption in Finland 2001: Household Satellite Account. Helsinki:
Statistics Finland and National Consumer Research Centre.
18
Gendered Attitude in Domestic Work

Participation: A Study of Two-Working Families
in India
Uttam Kumar Panda
If you ask me ‘what is gender’, I probably would try to put forward an answer
or a set of answers and my answer (s) may facilitate you to understand the
concept partially or fully you interrogated or on the other way may lead you
to a state of perplexity, dilemma and predicament. To gender scholars, the
second part of the answer in fact instigates to work further. Defining gender is
an uneasy task, because of the subjectivity in human cultures, traditions and
modernity; societies experience. ‘Gender’ is different from mere the word,
‘Sex’. ‘Sex’ refers to the ‘biological’ and ‘physiological’ characteristics that
define men and women. “Gender refers to the socially constructed roles,
behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate
for men and women (WHO, 2007)”. Although the term gender is widely
used, there is no common understanding of its meaning, even among feminist
scholars (Acker, 1992). Gender used to be seen as the psychological, social
and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness (Kessler & Mc Kenna, 1978).
Gender is a multilevel phenomenon (Risman, 1998). Gender is as “a system of
social practices and this system creates and maintains gender distinctions and
it organizes relations of inequality on the basis of these distinctions” (Wharton,
2012). ‘Gender’ is the dynamics of ‘cultural-sex’ and ‘sex-roles’ and a process
of social construction and reconstruction of human attributes which allows an
individual to play roles in a cultural society where she/he lives (Panda, 2011).
Gender socialization and attitude formation exist together.
In the times of yore, a capacious amount of research had been directed
towards understanding gender relations and the roles of both men and women
in our nascent society. In particular, some researches have been able to
differentiate between remunerated labours inside or outside of the household
and the differentiation of paid and unpaid labour. Furthermore men and women
are treated differently due to the socially constructed behaviours, attitudes and
expectations that are attached to these differentiated types of works. Every
human society is invariably characterized by social differentiations and gender
based differentiation is one of them. This has been relatively more specific
in early societies. Accordingly men and women were strictly socialized and
treated differently. They were assigned different roles and statuses. Men had
the role of bread earning and protection of women and children; women had
the roles of reproduction of heirs and home making. But this context has
been changing due to modernization, education, mobility of people, culture,
technology, movements world-wide. Subsequently, Life-styles are affected
both positively and negatively. Education played an important role in changing
the perception, attitude, ideology and feeling of an individual. Education with
employment adds more values to an individual for the construction of his/her
identity, rationality, power and reshaping gender roles inside and outside the
family. The gender issue is not limited within any particular nation rather it
influences to bring social equality right through the world. The present study
is very specific and conducted in two Indian States. Indian social structure,
cultural settings and traditions are very distinctive to other societies in the
world and to generalize the facts in a common parameter is somewhat a
complex task.
This article is based on a micro study conducted in two capital cities
namely Bhubaneswar (State Capital of Odisha) and Delhi (National Capital
of India). I have fervently tried to explore the types of attitudinal changes that
have been occurring in traditional gender role expectations in India. In broad,
how education and employment as extraneous variables have been becoming
factors to bring changes in the both men and women’s role in family, decision-
making, career building, shaping of individual identity, rationality, attitude,
liberty and independence were the major issues of the study. The issue, gender
inequality is not fresh to any society rather it is universal to every society and
most importantly in this twenty first century too. The concept, gender is though
not a new issue entirely in Sociological teaching and research, however has a
short history and a long past in academic discourse. Gender studies came into
existence in the middle of the 20th century in the world of academics. Gender
studies are an emergence from Women’s studies. Mostly, when any research
talks about gender issues, it is specific to ‘women issues’ directly or indirectly.
In gender study, always the investigation and analysis starts with comparing
women with men in terms of behavior patterns, roles, attitudes, expectations,
limitations, opportunities, status and laws related to the particular society and
so on. The present research has taken the ‘two-working families as units of
Gendered Attitude in Domestic Work Participation... 343
study and furthermore tried to compare the attitudinal differences in domestic

work participation of the two-working families. Traditionally, domestic
chores were treated as feminine roles and how this conventional attitude have
gradually been changing or shifting is attention-grabbing part of this study.
The work aims at two important objectives. One is to analyze the changes
in the traditional gender role expectations of the two-working families and
secondly to examine the changing attitude of the husband/male spouse and the
other family members on the employed-woman/female-spouse as a source of
family support and how this context affects the gender role expectations in the
positive directions of economic independence and liberty of women.
FOCAL ISSUES OF DISCUSSION

In this twenty-first century, women have been exploring possibilities and
significantly have increased their participation in organized workforce.
Employment of women in organised sector was 49.53 lakh in 2001 and
further went up from 58.59 lakh in March, 2010 to 59.54 lakh in March,
2011, registering an increase of 1.63%. Women’s employment in Public sector
registered a marginal decline of 0.79% whereas Private sector recorded an
increase of 4.54% during 2010-11. Women occupy 20.5% of total employment
in organized sector (Employment Review, 2011).1 While there is an increasing
trend of women’s participation in organized workforce is observed, on the
other side some new family issues emerged. They are:
1. To what extent and how is the traditional gender role expectations
particularly domestic work responsibilities of the careered woman
changing?
2. Whether the Indian two-working families are passing through a transition
between change and continuities on the subject of domestic work
distribution or sharing?
1 This Publication on Employment Review is 38th in the series of its annual issues being
prepared and published by the Directorate General of Employment and Training in the
Ministry of Labour & Employment. The information contained in this review is based on
data collected through the network of Employment Exchanges in the country under the
Employment Market Information (EMI) Programme of the D.G.E. & T., which is the only
source of employment data in the organised sector of our economy (2013). Employment in
the organised sector has gone up from 287.08 lakh in March, 2010 to 289.99 lakh in March,
2011 recording an increase of 1.0 per cent. Employment in Public Sector has marginally
declined (1.8%) whereas Private Sector has recorded an increase of 5.6% during 2011 over
previous year.
3. How are the attitudes of the husband and the other family members of the
family positively changing towards the careered-woman?
4. To what degree do employed women enjoy their new liberty and
freedom?
5. How does a woman’s increased earning capacity add new values and
enhance her status in the family?
This study was carried out with some hypotheses mentioned underneath.
1. Education and employment brings positive changes in the traditional
gender role expectations in the dual-career (two-working) families.
2. Traditional gender roles such as housekeeping and kitchen works and
other domestic chores of women have been shared by the spouse in dual-
career families.
3. Woman as an employed wife is still governed by the traditional family
norms and dedicated to her husband.
4. Woman as an employed-wife adds new values and importance in the
family due to her earning capacity.
5. Careered-woman has been loosing interest in domestic or household
chores.
6. The attitude of a husband and other family members towards an employed-
woman/wife is changing positively.
7. Husband shares in the ‘domestic chores’ developing the idea that is his
‘duty’ as the wife performs them regularly.
8. Husband shares in the domestic work having ‘good interest’ as the wife
performs.
9. Employed wife gains feelings of independence, enjoyment from increased
liberty and freedoms equally with her husband.
10. Employed wife is enjoying a powerful status similar to what her spouse
enjoys.
METHODOLOGY
The dual-career life-style is relatively a new phenomenon in India and very
few studies have been conducted on this issue. My study uses the concept
‘dual-career couples’ and ‘two-working families’ interchangeably. Most
studies that have looked at work and family issues in India have basically
paid attention to the working women/wives and their changing status in
society (e.g. Mitra, Pathak, Mukherjee, 1980), or on dual worker as opposed

to dual-career couples (e.g. Ramu, 1989; Singh & Sahgal, 1995). The snowball
sampling technique (Green, Tull, Abrahm, 1995; Bhatnagar & Rajadhyaksha,
2001) and empirical research method using questionnaires were used to collect
information about the research problem. This technique was applied because
there was not any readily available statistics with any department or agency of
India resting on two-working families. It was very difficult to know the exact
size of the universe. So, the Snowball Sampling method was preferred instead
of other methods of sample selection. The minimum age of a respondent was
determined at 18 years and maximum was 45 years. Since the questionnaire
was administered in English, a minimum of 10 years of education for each
respondent was determined to be the minimum level. It was the limitation
of the researcher to prepare the questionnaires in Hindi or Oriya languages.
Being the reason to convert the data into English from two or more regional
languages could become a key problem for the researcher. The respondent
couples working in Delhi were from different language backgrounds and
not every one of them was comfortable with Hindi language including the
researcher. In order to collect primary data, the selected tools and techniques
play important roles in expected research findings and objectivity. The study
was conducted by using two structured questionnaires, one was administered
for the husband and the second one was for the wife. Some questions were
common and some were specific. The questionnaires were filled by the
respondents without consulting each other in the presence of the Researcher.
After completing the questionnaires by the dual-career couples, there was an
informal discussion for half an hour (30 minutes) with each respondent family
to observe their feelings and opinions about the questions and their relevance
to gender issues.
The empirical data collected in 2009, with follow-up field visits in 2011
and 2013 using structured questionnaires were classified categorically and
coded including the step-by-step recoding of open-ended answers. The data
were entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-12) for cross
tabulation. The data were analyzed with the help of frequency distribution and
percentage calculation and then compared gender-wise and state-wise to find the
differences in the both Study-States. The hypotheses were tested to know their
validity. For the test of hypotheses, a non-parametric test (Chi-Square Test) had
been administered. A Likert-Type measuring scale was used for quantifying the
opinions was qualitative in nature. The scale was a 5-point continuum and a
value was decided for each response code. For example: Strongly Disagree-1,
Disagree-2, No Opinion-3, Agree-4 and Strongly Agree-5.
WOMEN, WORK AND ATTITUDE

Mohini (1972), in a comparative study, ‘The Attitudes of Educated Working
Women of India and Turkey’ concludes that a majority of respondents of India
(Chandigarh) working in different positions still believe in the natural superiority
of men and majority of Turkish women do not believe so. Goldstein’s (1972)
study, “Indian Women in Transition” reports that higher education has changed
the attitude of women to consider career as an alternative to marriage. Doshi
and Arora’s (1972) study explores that the educated girls, particularly students
have a strong desire to free themselves from the social rituals and traditional
gender roles. Ramanamma (1979), in her study “Graduate Employed Women
in Our Urban Setting” analyzed the attitudes and roles of educated women
and she confirmed that the traditional roles of working women have not
undergone much change and women still feel that home and children are their
own individual responsibility. Bentell et. al. (1983) show that “Those working
women experience more role conflict whose husband’s have comparatively
traditional sex-role attitudes.” Keown & Keown (1982) studied on “Success
Factors for Successful Women Executives” and found that the successful
women executives have positive attitude towards themselves, families and
their work environment. Juster & Pleeck (1985) studied on “A Note on Recent
Changes in Time Use” and reports that there is a slight positive change in the
attitude of husbands regarding the sharing of household work and the amount
of time they spend in such work.
Coverman & Shelly’s (1986) study concludes that there is little change in
the amount of time that husbands’ spend on household activities in dual earner
families. Juster & Pleeck (1985) reported that “there is a slight positive change
in the attitude of husband’s regarding the sharing of the household work and the
amount of time they spend in such work”. Indira Devi’s (1987) study ‘Women,
Education, Employment, Family and Living’ indicates that education and
employment have changed the lives of women, their attitudes and thinking.
Consequently, they became modern and their husbands however remained
traditional. Hence the interpersonal relations between couples in dual-earner
families have remained to unchanged to the extent of being almost the same.
Neera Desai’s (1957) study, “Women in Modern India” finds that educated
women consider self-respect and development of personality as necessary goals
of life. Her study reveals that women achieve personal status, independent
recognition, self-confidence and changed outlook with employment. The status
of women is not significantly improved. Jephcott, et. al. (1962) in their study
indicated that the employment of married women has no negative effect on
retaining good relations at home; rather it has helped the relations to improve.
The identity of the women has been positively constructed. The employed
wife enjoys more power and liberty than unemployed wives. Brannen & Moss
(1990) studied on a research Project, “Unemployment and Attitudes to Work
in Britain and France” and observed that employed mothers, in particular were
vulnerable to official discourses on how to be ‘proper’ mothers. This is so
because these discourses prohibit the ‘leaving’ of children. They are unlikely
to be part of the private discourses of non-employed mothers, since unlike
unemployed mothers; they do not build up network with other mothers after
childbirth. Das, Mohan, et. al. (1991) in their study “Gender and Work” found
that employment as a means for middle class women that contributes to the
quality of life and prosperity of the family and on the other hand they observe
that the traditional gender role conceptions have not being substituted by the
new ones, the gender bias, however, has started to wane. Chatterji (1993)
writes that “Women derive power from two sources: 1. from men, 2. from their
own productive work. She explains that a woman derives power from the man
in family with her ability to produce off-spring, specially the male. Women
get such power when her husband loves her more than she loves him. It is true
only when he is ready to relinquish his power over her. Further she derives
power from the father’s social status or wealth. In the sense that the women
can benefit greatly in the husband’s family if she brings more dowry”.
D.K. Sudha’s (1994) study ‘Employment and Unemployment among
Educated Married Women’ explicates that educated married women take up jobs
for a combination of socio-economic and psychological reasons today. Economic
reasons are found more significant. Regarding the consequences of women’s
employment, the study shows that gainful employment results in perception of
better standards of living, sense of economic independence and enhancement
of prestige in family and society. Teresa Tinklin et. al. (2005) enquired the
views of 14-16 year-olds in the year 2000 on work and family roles, exploring
both their general views on gender roles and their own personal aspirations for
the future. Generally the young people believed that it was equally important
for males and females to get good education at school, to have worthwhile
careers and that childcare should be a joint responsibility. They also believed
that males and females could do any job they wanted to these days. Their views
were tempered, however, by the inequalities that they saw around them in the
workplace and in their own families. While young people’s attitudes may have
changed, they are still choosing fairly gender-typical subjects at school and
aspiring to different types of occupation. The study concludes that while great
strides have been made in changing attitudes towards gender equality, there is
still a long way to go before equal opportunities are really achieved.
MEN’S PARTICIPATION IN DOMESTIC ROLES

Olsen (1960) studied on “Distribution of Family Responsibilities and Social
Stratification” and found that there was no significant difference between the
dual-earner and single-earner families as far the distribution of household
work is concerned. Nolan (1963) observes that employed wives have shifted
the responsibility of housekeeping both on to their husbands and commercial
services. In the USA, men’s absolute and proportionate contributions to
household tasks increased substantially over the past three decades, substantially
lessening the burden on women. National cross-time series of time-use diary
studies show that from the 1960s to the 21st century, men’s contribution to
housework doubled, increasing from about 15 to over 30 percent of the total
(Robinson & Godbey 1999; Fisher et al 2006). By the early 21st century, the
average full- or part-time employed US married woman with children was
doing two hours less housework than in 1965. The most dramatic increase in
men’s contributions has been to child care. Between 1965 and 2003, men tripled
the amount of time they spent in child care (Bianchi, Robinson and Milkie
2005; Fisher et al 2006). Fathers in two-parent households now spend more
time with co-resident children than at any time since large-scale longitudinally
comparable data were collected (Coltrane, 2004; Pleck and Brian, 2003). In
this period, women also increased their time spent in child-care and interaction
with children, doubling it over the period from 1965 to 2003. This mutual
increase in child care appears to be related to higher standards for both mothers
and fathers about spending time with children. These trends are occurring in
much of the Western industrial world, suggesting a worldwide movement
toward men and women sharing the responsibilities of both work-life and
family life. Data from 20 industrialized countries over the period 1965-2003
reveal an overall cross-country increase in men’s proportional contribution to
family work (including housework, child care and shopping), from less than
one-fifth in 1965 to more than a third by 2003 (Hook, 2006). Furthermore,
an analysis of couple’s relative contribution to housework in Britain found
a steady growth from the 1960s to the 1990s in the percentage of families
where the man contributed more time to family work (including housework,
shopping and child care) than the woman. This trend was particularly marked
among full-time employed couples (Sullivan, 2006). There is, overall, a striking
convergence of work-family patterns for US men and women. While the total
hours of work (including both paid and family work) done by men and women
have remained roughly equal since the 1960s (Fisher et al 2006) – in particular
for parents (Bianchi et al, 2006) – there has been a growing convergence in the
hours that both women and men spend in the broad categories of paid work,
family work and leisure. Women’s paid work time has significantly increased,
while that of men has decreased. Correspondingly, women’s time devoted to
housework has decreased; while the time men spend in family work of all
kinds has increased (Fisher et al 2006). Men with most traditional gender
attitude experience the most guilt when their family conflicts with their work
compared to women and compared to more egalitarian men. Contrary to the
popular perception that only women are affected by work-family conflict,
men also experience guilt from this conflict-sometimes even more so than do
women (Livingston & Judge, 2010). Work-family conflict situations appear
when the expectations associated with one domain are incompatible with the
demands associated with the other domain. The conflictive interface between
home and work was observed as a potential stressor (Voydanoff, 1988; Khan,
et. al., 2014).
G.K. Gill’s (1995) study “Gender Roles, Negotiations and Coping
Strategies: A Qualitative Study of two-income couples” illustrates how the
traditional gender roles are negotiated and socially constructed out of necessity
in an ongoing interaction in two-income households. With regard to husbands’
and wives’ roles, Gill found three kinds of relationships; these are traditional
provider-traditional contributor, egalitarian provider-traditional contributor and
helper accountability kind of roles. In the first type of role relationship, husband
is the main bread earner and wife is contributing to the family income. The
wife still has the main responsibility of home making and daily management
of the household. The second model ideally allows either husband or wife or
both to provide. They had less rigid perception for economic provision, but in
both options the wife was mainly responsible for home making and performed
a majority of household chores. The third type reveals that almost all families
viewed house work as something that ought to be shared but women seemed
to be responsible for getting it done. Women felt morally committed to the
housework while men and children remain in the background as ‘back-up’.
Sudha’s (2000) study “Gender Roles” reveals that there is a little positive
change in the traditional gender role expectations of urban women. However,
such a change is not substantial and it denotes only a slight improvement in
the status and power of women in their gender roles. Specifically, in relation to
change in wife and mother’s role, the study concludes that household chores
are still held to be the responsibility of a wife but not husband’s. However,
Women’s employment encourages husbands to share a little household work
in certain dual earner families. She explored that those husbands share work
related to children, shopping and they like but not cooking, washing, cleaning
etc. Husband shares work at home especially when their wives are employed
as only a help but not as a duty. Coltrane’s (2000) study on “Household Labor:
Modeling and Measuring the Social Embeddedness of Routine Family Work”
shows that when men do more of the housework, women’s perceptions of
fairness and marital satisfaction rise and the couple experiences less marital
conflict. Finally, there is less role conflict. P. Arora (2003) explored through
her study “Professional Women: Dual Role and Conflicts” that women are
taking up the extra role of self expression, exercising creativity wherever
and in whichever field they are, striving hard to achieve the objectives of self
growth. These new roles are the additional to the age old assigned role of
bearing and rearing of children and management of domestic and household
responsibilities. In her study, Sullivan (2006), “Changing Gender Relations,
Changing Families: Tracing the Pace of Change over Time (Gender Lens
Series)” found that greater belief in gender equality and more equal sharing
of tasks brings the possibility of more equal and open negotiation about who
does what in families. This should have positive outcomes for the families
involved, since supporting the general association between sharing housework
and healthier marriages. Cooke (2006), “Doing Gender in Context: Household
Bargaining and Risk of Divorce in Germany and the United States” brought
into being that couples in the United States of America who have more equal
divisions of labour are less likely to divorce than couples where one partner
specializes in bread-winning and the other partner specializes in family work.
Due to the ideology of patriarchy in the Nigerian society people believe that
women alone must engage in the multiple roles of the family care and domestic
responsibilities (Christiana and Ogbogu, 2013).
DOMESTIC WORK, ATTITUDE AND TWO-WORKING FAMILIES:

FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Attitude could be defined as an orientation towards a person, situation,
institution or social process that is held to be indicative of an underlying value
or belief; or among those who insist that attitudes can only be inferred from
observed behavior, as a tendency to act in a certain way towards persons and
situations. Sociologists and psychologists have invested a great deal of effort
in the measurement of attitudes, opinions and views on society at large; on
relationships and events within it; and on the identification and measurement
of underlying values which are less volatile, more deeply held prejudices. At
the simplest level, attitude questions invite people to agree or disagree, approve
or disapprove to something (Oxford dictionary of sociology, 2007). India is
known as a tradition based society across the world. Now, Indian society is
passing through a transition. A transition, that is between reason and tradition.
A transition is between traditional attitude and right to gender equality.

People are witnessing both changes and continuities in their cultural beliefs
and gendered attitudes. Though there are changes have been taking place in
the two-working families, hitherto lot of contrasting factors still continues.
Domestic participation of male spouses have been increasing, however they are
doing those chores being helper to their spouses. Working men’s involvement
in domestic chores could be interpreted as a great attitudinal social change in
India. Yet again doing these works making an allowance for them as duty of
men presents a postmodern outlook of the current society. It is true that usually
male spouses do not take up all types of domestic chores. Therefore, there
is no wrong to say that they are selective. At this juncture, certain questions
come up to mind connecting to working men’s changing attitude on the
aspect of their increasing participation in domestic chores whilst those works
were conventionally in the domain of women. Training of how to perform
domestic chores to young woman/girl is/was very much a part of gender role
construction. Recently, education and employment statuses of women compel
men to change their traditional attitudes.
Conventionally, kitchen works at home were known as feminine roles and
specifically women had been bearing the responsibilities. There are certain
drastic attitudinal changes have been noticed in the two-working families
of India. The female-spouses in this study recognize their husband’s role in
domestic works. This study was very much keen to know the existence stratum
of traditional attitude of the male spouses in regard to kitchen works as feminine
roles. The distribution presented in Table 5 explains the facts regarding the
perception whether the husbands still continue the same idea that kitchen
work is feminine in nature or not. The dual-career couples were asked certain
questions related to their participation in domestic chores of the household.
More often than not who bears the responsibility of dish washing? Who cleans
the kitchen, floor, bath room very often? Who does the laundry work often?
Who takes the responsibility of grocery and vegetable shopping? Who takes
the responsibility of paying various bills such as electricity, telephone, cable;
milk and water in the end of the month (see Table 1)? Apart from this, for
evaluation of their attitudes, the male spouses were asked some questions
connected to domestic chores, whether they do them as duty, helper, or due to
wife’s employment and educational status.
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
• A majority of female spouses still continue their traditional chores such
as preparation of breakfast (83.1%), lunch (50.6%), dinner (52.5%) and
vegetable shopping (47.5%) etc. Some areas of domestic works related

to payment of bills such as telephone (61.6%), electricity (63.4%), cable
(67.8%) and water (53.1%) were done by the male spouses; however a
slight mutual participation in these areas were also observed. In large
number of cases, domestic chores like dish washing, cleaning, laundry,
dusting, preparation of lunch and dinner were done by the paid domestic
workers in two-working families. Hence the unpaid domestic works had
been converted into paid works in the two-working families and sharing
of domestic chores among the dual-career couples in metro cities is
increasingly faster than the middle range cities in India.
• A large majority, 82.5% of males and the 83.8% of female spouses from
Odisha and 78.8% of male and 85.1% of the female spouses from Delhi
had accepted that the education plays an important role in changing
the attitude of both the spouses towards acceptance and sharing of the
traditional gender roles of women and vice versa. The hypothesis was
found significant at 5% level.
• Though there is a vast unwillingness to partaking domestic chores at a
standstill, a majority of the working women continuing their concern in
domestic chores for family well-being.
• Unequal sharing in domestic chores does not cause acute spousal conflict
often in the dual-career families. However, according to the study
observation, female-spouses face more spousal conflicts than the male-
spouses sometimes.
• Approximately, half of the female spouses had been facing role conflict
and the other half denied that the domestic chores do not cause them role
conflict. This difference was found because a large number of female
spouses had been working 5-6 hours a day and most of them had school/
college teaching jobs, other low risk government jobs and apart from
that many of them had paid domestic-workers to perform the domestic
responsibilities. That’s why a majority of employed wives disagreed on
the point that domestic work is not solely responsible for role conflict.
• Concerning 57.6% of the male spouses out of a total, 160 respondents
confirmed that their working-wives face role conflict, if they do domestic
works regularly.
• Careered-men from Delhi were found in a hefty number (45.2%) who
were in a situation of moderate level of role-conflicts than male and
female-respondents from Odisha and female-spouses from Delhi. The
majority of the two-working families from Odisha were found in lower

level of role conflicts whereas in Delhi the majority of respondents were
in moderate level of role conflicts. It is because of the couples working
in private sector in Delhi do not get adequate time to spend with family
and to managing domestic responsibilities regularly. The higher level
role conflict was observed among the private sector employees than the
public/government sector employees in both the study States.
• About 17.5% of male and 25% of female respondents from Odisha and
23.8% of male and the 32.6% of female respondents from Delhi had
shown their agreements on the issue that during the conflict between
couples related to domestic roles and job roles often the situation compels
wife to lose her job. Still a good number of dual-career couples believe
that in conflict situation wife has to suffer first in losing her job.
• Two-working families living in cities had been reducing their attitudinal
differences in relation to sharing of domestic chores, this particular
change is acknowledged only because of the male-spouses have been
increasing ‘interest’ in domestic chores. The domestic chores are not
remained as feminine roles only rather situations changing the masculine
attitudes and that might be compromisingly. And employment status of
the spouses is one of the focal causes to reach at the consequence of
this achieved gender equality. Working-men’s increasing participation in
domestic chores with good intension was experiential just about similar
in both the study states. Taking up domestic chores with interest by
the working-male spouses in a higher majority (75%) demonstrate the
changes in traditional attitudes of the gender role expectations in one
hand and on the hand Indian society has been achieving gender equality
and receiving an encouragement for restructuration of society.
• Despite the fact that there are changes have been taking place in the
two-working families, hitherto lot of contrasting factors still continues.
Domestic work participation of male spouses have been increasing,
however they are doing those chores being ‘helper’ to their spouses.
A majority (75%) of the dual career couples were agreed on the query
done on the affair that the male-spouse shares in the domestic chores as
a helper to the wife. A vast number of male spouses (Odisha: 65% and
Delhi: 41.3%) of male-spouses accepted that they participate in domestic
chores as ‘helpers’ to their wives. The hypothesis that the husband shares
in domestic works as a helper to his wife is proved significant at the
5% level.
• In a broad-spectrum, working wives from Odisha (80% ) and Delhi

(52.5%) attributed that their male-spouses share in the domestic chores
mounting an understanding that domestic chores are also their ‘duties’ to
perform. A new-fangled thesis emerged at this point that the traditional
gender roles (i.e. domestic chores as wife’s responsibility) are changing
rapidly among the dual-career families. This attitudinal change was
found more frequent in a middle range city like Bhubaneswar in Odisha
than the metro city/national capital like Delhi. Apart from that, two-
working families are becoming change-agents in society by creating an
understanding that domestic chores are not the duties of female members
of the household only rather they are mutual responsibilities and duties of
both genders.
• As a conclusion, it was also observed that the male spouses had been
partaking in the domestic chores when their wives had ‘requested’ to
assist them and this tendency was found in the majority of families. The
hypothesis was found significant.
• The hypothesis that husband shares in the domestic work what he ‘likes’
only was proved significant at 5% level both in Odisha and Delhi. The
very idea that attitudinal change of male spouses regarding sharing of
domestic work is still in a transition because this study confirms that
though males pick up few chores to reduce the burden of their spouses at
a standstill they choose some what they like only.
• Training of how to perform domestic chores to a young woman is/was
very much a part of gender role construction. Recently, education and
employment statuses of women compel men to change the long-established
traditional attitude on domestic work participation. The employment and
educational status of the female-spouses are not the only factors but the
employed women recognize that the changing socialization pattern of the
males in their families help them to achieving equal status with men in
their families and society at large.
• Almost half of the two-working families approve that male spouses share
some domestic chores due to similar office timings. It is evident that just
about half of the male spouses have changed their attitude and taking up
these works as their responsibilities.
• The perception that the husband/male-spouse keeps the idea that kitchen
work is feminine in nature was rejected by the majority of the female-
spouses in both Delhi (82.6%) and Odisha (72.5%). Domestic works are
feminine activities and feminine in nature also are so called traditional
norms in Indian families but this perception has been changing rapidly
among the dual career families in India. The female-spouses in this study
recognize their husband’s role in domestic works. This attitudinal change
was observed faster in metro culture than medium range city culture in
India. So, a majority of two-working families recognizes that kitchen
work at home is no more a feminine role alone; however those roles are
converted into joint roles.
CONCLUSION
The attitudes of both the genders had been facing a transition in order to
deal with their domestic work participation and job roles. Historically
Historically, man
was free from these activities and in the two-working family dynamics, he
became a party to attitude change in one end and on the other, he has to accept
domestic works as his newly added responsibility. The study recommends
to bringing changes in the conventional process of gender construction
starting from childhood, education, career to meaningful life. According to
this study
study, the families those who were capable to afford domestic-workers,
they did and converted the unpaid domestic works to paid works. So, at this
time two-working families are losing their interest in these activities. Woman
as an employed wife has been adding new values like liberty,2 freedom and
independency to their families and in the contrary two-working families have
been experiencing structural changes, and role conflicts led family conflicts.
Women at work have achieved gender-equality in edifying their importance
and changing patriarchal attitude of the family considerably. This study talks
about the gender equality in domestic work participation along with the
traditional pattern of man’s socialization as a prerequisite to be restructured
through our school curriculum. Reconstruction of men-gender on the line of
equality framework will certainly help in family-wellbeing and will be helpful
in reduction of discriminations against women. This study is limited to focus
on attitudinal change in the domestic work participation of dual-career families
in India only. Further it may attract gender scholars to take up studies on all
associated other issues allied with gender attitude and socialization which can
help in reshaping the twenty first century family dynamics.
2 To Isaiah Berlin (1969), one’s liberty is to choose to live as one desires whereas for Amartya
Sen (1995) liberty is the ability to choose to live as one desires, rather than the mechanism
of control.
REFERENCES
Acker, Joan (1992). Gendering Organisational Theory in Albert J. Mills Peta
Tancred (eds) “Gendering Organisational Analysis”. Newbery Park, CA.
Sage Publications.
Arora, Poonam (2003). Professional Women: Dual Role and Conflicts. New
Delhi. Manak Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Berlin, I. (1969). Four Essays on Liberty. 2nd Edition, London, Oxford
University Press.
Bhatnagar, D. & Rajadhyaksha, U. (2001). Attitude towards Work and Family
Roles and Their Implications for Career Growth of Women: A Report
from India’, Sex Roles, Vol. 45, Nos. 7/8, pp. 549-565.
Bianchi, S.M., John P. Robinson & Melissa A. Milkie (2006). Changing
Rhythms of American Family Life (Rose Series in Sociology). New York.
Russell Sage Foundation Publications.
Brannen & Moss (1990). The ESRC/CNRS Supported Research Project,
“Unemployment and Attitudes to Work in Britain and France”. Franco-
British Programme Grant No. R101230008.
Chatterji, A. Shoma (1993). The Indian Women in Perspective. New Delhi.
Ajanta Publications.
Christiana, O., Ogbogu (2013). Work-Family Role Conflict among Academic
Women in Nigerian Public Universities. The WEI International Academic
Conference Proceedings Orlando, USA. Visited on 09th September 2014:
http://www.westeastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ORL13-
158-Christiana-Ogbogu.pdf.
Coltrane, Scott (2004). Fathering: paradoxes, Contradictions and Dilemmas
in “Hand Book of Contemporary Families: Considering the Past,
Contemplating the Future” Marilyn Coleman & Lawrence Ganong (eds.),
Thousand Oaks, Canada. Sage Publications.
Coltrane, Scott (2000). Research on household labor: modeling and measuring
the social embeddedness of routine family work. Journal of Marriage and
the family, 62, pp. 1209-1233.
Coverman & Shelly & Joseph, F. Sheley (1986). Change in Men’s House Work
and Child Care. Journal of Marriage and the Family. Time, 1965-75.
Cooke, Lynn P. (2006). Doing Gender in Context: Household Bargaining and

Risk of Divorce in Germany and the United States. American Journal of
Sociology, Vol. 112, No. 2, pp. 442-472.
Das, Mohan, et. al. (1991). Gender and Work: A Research Paper Presented at
National Seminar: Kuvempu University, Karnataka, India.
Desai, Neera (1957). Women in Modern India. Mumbai, Vora & Co. Publishers,
Pvt. Ltd.
Fisher, K., Muriel, E, Jonathan, I. and John, P. Robinson (2006). Gender
Conversion in American Heritage Time Use Study. Social Indicators
Research, DOI 10.1007/s11205-006-9017-y.
Gill, G.K. (1995). Gender Roles, Negotiations and Coping Strategies: A
Quality Study of Two-Income Couples’ in “Gender Roles and Family
Analysis” edited by Man Singh Das & Vijay Kumar Gupta, New Delhi.
M.D. Publications, Pvt. Ltd.
Govt. of India, Employment Review (2013). 38th Series 2011, Ministry of
Labour and Employment.
Green, P.E., Tull, D.S. & Abraham, G. (1995). Research for Making Decisions.
New Delhi. Prentice Hall.
Hook, J.L. (2006). Care in Context: Men’s Unpaid work in 20 Countries, 1965-
2003. American Sociological Review, Vol. 71. No. 4, pp. 639-660.
Jephcott, P. et. al. (1962). Married Women Working. London. George Alien &
Unwin Ltd.
Keown, C.F. Jr. & A.L. Keown (1982). Success Factors for Corporate Women
Executives. Group and Organisational Studies, 7 (4).
Kessler, S.J. & McKenna, W. (1978). Gender: An Ethnomethodological
Approach. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Khan, M.R., Nazir N., Kazmi, S ., Khalid, A., Kiyani, T.M. , Shahzad, A.
(2014).Work-Family Conflict and Turnover Intentions: Mediating Effect
of Stress. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 4,
No. 5(1).
Livingston, B.A., Judge, T.A. (2010). Work-Family Conflict Not Just a
Women’s Issue: Helping All Employees Find Work-life Balance, CAHRS
Research Link-5, New York. Cornell University.
Mitra, A., Pathak, L. Mukherjee, S. (1980). ‘The Status of Women: Shifts

in Occupational Participation, 1961-1971, New Delhi. Abhinav
Publications.
Mohini (1972). The Attitudes of the Educated-Working Women of India and
Turkey-A Case Study of Chandigarh and Ankara (Ph.D. Thesis: Punjab
University), Chandigarh.
Nolan, F.L. (1963). Effects on Rural Children’, in Nye. F.I. & Hoffman, W.H.
(eds.), “The Employed Mother in America. Chicago. Rand, McNally.
Olson, M.E. (1960). Distribution of Family Responsibilities and Social
Stratification. Marriage and Family Living, 22.
Panda, Uttam Kumar (2011). Role Conflict, Stress and Dual-Career Couples:
An Empirical Study. The Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 57, No. 2:72-
88.
Pleck, Joseph H. & Brian P.M. (2003). Paternal involvement: Levels, Sources
and Consequences’ in Michael E. Lamb (ed.), “The Role of Father in
Child Development” New York. John Wiley.
Ramanamma, A. & U. Bombaiwala (1979). Women in Indian Industry. New
Delhi. Mittal Publications.
Ramu, G.N. (1989). W omen, Work & Marriage in Urban India. New Delhi.
Sage Publications.
Risman, Barbara J. (1998). Gender Vertigo’, New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
Robinson, John, P. & Godbey, G. (1997). Time for Life: The Surprising Ways
Americans Use Their Time. State College, Pennsylvania, State University
Press PA.
Sen, Amartya (1995). Inequality Reexamined. New Delhi, Oxford University
Press.
Singh, A.K., & Sahgal, P. (1995). Men and Women in Transition: Patterns of
Stress, Strain and Social Relations, Vikalpa, 20 (1), pp. 13-22.
Sudha, D.K. (1994). Employment and Unemployment of Educated Married
Women: Causes and Consequences with Reference to Shimoga-
Bhadravathi, M. Phil. Dissertation, Kuvempu University, Karnataka.
Sudha, D.K. (2000). Gender Roles. New Delhi. A.P.H. Publishing House.
Sullivan, Oriel (2006). Changing Gender relations, Changing Families:

Tracing the Place of Change over Time’ (Gender Lens Series). New York.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Tinklin Teresa, Croxford L., Ducklin, A. and Frame, B. (2005). Gender and
Attitudes to Work and Family Roles: The Views of Young People at
the Millennium. Gender and Education Vol. 17, No. 2, May 2005, pp.
129-142.
Voydanoff, P. (1988). Work Role Characteristics, Family Structure Demands
and Work Family Conflict. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 749-
761.
Wharton, Amy S. (2012). The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to Theory
and Research. United Kingdom. Blackwell Publishing.
World Health Organization. ‘Women Development and Violence’, http://
www.who.int/gender/documents/women_MDGs_report/en/in
dex1.html visited on 22nd April, 2007.
ANNEXURE
Table 1: Distribution on domestic work participation in two-working families
Paid
Male Female Both Any other
Work worker/
spouse spouse spouses member
category maid
(in per cent) (in per cent) (in per cent) (in per cent)
(in per cent)
Breakfast 1.9 83.1 5.0 5.3 4.7
Lunch 4.1 50.6 6.9 10.9 27.5
Dinner 1.3 52.5 13.4 10.0 22.8
Dish
washing, 1.3 15.9 5.9 4.7 72.2
cleaning
Laundry 2.5 16.9 10.3 3.2 67.1
Dusting 2.2 18.8 8.8 5.3 65.0
Grocery
16.6 9.7 60.6 4.7 8.4
shopping
Vegetable
10.9 47.5 13.8 5.9 21.9
shopping
Telephone
61.6 1.3 28.4 4.1 4.7
Bill
Electricity
63.4 0.9 28.7 3.8 3.2
Bill
Cable Bill 67.8 18.4 8.4 4.1 1.3
Milk Bill 20.9 64.1 8.8 4.4 1.9
Water Bill 53.1 31.6 11.3 2.8 1.3
N = 320; No. of Male Spouses: 160; No. of Female Spouses: 160
Source: Field Data
Table 2: Husband participates in the domestic works as his duty
Husband Participates in the Domestic Work as his Duty

Chi-Square Chi-Square
State Gender Strongly No Strongly T
Total
Disagree Agree N = 160 N = 320
Disagree Opinion Agree
2 8 5 51 14 80
Male
2.5% 10.0% 6.3% 63.8% 17.5% 100.0% Value = 11.422
Df = 04
1 6 7 64 2 80
Odisha Female N = 160
1.3% 7.5% 8.8% 80.0% 2.5% 100.0%
Level of sig.
3 14 12 115 16 160 (0.05) = 5%
Total
1.9% 8.8% 7.5% 71.9% 10.0% 100.0% Value = 22.000
Df = 12
3 9 9 45 14 80
Male N = 320
3.8% 11.3% 11.3% 56.3% 17.5% 100.0%
Level of sig.
4 10 6 42 18 80 Value = 1.399 (0.05) = 5%
Delhi Female Df = 04
5.0% 12.5% 7.5% 52.5% 22.5% 100.0%
N = 160
7 19 15 87 32 160
Total Level of sig.
Gendered Attitude in Domestic Work Participation...
4.4% 11.9% 9.4% 54.4% 20.0% 100.0% (0.05) = 5%

10 33 27 202 48 320
Total
3.1% 10.3% 8.4% 63.1% 15.0% 100.0%
Source: Field data
361
362
Table 3: Husband participates in the domestic works due to wife’s employment and educational status
Husband Participates in the Domestic Works Due to Wife’s

Employment and Educational Status Chi-Square Chi-Square
State Gender T
Total
Strongly No Strongly N = 160 N = 320
Disagree Agree
12 57 2 7 2 80
Male
15.0% 71.3% 2.5% 8.8% 2.5% 100.0% Value = 14.75
Df = 04
3 24 14 6 3 80
3.8% 67.5% 17.5% 7.5% 3.8% 100.0%
Level of sig.
15 111 16 13 5 160 (0.05) = 5%
Total
9.4% 69.4% 10.0% 8.1% 3.1% 100.0% Value = 48.92
Df = 12
27 29 10 9 5 80
Male N = 320
33.8% 36.3% 12.5% 11.3% 6.3% 100.0%
Level of sig.
17 34 10 11 8 80 Value = 13.56 (0.05) = 5%
21.3% 42.5% 12.5% 13.8% 10.0% 100.0%
N = 160
44 63 20 20 13 160 Level of sig.
Total
27.5% 39.4% 12.5% 12.5% 8.1% 100.0% (0.05) = 5%
59 174 36 33 18 320
Total
18.4% 54.4% 11.3% 10.3% 5.6% 100.0%
Source: Field data
Table 4: Husband shares domestic work as a ‘helper’
Husband Shares in the Domestic Work as a Helper to his Wife

Total
2 21 2 52 3 80
Male
2.5% 26.3% 2.5% 65.0% 3.8% 100.0% Value = 16.144
Df = 04
1 20 10 47 3 80
1.3% 25.0% 12.5% 58.8% 2.5% 100.0%
Level of sig.
3 41 12 99 5 160 (0.05) = 5%
Total
1.9% 25.6% 7.5% 61.9% 3.1% 100.0% Value = 34.292
Df = 12
12 22 8 35 3 80
Male N = 320
15.0% 27.5% 10.0% 43.8% 3.8% 100.0%
Level of sig.
10 32 3 31 4 80 Value = 14.692 (0.05) = 5%
12.5% 40.0% 3.8% 38.8% 5.0% 100.0%
N = 160
22 54 11 66 7 160
Total Level of sig.
13.8% 33.8% 6.9% 41.3% 4.4% 100.0% (0.05) = 5%
13 28 39 213 27 320
Total
4.1% 8.8% 12.2% 66.6% 8.4% 100.0%
Source: Field data
363
364
Table 5: Husband keeps the idea that kitchen work is feminine in nature
Husband Keeps the Idea that Kitchen Work is Feminine in Nature

Total
20 47 5 8 0 80
Male
25.0% 58.8% 6.3% 10.0% 0% 100.0% Value = 14.445
Df = 04
20 38 8 12 2 80
25.0% 47.5% 10.0% 15.0% 2.5% 100.0%
Level of sig.
40 85 13 20 2 160 (0.05) = 5%
Total
25.0% 53.1% 8.1% 12.5% 1.3% 100.0% Value = 28.012
Df = 12
37 34 10 9 0 80
Male N = 320
46.3% 30.0% 12.5% 11.3% 0% 100.0%
Level of sig.
19 47 5 9 0 80 Value = 14.903 (0.05) = 5%
23.8% 58.8% 6.3% 11.3% 0% 100.0%
N = 160
56 71 15 18 0 160
Total Level of sig.
35.0% 44.4% 9.4% 11.3% 0% 100.0% (0.05) = 5%
96 156 28 38 2 320
Total
30.0% 48.8% 8.8% 11.9% 0.6% 100.0%
Source: Field data
Table 6: Employed woman adds new values (liberty, freedom and independency) in family
Employed woman adds new values (liberty, freedom

and independency) in family Chi-Square
State Gender T
Total
Strongly No Strongly N = 320
Disagree Agree
1 0 1 39 39 80
Male
1.3% .0% 1.3% 48.8% 48.8% 100.0%
1 1 3 20 55 80
Odisha Female
1.3% 1.3% 3.8% 25.0% 68.8% 100.0%
2 1 4 59 94 160
Total
1.3% .6% 2.5% 36.9% 58.8% 100.0% Value = 17.87
Df = 04
2 1 4 36 37 80
Male N = 320
2.5% 1.3% 5.0% 45.0% 46.3% 100.0%
Level of sig.
0 0 4 29 47 80 (0.05) = 5%
Delhi Female
.0% .0% 5.0% 36.3% 58.8% 100.0%
2 1 8 65 84 160
Total
1.3% .6% 5.0% 40.6% 52.5% 100.0%
4 2 12 124 178 320
Total
1.3% .6% 3.8% 38.8% 55.6% 100.0%
Source: Field data
365
19
Gendered Dynamics of Domestic Work within

Two Sets of Delhi Households
Neha Wadhwa
THE CURRENT CONTEXT

Placed within the contemporary neo-liberalist, rapidly growing and globalizing
urban India, individuals rarely seem to take cognizance of the phenomenon of
domestic work, even though the phenomenon is essential to running of the
households they inhabit. Derived from my larger research work, done towards
attaining a degree of Master of Philosophy, this paper aims to present to the
readers the historical and theoretical complexities and nuances inherent in
the phenomenon of ‘domestic work’ in the Indian context. It then endeavours
to understand in detail, the gender-roles, tasks and norms for the two sets of
women involved in this phenomenon – the women domestic workers and the
women employers of these workers – and this paper tries to understand the
dynamics of the phenomenon of domestic work in either of their households,
as it exists.
If we begin by considering the socio-political context within which this
phenomenon works, one of the most obvious observations is that the Indian
state has never been known to be sympathetic towards phenomenon it chooses
to classify as belonging to the private sphere. Leave alone the possibility of
the state being sympathetic to the cause of these workers or the middle class
women, despite it being quite explicit that it is this expropriated household
on which their excessively complex systems of profit making work. This is
even more appalling considering the realization that however technologically
advanced we may have become; the primary kind of capital one can build a
nation-state and its political-economy on; is still human, reared within these
very households. Within the current environment of rising exploitation by the
capitalist nation-state and the silent but blatant abandonment of the welfare-
state paradigm, it is not very hard to comprehend that the eventual burden of
this kind of a development model largely falls on the singular representative
unit of the society – the household and it is these women, who are the most
weighed down by these changes. In the recent past, domestic workers have
been trying to get organized independently and/or with the help of women’s
groups in various states and the success achieved has been varied.1 What
also has to be realised that with domestic workers stepping into the public
sphere, they undeniably also change the status of domestic work, which was
always thought to be an activity happening within the private sphere, into a
public activity, a choice of paid occupation that people overtly make, in turn
impacting the nature of unpaid domestic work done by these women for their
own households.
Over the past two decades, we have seen the impact of stabilization
and structural adjustment policies initiated in 1991 in an effort to make our
economy more liberal and competitive in the global capitalist market. We
have seen the state gradually receding from a welfare paradigm in terms of
constructing policy and embracing the global push for policies that are driven
by the aims of profit making, increasing and facilitating exports, competition
and privatization and encouraging foreign investment in all spheres of public
services. This transition period in the economy (since the implementation of
these structural adjustment policies) has incurred socio-economic costs which
are unevenly distributed within the economy wherein people forming the
lowest ranks of the caste, class and gender hierarchies are the worst hit. Not
surprisingly, a lot of women fall into these suffering ranks, the pressure on
whom has increased on various fronts.
In this kind of an economic and material environment, if we take a look
at the different ‘factors of production’ that are combined for producing the
commodities and services available today, we realise that the entire globe
has turned into a work-site with various stages and loci of production being
spread across countries. This kind of production requires targeted investment
of capital; to in turn generate profitable commodities and the most essential
1 For example: Governments of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka have notified minimum wages for domestic workers under the Minimum Wage
Act (1948) but those minimum wages are so low that the workers are getting non-sustaining
wages above that amount already. Hence the minimum wage protection is redundant. Also,
having clubbed themselves with the Informal Workers movement at large, women domestic
workers have been fighting for social security at a national level, whereas they were included
as a part of the Social Securities Board in Tamil Nadu in 2008 and Karnataka in 2011. Hence
the move to get organized has been partially successful and even though the legislations
might partially be in place in certain places, it does not automatically mean that these have
a positive impact on the lived experiences of the domestic workers.
Gendered Dynamics of Domestic Work within Two Sets of Delhi Households 369
factor for generating this profit is labour – the production and reproduction of
human beings. Going by this logic, the household then becomes a nodal centre
for the supply of adequate labour, for all and any kind of work to be done in
the economy. Given the expanding requirements of capitalistic enterprises in
the global times, then provision of basic health and educational services by
the state, becomes a matter of necessity for ensuring adequate development
of human-factors-of-production. (Deshmukh-Ranadive, 1999). These services
of health provisions, education, skills training, socialization, introduction
to cultural norms and values etc are all appropriated by the household and
provided to the younger members of the society, so as to make them labour-
ready and it is exactly these services which are now being privatized.
With this focus on the essentiality of the household in the global
capitalistic production process, the essential role of women, in the production
of these labour resources must be recognized. Unfortunately since 1991, till
now, we have realised that policy makers, from their top-down perspective
have not given enough attention to the household as a sphere of importance
while analysing the impacts of economic policies, policies being judged
only on the monetary gains they bring for the economy. These policies are
mostly burdensome and misdirected, if analysed from the perspective of
these women within households as they frequently inhabit the lower rungs of
gender and kinship hierarchies operating within households. While the onus of
reproduction lies on them due to biological reasons, due to the prevalent sexual
division of labour, maintenance of human resources also primarily becomes
their responsibility – read domestic and care work in the household, along
with paid employment if they have taken up outside the household. Female
domestic workers are forced into the labour market, not by choice, but by the
sheer necessity to supplement their family income (Ghosh, 2009).
In this article I will try and unpack how these changes are directly impacting
these households and how difficult it is to be responsible for all domestic work,
to be a breadwinner and to sustain a hand to mouth existence. This particular
participant I interviewed works as a domestic worker and is known to stay in
her neighbourhood till about nine o’clock for work and when I asked her if that
was true she said,
‘Arrey abhi paach ghar mei kaam karti hoon aur jo bhi kisi faaltu
kaam ke liye bolta hai, wo bhi kar leti hoon, aur aajkal sham mei do
maalish ka kaam hai, wo karti hoon. Pehele toh 13-14 ghar bhi karti
thi jab bachche sab school mei the, tab ghar se 6:30 baje subah chal
deti thi, ab toh phir bhi time se aati jaati hoon. Ladki ki shaadi karni
hai na…Ab Bihar mei toh bina dahej ke shaadi nahi hoti. 50,000 cash
dena hai, ek motorcycle dena hai, 2 tole sona dena hai…dheere dheere
ikattha kar rahi hoon’. (Sita Devi, 40 years)
{‘I still work in five homes every day, plus I do odd jobs for whoever
in the neighbourhood calls me, and these days in the evenings I have
taken up massage jobs in two homes, so I do that. Earlier, at a point
of time, I used to work in 13-14 houses in a day, when all my kids
used to go to school. Those days, I used to leave my home at 6:30 in
the morning. I have to marry off my daughter actually…and you can’t
marry your daughter in Bihar without sufficient dowry. I have to give
away Rs 50,000 in cash, along with a motorcycle and 20 grams of
gold…I am trying to accumulate it slowly’. (Sita Devi, 40 years)}
Other essential facts that this quote does not mention about her is that her
husband is only an intermittent contributor to the household and that the
daughter who was getting married was also working as a domestic worker
in another neighbourhood. The point I am trying to make from this example
and from the other interviews I have taken during my fieldwork that these
women work under extreme duress. It is the nature of this duress and its social-
institutional composition that I wish to study through this project.
In the process of trying to understand the nature of the social pressure
these women are under, a lot of evidence has been gathered across the globe
(Dickey, 2000; Tolen, 2000; Ray and Qayum, 2009) and within India (Neetha,
2004; 08) to make the point that domestic work has not only been historically
invisible, but it is also inherently a woman’s assignment and even in terms
of it being an occupation, the trend of feminization is only increasing by the
year. Hence, even though at the face of it, it seems like women are stepping
out into the public sphere in larger numbers than ever before, but the reality is
that along with that phenomenon, women are increasingly being pushed into
the private sphere of homes, exploited and their labour still expropriated, both
at the public and personal levels. And the irony is that domestic work, is still
not recognized as productive work contributing the country’s GDP and it has
been a long struggle to be able to get women employers and domestic workers
included in the NSSO surveys (Neetha, 2009)
It is a well established fact that women as a category are severely under
represented within academia – in terms of women and their issues rarely
being the content of sociological study, leading to their low visibility within
the social sphere and vice-versa. (Stanley and Wise, 1983; Cook and Fonow
1991; Oakley, 1974). Looking at the current crop of academic work, we realise
that most work centres on women domestic workers, around the themes of
their conditions of work, social security, policy effectiveness, and comparison
with feudal systems of servitude, definitional issues of domestic work and
the issues of migrant domestic workers. But then a valid question can be
raised that should academicians not have studied the two groups of women
in conjunction given the realization that their day-to-day experiences are
intertwined at many levels? Why just one? Maybe one can imagine that the
issue of their invisibility could have been a probable reason for this focus,
impacting anyone who was involved in domestic work, but then what explains
the selective focus? Stanley and Wise (1990) talk about Sociologist Dorothy
Smith, being well aware of the presence of women in all social contexts, at all
levels, yet she deliberately chooses to ‘research from the standpoint of women
who are on the receiving end of the textually mediated relations of knowing
and ruling’. (Smith, 1987). Maybe the selective focus on women domestic
workers comes from the perception that they are the most socially invisible and
exploited of the lot, absolutely relegated to the sidelines in terms of material
provisions, economic options and opportunities, political assertions and legal
safety-nets. This is the understanding one easily develops from discussions
with feminist researchers and activists working contemporarily in the field
(like Geetha Menon, Kiran Moghe etc.)2 who confirm the existence of the
issue of invisibility of women domestic workers, especially in the eyes of the
policy makers as these very workers are the real reason of their own currently
well-functioning households.
Here, at this point it becomes essential to remind oneself of the difference
in aims of the work of activists and academicians. It is the activist who helps
disadvantaged groups to assert themselves and to be heard by people in the
right places, ensuring the correct interpretation of their words, whereas it is
an academician’s work to try and understand reality, multiple or singular, in
terms of an absolute truth or relative standpoints, depending on the ontology of
the researcher and the researched. Keeping this in mind I propose to focus on
2 Kiran Moghe is the National Secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Association and
district secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions and has been instrumental in the
development of the Pune Zilla Ghar Kamgar Sangathana and engages with policy makers
to push for change. It provides substantive support and organization to domestic workers
in Pune and has helped set up the Domestic Workers’ Welfare Boards across the city since
2011, in partnership with the state.
Geetha Menon is the co-founder and secretary of Stree Jagruti Samiti that campaigns for
employment benefits for like decent leave and maternity benefits for women domestic
workers. And currently the focus of her attention if to get the languishing Domestic Worker’s
Bill (2010) passed.
studying the so-called mundane, the everyday experiences of domestic work,

lived-out and embodied, in its entirety. Here, the term ‘entirety’ is important
to note, as it covers the lived experiences of not only the woman domestic
workers but also the woman employers (and many other people as well) and
the tense and typical ‘hegemonic relationship’ (Dickey and M. Adams, 2000)
that these two sets of women share. This also creates scope for considering
the power dynamics within the employers’ household where both the women
are present in different capacities as well as the power dynamics within the
domestic worker’s household, which is the point of this paper. In fact, in the
process of collecting narratives, I realised that it was this detailed description
of their household structure and dynamics that these women shared with me
that provided me with an adequate frame of reference to place their experiences
of domestic work within.
The reason I decided to try and understand the experiences of these two
groups of women with respect to the phenomenon of domestic work within
their households was because these are the people most deeply implicated in
the phenomenon of domestic work on a daily basis and their existence places
them in a peculiar position at the cusp of the public and the private. This also
forms the ontological basis of this paper and the subsequent epistemological
approach that follows from it will be discussed shortly under the head of
methodology. Getting back to the point from where we started, also because
of the symbiotic and delicate relationship these two groups of women share
with each other, it did not make real sense to study just one group in isolation
without considering the other. While the women domestic workers are special
because they have turned the same domestic work they do in their own homes
into a profession to derive sustenance from, the women employers (both, who
have or have not taken up paid employment outside the household) are equally
special subjects because of the immense invisibility they endure at the multiple
levels of the everyday, of being women and of always having to work within
the household. Here I would also want to note that while I may speak of these
women in the third person, as subjects, but in my reality, their lives and mine
are intertwined extremely closely making it impossible to claim that I could
maintain a subject-object divide. I must recognize the many latent as well as
manifest ways in which these women have contributed to build the life I have
lived till now and will continue to do so in the future.
We must realise that especially in the Indian context, there is hardly any
work looking at the daily, the mundane which implicitly obscures certain
forms of oppression that have become overly ingrained in lived realities.
Harding (2004) mentions in her editorial introduction to ‘The Feminist

Standpoint Theory Reader’, using Dorothy Smith’s terminology, that women
need to understand the ‘conceptual practices of power’, through which the
oppression faced by them is ‘designed, maintained and made to seem natural
and desirable to everyone’. But we will see that the women participants in
this research project not only spoke emphatically about housework as being
their natural responsibility but also defensively. This realization came by with
a few participant women domestic workers who found it especially hard to
trust me and my aims and they found it quite uncomfortable in the beginning
to talk about the dynamics of their household, that is, the dynamics of their
oppression. The more I probed about what made them uncomfortable in the
first place, to be able to break down, for them and myself, the sense innateness
in this system of division of labour within the household, the more edgy they
got and began to sharply react to my suggestions. Realising that confrontation
was not a good strategy to use in the limited time they had agreed to spend with
me, I stepped back, hoping to have given them something to reflect on. Even
though this idea was in line with the feminist aim of raising consciousness
about the personal being political, my constant endeavour was to let emerge
from the field the knowledge of how certain institutions impact the lived and
embodied experiences of women employers and domestic workers.
It slowly became clear that this invisibility was not a new trend and had
a much bigger, broader history to it. This began with the feminist-Marxist
debates within the women’s movement in the U.S.A of the 1960s and 70s
that first dragged housework into the spotlight, in front of the unwilling and
ignorant capitalist society and demanded that it must be accounted for. Since
then, the fortunes of the societal focus on domestic work have been wavering
and within the Indian context unfortunately, I can say that the focus has been
consistently lacking. This process of tracing the historicization of the women’s
struggle to make visible to the public sphere the phenomenon of domestic
work made me realise further that the factors that constitute it also would not
have been present in vacuum and would also have stories of evolution behind
them. Hence if we were to understand the current form of the phenomenon of
domestic work, we must also look at the evolution of the factors that seem to
constitute it. After a brief discussion on methodology that shaped this research
project, I will try and deliberate on these factors in some detail but here I
would just like to note that they were derived from the literature I read about
the field and were collated with those factors that emerged from the narratives
of the participants of the study.
A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
Keeping in mind the ontological assumption of the research this paper is
based on, I decided to understand the construction of differential standpoints
of the women involved in domestic work, that is, the domestic workers and
women employer by considering their experiences. This was to facilitate
our understanding of how gender in particular and other social institutional
structures of caste, class, ethnicity and religion impact the phenomenon of
domestic work within households. This was based on the assumption that
different social institutions dominate the construction of their experiences as
separate groups of women, as well as the construction of the relationship they
both are a part of and lastly, as well as the researcher’s identity and role. Going
into the research with the assumption that no one group of women is more or less
oppressed than the other, in trying to understand the phenomena of domestic
work in homes in Delhi, I thought it fair to try and value equally the standpoints
of both, the women employers and the women domestic workers. Smith (1992)
insists and I agree with her that ‘the notion of a standpoint…is a place to begin
inquiry’. in the sense that just the recognition that apparently the same social
institutional structures oppress both these groups of women in a similar way
that manifests in similar lived-out subjugations and exclusions, is not enough.
One must then resolve to delve into the dynamics of the functioning of these
institutional structures with each other and their interaction with individuals’
lives so as to bring the unrest and inequality to light and to then try and remedy
it through further institutional means. This approach definitely helped me to
look above and beyond the usual concern with the obviously oppressed as it
appears on the surface and to be able to look at the more invisible and silently
pervasive patterns of coercion.
While studying the above mentioned social institutional structures in detail
through the experiences women had shared, I realised that the information
they shared with me was extremely rich in detail and was extremely complex
in nature. Hence it became a task of paramount importance to ensure the
authenticity and un-alienation of this effort of knowledge production. It was
for this purpose that I used the systems approach to intersectionality by Choo
and Ferree (2010), to help me navigate through the dense narratives laden with
values, ideas and emotions. While still recognizing the separate standpoints and
social locations of the two groups of women involved in domestic work, this
perspective helped me deconstruct the deeply intertwined structural matrices
built by prevalent social institutions of gender, caste, class, religion, ethnicity
and language. But now, having previously utilized the intersectional gaze,
I can retrospectively say that patriarchy is actually one of the most central
social institutional structures that direct the experiences of these two groups
of women, so much so, that the dynamics it creates, facilitates and sustains,
covertly and overtly, need to be considered in much greater depth than the
intersectional paradigm gave space for. This is certainly not to say that the
institutional structures of caste and class are any less impactful, but that gender
still stands out as the one requiring most attention even after recognizing how
deeply intertwined the three structures are, maybe because it is the least spoken
about and most invisiblized and naturalized of the three.
Lastly, taking a cue from the healthy advice issued by Stanley (1990) in
her introduction to Feminist Praxis, I feel that, I must make it explicit to all the
personal significance for me this research project and consequently this paper
holds for me. Coming from a similar middle class home in Delhi, occupying
the position of the daughter of a woman employer, I have always observed
the (non)division of domestic chores amongst household members and the
division of work between the woman employer and woman domestic worker
based on the multiple axis of social institutional structures operating in that
scenario. Hence, this research project is an effort to acquaint myself with the
situations the woman employers and the woman domestic workers face in their
own households, the hierarchies that work in creating their identities, their
lived experiences and emotions during the course of domestic work, looking
at the situation from the outside in and from the inside out3 (hooks, 1984) It is
also somewhat of a personal project that I am trying to further with the help
of this paper - to make the private public. For this purpose, as a researcher, the
endeavour has been to produce un-alienated feminist knowledge by attempting
to locate this product of academic labour within an analysis of the process of
production itself.
For the purpose of delving into the said phenomenon of domestic work,
ten women from each of the two household groups were requested to share
their experiences with the researcher, that is, ten women domestic workers and
ten women employers. Initially I approached women employers of domestic
workers from one neighbourhood and women domestic workers from another
neighbourhood and then asked them suggest more people I could speak with,
snowballing till the narratives seemed to become saturated. The interviews
took place within 2 similar, selected west-Delhi neighbourhoods wherein in
3 Hill Collins (1986) refers to bell hooks’ 1984 articulation of the standpoint ‘that the insider-
outsider status can generate’. While talking about the Black women working as domestic
workers in while households where they develop a special standpoint of their own when
then get to see ‘white elites both actual and aspiring, from perspectives largely obscured
from their Black spouses and from these groups themselves’.
one neighbourhood one set of women lived (employers of domestic workers)

and the other group of participants (the domestic workers) were interviewed in
another neighbourhood where they worked. It was relatively easier to convince
the women employers to speak about domestic work in their households maybe
because the assumed the researcher to be coming from a similar background
whereas gaining the trust of women domestic workers was much tougher as
they were suspicious of the researcher initially, at multiple levels. They were
worried if I would pass on any of the information to any of their employers,
where would I be using the information they share, that it must not appear
on television or in the newspapers that their husbands could read! Plus being
relatively unfamiliar with the systems of post-graduate education, they had
trouble trusting my purposes and as a researcher I had a tough time building
rapport with these women and then eventually getting them to give me time. I
also had to, for a couple of participants, provide them with Hindi transcripts of
our conversations so that they could confirm for themselves that I am recording
exactly what they were saying and that they could let me know if they did not
want certain sensitive information to be recorded at all. Considering women
domestic workers as participants was based on solely who agreed to speak with
me with some degree of authenticity, whereas selecting households of women
employers was dependent on education being a primary descriptive marker of
the family, the male member of the family must be a stable, full-time working
bread winner and all the markers of a modern middle class household like an
AC and a car should be there to place them above the definition of middle class
given by a couple of women domestic workers.
Having briefly touched upon the theoretical, practical and ethical nuances
of the research study this paper is based on (of course a detailed discussion
on how I went about conducting the research in the field and how this in turn
impacted the field and me is a broader topic that demands for more elaboration
than I can afford here.) so now I would like to direct the discussion towards the
previously mentioned idea of historicizing the context of domestic work within
India, as we know it today. This to me is extremely necessary to understand
how this phenomenon has reached to its current condition of neglect and
invisibility, relaying the same characteristics onto the women who embody it.
Determinants of Domestic Work: Evolution of Indian

Households and Women’s Locations within them
After having discussed the nature of the phenomenon of domestic work within
the Indian scenario, the next question we need to consider is that what really
constitutes domestic work as it is experienced everyday by the women involved
in it. While looking cumulatively at the narratives shared by the participants as

well as available literature on domestic work, it slowly becomes obvious that
factors like caste, class and the impact of patriarchy, being placed situational
in a middle class home etc. were factors that could be easily identified as those
that influenced the contemporary form of domestic work. On beginning to
deliberate on these relatively apparent factors I realised that historicizing them
was vital if I really wanted to understand the multifaceted phenomenon of
domestic work and how it took the shape it is in today. Here, I must admit that
I started with a much smaller list of determinants to include here but topics
like women and migration, evolution of family and kinship and the impact of
the rural-urban continuum were all factors which slowly made their presence
felt as I went on about collecting the narratives from these women. It was
then that I realised that the evolution of caste, class and patriarchy will not
sufficiently explain the phenomenon of domestic work without considering
the impact of these institutions within the household, where domestic work
actually happens. Also, while studying the determinants of the middle classes
and the colonial occupation of India, their innate connection and their impact
on the organization of the private and the public sectors of the social, should
also be considered.
(i) The Institutions of Caste, Class and Patriarchy and their

Impact on Kinship and Family Structures
Till now the conversation has been directly and overtly about domestic work
as a phenomenon and hence, in turn, about the women involved in it. But
women cannot be spoken about, divorced from the context of their households,
within which they are so deeply entrenched (Dube and Palriwala, 1990). It is
also essential to note that the nature and structure of these households under
study today has not always been constant and has in fact always been quite
dynamic over the course of recorded history. The household structure has
been responsive to several external and internal elements like the environment
created by changing social institutional structures and prevalent ideologies,
socio-cultural, economic and political factors and the respective psychologies
of the people constituting these households. And of course, the impacts are seen
the other way round as well for each of these elements. Hence, bringing the
focus back on the women involved in domestic work, to be able to understand
their actual lived experiences shared with me in the form of narratives about
their daily life in their own homes and at work, it is easy to see why is it
necessary to understand their social locations, for it is these locations that
determine their daily experiences. And further, that these social locations,
might seem to be relatively stable entities as of now, but the moment we step
back and look at them from a temporal lens, we realise that these locations
and the identities thus built have a rather fluid nature – within the lifespan
of singular individuals, as well as over generations – making it essential to
historicize them at both these levels and understand the trajectories that have
helped build them.
Mies (1998) talking about the usage of the concept of “family” in popular
or even sociological literature at times she claims that the concept is mostly
used in a western-European centric way and is almost never historicized and
is presented as a timeless, universalistic norm! Whereas the reality is much
different, but over the course of time, family has come to be known to mostly
be a hierarchical and unegalitarian if not a downright feudal institution.
(Engels, 1884). Lerner (1986) also spoke about how the system of consensual
subordination has become the predominant form of family that the history has
seen for approximately the last three centuries, all over the world, wherein
women have been culturally programmed to consent to enter into a system
of subordination where they are called ‘the wife’ and they agree to perform
certain functions (read domestic work), in exchange for protection, economic
support and some form of care. Hence since this pattern of kinship has become
established, we have seen the society moving away from explicit forms of
patriarchal oppression that had been prevalent till now, the exploitation has
now devised more invisible operational mechanisms, working alongside he
more visible ones, mostly functioning in silent ways in both the public and
private spheres.
To get an Indo-centric perspective regarding the evolution of family,
kinship systems and households, I will be referring broadly to academic work
done by D.D. Kosambi (1956) and Uma Chakravarty (1993) with regards
to ancient Indian society. One realises that in the pre-historic era, that is the
hunting-gathering stage, it seems like there is little evidence of rigid sexual
division of labour and that female reproductive capability was relied on for
the survival of the clan and revered – in line with the previously posited
matriarchal lineage systems spoken about by Morgan (1877) and then Engels
(op. cit.). Chakravatri (op. cit.) then combines evidence from Lerner’s (op.
cit.) work as well as her archaeological study of the Harappan civilization
and extrapolates it to claim that ‘…there is some indication of the emergence
of social stratification’, though concrete statements regarding organization of
society and the status of women are harder to make.
As society evolved from the nomadic to agrarian we see that with the entry
of the plough, the woman becomes secondary to the man. Within the Indian
subcontinent too, there was a taboo on women wielding the plough, which
spread from the Gangetic plains to further south, according to historians like
Chakravarti (op. cit.). Then looking at the Vedic period next, Chakravarti’s
(ibid.) evidence drawn from the Rig Veda more of less falls in line with Gerda
Lerner’s (op. cit.) observations about the development of patriarchy as well
as Morgan’s (op. cit.) and Engels’ (op. cit.) grand scheme of development of
society, family, kinship systems and the state. Within the subcontinent, there
was much tussle between the indigenous tribes and the Aryans, who considered
themselves racially superior and looked down at the existing population. Since
food production moved from the household to the field, the enslaved people
(dasis included) were made to work on the land while the Aryan women
overtime got restricted to the household, as a mark of belonging to a clearly
marked and differentiated higher class and were allowed to only associate with
reproduction as the value of women’s work slowly ceased to be recognized in
terms of economic value.
The relatively simultaneous spread and strengthening of caste and patriarchy
as institutional systems within the subcontinent must not be assumed to be
smooth or uniform in any way. Their operational systems and strengths have
evolved in different ways in different regions and even universalistic religions
like Islam and Christianity have been affected by caste. Caste is a hereditary
system that functions on the dual basis of occupational division of labour and
endogamy. Besides controlling access to knowledge, labour and resources
of production, caste rules were also a mode of sexual governance, enacted
through the institution of marriage that helped reproduce and perpetuate caste
in multiple ways over centuries (Chakravarty, ibid.). Also we must note that
one cannot look at caste in isolation from class, as the material basis of caste is
tied up with the occupational hierarchy it defines and the established systems
of superiority and subservience. Considering this, we can possibly deduce that
women being placed at the wrong side of the patriarchal partition must have got
the worst treatment within each caste and class category and keeping in mind
the kinship-role-age hierarchy operating amongst the women in a household.
(ii) Impact of Colonial Occupation

As a student of sociology, one must realise that this discourse on family and
kinship besides being influenced by all that which came with being a British
colony and then an independent nation, was and still is, deeply regulated
by the intertwined influences of the institutions of caste, class, gender and
ethnicities. Therefore, while trying to deconstruct the environment in which
the phenomenon of domestic work takes place, keeping in mind the above
discussion we will not be off the mark to say that gender, caste and class are not
really discreet categories of analysis. Within the Indian scenario it is common
observance that the discourse on family and kinship structures and therefore by
extension the discourse on the ideal conduct of women, had been understood
earlier in the context of the caste, class and patriarchal norms and later in
the context of colonialism, the supposed dissolution of our cultural values,
coloured by western ideas of liberalism and nationalism and Victorian notions
of domesticity and femininity (Chaudhuri, 2010). To give an example, one of
the participants in the present research launched into a detailed explanation of
how she likes her clothes ironed just before she wears them and was annoyed
that her daughter does not follow the same practices as her, that is she had
very specific ideas driven by colonial images of maintaining the household in
a certain way – just like the households in the West, which she implicitly held
in high regard!
During the period of colonial occupancy by the British, the join family
was established as the typical form of family in India and this touting of the
joint family as the prevalent family system within the subcontinent was done
on the basis of the understanding the British developed of the Dharmashastras
and the Shariya, for the dominant population groups of the Hindus and the
Muslims (Uberoi, 2005). With the coming of the communications revolution,
the discourse on family has become more dynamic than ever and is assimilating
global influences faster than ever before.
Dalla Costa (1972: 53) provocatively said that it is the capitalist state that
divides women into the categories of housewives and wage-workers wherein
the household is a colony which is dominated by the state and its capitalistic
policies and became a place for unregulated exploitation. Taking this realization
further to be able to understand our everyday ecologies better, Mies (1998: 34)
explains that housework done within private homes by women and subsistence
work done in colonies by the so called underdeveloped, backward and
marginalized communities is what helps to maintain the ‘priviledged (male)
wage-labour relation’ and hence the two are intrinsically connected and are
metaphors for each other. Unfortunately, we cannot but agree that the Indian
scenario seems to be in line with the described symptoms at the first glance.
(iii) The Indian Middle Classes

Belliappa (2013) opens her book on India’s middle class women stating her
agreement with the tentative approach of the more senior sociologists saying,
‘…in both scholarly discussion and popular speech, the term is used with a
‘taken-for-grantedness’, which makes it hard to pin down yet both the reader
and the writer seem to understand who is being referred to’. It must be noted
that the Indian middle class is so internally stratified on so many different
axes that Andre Beteille calls it the most ‘polymorphous’ middle class in the
world (Beteille, 2001) and he constantly uses terms like ‘highly differentiated
internally’ and ‘heterogeneous social composition’ to refer to it.
‘…in India the social identity of the middle class person or family is
defined not only by occupation, education and income; it is defined
also by language, religion and caste. It is the co-existence of these two
sets of divisions, new and old
old, that gives the middle class its distinctive
character’. (Beteille, 2001)
In the same essay, he also speaks of his belief that even though oppression
caused by the hierarchical aspects of caste and gender has mellowed down
in the middle class household, and is now being practiced less extensively
and less openly…new inequalities (integrating those of caste, class and gender
systems) are being generated by the occupational and educational systems.
This belief of his has been strongly contested by Indian feminists.
In trying to understand the evolution of the Indian middle classes, referring
to B. B. Misra’s (1961) work on the Indian middle classes, Ahmad & Reifeld
(2001) mention that even though social institutions and monetary systems
conducive to capitalist growth were not lacking in India before the British rule
but a full-fledged capitalistic version (the kind of middle class we are familiar
with today) never developed because mostly the royal officials and priesthood
combined against the bourgeois plutocrats, compounded with the immobility
of caste organization. Later on, commenting on the growth of the middle cases
during the process of colonization, Ahmad and Riefeld (ibid.) further quote
Sanjay Joshi (2001) when he says “being middle class was primarily a project
of self fashioning” wherein the middle class gained prominence by propagating
a ‘modern’ way of life, emulated from their western counterparts.
Phadke (2005) in her article on middle class sexuality, makes a point
about how advertisements target the lower classes who perceive themselves
as upwardly mobile. To take Phadke’s (ibid.) point and to stretch it over to
another tangent, one must here recognize that the lower, middle and upper
classes cannot exist in isolation but only in a state of relative comparison and
differentiation with respect each other. This realisation made me refer back
to the narratives collected from the women domestic workers wherein even
though they might seem to have only a smidge better than a hand to mouth
existence but they self-count themselves into the middle classes. And not only
that, because the criteria for entry into the middle classes is so blurred and that
these women and their families are located right at the edge, they often seem
to pick and choose the class they want to belong to, depending on the situation
and the benefit (overt or covert) they could possibly derive from it. The first
example of this ambiguity of inclusion-exclusion into the middle classes was
when one of the participants, Annu Shah, a 29 yr old domestic worker labelled
her family as ‘middle class’ while talking about the extreme amount of pressure
she faced because of the household work responsibilities on her, when she was
living with her husband’s family post marriage, says:
‘Sabse pehele utho aur sabse last mei so jao. Sabse choti bahu
(referring to herself) ne kha liya toh khana achoot ho gaya. Nahi sirf
inke ghar mei nahi hai, sab middle class ghar mei aisa hai. Toh hum
alag ho gaye’.
{‘I had to wake up before everyone and was the last one to go to sleep
in the entire house. If the youngest daughter-in-law ate before everyone
had eaten, then the food is considered untouchable/polluted. No, this
trend isn’t just a feature of my husband’s home, it is present in all
middle class families. That is why we moved out of that household’.}
At a later instance, in the same interview, while talking about the sources of
institutional help available to women domestic workers in cases of exploitation
and/or abuse, we fnd her labelling her family as ‘poor’, denoting their hand to
mouth economic situation and lack of social power, she says:
‘Agar aapko apni aawaz unchi rakhni hai toh unki (the media) help
toh leni padegi. Policewaale kya hain, ki paisa leke chup karke chale
jaate hain aur zyada bolo toh ulta aaphiko daantenge – ki tumne galti
kari hai, ulta aaphiko keh denge kit um aise ho, toh mujhe lagta hai
ki media sabse zyada acha hai, matlab agar gareebon ki help ho sakti
hai toh unse hi ho sakti hai’.
{‘If you want to be louder than others, then you have to get the media
involved. Policemen usually take the bribe offered by employers and
just leave and if you insist on complaining, then they start pointing
out your mistakes – that’s why I feel that if anyone can help the poor/
underprivileged, it is the media.}
As we consider the above mentioned excerpts, we can very obviously see the
different perceptions of herself and her family that this domestic worker carries
that she expresses as she talks about different dimensions of social life. At one
point of time, she includes her husband’s family, and by extension her own
into the fold of the middle class, even though it is not clear what criteria is she
using to do so – but she does it in a way that seems very “natural”, a way that
flows from the conversation – not stopping for a moment to recognize the cusp
their family, and others of similar social locations inhabit. Also, then further
into the conversation she labels her family as a ‘gareeb’ one or a poor family
– when the discussion moved to assessing who which section was more visible
and influential in the social sphere. So even though it is understandable how
she and her family and household seem to inhabit different social categories at
the same time, it also again bears testimony to the extremely ambiguous nature
of the middle classes.
(iv) Domestic Work on an Urban – Rural Continuum

An understanding about women within the agrarian sections of the society
can be drawn from the works of Uma Chakravorty (op. cit), Bina Agarwal
(1997) and N. Neetha (2004) and they point towards a gradual change in
agricultural work patterns has been seen all over the country impacting the
landless and small farmers negatively as more mechanization of labour and
commercialization of production has happened. It is one of the primary reasons
for movement of women from rural to urban areas, mostly with families and
sometimes without, especially in cases of full-time domestic workers. (Ghosh
2010, Neetha 2009).
Kothari (1997), studying the ‘halpati’ and ‘patidar’ castes in rural Gujarat,
in the context of women’s domestic work, notices that in the case of the
halpati women, employed inside higher-caste patidar households, the roles and
responsibilities and hours of work were erratic and highly untenable, based on
the assumption that that workers are available round the clock for any kind
of task. These women support the double and almost triple burden of doing
domestic work in their own home, then doing the same in the homes of their
patidar employers and also helping their husbands out in the fields of the same
employers if the need be. At the same time the patidar (employer) women,
who used to work with the labourers in the fields owned by their household,
slowly came to be limited to the households, being taken away from manual
work as a mark of rise in status as their husbands accumulated wealth. This is
not to say that this particular case can be taken as representing the situation if
most parts of the country, but it can be cautiously claimed that in areas where
the agrarian society has not moved much further from the feudal systems of
the past, domestic work in their own homes and in others’ for women of lower
castes and classes is often unpaid and inhumane.
On the other hand, for women in the urban areas, initially, for a couple
of decades post-independence, it was considered to be an achievement to be
a good homemaker – the woman who manages everything, does even the
smallest of household chores on her own “apne haath se” (by herself) and keeps
everything in the house sparkling clean - in the image of the white American
housewife of the 1940s and 50s. This woman dusts and mops and wipes and
washes and cleans and dabs. And then slowly, in the 1970s and 80s, as radio,
then television and landline phones and refrigerators made way to the middle
class households and along with that it became more acceptable than ever
for women to be educated and for them to use that education and to step out
and take up full-time paid employment. Along with that the trend of families
moving from rural areas to urban centres had picked up since after the so called
white and the green revolutions the small farmers had suffered hard losses in
agriculture and the landless labourers were in dire need of manual jobs to do,
hence the availability of migrant men and women in the urban centres was
higher than ever, who were also looking for sources of sustenance. Inter-state
migrant women account for the majority of domestic workers (Neetha, 2004).
The growing demand for domestic workers due to the rapid and consistent
growth of the Indian middle class, both in urban and rural areas, has also
resulted in the regular flow of domestic workers from particular pockets of out-
migration (Neetha, 2009). Domestic work seems to be the immediate resort for
family sustenance for these women. In the urban areas where these women
find work as domestic workers, a higher flexibility with caste norms has been
reported within the employers’ household as well as within the households of
these workers with regards to their domestic roles and responsibilities (ibid.)
This partially supports Betielle’s (2001) observations in his essay on the Indian
middle class.
At the risk of oversimplifying, we can broadly say that in this scenario of
the urban women getting educated and stepping out of the households for full
time paid work and the high availability of jobless labour, especially women,
slowly but steadily, a new trend started of women from middle class households
now employing relatively less privileged women as domestic workers for the
more tedious domestic tasks, creating a new and supremely invisible category
of women-labourers working within private households. Maria Mies (1998:
74) explains this entire process of so called modernization did manage to stir
the surface of the division of labour within Indian middle class households.
This change advanced on the back of these above mentioned and many more
kinds of technological advancements that happened during the decades of 70s
and 80s wherein in much was added to the household’s repertoire with the aim
of the development of productive forces and lessening the stress of household

work – or this is what the advertisements said. But what must be realised is that
these changes were basically aimed at the long term establishment of a stronger
and even more exploitative relationship where certain classes of people and
especially women are oppressed by direct or indirect violence. Not to mention,
this trend continues till date with the introduction of more and more assistive
technology, adding to the global trend of feminization of domestic labour.
Hence, from the above discussion and the review of literature regarding
the phenomenon of domestic work, most scholars who take up the study of
domestic work as their central enterprise inherently end up locating their
study in urban areas, while in the rural parts of the country the phenomenon
of domestic work is not as absent as everyone assumes it to be. ‘With an
increasingly wealthy rural elite, the demand for domestic women workers has
been growing rapidly…’ here Kothari (ibid.) is talking about her field in Gujarat
but it can be safely said that this trend might have begun much earlier than it has
been noted academically because large scale farmer prosperity began around
1970 since the food revolutions, especially in the Punjab – Haryana belt. But
the question then is that can we possibly assume that caste organizes domestic
work to a greater or maybe a more obvious degree, than class stratifications, as
we move from urban, metropolitan areas towards more rural setups?
Gendered Dynamics within the Households Under Study

Now that we are slightly familiar with the various factors that constitute an
urban, middle class Indian household, not that the factors discussed above
were exhaustive, but only that they helped to historicize women’s roles
within the household and in turn explain the evolutionary trajectory of the
phenomenon of domestic work, the focus now shifts to understanding the
nature of the households that were considered in this research project. We
can actually understand from the narratives of participants in our study, about
the different kinds of household structures, with varied patterns of division of
household labour. While looking at the descriptions of this division of labour
within households, as explained by the women participants, we are able to
label certain relationships in terms of the categories given by Fraad, Resnick
and Wolff (1989) as “feudal” or “communist-egalitarian”, or as single-adult
households but besides these categorizations (i) making a departure from the
Marxist-feminist framework, we can also use gender as the central analytical
category to identify processes within these households that can be explained by
the institutional framework of patriarchy (ii) or, we can attempt to not colour
our vision while looking at these households and using a singular, predominant
analytical framework. We could, maybe, let the descriptions remain much more
authentic, rich and admittedly complex by allowing for different institutional
structures to explain different established relationships and processes occurring
within the household. While both the options offered to us at this juncture
are equally valid and the latter path was chosen while writing up the MPhil
dissertation this article is derived from, but, in the present case, I would like to
exercise the former option of using gender as the central analytical category to
be able to consider and explicate in detail, the patriarchal dynamics of domestic
work within the two sets of households under consideration. This will help
shed light onto the highly invisiblized and unfairly naturalized processes that
work to push the woman into the private sphere, almost confine her there,
sometimes make her think that she actually wants to be there and that this work
is as much as her potential allows. We will see in the examples I draw from
the narratives that the women participants shared with me that the dynamics of
domestic work not only extract and expropriate the woman’s labour and define
her social position within and without the household but they have telling
consequences in terms of life-space, time and lastly, deep rooted psychological
consequences that make them question their inherent value as a human being,
and the answers they find are usually not encouraging.
In the context of this study we see that in most of the households of women
employers of domestic workers, especially the ones where the women have
not taken up paid employment outside the household, giving priority to their
socially prescribed roles of being a mother, daughter-in-law and wife, we
realise that gender does play a major role defining what exactly constitutes the
role.
On the other hand, as I began speaking with the women domestic workers
about their households, I realised that one sees more instances of boys and
young men contributing to household work than in middle class households
where normative role of being a child involves no such activities. This makes
it seem like, “which member does what work within the household?”, then
also becomes a question of class and not just gendered relations. It is probably
something that needs further academic exploration. A participant, Sita Devi
(40 years old), mentions that her son does not allow his wife to take up paid
employment – thinking it not only asserts his status as the patriarch but also
is an expression of his class status towards the world – making an assertion
that this family does not need this particular member to contribute financially.
Similarly other participant women domestic workers also report a relatively
mangled division of household labour at home especially with male and female
children contributing, but mostly not the men.
Also, another important consideration towards maintaining the authenticity

of shared narratives was to recognize their emotive value – as is frequently
emphasised within feminist theory. Deshmukh Ranadive (2008), a feminist
economist, in the introduction to her book Democracy in the Family: Insights
from India, points to this essentially overlooked aspect of family dynamics in
most academic research, that is, ‘the emotive nature of relationships within
the family’, noting that the most explicitly propounded one is that of loyalty
towards other family members. Hence when a woman is asked to speak about
the ways of her family and the power dynamics within her household, it must
be recognized that it becomes a rather difficult territory for her to approach
(because of the established age, lineage and gender hierarchies and hegemonies)
and she may or may not be able to talk about her household dynamics easily.
For example, when Urmila Devi (40 yrs, domestic worker) mentioned that
she leaves from work in the afternoon about 2:30 – 3:00 pm, whereas most
other domestic workers work till 4:30 – 5:00 pm, when asked for a reason,
she clearly said that it is not about the children, it’s not about them and then
tied herself up in knots, eventually, quietly telling me that her husband finishes
work by early evening and she has to be there at home before he finishes
working or else he begins to suspect her of being involved with other men,
just because she would be out of the home for longer than him. Hence such
instances go on to show the amount and extent of patriarchal control still
exercised over women’s bodies and sexuality through not only the ideological
routes but probably through the use of force, even as she is working double in
terms of time, cognition and physical and emotional endurance and goes out
to earn for her family. Also the fact that she decided to have this conversation,
even though as she struggled with her anxiety throughout, does also show her
struggle to mark her agency – that she could at least decide to talk about her
household if she wanted to, even though she confined herself to a tightrope
walk.
Similarly, looking at another participant Seema Bhandari’s (36 years,
employer of domestic worker) position through the lens of democracy and
governance within the family setup, provided by Deshmukh-Ranadive (ibid),
we see that this woman employer’s situation is rather questionable on the
front of how much freedom is she granted by the senior kinship ranks of
her household but she certainly has figured out ways to extend the limited
amount of freedom to suit her tastes, but of course, even that is constrained
because of her social location within and without the household. Therefore,
we see that it is the combined impact of the kinship/generational hierarchy and
the patriarchal hierarchy that determines the hegemonic relations of power
between the members of a kinship group, especially a family, living together

within a household. The factors of age, lineage and gender create a matrix
that determines that places family members at various levels of influence and
power, assigning them different roles and norms to follow. While most of the
women employers were placed somewhere in a lead role in the family or at
least a moderately influential position, the position of the women domestic
workers on the other hand was most questionable, especially when evaluated
while working in the employer’s household.
FEMINIZATION OF DOMESTIC LABOUR

Under-utilization and consequent under-valuation of skills and labour of women
is a very prominent feature of Western society, according to Walby (1997)
where women have to divert their energies into managing the household. But
in the context o our study, not only does this phenomenon refer to the induction
(voluntary or not) of more and more women into domestic work but it also
refers to the abysmal environments and conditions of work. Again, the reason
for invisibility of domestic work as a phenomena can also be the reason for the
presence of women in the occupation – as paid domestic work is treated like
just an extension of the domestic work a woman does for her own household
(Katzman, 1981, quoted in Raghuram, 2001 and Kothari, op.cit.) hence does
not need to acquire any special skills for it – especially in a country like India
where educating girls is not given much priority within the family agenda – it
is one of the main options available (Neetha 2004). Therefore the aspects of
feminization and invisibility seem to reinforce each other, forming a sort of a
vicious circle. Vasanthi (2011), in her article about paid domestic work being a
public policy concern outlines all the factors of part time paid domestic work
that ‘‘pull’ women into it,
Some pull factors for part-time domestic work are: easy availability,
the ease of entry, given that no formal qualifications are prescribed
prescribed,
the nature of the work which is perceived to be less strenuous than
manual labour; and most importantly, the opportunity it provides
to balance work and home, including looking after small children.
(Vasanthi, 2011)
Out of these so called pull factors mentioned above that contribute to the
feminization of the occupation of domestic work, we can find many of these in
the collected narratives of the research participants. Sonia Chindwar, 20 years
of age says:
5-6 saal pehele mere chacha ki death ho gayi, phir mera phirse school
jaane ka mann hi nahi kiya…poora din ghar mei kehlna koodna, wo
mummy ko pasand nahi tha, ki bigad jayegi, kuch nahi karti hai, na
badi wali (sister) ka haath batati hai kaam mei, na khaana banati hai,
saara time mai timepass karti thi…toh phir mummy mujhe yahan le
aayi apne saath….kaam pata chal jayega kaise karte hain…aur jabse
yahan aayi hoon, yahin hoon.
{I left school when my chacha (father’s brother) died 5-6 years back.
I just did not feel like going back to school after that. I would spend
the whole day at home, just playing around and doing nothing and my
mother did not like it at all. I would not help my elder sister with any
of the household work and would just waste all my time…so then my
mother started bringing me here with her...that I’ll at least understand
how work is done here. Since then I’ve been working here.}
When she was asked why did she not choose a more fashionable option like
working in a beauty parlour, even as her sister works in a corporate call centre,
she mentioned the reason of financial constraints to be able to learn further
skills and the fact that her mother was not familiar with that field of work, so
she had no guidance in terms of how to enter and sustain herself in an unfamiliar
environment. One of the major issues as pointed out by Sonia in terms of
providing guidance about what work to take up was the lack of a ‘man’ in the
family – not only indicating the emotional need for a father (anchor) figure
but also the lack of a patriarchal anchor in her life because all the norms are
dictated from the reference of the elder-male, father figure, which no longer
existed for her. This refers directly to the now-naturalized need for women’s
lived to be orchestrated by men and not by themselves.
Speaking with another participant, Sita Devi (40 years, domestic worker),
I realised that this idea of paid domestic work being an extension of women’s
work at home and women’s work inside the household being a natural extension
of their caring tendencies and a soft, nurturing disposition is extremely well
ingrained in the collective unconscious of the society that women themselves
are oblivious to other options and opportunities that they could have availed at
certain points of time in their lives.
Another of the pull factors finding favour in the collected narratives was
that of convenience – supported by stories from women domestic workers
Annu (29 years) and Menka (29 years), and on the other hand, supported in an
inverse way by stories of difficulties in bringing up children with full-time day
jobs by a few of the women employers who had taken up paid employment
out of their homes – like Anita (47 years) and Urmil Arora (69 years). ‘It
is convenient for them to shoulder their own double burden if the work is
available in the close vicinity, especially if it permits them a few hours at home
in between the shifts’. Neetha (2009)
WHO IS THE REAL BREADWINNER?

I first read about women domestic workers being breadwinners as an abstract
social fact in the works of scholars like N. Neetha (2004), P. Bindhulakshmi
(2010) and Michele Gamburd (2009), about expat domestic workers sending
remittances back home, but only till the time I stepped into the field, where
it then got reified into concrete reality. It was on the basis of the extremely
touching narratives of hardships faced by these women workers, which they
shared with me that had brought them to work in the first place and had taught
their family to depend on them to be the primary earner. Having said that I must
not give an impression that the women employees had nothing much to say
about being or not being breadwinners. Many of the interviewed women were
earning or had previous work experience, while two of them were even single
mothers running the household on their solo earnings. In these households,
the question of the real breadwinner was not as clear cut as is made out to be
in early, western feminist theory of the male breadwinner model. From the
participants in our study those women who had not taken up paid employment
outside the household were reasonably educated, to be able to get a job if
ever required. Also, the single mothers were also holding steady jobs, were
able to get their children educated well and smoothly ran their middle class
households, fulfilling the role of the breadwinner in all respects. Though I did
come across an instance or two of a little regret for not continuing to work early
in their life, their role as “housewives” was apparently do deeply naturalized
that they seemed quite content in it, handing over the financial reigns to the
men and/or children in the family.
In contrast to these middle class women employers, where the males (and
some children) in the household (usually) earn a stable living and some of
these employers themselves have taken up paid work, the women domestic
workers have a diametrically opposite story to share. In the stories shared by
the women domestic workers, as I went on with the interviews, the particular
point of the supposed male breadwinner not living upto his role – kept coming
up again and again when these women would talk about how they chose
domestic work as an occupation.
Neetha (2009) writes concisely that ‘Women domestics are found
assuming vital functions and roles in migration, the settling-down process and
in the search for job. Women are seen as central in accessing and mobilising
social networks, which not only direct the course of migration, but also the
survival of the migrant family in the urban milieu’.. It is to be noted that all of
these observations stand strong for the narratives collected by me. Of all the
narratives, Sita Devi’s story (mentioned previously) is the prime exemplar of
all of these processes happening at once and pushing her to assume the mantle
of the household’s breadwinner. Another similar narrative was shared by a
participant called Menka:
[…]husband driver hai, wo zyada ghar mei nahi reheta. Bachche (two)
jab school se aate hain, toh unki chachi dekh leti hain uko, paas mei
reheti hai. Unka khaana toh mai rakh ke aati hoon... Mere husband
ghar aate hi nahi…bachchon ka kharcha saara mai hi de rahi hoon.
(Menka, 29 years)
{My husband is a driver…he doesn’t stay at home much. When my
children (two) come back from school, then my sister-in-law looks after
them for a while, she lives closeby. I make their food in the morning
only and keep…my husband does not come home at all, I spend all my
salary on my children.}
Here again we see that the husband and the father of the two children has
refused to take any responsibility of running the household and bringing up
the children.
Women with paid employment outside the home from both the sections
of participants – the employers and the domestic workers – shared stories of
the “double-shift”4 with me, talking about their tough years and easier ones
and their stance on domestic work as an occupation and hiring domestic
help, respectively. Hence, we can say the possibility of a woman domestic
worker being in the role of a sole and primary breadwinner for her family is
much higher than that of the middle class woman employer she works for.
Even though the employer can be well educated and in a lot of cases, could
have taken up paid employment outside the household, but norms (explicit or
implicit) regulating marriages also dictate that the woman must be slightly less
educated and earning less than the man she gets married to – mostly leading
4 This is a spin-off on the term ‘second shift’ coined by Arlie Hochschild who wrote a book
with the same title in 1989. The term was first used to observe that in heterosexual couples
where both have taken up paid employment outside the household, it is still the woman who
spends significantly more time on domestic work than the man, making household work
her second shift of work, post-office. This kind of division of labour inside the household is
naturalized and based on sexual division of labour.
to the fact that a woman who has taken up paid work outside her home based
on her skills and education, will still probably be earning less than the male
head of the family. On a parallel tangent, women who exercise the option
of not taking up paid work outside the household or have to leave work due
to circumstances (illness, children, migration of family etc.) are still labelled
to be at a higher pedestal than the women domestic workers who manage a
“double shift” of work and play the role of a housewife and a breadwinner
simultaneously.
CONCLUSION
I would now like to bring together the different streams of thought that I have
presented in this article so that we can get a clearer picture of how the social
institutional structure of gender works in tandem with other social structures
to create an impact that permeates the lives of these women in question and
deeply regulates them in ways that are often not easy to recognize or are
not recognized as oppressive at all. All the instances of discrimination that
these women implicitly or explicitly face in their lived experiences stem
from their social locations within the privacy of the household and one of
the primary conspirants has been the long rule of the patriarchal system even
with changing social, economic and cultural factors. This we can not only
notice while historicizing the phenomena of domestic work but we can trace
the corrosive impact of patriarchal dynamics to the present day as we begin
to understand the forms and shapes it has transformed into in the course of
its adaptations with the entry of the capitalistic tendency, modern science and
technology and the concept of the nation state. The so-called determinants
of domestic work discussed in this paper are by no means exhaustive and
extensive academic work is required to develop a better understanding of each
one of these factors and other contributing factors must also be studied in
future research work to help bring the private sphere of the household to light.
But it is only after developing some understanding of some of the factors that
shape the households under study and the environment they exist within can
we truly begin to understand the phenomena of domestic work and the debates
of feminization, invisibility, economic contribution etc. that are associated with
it. In the case of this paper, this understanding is derived from the narratives
of the lived experiences of women participants that go onto explicate, if not
provide direct evidence of the stranglehold of the patriarchal systems over the
daily lived experiences of these women.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, B. 1997. “Bargaining” and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond
the Household. Food Consumption and Nutrition Division Discussion
Paper. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, U.S.A.,
Available at: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/42661/2/dp27.pdf,
accessed on: 6th Feb 2014.
Ahmad, I. and Reifeld, H. 2001. Introduction: The Rise of Middle Class in
India and Western Europe. IN Middle Class Values in India and Western
Europe, Social Science Press, New Delhi.
Belliappa, J. 2013. Gender, Class and Reflexive Modernity in India. London.
Palgrave Macmillan Available Partly on Google Books: http://books.
google.co.in/books?id=XWqYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=Belliappa,+J
.+2013.+Gender,+Class+and+Reflexive+Modernity+in+India&hl=en&s
a=X&ei=7jYpU4nZH4nrrAfx_IDABw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Be
lliappa%2C%20J.%202013.%20Gender%2C%20Class%20and%20Refl
exive%20Modernity%20in%20India&f=false
Beteille, A. 2001 The Social Character of the Indian Middle Class, IN Ahmad,
I. and Reifeld, H. (Eds.) Middle Class Values in India and Western Europe,
Social Science Press, New Delhi, 2001.
Bindhullakshmi, P. 2010. Gender Mobility and State Response: Indian
Domestic Workers in the UAE in India Migration Report (ed.) Rajan,
S.I., New Delhi: Routledge.
Chakravarti, U. 1993. Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India:
Gender, Caste, Class and State, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.
28, No. 14, pp. 579-585.
Chaudhuri, 2010, The Family and Its Representation: From Indology to
Market Research in ed. Yogendra Singh, History of Science, Philosophy
and Culture in Indian Civilization Vol. XIV Part 2 (Delhi, Pearson 2010)
pp. 363-389.
Choo, H.Y. and Ferree, M.M. 2010. Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological
Research: A Critical Analysis of Inclusions, Interactions, and Institutions
in the Study of Inequalities. in Sociological Theory Vol 28: 2 (June 2010)
pp. 129-49. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/
j.1467-9558.2010.01370.x/abstract, accessed on: 4th March 2013
Cook, J.A. and Fonow M.M. (Eds.) 1991. Back to the future: A look at the
second wave of feminist epistemology and methodology. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Dalla Costa M. and James S. 1972. The Power of Women and the Subversion
of the Community. Bristol: Falling Wall Press Available at: https://libcom.
org/library/power-women-subversion-community-della-costa-selma-
james
Ed. Deshmukh-Ranadive, J. 2008. Democracy in the Family – Insights from
India. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Dickey, S. Adams, K.M. (Eds.) 2000. Home and Hegemony – Domestic Service
and Identity Politics in South and South East Asia. Michigan, USA. The
University of Michigan Press. Partly available at Google Books: http://
books.google.co.in/books?id=87-b6-zeYCIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=
Home+and+Hegemony+%E2%80%93+Domestic+Service+and+Identit
y+Politics+in+South+and+South+East+Asia.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VTQp
U7yYEYSKrgfAlICABA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Home%20and%
20Hegemony%20%E2%80%93%20Domestic%20Service%20and%20I
dentity%20Politics%20in%20South%20and%20South%20East%20Asia
.&f=false
Dube, L. and Palriwala, R. (Eds.) 1990. Structures and Strategies: Women,
Work and Family. California: Sage Publications.
Engels, F. 1884 (reprinted in 2008) The Origin of the Family, Private Property
and the State. Newtown, Australia: Resistance Books.
Fraad, H., Resnick, S., Wolff, R. 1994. For Every Knight in Shining Armor,
There’s a Castle Waiting to be Cleaned: A Marxist Feminist Analysis of
the Household. in Bringing It All Back Home – Class, Gender and Power
in the Modern Household. London: Pluto Press.
Gamburd, M. 2009. Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant Workers: Obstacles
and Challenges, in Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1, p. 70. Available
at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14672710802631152#.
Uykz9fmSxfk, accessed on 12th April 2013
Ghosh, J. 2009. Never Done and Poorly Paid: Women’s Work in Globalizing
India. New Delhi: Women Unlimited.
Ghosh, J. 2010. Migration and Gender Empowerment IN S. Irudaya Rajan
(Ed.) Governance and Labour Migration: India Migration Report,
Routledge, New Delhi.
Harding, S. 1987. Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Indiana.
U.S.A.: Indiana University Press.
Harding. S. 2004. Introduction: Standpoint Theory as a Site of Political,
Philosophical and Scientific Debate in Feminist Standpoint Theory

Reader. Routeledge. New York; pp. 1-16.
Hooks, bell. 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: South End Press, reprinted in 2000, quoted in Collins, P.H.
1986. Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance
of Black Feminist Thought in Social Problems, Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. S14-
S32.
Joshi, S. 2001. Fractured Modernity: Making of a Middle Class in Colonial
North India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kosambi, D.D. 1956. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. Bombay:
Popular Book Depot.
Kothari, U. 1997. Women’s Paid Domestic Work and Rural Transformations:
A Study in South Gujarat. IN Economic and Political Weekly, April 26th,
WS-5 Available at: http://www.epw.in/review-womens-studies/women-s-
paid-domestic-work-and-rural-transformation-study-south-gujarat.html,
accessed on: 22nd March 2013.
Mies, M. 1998. Second Edition. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World
Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed
Books Ltd.
Morgan, L.H. 1877. Ancient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human
Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization. Chicago:
Charles H. Kerr Company.
Neetha N. 2004. Making of Female Breadwinners: Migration and Social
Networking of Women Domestics in Delhi. IN Economic and Political
Weekly, 24th April, pp. 1681-1688. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/
stable/4414927, accessed on 18th Nov 2011.
Neetha N. 2008. Regulating Domestic Work. IN Economic and Political
Weekly, 13th Sept, pp. 26-28 Available at: www.epw.in/commentary/
regulating-domestic-work.html , accessed on: 19th Sept 2013.
Neetha N. 2009. Contours of Domestic Service: Characteristics, Work
Relations and Regulations. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 52,
No. 3. Available at: http://www.idwn.info/files/files/resources/Contours%
20of%20Domestic%20Service%20Characteristics,%20Work%20Relatio
ns%20and%20Regulations.pdf accessed on: 19th Sept 2013
Oakley, A. 1974. The Sociology of Housework. London: M. Robertson.
Phadke, S. 2005. Some Notes Towards Understanding the Construction of

Middle Class Urban Women’s Sexuality in India, in Chandiramani, R.
and Misra, G. (eds.), Gender, Sexuality & Rights: Exploring Theory &
Practice, New Delhi: Sage.
Raghuram, P. 2001. Caste and Gender in the Organization of Paid Domestic
Work in India. Work, Employment & Society. Vol. no. 15(3) pp. 607-617,
Availlable at: http://wes.sagepub.com/content/15/3/607 accessed on:
20th July 2012.
Ray, R., Qayum, S. 2010. Cultures of Servitude: Modernity, Domesticity and
Class in India. New Delhi. Oxford University Press.
Smith, D. 1987. The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology.
Boston. Northeastern University Press.
Smith, D. 1992. ‘Sociology from Women’s Experience: A Reaffirmtion’ in
Sociological Theory, Volume 10, Issue 1, pp. 88-98. Available at: http://
www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4111/Readings/SmithWomen.pdf,
accessed on: 28th Feb 2013.
Stanley, L. 1990. Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in
Feminist Sociology, Oxon, United Kingdom. Routledge.
Stanley, L. and Wise, S. 1990. Method, methodology and epistemology in
feminist research process. in Stanley, L. (Ed.) Feminist Praxis: Research,
Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology, Oxon, United Kingdom.
Routledge.
Tolen, R. 2000. ‘Transfers of knowledge and priviledged spheres of practice:
Servants and employers in a Madras railway colony’ in Dickey, S. and
Adams, M. (Eds.) Home and Hegemony – Domestic Service and Identity
Politics in South and South East Asia. Michigan, USA. The University of
Michigan Press.
Uberoi, P. The Family in India: Beyond the Nuclear versus Joint Debate in
Ed.by Mala Khullar. Writing the Women’s Movement: A Reader, Seoul:
Ewha University/New Delhi: Zubaan Publishers, 2005. pp. 361-396.
Vasanthi, N, 2011. Addressing Paid Domestic Work: A Public Policy Concern,
in, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 43, pp. 85-93, available
at: http://www.epw.in/review-womens-studies/addressing-paid-domestic-
work-public-policy-concern.html?ip_login_no_cache=e85d484543f0e50
f78d380bdfde3a0a4, accessed on 25th July, 2012.
Walby, S. 1997, Gender Transformations, London: Routledge.
20
Gender and Caste: Socio-cultural

Context in India
Vikram Singh
INTRODUCTION
The concept of gender was first developed by Iill Matthews in 1984 in her study
of the construction of femininity. According to Mathews, the concept of gender
gives recognition to the fact that every known society differentiates between
women and men. Gender is a socially constructed term which has specified
nature and meaning. It is manifestation towards the socio-cultural framework
of man and woman in society which assign those duties, responsibilities and
various social roles. It is used as an equipment to analyze the situation, tabbos,
and realities of social roles posed by various social institutions (i.e. family,
marriage, religion etc.). Gender identity has moved from dualism to multiplicity,
it is both fluid and embodied, not unified (Malti-Douglas, 2007, p. 61).
It is because the differentiation between sex and gender came in the
discourse to define the secondary status of women. Historically it is widespread
that different traits, roles, responsibilities and characteristics between men and
women in society regulated by different social institutions are determined
by their gender which is acceptable and not changeable in society and it is
because of their biological differences which make women, accountable for
their secondary status in society. And this phenomenology existing naturally
which highlight the issues of gender discrimination, exploitation, inequalities
and injustice in the society regulated by norms and values. Frameworks
related to gender highlight that sex and gender are synonymous but different
because each and every individual born as a male and female which can be
identified easily looking towards the genital parts. In socio-cultural context
the phenomenon related to male and female is entirely different as per their
roles, responsibilities, duties, retorts and manifestations in different society’s
entire the globe. In India, gradually the societal process alters this gender
(i.e. male/female) into man and women on the basis of their masculinity
and femininity which determined through patriarchy, this only differentiate
it entirely in behavior patterns, identities which are historically, socially and
culturally imbibed the structure of social system. Moreover this process is
come through socialization which describes it through stratification of these
terms into gender, sex and sexuality.
TRANSLATION OF GENDER IN SOUTH-ASIAN LANGUAGES

“This is indeed a problem. While English has two different words sex and
gender – most South Asian languages have only one word – “linga” used for
both sex and gender. To distinguish between them we have found two words
to qualify linga. For sex we say ““praakritiklinga” or natural/biological sex,
and for gender “saamaajik/linga” or social sex. In fact this definition often
works better than “sex” and “gender” because the terms themselves contain the
definition, and so no further explanations are required” (Bhasin, 2000, p. 5)
Sex and Gender Relations in Society; Theoretical Frameworks

The only roles related to sex are those associated with reproduction- male and
female contribute to the transfer of genetic material. Further, women give birth
and breastfeed, activities assigned to female on the basis of socially determined
characteristics, such as stereotypes, ideologies, values, attitudes, beliefs, and
practices are also defined.Gender relations are relations of dominance and
subordination with elements of co-operation, force and violence sustaining
them. Gender relations are socially constructed and hence, variable in time and
place and amenable to change.Gender relations follow the rules of patriarchy-
an ideology and social system whereby men are considered superior to women.
Theories on gender linked it with different dimensions, as Sigmund Freud
perceive gender identity as linked to sexual consciousness of being a male
or female.Biologically men are the weaker sex andthe Y chromosome (found
only in men) is responsible for many handicaps for women. Ashley Montagu
in his book The Natural Superiority of Women contains 62 specific disorders
due largely or wholly tosex-linked genes and found mostly in males. “About
half ofthem are serious, and include hemophilia (failure of theblood-clotting
mechanism), mistral stenosis (a heart deformity) andsome forms of mental
deficiency. At every stage of life,beginning with conception, more genetic
males die than geneticfemales.
Gender and Caste: Socio-cultural Context in India 399
More males than females are produced and the twofacts of greater mortality
and greater production seem to go handin hand. ““Ann Oakley provides ample
data from research studies to show that men are much more susceptible
to infectious diseases and mortality. According to her this susceptibility
“has been directly connected with the difference in chromosomal make-up
between male and female. Genes controlling the mechanisms by which the
body withstands infection are transmitted via the X chromosome;the male’s
higher susceptibility has a distinct biochemical basis.In South Asia however
the biological superiority of womenhas been overshadowed by the social and
cultural inferiority imposed on them and today, in almost every area, women
lag behind men” (Bhasin, 2000, p. 12).
This backwardness can be better understood by patriarchal structure in
Indian context where male chauvinism rules and regulate gender relation in
power structure of the society. Patriarchy means rules of father or patriarch.
Further it can be extended to all forms of male domination in the world
inside/outside the family. The origin of this word patriarchy was coined to
define a specific type of male dominated structure in the society and how it
channelize through social institutions like family/joint family of the patriarch
whichincluded women, younger men, children, slaves and domesticservants,
all under the rule of this dominant male. But nowadays this used in the discourse
of inequality male vs. female towards the power relations existing and creating
hierarchical structure in the society.
This social system classifies women as a subordinate or secondary position
which moves their stake at next level.‘In South Asia, for example it is called
pitrsattain Hindi, pidarshahi in Urdu and pitritontroin Bangla’ (Bhasin, 2000,
p. 22). Patriarchy not merely male chauvinism and also case of sex roles. In
totality it does not imply women are totally powerless or fully deprived of
rights, influence or resources. It points to power relationships and structures
by which men dominate women in various ways through regulations of social
institutions (i.e. family, community, religion and caste etc.). Feminist denotes
patriarchy bymanifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over
women and children in family and its extension in society by ‘control of
women’.
This control of women is channelized through power and position defined
by various sociologist and feminist which play an important role in the
subjugation of women and they controlled as follows; Women’s productive or
labor power, Reproduction, Sexuality, Mobility, Property and other Economic
Resources.There are number different perspectives on power; ‘Max Weber
defined it is the probability that a person in a social relationship will be able

to carry out his/her own will in the pursuit of goals of action, regardless of
resistance. But Karl Marx has regarded it as a structural relationships existing
independently of the wills of individuals’ (Nicholas Abercrombie, 2012, p.
301). There is link between power and position because it determines the
status of an individual, not only status but the position of an individual. And
in context of patriarchy men acquire power through their position and roles in
society. This can be understood through example of families in Indian context
where father/husband/brother has supremacy over the daughter/wife/sister.
Using gender as a category of historical analysis in socio-cultural
context;feminist scholars have produced a rich literature on the sexual
symbolism and carnal practices, at a symbolic level, the penetration and
conquest of faraway lands was charged with sexual significance and intrigue
(Kolsky, 2010, p. 1). Feminism explains patriarchy as follows; it defines as an
institution of power and authority, having defined structural through which men
dominate, oppress and exploit women. Further it extends towards the struggle
against the totality of oppressive and exploitative relations which affect women
and their systemic character. Furthermore the theoretical framework can be
analyzed through the social institutions and social processes existing in the
society which are as follows:
• State and its policies
• Law and judiciary
• Media
• Education structures, knowledge production and dissemination
• Communities and Households
These all factors can be explained through contentions of feminism
Engels and Marx defined that women’s subordination began with the
development of private property which excluded them economically; private
propertyisconsidered as collection of rights over inanimate and animate
objects. These objects are socially determined, imply social relationships
between people and determine haves and haves-not or authorized access to
objects. The possession over property gives the possessors power over others
and in some societies people are themselves societies (i.e. In India women
are bound to work assigned them in socio-cultural context). Private property
focused on acquisition to gain access on property, distribution, include the
property ownership and control which maintained by the institutions including
law, Consequences of property for individuals and social structures and social
values that justify property rights and division of classes and subordination of
women began simultaneously, it is because different modes of production sexual
division of labour. With the origin of private property economic dependency of
women is increased; they are totally excluded from social production and their
roles are confined only to reproduction.
Radical feminism explains that patriarchy led towards development of
private property, which separated system into two socialclasses; economic
class system related to the production, possession, acquisition and division
of labour where women is believed to be fragile and has to kept under strict
control, protection. Their property, cash, assets and labour skills are not to
be shared by others. But the division of labour not restricted women at lower
strata, they are allowed to take up job to contribute as a secondary earners but
wish—sex class system based on the
they are free to spent their earnings at their wish—
relations of reproduction, not only the women’s biological structure but social
control exercised to a great extent on social structure, role allocation, values,
and rigidity place on it make theminferior.Radical feminist not fin women
as oppressed because the word oppressed for women because it is related to
the conscience. ‘As Paulo freire defined oppressed suffer from the duality
which has established itself in their innermost being. Oppressed observed that
without freedom they cannot exist authentically’ (Freire, 2000, p. 46). And in
Indiacontrol male control over women is because they considered as fickle and
fragile, and they themselves not perceived as oppressive because of mutual
obligations based on class systems.
GENDER AND CASTE; MISSED COMPONENT OF THE

THEORETICAL DISCOURSE
‘Indian population follows a rigid caste system which divides people into
a hierarchy that governs the distribution of power, status, and identity in
society’ (Macwan, 2006).The caste system, is divided into four distinct classes
comprised of (in descending order of “superiority”) priests, warriors, artisans,
and peasants. These four classes are “vested with spiritual importance” because
they all derive from different parts of the Hindu god, Brahma. Below the four
castes are the “untouchables, also known as Dalits or in Indian legal parlance:
Scheduled Castes. They are officially external to the caste scheme; i.e., they
are considered to be outcasts and are seen as a lower from one of the four
Hindu classes.
‘According to Ministry of Home Affairs, as of the 2001 census, there are
over 166 million Dalits; comprising 16.2% of India’s population’ (Government
of India, 2001). A complex web of religious, moral and cultural beliefs and
attitudes has, over centuries, created the pervasive view that Dalits are impure
or polluted’ (Chung, 2009). They are considered so inferior to other castes,
and so polluting, that they are deemed “untouchable’ (Narula, 2008, p. 4).
As a result, they are subject to various forms of oppression. For example,
one custom prohibits Dalits from “walking public streets lest their ‘polluting’
shadow should fall on an ‘upper-caste’ Hindu. While those customs are not
necessarily followed everywhere in India today, caste divisions, and their
attendant forms of discrimination, continue to prevail.
The normative and democratic pillars of institutions and doctrines
enshrined in the Constitution of India set the agenda of post-colonial state
in India in terms of abolition or at least reduction of social-inequalities.
The objective of ‘welfare’ state was to make a modern caste-less society by
reducing centuries old disabilities inflicted upon the ‘depressed’ and attempt to
improve their lot by providing them ‘reservations’ and ‘quotas’ in education as
well as job market especially in state-bureaucracy and over-sized public sector
enterprises. The Constitution of India requires the state to treat all citizens
equally, without regard to birth, gender or religious belief. However, society
does not function merely on the basis of formal principles. Enforcement
of legal doctrines and attempt to remove social discrimination is a process
entangled in the complexities of social formation. The pernicious aspects
of jati, varnaand class, therefore, still permeate our families, localities and
political institutions.
In the perception of most of academic mainstream of the West there is
an essential conflict between equality and freedom. The problem of social
justice, then, is to evolve the criteria of balancing the claims of equality and
freedom. There are equalitarian who either prefer equality to freedom or give
representation to both equality and freedom whereassome scholars give very
low priority to equality. Equality is a powerful moral and political supreme that
stimulated and guided human society for centuries. In political supreme the
concept of equality define that all human beings have an equal worth despite
of their colour, gender, race, or caste. It maintains that human beings deserve
equal contemplation and respect because of their human. Equality requires
identification of similarities either reference to equality alone or to principles
extraneous to equality. Equality, either independently, or in association with
principles extraneous to equality, is one of the referents of justice.‘Perelman
attempted to find some common core in equality to ascertain, similarities
without reference to considerations extraneous to equality’ (Julias, 1965, p.
339).
In the contemporary situation equality of all human beings has been used
as a tool to raise voice against states and social institutions which creates power
structures of ranks, wealth, or privilege among people. The social and political
institutions created for the sake of the individual and continue to be for the sake
of the good life of the individuals. John Locke, one of the profounder of the
social contract theory, argued that life, liberty and property are the three basic
elements for which civil society and state came in to existence. The evolution
of democracy added the element of equality and justice in these virtues.
Twentieth century witnessed some remarkable phenomenon when in Asia
and Africa many new nations liberated from the clutch of the western power.
India can be characterized by social inequality; perhaps nowhere else in the
world has inequality been as elaborately constructed as in the Indian institution
of caste. Caste has long existed in India, but in the modern period it has been
severely criticized by both Indian and foreign observers.
Although some educated Indians tell non-Indians that caste has been
abolished or that “no one pays attention to caste anymore”, such statements do
not reflect reality. Caste has undergone significant change since independence,
but it still involves hundreds of millions of people. In its preamble, India’s
constitution forbids negative public discrimination on the basis of caste.
However, caste ranking and caste-based interaction have occurred for
centuries and will continue to do so well into the foreseeable future, more
in the countryside than in urban settings and more in the realms of kinship
and marriage than in less personal interactions.The term “Justice” is very
comprehensive and it is not easy to define it. In word of Dias, ‘The concept of
Justice is too vast to be encompassed by one mind. It is not something which
can be captured in a formula once and for all. Scholars like Krishnamurthy
said “In spite of best efforts it has not been possible to clearly define justice’
(Krishnamurthy, 1982, p. 18).
Hence, contemporarily justice can be defined as a protector of legal rights.
Social Justice came into limelight during the French Revolution of 1789. It is
generally explained in terms of liberty, equality and fraternity. Thus, the notion
of social justice postulates that if the question of merit deserves attention, the
demand of the need of the oppressed cannot be ignored. The justification
behind meeting the needs of oppressed is that they arise out of deprivation
and exploitation of the system. The oppressed themselves are not responsible
for their disabilities, backwardness, and vulnerability. As such, the premise of
social justice is emancipation of the underprivileged, exploited and oppressed
sections ofsociety. Its main aim is to liberate mankind from traditional bondage
of social and economic exploitation. However, in sociological terms, justice

has different meanings in relation to the nature of political systems, viz.,
Capitalist, socialist, and democratic structure of the government.
Social Justice can be defined as fair and proper administration of laws
and natural laws, that all persons irrespective of ethnicity, gender, possessions,
race or religion are entitled too, and equally applied. The fact is that justice
in society has been ever a prestigious theme. It has signalled the inscrutable
philosophers’ and logicians’ Social justice, sometimes called civil justice,
refers to the concept of a society in which justice is achieved in every aspect
of society, and not only in the administration of law. Social justice affords all
individuals and groups, fair treatment and an impartial share of the benefits
of society. Rawls dissatisfied with the existing theories of Justice and being
aware of weakness of equality as such, projected justice as fairness. Apart
from equality, fairness includes Liberty and rewards for services contributing
to common advantage.
John Rawls’s, distributive theory of justice seeks to create a society where
the principles of justice and fairness are provided and a society which ensures
equal access to liberties, rights, and opportunities, as well as taking care of
the least advantaged members of society. The concept is based around a social
contract, which is the voluntary agreement among people with each another
and the government which results in an organized society.
There are two basic principles in his theory:
1. All participants in an institution have a right to maximum of liberty
compatible with like liberty of all.
2. Inequalities are just, only if they are for every one’s advantage.
These are fair principles because they have been adopted in original position,
a hypothetical state. The distribution must be guaranteed on the basic of
average utility. In operation, Rawls’s theory would mean that liberties shall
be available to each but socioeconomic inequalities shall persist. In his theory
welfare becomes a matter of rights’ (Rawls, 1976, pp. 11-22). F.A. Hayek and
Robert Nozick give priority to liberty at the cost of complete or near complete
exclusion of family. Hayek totally rejects the idea of purposeful and scientific
social development. Economy, law, politics and morality are by products of
spontaneous and even irrational human activity and abolition of welfare and
monopoly institutions. ‘Robert Nozick also believes in the efficiency of the
market economy. His theory is known as theory of entitlement. Possession of
things is just if title to them to be required legitimately in free market protected
by law. This theory, according to Nozick, is non-patterned and historical’
(Nozick, 1974). In spite of branding of social justice by Marx as a bourgeois

concept in his entire theory there runs an undercurrent of the problems of social
justice. For the Marxist, there is not essential conflict between equality and
freedom. These all theoretical frameworks doesn’t look into the discourse of
caste and gender so, there is utmost need to look in the theoretical discourse.
MARGINALISATION, SOCIAL EXCLUSION,

AMONG DALIT WOMEN
The term “Marginalization” generally describes the overt actions or tendencies
of human societies whereby those perceived as being without desirability
or function are removed or excluded (i.e., are “marginalized”…) from the
prevalent systems of protection and integration, so limiting their opportunities
and means for survival. In nations such as India, there is also the problem of the
marginalization of Dalits, Tribe’s, especially women of these communities and
other backward castes and communities. Sociologists often find themselves
analytically unravelling civilizations. In Indian context, India seems to be a
civilization that is coming apart in reality. The victimization of scheduled castes
and tribes as well as Dalits and women of these communities; the economic
marginalization of large sections of society all contribute to this unravelling.
‘Marginalization is such that it becomes more and more problematic, the more
you talk about it without acting upon it, against it”. From Social Justice at
an individual level, to International Law, every part must contribute against
marginalization, for it occurs at every level, deliberately, by choice, or without
choice’ (Kumar, 2006, p. 18). Of course, the forms of marginalization may
vary generally linked to the citizenship and social exclusion. Citizenship refers
to the relationship between the “citizens” and the state within the context
of rights and obligations and is based on the principles of “inclusion” and
“exclusion” of members. ‘The definition conceptualised by Kymlicka and
Norman incorporates both these positions: Citizenship is not just a certain
status, defined by a set of rights and responsibilities, but also as an identity. It
is thus an expression of one’s membership in a political community’ (Wayne,
2000, p. 65).
It has become clear, however, that many groups, such as women on the basis
of their gender feelexcluded from the ‘common culture’ despite possessing
the common rights of citizenship. Thus, political inequality operating through
these structures limits the possibility of actors engaging actively in the public
sphere, for accessing their rights.In Indian context we can see that India’s
democratic institutions were thoroughly built over long years of the national
movement for independence, with a far sighted vision and a modern, secular
world view, an attempt was made to build structures that would balance
each other and provide justice to all citizens, within this world-view were
constituted not only the legislature, executive and judiciary, but also various
autonomous commissions and tribunals and media institutions. In addition,
scope was provided for the functioning of citizens and civil society groups
and democratic people’s movements. For over three decades these institutions
survived as a framework within which working people could struggle for a
better life. Emergence of communal, neo-liberal, and free market forces have
intensify these trends. The rising tide of fundamentalist forces all over the
world contributed significantly to the attrition of democratic traditions in the
name of freedom and society. Fears are manipulated to subdue societies into
obedience and conformity. The ideals of liberty and social, political equality
are being undermined. There are number of unexplored areas of concern of the
people’s or what we can exactly called them citizens of a political community;
i.e. women, women of lower castes and other marginalised sections. ‘When
any of the citizenship rights and entitlements is inhibited, withheld, violated,
people become marginalised and this lack citizenship rights and entitlements
and inability to articulate the demands for it produce exclusionary forms
of citizenship’ (Pant, 2006, pp. 6-24). This exclusion leads to hindrance in
accessing basic rights and entitlements, so any discussion on citizenship
identities and rights should go beyond policy analyses to citizens themselves.
This process excludes them socially, it leads to social exclusion which provides
space for domination, discrimination and deprivation; those who benefit from
this social formation do not want to change the structure. This social system
becomes very resistant to change and transformation. Interestingly, it is not
only those who discriminate against people considered ‘inferior, incapable,
less meritorious and lower’ that resist change. Even those who are victims of
discrimination are not in a position to mobilize and organize them to alter the
existing social system.
It is not as if any groups want to remain in the dehumanizing social order
and, therefore, do not initiate change; they fear being subjected to repression
if they resist exclusion and discrimination. This situation can be seen where it
gives birth to domination, discrimination and lack of accessing the resources
and another fact is adjusting with present situation of anyone. The ideas about
citizenship has adherence to some notion of justice. It is also associated with
the idea of citizenship. Closely bound up with the demands for justice by many
disempowered groups is a demand for recognition of the intrinsic worth of all
human beings but also recognition of and respect for their differences.
It is people’s ability to exercise some degree of control over their lives.

Where rights are seen to promote the capacity for self-determination, the
struggle for rights is expressed in ways that reflect particular experience
of being denied self-determination. ‘The appearance of the idea of social
exclusion in the France of the 1970s is related to developments of the state
as well as to its incipient crisis’ (Sen, 2004, p. 1). Robert Castel argued that
French society, as most European societies, resolved the issue of “the social
question” by passing ‘from tutelage to contract’ between the Middle Ages and
the nineteenth century, and ‘from contract to statute’ in the twentieth century.
This took place within the context of societies still pursuing full employment
in which salary relationships were the foundation of the expansion of social
citizenship.
‘As a Definition, Social exclusion reflects the multiple and overlapping
nature of the population with social identity as the central axis to their
exclusion’ (Kabeer, 2006, p. 18). Various scholars have described the process
of social exclusion in different dimensions. ‘Duffy (1995) defined it as,
inability to participate effectively in economic, social, and cultural life and in
some characteristics, alienation and distances from mainstream society. The
social identity of these type of groups are the reason for the discrimination for
these people and the discrimination is imparted to them by certain dominating
group of the society by denying their rightful ownership’ (Duffy, 1999). As in
the case of women of SC/STs group.
Room (1995) talked about social exclusion as the denial or non-realisation
of rights of citizenship, it is very much similar to the capability approach
developed by ‘Amartya Sen, which calls for efforts to ensure that people have
equal access to basic capabilities such as the ability to be healthy, well-fed,
housed, integrated into the community and public life and enjoy social basis of
self-respect’ (Sen, 2010).
The capability approach and the right based approach is unique in its
approach and the most relevant one as it emphasizes that the inability to
participate in and practiced by the mainstream society is a violation of a
basic right that should be open to all citizens (all residents), “the rights –
language considerably strengthens the case for society to ensure that it enables
participation and integration of all its members” it does not demand uniformity
of outcomes but instead calls equal freedom for all to enjoy all aspects of
citizenship. For example, participation in mainstream society may be seriously
constrained for people like scavengers community and their children as it could
for people who are otherwise deprived by birth or background, (Caste in Indian
Society). Thus calling for equal capabilities (or the ability to exercise civil
and social citizenship rights) may necessitate extra efforts but differentials.
In nature by society to provide equal capabilities to such people. There are
two defining characteristics of exclusion are particularly relevant, namely
the deprivation caused through exclusion (or denial of equal opportunities)
in multiple spheres showing its multidimensionality. Hence, social exclusion
can lead to deprivation in multiple spheres of life. Second feature is that, it
is embedded in the societal relations and societal institutions the processes
through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from
full participation in the society in which they live which happened in case of
women and it is more pathetic in case of Dalit women.
“The reality of Dalit women and girls is one of exclusion and

marginalization … They are often victims of civil
civil, political,
political economic,
social and cultural rights violations, including sexual abuse and
violence. They are often displaced; pushed into forced and/or bonded
labour prostitution and trafficking”
labour,
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women,
Rashida Manjoo, 2013.
Caste system is the bane of Indian society. In no other society the inequality
is so graded that it gives no opportunity for the oppressed to rise against the
oppressor in unison, in no other society it is sanctioned by the religion so that
it prevents the freedom of mind to strive for liberation. The Dalits, who are
at the lowest rungs of society, are the most oppressed people in India. They
are considered to be the lowest in Hindu caste hierarchy and therefore suffer
multiple forms of discrimination and social exclusion at the hand of caste
Hindus and the states functionaries
Dalit women are placed at the lowermost of the social hierarchy as they
face universal and structural discrimination having multi-dimensions threefold:
as Dalits, as poor, and as women. ‘Gopal Guru argued that “difference”for
understanding the specificity of Dalitwomen’s subjugation, characterized by
their experience of two distinct patriarchal structures/situations: a brahminical
form of patriarchythat deeply stigmatized Dalit women because of their
castestatus, as well as the more intimate forms of control by Dalit menover the
sexual and economic labour of “their” women (Rao, 2003, p. 1)’. Dalit women
are positioned at the bottom of India’s caste, class and gender hierarchies. They
experience endemic gender and caste discrimination and violence as an outcome
of severely imbalanced social, economic and political power equations.
The Dalit community constitutes about 250 million people and almost
half of them are women. Dalits are the most marginalized caste group in the
hierarchy of Indian society and highly prone to incidents of violence against

them, ranging from verbal abuse to physical assault, sexual harassment, rape
and even murder.1
FORMS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST DALIT WOMEN

1. Forced Prostitution
2. Molestation; Sexual Harassment & Rapes
3. Manual Scavenging
4. Trafficking
Forced Prostitution
The link between caste and forced prostitution is apparent in the Devadasi and
Jogini systems practiced in Southern Part of India. In ancient India, promotion
and patronage of the arts were considered to be a luxury of the state, the king
and regional princely regents. The practice and cultivation of these arts were
relegated to the domain of the Brahmins a Hindu caste traditionally.
Table 1: Crimes against the Dalit Community in India (2006-2011)2
Year %
Variation
Crime
2006 2007 2008 20089 2010 2011 (2010-
2011)
Murder 673 674 626 624 570 673 18.1
Rape 1217 1349 1457 1346 1349 1557 15.4
Kidnapping
280 332 482 512 511 616 20.5
& Abduction
Dacoity 30 23 51 44 42 36 -14.3
Robbery 90 86 85 70 75 54 -28.0
Arson 226 238 225 195 150 169 12.7
Hurt 3760 3814 4216 4410 4376 4247 -2.9
Protection of
Civil Rights 405 206 248 168 143 67 -53.1
Acts
1 http://ncdhr.org.in/ncdhr2/dalits-untouchability/dalits-untouchability, retrieved on 28/07/14;

16:00 hrs.
2 National Crime Record Bureu.
assigned to the priesthood. A separate caste came into being which took as its
profession the performance of music and dance on temple premises. These arts
were considered to be sacred and temple dances and musical concerts came
to be highly respected cultural events. A sub-caste of this group of temple
performers was called “Devadasis” or, literally, women servants of God. These
women were considered to be, in a sense, property of the temple and were
obliged to offer their services to God and dedicate their lives to the profession
of temple performance. Unlike the Christian Nun, a Devadasi was permitted
and even encouraged to engage in sexual activity with temple patrons. Temple
prostitution was a cultivated practice, particularly in the South. The fascinating
and highly erotic architecture of the Khajuraho and Konark temples emerged
as the Devadasi culture reached its pinnacle.
‘Devadasiand Joginisystems are a form of religiously sanctioned sexual
abuse. Originally a sacred, religious practice, the Devadasi dedication of girls
to temples has turned into a systematic abuse of young Dalit girls serving as
prostitutes for dominant caste community members. Most girls and women
in India’s urban brothels come from Dalit, lower-caste, tribal, or minority
communities. In 2007, Anti-Slavery International published a study on the
practice of ritual sexual slavery or forced religious ‘marriage’. It found that
93% of Devadasiwere from Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and 7% from Scheduled
Tribes (indigenous) in India’3 ‘Dalit women as prostitutes and tying prostitution
to bondage are a means of subjugation by dominant castes seeking to enforce
their social status and economic superiority. Girls who become Devadasiand
Joginiare prohibited from marrying and are stigmatized by the community.
The children of Devadasiand Joginisuffer from discrimination because they do
not have a recognized father’.4
Molestation; Sexual Harassment & Rapes
“Hindu Society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes.

Each caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be-all and
end-all of its existence”.
Babasaheb Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, 1937.
‘The caste system, estimated to affect 260 million people globally, declares
Dalit women to be intrinsically impure and ‘untouchable’, which sanctions
3 http://idsn.org/caste-discrimination/key-issues/forced-prostitution, retrieved on 01/08/14;
14:00 hrs.
4 Ibid.
social exclusion and exploitation. The vast majority of Dalit women are poor;
they are landless wage laborers; and lack access to basic resources. They are
subjugated by patriarchal structures, both in the general community and within
their own family’.5 India is home to more than 80 million Dalit women – a
calculation based on the statistics of the national census 2001.
‘A three-year study of 500 Dalit women’s experiences of violence across
four Indian states shows that the majority of Dalit women report having faced
one or more incidents of verbal abuse (62.4%), physical assault (54.8%), sexual
harassment and assault (46.8%), domestic violence (43.0%) and rape (23.2%)’.6
‘Dalit women are more vulnerable to sexual crimes than other social groups.
They feel more insecure, and face structural violence”, KalpanaKannabiran,
director of the Council for Social Development, told DW, adding that the caste
system allows such crimes to continue without any check’.7 Two young Dalit
children, gang-raped, murdered and hung from a tree in Badaun, circulate in
the media, the despair and anger of the Dalits, women and children who are
part of this spectacle of violence singes our everyday lives. The language of
the political class, which vacillates between sexist and statist responses and set
of politicians defends rapists and rape cultures, the other set speaks of death
penalty, stronger policing and awarding compensation.
‘The AIDWA fact-finding report tells us that the accused policemen have
only been charged with abetting violence. There is a refusal to acknowledge
that the rapacious bodies of police officers and their dominant caste bhai-
bandhu targeted the bodies of Dalit children and produced a spectacle of terror
for all Dalits to witness. This is how our children inherit caste by watching
mutely the lynched dead bodies of raped teenagers.
To be a Dalit and working-class parent means never to recover from such
a trauma. It means being told not to trust those police officials who act on
behalf of the rapacious system of dominance’.8 Violence against women is not
a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue”, Resident Coordinator of the UN
system in India Lise Grande said.
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon too had called the recent incidents of violence
towards women in India “appalling”.‘Dalit girls who attend school become
5 idsn.org/fileadmin/user_folder/pdf/New_files/Key_Issues/Dalit_Women/DALIT_
WOMEN__IDSN_briefing_paper.pdf, retrieved on 01/08/14; 14:00 hrs.
6 http://idsn.org/caste-discrimination/key-issues/dalit-women/india, retrieved on 01/08/14;
14:00 hrs.
7 http://www.dw.de/gang-rape-exposes-indias-violent-caste-system/a-17676877, retrieved
on 28/07/14; 16:00 hrs.
8 http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-despair-of-badaun/99/ retrieved on
28/07/14; 16:00 hrs.

vulnerable to eve-teasing, harassment and violence perpetrated by boys

belonging to dominant castes. In cases where the school is at a distance from
the village, such incidences and insecurity increases. This deters Dalit girls
from going to school, resulting in a high dropout rate among them. When the
girls do not go to school and live at home, parents prefer to marry them off at
a young age’ (PRIA, 2013, p. 13).
Case Studies9
1. Dalit girl gang raped and threatened; a couple of days later
later, her
mother gang raped and murdered, in Haryana
A father and husband speak: “My daughter did not have shoes to wear
in the school, and that’s why she was hesitant to goto school. However, a
girl in our neighborhood forced her to go to school. On her way to school
she was forced into a car by afew men and then raped several times. They
threatened to kill her parents if she dared to tell anyone. They ordered her
tocome every 10 days to them, whenever they demanded her to come.
However, after 10-15 days she told her mother aboutthe rape. The same
men picked up my wife after 20 days; they raped her and killed her. My
daughter is ill since the day of theincident. I have been threatened against
filling a case. They are forcing me to accept 70,000 rupees and take back
the case”. SP claims that he is mentally unstable and wrongly accusing
these people.
2. Dalit woman sexually abused, cheated and burnt alive, in Bihar
The mother of the Dalit martyr, seated: The victim was sexually abused for
a long period of time, then raped and burnt alive. The Indira AwasYojana
funds allotted toa Dalit woman were taken away by a policeman as a loan,
and when she demanded it back, what followed was a horrific seriesof
atrocities. The victim was raped in front of her family and then burnt
alive.
3. Dalit girl, sexually abused, brutally attacked and left to die, in
Odisha
The father of the survivor: The victim, a 22 year old girl belongs to a
washerman family and lives at her grandmother’s house. She has studied
up to10th class. Pratap Sahoo is a 55 year’s old married man with four
9 roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6939:first-day-
at-the-national-tribunal- violence-against-Dalit-women-in-India, retrieved on 28/07/14;
16:00 hrs.
sons. He belongs to the OBC (Sundhi) community, and is aconstruction

contractor. He was doing canal construction under NREGS. He called
the victim to work at the worksite but sherefused to do it. He requested
and called her many times to work by sending people to her house.
Finally, the victim agreed towork to support her family financially. She
went to work with a group of girls. One day, Pratap told her to go to his
house to collect some cement. When she reached his house, Pratap was
already there,and his wife was not around. Pratap attacked the victim
and abused her sexually. Pratap threatened to kill her and her parentsif
she informed anybody. He had also abused her sexually 3/4 times earlier,
by threatening her in a similar manner. She wasupset and was not able
to share the incident with her mother. She tried to face it herself and
did not allow Pratap to rape her. Pratap had told her to sleep alone in a
separate room instead of sleeping with her parents so that he could come
at night. Healso told her to use tablets to prevent pregnancy and to run
away from the village so that nobody could catch them. However,she
did not agree with him and stopped going for work. She has not got her
wages for the last 10 days of work. All this happened during June, 2012.
Sometime in July 2012, the victim had gone to the open space behind
the village toanswer nature’s call in the morning. Suddenly she found
herself surrounded by four men whose faces were painted black. One of
them asked her, do you know Pratap or not? She refused to answer. Then
they threatened her by asking many otherquestions like, have you known
Pratap, has he asked you to go with him, has he not promised to give you.
Rs 45,000/ etc. Thevictim was scared but still she responded strongly
saying that she did not know anything about it and Pratap.
Then she foundthat Pratap was also one among them. They threatened
and pressurized her to tell others that she was bitten by a wild pig. The
victim was unable to understand what they were talking about and within
no time they put something close to her faceand she became unconscious.
Then they cut her throat and left her there. After some hours she came to
know that she wasinjured and her body was full of blood. She was not able
to move. It was also raining. She tried to move a little and tried to shout,
whoever is here, tell my parents that I am not able to move and let them
come and take me from here. Hearing hercries some people came and
informed her family. And then 20-30 people arrived and took her to the
hospital, at around 10O’clock. The girl has since become handicapped.
4. Dalit Christian girl, gang raped and murdered, in Odisha

The father of the Dallit Christian girl who was violated and murdered.
The victim aged 13 years, was gang raped and murdered on 26th
October, 2012, by Ankur Pradhan (now arrested), a minor from
Dadadamaha village, and Udhab Pradhani and Bharata Pradhani of
Suluma village. The incident occurred during Durga pujafestive week,
on the road to Simonbadi, at about 11.00 p.m., when the girl was going
for an entertainment programmeorganized for the Durga puja festival.
She was accompanied by her 10 year old cousin. Simonbadi is about one
and a half kmsfrom Dadadamaha. On the following morning, a passerby
saw the dead body of the girl lying on the road side between Simonbadi
and Dadadamaha.The family members and the villagers rushed to the
spot and identified the girl’s body. The medical report confirms that she
was gang raped and murdered. Her body was lying naked with injuries
on her private parts, throat and chest. A case has been registered against
the accused at Daringbadi police station. Presently, the family lives under
trauma and fear. Supported by NGO workers, the parents of the deceased
received Rs.10, 000 towards the funeral from the Red Cross Fund. The
family has not received adequate financial assistance and other forms
of support from the district and State administration so far. All the six
accused are juveniles.
5. Dalit college student kidnapped, raped and murdered in Jind,
Haryana
The father of the Dalit martyr, on the left. A rare case where three
autopsies were performed and the third report, which was expected to be
a real report, has not yet given to the parents of the victim (it has been
more than a month now, since the incident). The father decided to keep
the girl’s dead body until the police took action... the dead body was
kept in the civil hospital for 7 days.The body was taken for cremation
even without the parents being informed...The activists present there,
parents and relatives ensured that the body was sent to AIIMS for a third
autopsy.
After seven days, around 2000 police personnel came to lathi charge the
girl’s father and other protesters. The police had asked the upper castes of
the village to take the body and cremate it... The father decided to take the
body to some otherplace on the way. The police lathi charged the girl’s
parents and even kicked the dead body of the girl.Advocate RajatKalsan
said that they had filed an RTI to retrieve the post mortem report but
the response from the authoritiesis not encouraging or satisfactory as

they said that they would decide after one month whether to give the
report or not. They promised a job to a family member and immediate
compensation...the father feels deceived as the promises werenever
fulfilled. The father says had the first police station where they had gone
to file a missing persons complaint acted immediately theywould have
found their daughter ALIVE. A one man SIT (special Investigation) Team
has been appointed for investigation. They expect this one man to fight the
Haryana govt., which has the highest rate of atrocities on Dalit women.
Asha Kowtal demands that the govt. declare theseareas in Haryana as
atrocity prone zones and Prof. Vimal Thorat expresses her dissatisfaction
with the Haryana govt. anddemands a separate state for Dalits if they
can’t provide justice. Manisha Devi, a Dalit woman activist, says that the
policewas trying to manipulate the case and get different aspects into the
case to divert the matter from rape and murder to suicide.
6. Dalit woman, gang raped; perpetrators make video and threaten to
kill her parents, in Haryana
On the left, the survivor’s brother when her father went to report the case
to the police, they said no one can do anything as they are powerful. So
they didnot file the case, as a result the father committed suicide.With lots
of intervention, the case moved further. There were nine men involved
in the gang rape, only four have been sentenced to life imprisonment and
the rest are free. The father’s case is still under trial.
7. Dalit woman, cheated, confined, harassed and denied wages, in
Odisha
Case of cheating, confinement, harassment and non-payment of wages
to Dalit woman. The victim, age 23, belongs to a BPL family. She was
helping her mother with household work. A married woman named Halima
Nayak, age 35 (who is an associate of Mr. Ashok, from Tamil Nadu, who
was working as a man power supplier in Sri Murugan Spinning Mill since
last year) met the victim around this time. On 14th January, 2013, Halima
encouraged the victim and two other girls of the same village to join the
company, after taking them from Odisha. She handed them over to Ashok
who is a well-known agent. Mrs. Halima had set a condition to pay Rs.
5,500/- per month as wages for the girls. These girls had worked there for
3 months. Then, one day they asked for their wages. But the agent Ashok
beat them and locked them in a room. In addition, they were not provided
food, their belongings, mobile phone, dresses and Rs. 1100/- were also
taken away from them. Then these girlscompelled Halima to arrange

for their departure from the company. In the meantime, she promised
to pay Rs. 10,000/- cash they would go back home. One of the victims
informed her family privately from another roommate’s mobile phone
about their condition. Then the victims’ parents received this information
and immediately filed a case on 11th March, 2013. But the IIC of this
police station did not register the case. The victims were brought back
without their pay, belongings, mobile phone and dresses, etc. The victims
are yet to get their wages for the three months.
Manual Scavenging
Manual scavenging, the act of human removal of excreta from dry pit latrines,
is detrimental to environmental, mental, and public health and is a gross
violation of human rights. This practice is prevalent in many parts of India. The
practice of human waste removal and the construction of dry pit latrines were
banned in 1993 with the passage of the Employment of Manual Scavengers
and Construction of Dry Latrines Prohibition Act. The employment of manual
scavengers and construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 came
into force in six states (A.P., Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Tripura and West
Bengal) and all the union territories under clause (1) of Article 252 of the
constitution of India. As of 2007 19 states and all UTs adopted the Act and nine
states were yet to adopt it. Even after 15 years not much progress in eradicating
this inhuman practice. However, despite this and other legal actions, laws are
rarely enforced largely because other feasible sanitation alternatives have yet
to be determined.Manual scavengers are the most excluded and exploited
communities among Dalits. They are the lowest in Hindu caste hierarchy and
therefore suffer from double marginalisation in Hindu caste hierarchy. They
are found in almost all over India engaged in cleaning, sweeping the streets and
manually engage in carrying out night-soil. Women are the worst victims as
they constitute more than eighty per cent of work force of manual scavengers.
Apart from social stigma, work of scavenging is lowly paid, it causes health
problems and many manual scavengers have died during cleaning up the
sewage. Manual Scavengers earn anywhere between Rs 20 to Rs 160 a month
and are exposed to the most virulent forms of viral and bacterial infections
that affect their skin, eyes, limbs, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.
‘Dalit women face more problems than the men of the community when they
hail from the scavenger ‘sub-caste’(PRIA, 2013, p. 14). Every day 1.3 million
people in India (of which more than 80% are Dalit women) are forced to clean
human excrement with their bare hands (a practice called ‘manual scavenging’)
for little to no wages. Of the 7,70,338 manual scavengers and their dependents
across India,10 so far only 4,27,870 persons have been assisted under the
National Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers (NSLRS) and
the remaining number yet to be rehabilitated is 3, 42,468.11 As per the Public
Interest Litigation filed in the High court of Delhi, Indian Railways managed
by the Govt. of India, which employs a large number manual scavengers who
clean human excreta is a violator of the Employment of Manual Scavengers
and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act of 1993.12 Despite
recommendations from the ILO Expert Committee on Conventions regarding
Convention No. 111 in 2002 which looked into questions related to manual
scavenging, this pernicious practice still continues. Access to sanitation is in
a complete denial for these people as they have to do these menial jobs with
their bare hands and they have higher risk of occupational illness and health
hazards.
Trafficking
Victims, predominantly Dalit women and girls, trafficked into the sex industry,
are forced to prostitute in ‘red-light areas’, in hostess bars, escort agencies or in
apartments being used as brothels. Required to work extremely long hours, they
provide unprotected and dangerous sexual services to many clients each day.
In most cases, being unable to speak the native language, they communicate
with clients through a written ‘menu’ of sexual services.
The women are frequently moved from city to city and country to country
(the purpose being the disorientation of the victims in order to prevent their
developing friendships and gaining familiarity with their surroundings); the
process thereby serving twin purposes: prevent police detection and intelligence
gathering activity and ensure victims’ continued dependence on the trafficker.
‘The experiences of Dalit women present clear evidence on widespread
exploitation, violence and indecent, inhumane treatment. Their life stories tell
of physical and verbal abuse, forced labour and slavery, trafficking, abduction,
and sexual violence, including rape, which give insight into how their social
position make them vulnerable to these human rights violations’.13
10 Annual report of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (Government of India
2009), The highest number of manual scavengers was in Uttar Pradesh (2,13,975), followed
by Madhya Pradesh (81,307), Maharashtra (64,785), Gujarat (64195), Andhra Pradesh
(45,822) and Assam (40,413).
11 Annual Report of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2009.
12 The Writ Petition {W.P.(C) -845/2011} in the Delhi High court on the Indian Railways.

The multiple forms of violence against Gender because of caste are

maximum cast-off as mode of penalty and dissent of power by the dominant
castes towards the Dalit woman. Other demeaning and degrading abuses
include Dalit women being forced to parade naked or eat vile substances, such
as human feces.
‘When considering discrimination and violence against Dalit women,
sanctioned impunity on behalf of the offenders is a key problem. Police
personnel often neglect or deny the Dalit women of their right to seek legal
and judicial aid’.14
CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES TO INDIA’S WOMEN

The Indian Constitution has guaranteed a number of fundamental rights for the
women. These are listed as under:
Article 14: “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or
the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”.
Article 15(1): “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds
only religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”.
Article 15(3): “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any
special provision for women and children”.
Article 16(2): “No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste,
sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or
discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY

Article 39: “The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing
(a) That the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an
adequate means of livelihood;
(d) That there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;
(e) That the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender
age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic
necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength”;
Article 42: “The State shall make provision for securing just and humane
conditions of work and for maternity relief”.
14 Ibid.
LEGISLATIVE MEASURES
The democratic process in India created the awareness among the women
about their plight. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian
Constitution, in its Preamble, in Fundamental Rights, and Directive Principles.
The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State
to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favor of women. The Indian
Government has passed various legislations to safeguard Constitutional Rights
to women. These legislative measures include, the Hindu Marriage Act (1955),
the Hindu Succession Act (1956), Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), Medical
termination of pregnancy Act (1971), Equal Remuneration Act (1976), Child
marriage Restraint Act (1976), Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act (1986),
Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Regulation and Prevention of Measure) Act
(1994), Protection of women from Domestic violence Act (2005) etc.
LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC POLICY MEASURES FOR

DALIT WOMEN
Despite the comprehensive provisions in the legislation, the implementation
of the various constitutional provisions remains weak and inadequate. This
was recognized by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a speech
delivered on 7 September 2009, when he said that “it is shocking that the
conviction rate for cases of atrocities against SC/STs women is less than
30% against the average of 42% for all cognizable offences under the IPC.
Manual scavenging is virtually a form of modern-day slavery that violates the
following.
1. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines
(Prohibition) Act, 1993.
2. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act, 1989.
3. Bonded Labor System (abolition) Act, 1976.
4. Section 7(a) of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995, which deems
anyone, forcing anotherperson to engage in bonded labor, manual
scavenging or disposing animal carcasses to becommitting a criminal
offense punishable with 3 to 6 months of imprisonment and fine upto Rs
500.
5. The practice of manual scavenging violates articles 14, 17, 21 and 23 of
the Constitution.
6. Vishakha guidelines and Protection of Women from Sexual harassment at

workplace.
7. Various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
CEDAW which hold all human beings to be equal and to which India is a
signatory.
UN OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

DALIT WOMEN15
Several UN human rights bodies have raised concerns about the human
rights situation of Dalit women. The Special Rapporteur on violence against
women has noted that Dalit women are often the targets of violence and sexual
offences when members of dominant castes demonstrate their power over Dalit
communities. In 2009, the Special Rapporteur referred to 30 cases of violence
against Dalit women in India being raped and beaten by higher castes, when
attending their daily doings, such as working in the field, going the market or
doing domestic work. Sometimes disputes over land and resources can be a
cause of violence, but just as often they are violated simply because they are
Dalit women. Almost all cases show that the Dalit women are punished by
police officers when trying to file a complaint or threatened to remain silent,
also by means of physical assaults and rape and threats of further recourses. The
report reveals that women are often denied of their right to medical treatment
for their injuries. The perpetrators are usually released on bail without arrest,
police investigation or prosecution.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) has expressed concern about the ongoing atrocities
committed against Dalit women in India and the culture of impunity for
perpetrators of such atrocities in 2007 (CEDAW/C/IND/CO/3). Similarly,
the CERD Committee has noted its concern about the alarming number of
allegations of acts of sexual violence against Dalit women in India, primarily
by dominant caste men, in its 2007 Concluding Observations. The CEDAW
Committee has confirmed that the Core Obligations of States Parties under the
CEDAW Convention encompasses not only grounds explicitly mentioned, but
also grounds such as age, class, caste, race, and ethnicity (CEDAW General
Recommendation No. 28). ix The CERD Committee has recommended that
states take all measures necessary to eliminate multiple forms of discrimination
against women, including discrimination based on caste and analogous forms
of inherited status in its General Recommendation No. 29. While these enacted
constitutional safeguards and affirmative action tries promote equal access
and opportunities, e.g. reservation policies in public sector employment,
implementation of such laws and programmes remains weak and insufficient.
Governments have yet to introduce legislative measures, in the process of
establishing systems.
SUGGESTIONS
The constitutional measures which ensuring the dignified life of Dalit women
should be channelized through the proper mechanized process. The Social,
Constitutionl and Juridical framework in totality and legal machinery at all
stage should be provisioned in new look and perception in reference to Dalit
women so they can be empowered in their economic, social, cultural and civil
and political rights.
The ownership on animiate and inanimiate objects should be ensured with
consideration to Dalit women on their access and control as they have been
alienated after the emergenge of private property. There should be decree of
the establishment as untouchable free state which should be executed through
constructive plan of action efficiently. The inequitable laws, traditional
practices and rigidity against Dalit women based on the social order should be
abolished by providing them the social security for holistic development.
The international legal provisions and mechanism related to Dalit women
should be enforced in practice with operative enforcement and valuation.
National Commission for Scheduled Caste and National Commision for
Women should be associated with reference to the cases related to Gender &
Caste so it can be dealt with special focuses which is required. Strong lawful
action should be applied in the case of caste discrimination and abuses which
can be possible through massive awareness and Conscientiza
C tion process in
the issue of Dalit women rights which they and the oppressors think does not
exist. It can be ensured when government take a stand and implement the anti-
caste discrimination laws properly.
Thus, contemporarily it is the demand of time in India to move beyond
caste-based discrimination which take place specially in case of caste and
gender issues where women’s are raped, hanged, molested. And if any
international body affair on the issue then it is linked relitavely to the other
state; as stated by Samajvadi Representative. Society should move towards
to built an inclusive society with a governance that obliges and safeguards all
citizens, irrespective of caste, class andgender.
ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

Struggle for equality is simultaneously a struggle for power for women in
society because; patriarchy channelized the power equations in the society.
And in case of Dalit women it is struggle against the philosophy of Hinduism
and Hindutva forces based zon the concept of purity and pollution. Equality
is being limited and imperative object which has close relationship with the
class, caste and gender esapecially when it comes to distribution of power. In
case of Gender and Caste association this striving for power equation is much
more than a process of increasing control over resources and control over the
behavior of the stakeholders involved in this context. It has more detest feelings
of lower caste women because they suffer from multiple face of discrimination
as oppressed by the so-called high caste people (which equally affects both
male and female Dalits), oppressed by the design of the Hindu patriarchal
system and oppressed by Dalit males. In hippocratic Hinduvata setting which
is emerged through brahaminism Dalit women seen as an Object where there
were denied of all basic facilities and were expected to work as slaves for the
dominant castes. Though the Indian Constitution through Article 14 guarantees
right to equality to every person irrespective of caste, creed, gender, status
and religion, but women from dalit community still faced with the power
based hierarchal social setup coupled with problems of untouchability and
discrimination. In this paper after surveying the literature related to the issue it
has been observed by author that there has been a continued presence of deep-
rooted and multiple caste-based inequity in the availability, accessability and
distribution of rights, power, life with dignity, status and equal opportunity in
the socio-cultural context.
A powerful way to fence off Dalit Women from access to the funtionality
in society is to situate these all functionalities to domimnat caste. This equity
gap is severe in society where the chances of clashes become high which lead
to violence against Dalit Women because this brahminical order always tries to
restrict their mobility and social mobility by such discrimination, expoitations,
atrocities and violence. Thats why mobily among Dalit women is very low
because they still feel insecure if they move out from there habitations in the
society as larger. This tendency only reflect that in the era of Post-Modernisation
they feel helpless and have feeling of insecurity. Hierarchial order is a panacea
for the problems of socially and economically deprived sections. Dalit Women
control over the objects is based on goodwill of dominant caste. The worst and
most inhumane form of discrimination is seen when caste is associated with
gender, most of the violence starts for the dignified life in society as human
being. There are numbers of case studeies; some of them presented in this
paper also on violence against Dalit Women. The deprivation of a basic human
right is a constant reminder of the inherent indignity of India’s caste system.
Dalit women population is the worst affected with lack of access to their rights.
A Dalit woman will have all the burden of household work in the family and
she will be the one who is responsible to support the family as a secondary
earner and therefore she is the one who will be facing discrimination. Even
young girl from the family face the same conditions. They even drop-out from
the school/college and thereby losing chance of being educated and earning
money to the family. They will be the only one who faces verbal and physical
abuse from dominant caste and they will be under constant threat while going
to public places. The concept of purity and pollution still dominate the thinking
of people even after untouchability is abolished which stigmatise Dalit Women
and further make them fell helpless in Socio-cultural context in India.
REFERENCES
Bhasin, K. (2000). Understanding Gender. New Delhi: Pauls Press.
Chung, Y. Y.-S. (2009). isdn.org. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from isdn.org/
fileadmin/user_folder/pdf/: http://www.isdn.org
Duffy, K. (1999). Education, Education and Citizenship. In C. Parsons.
London: Routledge Publication.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Government of India, M.O. (2001). Census of India-India at Glance:
Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes Population. New Delhi: Registrar
General of India.
Julias, S. (1965). Human Law and Human Justice. U.S.A.: Stanford University
Press.
Kabeer, N. (2006). Social Exclusion and the MDGs: The challenges of
durable inequalities’ in Asian Context. University of Sussex: Institutes of
Development Studies.
Kolsky, E. ( 2010). The Body Evidencing the Crime’: Rape on Trial in Colonial
India, 1860-1947. Gender & History, 1.
Krishnamurthy, S. (1982). Impact of Social Legislations on the Criminal Law
of India. Bangalore: R.R. publisher.
Kumar, A. (2006). Introduction to Sociology. Jaipur: Rawat Publication.
Macwan, M. (2006). Dalits Rights,National Human Rights Commision. New
Delhi: Rajika Press Services Ltd.
Malti-Douglas, F. (2007). Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. U.S.A.: Thompson
Gale.
Narula, S. (2008). Equal by Law, Unequal by Caste: The ‘Untouchable’
condition in critical race perspective. New York: School of Law, New
York University.
Nicholas Abercrombie, S.H. (2012). Dictionary of Sociology. Penguin Group.
New Delhi, New Delhi, India: Thompsan Press.
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State and Utopia. U.S.A.: Harvard University
Press.
Pant, M. (2006). Marginalised Citizenship of Nomades. In R.M. Tandon,
Participatory citizenship: Identity, Exclusion and Inclusion (pp. 6-24).
New Delhi: Sage Publication New Delhi.
PRIA. (2013). Addressing Violence Against Dalit Women;Insights Based on

Field Experiences in Haryana. New Delhi: PRIA .
Rao, A. (2003). Gender and Caste. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Rawls, J. (1976). A Theory of Justice. Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press Cambridge.
Sen, A. (2004). Social Exclusion: Concept Application and Security. New
Delhi: Critical Quest.
Sen, A. (2010). Development as Freedom. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
Sen, A. (2010). Development as Freedom. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
Wayne, K.W. (2000). Citizenship in Diverse Societies. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Index
Abettor, 123, 126, 134, 135, 136, CEDAW, 96, 185, 270, 420
243 Child health, 61, 63, 64-65, 67, 69
Access to knowledge, 26, 379 Childlessness, 231, 232
Acculturation, 29, 30 Chipko movement, 81, 86, 87
Adultery, 123-141, 178, 227, 239, Civil society, 57, 63, 204, 403,
243 406
Affirmative action, 101, 102, 107, Class, 5, 7, 11, 15, 17, 21, 29, 49,
177, 178, 275, 421 61, 76, 77, 80, 84, 86, 88,
Ageing, 45, 46, 53, 54 130, 132, 135, 139, 140, 146,
Alcoholism, 68 151, 177, 208, 219, 232, 272,
Anganwadi worker, 210, 212, 282, 293-294, 296, 325, 347,
221, 331 367-368, 374-377, 379-386,
Attitudinal social change, 351 390, 391, 401, 402, 408, 411-
Backward communities, 48 412, 420, 421, 422
Brundtland Commission Report, Climate change, 85, 247-259,
248 263-267
Capability approach, 407 Coercive forms of flesh trade, 293
Care, 33, 34, 45-47, 49-57 Collective bargaining, 106, 107,
Caste, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13-15, 19, 21, 159
49, 53, 61, 65, 84, 87, 114, Commodification, 157-159, 227,
143, 146, 151, 166-167, 190- 239, 292
191, 310, 272, 294, 321, 368, Community, 6, 8, 9, 13-14, 18-20,
374-375, 377, 379, 380-381, 26, 28-30, 35, 38, 48, 56-57,
383-385, 399, 401-411, 416, 81-82, 87, 97, 130, 146, 147,
418, 420-423
165, 166, 182, 184, 209-210, 331, 341, 355, 367, 372-375,
232, 249, 256, 258, 262, 270, 385, 386-387, 392
282, 288, 294, 298, 311, 326, Eco-feminism, 73-88
399, 405-411, 413, 416, 422 Ecological democracy, 87
Convention on the Elimination of Economic independence, 46-47,
All Forms of Discrimination 56, 219, 306, 343, 347
against Women (CEDAW), Education, 26, 28-29, 66, 88, 101,
96, 185, 237 104, 163, 189, 194, 203, 212,
Coping strategies, 111, 113, 116- 222, 238, 249, 252, 256, 261,
119, 349 275, 283, 288, 292, 299, 306,
Corruption, 279-280, 283, 309 310-311, 313, 320, 392, 344-
Cultural-sex, 341 347, 351-352, 354, 355, 369,
Culture, 5-6, 9, 11-13, 18, 25, 28- 376, 381, 384, 392, 400, 402,
31, 35-38, 76-77, 8082, 85, 424
111-112, 114, 232, 252, 299, Empowerment, 3-5, 54-55, 69,
307, 329, 342, 355, 405, 410, 85-86, 93, 163, 165-167, 175,
420 208, 212-214, 216, 221, 223,
Dalit, 14, 20, 405, 408-412, 414- 248, 254, 269, 274-275, 283,
423 292, 313, 331
Decision-making,101, 107, 269 Environmental destruction, 75, 84
Destitute women, 46, 51-52, 195- Epistemological approach, 372
196 Equal remuneration act, 164, 168,
Devadasi, 6,8, 11-13, 15, 294, 171, 192, 419
409-410 Equality of status, 163, 166, 168
Development goals, 96, 143, 248, Exploitation of women, 13, 74,
256 75, 86, 165, 292
Domestic violence, 38, 61-69, Family support, 28, 32, 55, 255,
163-164, 168, 172-173, 192, 343
221, 275, 411, 419 Female autonomy, 3-4
Domestic violence act, 164, 168, Feminine roles,343, 351, 353
172, 192, 419 Femininity,10, 17, 231, 380, 397
Dowry, 62, 66-67, 163-164, 168, Feminist activism, 3, 82
170-173, 189-204, 275, 347, Food security, 46, 56, 247, 249,
370, 419 251, 257
Dowry prohibition act, 66, 164, Fundamental right to privacy, 238
168, 170-171, 189, 192 Gender approach, 251-252, 254-
Dual-career life-style, 344 255, 257-259, 265-267
Dynamics, 6-7, 29, 144 249, 289, Gender construction, 355
Index 429
Gender discrimination, 92, 111, Income generating activities, 51,

118, 221, 270, 279, 293, 328, 208, 220
397 Indian Canadians, 26
Gender disparity Indian constitution, 92, 126, 128-
Gender equality, 85, 91-97, 99, 130, 132, 141, 164, 166, 168,
105107, 140-141, 165, 168, 175, 176, 180-182, 184, 269,
175-167, 180, 182, 185, 248, 270, 272, 300, 418, 419, 422
269, 270, 302, 325, 328, 347, Indian context, 69, 146, 283, 289,
350, 351, 353, 355, 419 292, 319, 330, 367, 372, 373,
Gender identity, 397-398 399, 400, 405
Gender justice, 73-76, 78-79, 13, Indian Diaspora, 25, 26, 31
135, 141, 163-168, 175, 178- Indian Penal Code, 62, 66, 123,
179, 181, 184-187, 200 128, 129, 132, 133, 136, 139,
Gender literature, 269 171, 178, 184, 189, 193, 243,
Gender mainstreaming, 92 301
Gender quotas, 269, 272-274, Infertility, 231-234, 236
276, 280 Institutional care, 45, 46, 49, 51,
Gender relations, 165, 208, 250- 56, 57
251, 341, 250, 398 Institutional transition, 159
Gender roles, 270, 342, 344, 346, Intimate partners, 27
347, 349, 352, 354, 367 Issues of the elderly in India, 49
Gendered livelihood, 143, 148 JICA project, 207, 210, 216-218,
Gestational surrogacy, 229-230, 221, 223
233, 235 Joint forest management, 148,
Globalization, 47, 82-84, 87, 88, 151, 160, 207
99, 107, 108 Kamasutra, 294
Health, 3-6, 10, 15, 17, 21, 34, 45, Kanyadan, 190, 191, 199
47-50, 5356, 61, 69, 79, 89, Kinship, 7, 10, 190-192, 369,
97-98, 102, 104, 106, 118, 377-380, 387, 388, 403
145, 150, 152, 160, 163, 169, Kyoto protocol, 257, 258, 263,
173, 189, 222, 234-235, 238- 264
240, 242-243, 246, 251, 256 Labour force, 104, 319-321, 323,
Household chores, 49, 118, 344, 326, 329, 333, 334
349, 384 Labour law, 94
Housework, 252, 253, 323, 328, Labour market, 47, 97-99, 107,
329, 348-350, 373, 380 319, 321, 328, 329, 334, 369
Human-rights-based approach, 95 Law of adultery, 136, 138
ILO, 91-99, 102, 107, 320, 417 Legislation, 48, 54, 55, 92, 93,
106, 125, 130, 132, 140, 151, Patriarchy, 3, 75, 79, 200-202,
164, 165, 168, 175, 194, 199, 223, 350, 374, 377, 379, 385,
201, 202, 254, 272, 273, 283, 398-401, 422
302, 305, 419 Policy of reservation, 274, 275
Liberalization, 47, 107, 143, 144, Political ecology, 144-146, 159
147, 160 Political inequality, 405
Lifestyle, 48, 57, 216-218, 233, Political liberty, 134
297 Political-economy, 367
Manual labour, 210, 322, 388 Poverty, 5, 19, 84, 85, 88, 91,
Maternity leave, 97, 104, 180 207, 208, 210, 216, 222, 223,
Maternity protection, 92, 95, 97, 243, 249-251, 254-256, 290,
103 297-299, 309, 313, 326
Medicinal plant market, 151 Preferential sex selection, 65, 67
Mental health, 34, 50 Procreative liberty, 237
Migration, 5, 19, 25, 26, 28-31, Prostitution, 62, 227, 244, 246,
35, 37, 51, 114, 157, 247, 255, 265, 287-313, 408-410
248, 251, 254, 255, 258, 259, Protective discrimination, 102,
265, 267, 377, 390, 391, 392 130, 163-165, 175, 176, 178,
Multicultural adaptation, 25 186
Narmada Bachao Andolan, 86 Proxy women, 275
National Commission for Women, Quantitative methods, 209
62, 93, 199, 200 Radical approach, 84
National Crime Record Bureau, Radical feminism, 3, 401
65-67, 302 Religion, 29, 31, 82, 127, 146,
National medicinal plants board, 167, 171, 181, 210, 211, 222,
145, 150 265, 294, 299, 397, 399, 404,
NGO, 52, 414 408, 418, 422
Oppression of women, 74, 75, 78, Rig Veda, 379
79, 82, 201 Rights, 3, 49, 51, 62, 63, 65, 74,
Organized sector, 47-50, 53, 56, 78, 79, 84, 86, 88, 91-93, 95-
107, 191, 320, 343 97, 105-107, 126, 128, 133,
Paradigm, 29, 152, 368, 375 151, 157, 163-168, 170, 175,
Partner violence, 25-28, 31, 33, 176, 180, 182, 184-186, 189,
34, 38, 39 192, 198, 200, 201, 203, 228,
Part-time workers, 95, 99 235-238, 240-242, 244-246,
Patriarchal capitalism, 79 257, 261, 263, 265-267, 269,
Patriarchal ideology, 11, 322 270, 273, 283, 288-290, 292,
293, 300, 301, 309-312, 333,
Index 431
399-401, 403-409, 411, 416- Stereotypes, 31,77, 84, 101, 112,

423 165, 253, 398
Role conflicts, 352, 353, 355 Stockholm declaration, 261, 266
Safed musli, 145, 147, 151, 153, Streedhan, 192, 198, 199
155-160 Stress, 26. 28, 29, 111-113, 116,
Sati (prevention) act, 164, 168, 118, 263, 264, 385
171 Structural changes, 355
Second law commission, 124 Subsistence work, 326, 380
Section 497, 123, 125, 128-130, Surrogacy, 227-230, 232-237,
132-136, 141, 178, 178, 243 239-246
Sex-shop, 289 Surrogacy practice, 233, 234, 236
Sexual harassment, 107, 112, 163, Sustainable development, 76,
180, 302, 409-411, 420 208, 247-249, 251, 255-259,
Social attitude, 63 266, 267
Social change, 26, 146, 192, 201, Sustainable human development,
351 48
Social contract, 403, 404 Systems approach to
Social empowerment, 212, 213, intersectionality, 374
216, 221 The 73rd and 74th amendments
Social exclusion, 222, 405-408, (1993) to the Constitution of
411 India, 93
Social fact, 390 The Beijing Declaration, 62, 96
Social reconstruction, 192 The Immoral Traffic (suppression)
Social security, 45-50, 52-55, 57, Act, 300
95, 106, 320, 371, 421 Time use surveys, 319, 321, 323-
Social security measures, 49, 51 326, 330-334
Social services, 25, 32, 37, 38, Traditional attitude, 351, 354
Social sex, 398 Trend of feminization, 370, 385
Social stratification, 348, 378 Twelfth five year plan, 254, 255
Social system, 48, 63, 398, 399, Two-working families, 341-345,
406 350, 351-355, 360
Social transformation, 141 UN Declaration on the
Socio-economic changes, 212, Elimination of Violence
283 against Women (1993), 93
South Asian Communities, 27, 34 UNFCCC, 248, 257, 263, 264,
Spousal violence, 61, 64, 65, 67, 266
68 UNICEF, 68
United Nations Environment Women in common law, 27

Program, 84, 247 Women in the unorganized sector,
United Nations Population Fund, 47
63, 85 Women police, 111-119
Unorganized sector, 47-49, 53, Women workers, 53, 91-93, 97-
107, 320 99, 107, 169, 171, 174, 177,
Unpaid labour, 52, 322, 326, 341 333, 385, 390,
Unpaid work, 319, 321-323, 325- Women’s struggle, 202, 373
330, 332, 333 World Health Organization, 45,
Untouchability, 422, 423 150
Voluntary sexual intercourse, 126,
136

Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century-Edited by Uttam Kumar Panda

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century-Edited by Uttam Kumar Panda

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gender Issues and Challenges in Twenty First Century-Edited by Uttam Kumar Panda

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gender Issues and

Challenges in Twenty First

I am immensely delighted to write the foreword to the book Gender Issues

system needles the feminists to say that, it is nothing but continuation of

Prof. (Dr.) Sukh Pal Singh

of marginalisation, social exclusion and discrimination. He further made some

Uttam Kumar Panda

19. The Gendered Dynamics of Domestic Work within

1. Dr. Garry Fehr: Associate Professor & Director, Global Development

12. Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hidayatullah

Interface between Unequal Power Relations in

Feminism and its campaign for bodily autonomy

as both a site of hope-liberation of sex workers from the prism of HIV/AIDS

narrated to me, focused on the emergence of Devadasi system, the symbolic

of Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Carnatac art form dancers which mentioned

Unraveling masculinity through Chinna-Illu: Intersection of

Inversely, ﬁeld realities revealed multiple identities of sex workers.

type of social arrangement ‘chinna illu’ and unchukunavadu. Similarly, this

Additional limitation in this process of categorization is that this way of

The above example describes the various forms of sexual relationships of

CONTINUITY BETWEEN SEX WORK AND OTHER KIND

In our place (Peddapudi), we do not go outside but we work from

agricultural work in the sowing and harvest season (4-5 months) of

Chowdhurygaru [implying agricultural land owner] drops me at my

who are employed in domestic service or agricultural work emigrated to gulf

Holland, J. et al., (1994). Power and Desire: The embodiment of Female

Rao, G.V.A. (1909). Kanyasulkam. Translated by Vijayasree C. & Kumar T.

Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence in

information technology specialists. It is drawn from over a dozen different

DEFINING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Intimate partner victims: Includes legally married, separated,

CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN AND FAMILIES

relationships. While the immediate stresses of home culture (living with a

“The couple relationships are often complicated by the immigration

Immigration has been a long-standing tradition within Indian populations to

Partially this is so because the extended family has traditionally prevented

RESPONDING TO COMMUNITY NEEDS

SOCIAL SERVICES ANALYSIS

be primarily collectivist or individualistic, in practice persons of a particular

Two additional points in regard to racism and discrimination are important

Gilligan, P. & Akhtar, S. (2006). Cultural barriers to the disclosure of child

Gender, Social Security and Institutional Care

The global phenomenon of population ageing has become a major concern

STATUS OF ELDERLY IN INDIA

of greater attention and support in these years. Increasingly the institutions of

INCOME SECURITY AND ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

SOCIAL SECURITY AND STATE RESPONSIBILITY

Social Security in India and Problems of Implementation

ELDERLY WOMEN, SOCIAL SECURITY AND INSTITUTIONAL

INSTITUTIONAL CARE FOR THE ELDERLY

unions of women workers in the unorganized sector (Jhabwala 1998). The

ELDERLY WOMEN AND PROVISIONS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

NEED FOR INTERVENTION

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

Table 01: Requirements, Institutions, Policies and Problems

Source: Tulika Tripathy, 2014.

The Effect of Domestic Violence on Maternal and

In India around 70% women are victimized by domestic violence (BBC,

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC DILEMMA