1.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Under variety of behaviors and situations, the concept of gender injustice, gender
inequality and discrimination, which are violative of basic Human Rights may be
highlighted. In spite of various international conventions and treaties recognizing equal
rights for women, as a basic human right and the same has been incorporated in The
Constitution of India, yet gender justice is far from reality.

Several studies have been conducted on the subject of gender justice to focus on
realization of gender equality. The recent focus of the Government of India has led to
research on this crucial issue. However, the focus of researchers on gender justice in
relation to the Constitution of India and Human Rights is yet unexplored. This can be
attributed mainly to the infancy of the bright and gloomy urban areas and multinational
corporate world and due to the lesser impact it has on the overall rural/suburban and
social aspects of life that women is supposed to achieve and experience as a human
being. The current literature review sheds light on the studies conducted to assess the
reach and impact of various human rights conventions and provisions under the
Constitution of India, the awareness levels and resultant effect of gender equality and
gender justice and also how effective are the legislations and constitutional provisions
as a tool for achieving the gender sensitization in the country.

1) Amitabh Singh, (2011) in his research identifies that female foeticide has indeed
became one of the most gravest issue in contemporary world and we are day by day
inching closer to a land without women. The research further mentions that uneven
sex ratio all over the world and especially, in India has raised a doubt on social
development. In fact, female foeticide will not only give rise to serious social
consequences such as increase numbers of rapes, molestations, growth of polyandry,
homosexuality, prostitution etc., but also jeopardize human existence at large. The
research paper concludes that checking female foeticide is the need of the hour, as the
society cannot move forward and prosper without the development of fairer sex.
2) Dhruba Hazarika, (2011) expresses women empowerment as a debatable subject as
in the earlier times they were having equal status with men, but faced some disparity
and discrimination during post-Vedic and epic ages and were treated as slaves. The
study elaborates the efforts made during early twentieth century, the national
 movement, during the British Raj, national leaders and by the framers of the
Constitution of India. The research touches the point that although the modern women
occupies some respectable positions in different walks of life, yet discrimination and
harassment of women is still existing in the society, as the number of women able to
establish their potentialities are very few. The research work emphasizes the need that
each and every citizen should be careful and responsible to promote the equal status
for women in modern Indian society.
3) Viney Kapoor, (2011) highlights the rights of the daughter under various personal
laws all over the world and discusses that the women were treated like chattel and
they are deprived of proprietary rights under various International and Indian Laws.
He emphasizes on proprietary rights in the sense of their social status, economic
independence, individual security and assures prosperous and dignified life. He
identifies that daughters are most deprived as regards succession to ancestral property
under various personal laws and points out that the provisions relating to inheritance
are not free from discrimination against woman.
4) Jogesh Das, (2012) reveals about gender differences, customs, traditions, social
attitudes etc., as prime reasons for the inequality between men and women and
considers women in traditional patriarchal society as weaker and inferior member the
society. The research emphasizes that besides, the Human Rights of women and girl
child are an integral part of the universal human rights (1993 World Conference on
Human Rights) the author conceptualizes certain gender specific human rights
violations especially in the North East India.
5) Asmita Bhattacharyya, Dr. Bhola Nath Ghosh, (2012) analyzes the emergence of
Information Technology as a potential employment opportunity for women befitting
their job environment and offering, in principle, least gender discrimination and
attempts to analyze the issues of opportunities and constraints the women employees
face in the Information Technology sector in India which resulted in women
empowerment. The research paper further reviews that, notwithstanding overall
satisfactory gender-neutral pursuit by this sector, an optimal level of gender
inclusivity is still to be achieved, especially to the senior level and this sector requires
to be extra-careful in doing away with the prevailing maladies such as ‘Feminization’,
‘Glass ceiling’ etc.
6) Monalisa Bhattacharjee, (2012) tries to explore the condition of 19th century
Bengali women by analyzing the cinemas of Satyajit Ray, as the 19th century social
 life of Bengali women was marked as a transition period of their developments. The
research highlights that the first half of this century the women were confined to
social disciplines, on the contrary it was evident that in the works of contemporary
Bengali stalwarts social upliftment of women were seen, although starting of women's
liberation from social disciplines started in the second half of the 19th century, the
Bengali writers published important truth about these liberations in their
contemporary writings. The research work finds that in the composition Rabindranath
Tagore, two different types of pictures were found, in the first half of the century
social discipline of Bengali women and on the other side in the second half of the
century social liberation of women was pictured. This research article compares the
two women character portraits by Bengali writers with the condition of the 19th
century Bengali women.
7) Ms. Deepanjali Mishra, (2012) identifies Feminism as a socio-political movement,
which advocates involvement of active participation by women to demand for their
rights and consider as a movement fought against female oppression under patriarchy.
The research elaborates that victimization of woman can takes place through various
ways like caste, color, race, attitude towards motherhood, etc. The Feminist
movement started by white women from middle class in Western Europe and North
America with ‘Cool right Movement’ which presses for equal rights for the girls and
taking charge of their own sexual fulfillment, sex education. The research recognizes
that sexual pleasure is a central part of women’s lives and does not discourage women
who know how to achieve it without any sense of guilt or regret.
8) Hamid Iqbal, Saima Afzal, & Mavara Inayat, (2012) reveals that Pakistani women
are more than half of the total population, but women are treated inhumanly within
their homes by their husbands or dominant males through different ways like domestic
violence, sawara, vani, karo kari, honour killing, acid throwing, forced marriages etc.
They further elaborate that gender discrimination is also deeply rooted in Pakistani
society in education and employment sectors. They suggest for the progress and
prosperity of a country that is needed to eliminate the discriminatory attitude of the
society towards the women and multiple ways to improve gender balance in the
country, which will reduce gender discrimination.
9) Upasona Sarmah, (2012) describes that the role of women in labour market is crucial
in the sense that the rapid industrialization has created general employment
opportunities for them from which most of them have been benefited. It has a
 profound impact on the life of women employees working in the coal industry, as
women from managerial position to the women engaged as workers in the collieries
have witnessed a number of occupational hazards and professional challenges yet they
are becoming economically independent. The study shows that though they are mostly
employed at the lower levels and in unskilled occupations, the process of urbanization
enabled their daughters and most of them also to get exposed to education,
information, health care, drudgery reduction and employment opportunities. The
paper analyzes the occupational hazards and other professional difficulties faced by
working women in the industry and in the urban society with reference to the study
area and focuses on their multiple roles; the impact of urbanization on their family life
and their role in the labour market.
10) Dr. Shikha Goel & Dr. Darshan Kaur Narang, (2012) studies the marital
adjustment, mental health and frustration reactions of middle age males and females
from Delhi, India in different occupations. The study reveals that females showed
high level of recreational adjustment as compared to males but males are having better
group-oriented attitude than females.
11) Ms. Lalita Kumari, (2012) identifies the problems faced by working women and low
and non -significant self confidence in urban and rural working women. The research
further reveals that there is no relationship between socio economic status and self-
confidence in working women of Ludhiana. The study finding has shown that most of
working women face problem of role conflict, problem of lack of persistence and
administrative problems.
12) Shihabudheen N, (2012) in her research work on role of micro enterprises in women
empowerment in Ernakulam of Kerala identifies the role of micro enterprises in rural
development and women empowerment and is widely recognized the world over,
particularly in developing nations like India. Micro enterprises play a vital role in
poverty alleviation and socio-economic development of the poor and help to bring
about equitable and balanced economic development with relatively low amount of
capital investment. This research paper looks into the role of micro enterprises in
women empowerment by taking the specific case of micro enterprises functioning
under ‘Kudumbashree’ – the flagship poverty alleviation project sponsored by
Government of Kerala.
13) Harish Chandra, (2012) discusses about the international practices in human rights
and the relevant provisions in the Constitution of India. The study highlights various
 articles in the Constitution in relation to provisions of International treaties. The
present study tries to define Human Rights and views of various authors across the
globe.
14) Amtul Waris and B. C. Viraktamath, (2013) considered gender equality as a
critical element in achieving social and institutional change that leads to sustainable
development with equity and growth. The study highlights discrimination against
women in India, which started from early days and is evident in the skewed sex ratio.
The present study analyzes the gender gaps and lists out the strategies in the twelfth
Five Year Plan of Government of India for women’s empowerment.
15) Cyril-Marry P. Olatunji, (2013) addresses the gender inequality in Black African
society and talks about the treatment of women and the topic of gender inequality in
Africa. He suggests that the roots of women's oppression are to be sought in customs
and traditions and so despite of a legal system that guarantees women rights in Africa.
The objective is to advance the current discussion on the issue using the method of
simple philosophical analysis, an argument from a legitimately African origin
proposing a re- examination of the widespread belief among Afro-critics, as well as
Afro-apologetic scholars that treatment of women as second class citizens or inferior
folk in indigenous Africa.
16) R Rajesh, (2014) reported on ‘Gender Justice in Advertisements: Study of Indian
Commercials. Television commercials’ have more to convey than any other media of
communication in the present day scenario. Very short, straight yet creative messages
are conveyed to the targeted audience with a message. To convey any message
women are used irrespective of the fact that they are not the part of the product or
utility. However, the stereotyped notions still get reflected even in the modern
societies especially with respect to women. This paper analyzes the select cases of
Indian commercials with the content analysis from gender sensitivity perspective. It is
an attempt of qualitative analysis along with the recent debates and reactions from the
institutional perspective.
17) Halima Akhtar & Md Ershadul Haque, (2014) in the research paper, the author
tries to examine the relationship between son preference and contraceptive use at
different parities of women in Bangladesh. This study reveals that the sex composition
of the surviving children moderately influences the women’s practices of modern
contraceptive use at lower parities. They conclude that this variation in contraceptive
 use may owe to not satisfied with the sex composition of children or lack of
consciousness about family planning.
18) Ajit Borah, (2014) in his researchidentifies that Entrepreneurship has acquired special
significance in the context of Indian economic growth in a rapidly changing socio-
economic and political climate, particularly in industry as a function of entrepreneurs
in today’s world of privatization, liberalization and globalization. The research
describes it as a creative human act, which helps to increase per capita income,
standard of living, capital formation in the backward region and a process to
accelerate economic growth by covering risk, uncertainty, innovation, planning and
decision-making. The research paper pictures women entrepreneurship of Morigaon
district of Assam analyzing their socio-economic status.
19) Dr. Simmi Virk, (2014) in her research paper aims to define and distinguish between
personal and ancestral property, discrimination and limitations on the inheritance
rights of daughter, different enactments to counter such discrimination in relation to
Hindu Mitakshara family. The research paper discusses the status of females in
relation to inheritance and acquisition of property including ‘Streedhan’ during
various periods in Indian society and the law relating to the women. Different
positions of female coparceners as daughters and wives, their rights and liabilities and
social impediments in implementation of laws specially, Hindu Succession Act are
emphasized in this research paper.
20) Munmy Chhetry Baruah, (2014) identifies women’s issues and problems which are
still remained largely uninvestigated and attempts to explore and understand those
crucial nodes and instances when these vulnerabilities, humiliations and terrible
wounds of women are used by them as counter-offensive against all the oppressive
forces ranging from patriarchal structures, the state and its apparatuses, hegemonic
social structures and ideologies to the complex contest and collusion of forces of
‘tradition’ and ‘modernities’ that exploit women in different and ever-changing
guises.
21) Madugu Vijay Kumar, (2014) by an empirical research describes micro finance as
major strategy to boost status of women, by constant efforts made by the government
of India to improve the status of rural women, especially those living below poverty
line through several restructured antipoverty programs to enhance their efficiency to
empower rural women by introducing a holistic scheme called Swarna Jayanthi Gram
Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) covering all aspects of empowerment of rural women. The
 paper examines the background of formation and training aspects of Swarojgaries
under SGSY, to assess the performance of women in terms of income generation.
22) Sutapa Saryal, (2014) emphasizes that the United Nations in its Millennium Summit
in 2000 declared ‘Gender Equality and Women Empowerment’ as one among the
eight ‘Millennium Development Goals’ to be achieved by the year 2015. However,
these goals are far from being realized in a country like India. In fact, often women in
India are deprived of their fundamental right to dignity, leave alone the question of
gender parity. This research paper explores the questions central to women’s rights in
India that is fundamentally patriarchal in nature. The article attempts to grapple with
the few challenges faced by the women in India like the dowry, female foeticide,
denial of inheritance rights, sale and trafficking of girls etc. The objective of the paper
is to evolve strategies to empower women uniformly like the men.
23) Rita Kumari, (2014) reveals that in Thai society today, primarily the women run
daily affairs, where females out number males. Over the last few decades, they
fulfilled many of the major roles in society, deserving the majority of university
enrollments. The breadwinners in many families, many corporate executives and civil
servants are women and they undertook majority of new entrepreneurial start-ups.
They had given important contribution in Thai society today and helped to shape Thai
culture, customs and traditions either as regents themselves or as direct advisors to
their kings. This paper presents that although Thai Constitution is silent on women
becoming monk, but the women were given the right to vote back in 1932; they were
never given the right to be ordained as a monk, which may be treated as gender
discrimination and gender inequality.
24) Priti Jha & Niti Nagar, (2015) considers the gender inequality that exists among
every region, social class, which prevents the growth of Indian economy from
improving the lives of Indian people. The reality of gender inequality in India is very
complex and diversified, because it exists in every field like education, employment
opportunities, income, health, cultural issues, social issues, economic issues etc. The
researcher has attempted to find out factors responsible for this problem in India and
highlights the multi-dimensional context of gender inequalities prevalent in India. The
researchers have tried to suggest some relevant strategies and policies for reducing
this gender inequality and to promote the dignified position for Indian women.
25) Dr. Khalid Iraqi, (2015) identifies that marginalized gender have little control over
their lives, prevented from participating in local life which makes them isolated and
 handicap in delving contribution to society. This research systematically reviews the
scientific literature on marginalization, its nature, types of marginalisation and then
focuses on one marginalized group who suffer from HIV/AIDS related stigma. It
highlights promising strategies to address stigma related issues and has focus on the
key challenges: defining and reducing HIV/AIDS related stigma as well as assessing
the impact of stigma on the effectiveness of HIV prevention and treatment programs.
This research offers recommendations that may bring this marginalized group into
national stream through communication.
26) Dr. (Smt.) Rajeshwari M. Shettar,(2015) analyzes the status of Women
Empowerment in India and highlights the issues and challenges of Women
Empowerment. The study observes how women become victimized by various social
evils in daily life and reveals that women of India are relatively disempowered and
have lower status than that of men in spite of many efforts undertaken by
Government. The study concludes by an observation that access to education,
employment and change in social structure are only the enabling factors to Women
Empowerment.
27) Md. Faisal & Kartik Joshi, (2015) describes gender inequalities throughout the
world are among the most pervasive forms of inequality. The research studies special
constitutional guarantees and other legislations, in respect to crimes against women in
the form of child marriage, rape, dowry, practice of sati, trafficking of the girl child,
prostitution, domestic violence and sexual harassment. The research paper tries to
foreground the different aspects of crimes against women along with the analysis of
the exhaustive guidelines of the judiciary in its various decisions to realize the concept
of ‘gender justice’ and ‘gender equality’.
28) Dr. Deepti Shrivasrava & Dr. Priyakshi Chaudhary, (2015) reveals about the
source of information to adolescent girls about menstruation cycle. The research states
about the perception of girls about this natural process and associated myths. The
study further discusses about the associated religious belief and different types of
problems during menstruation faced by these girls. The research work tries to detail
the use of sanitary latrines at home and highlights that ‘the most surprising problem
seen was usage of cloth during menstruation’ and girls used the same cloth at least 3
times and would prefer drying the cloth in dark. The study states that disposal, cost,
water shortage and unawareness were the problems and the main hindrance for not
using sanitary napkins.
29) Dr. Sheetal J Tamakuwala, (2015) discusses that violence against women in India is
an issue rooted in societal norms and economic dependence and discriminatory
practices underlined by laws favoring men. The challenges Indian women faces are
misogynistic society, outdated and sometime repressive governance structure, a weak
rule of law, heavily male-centric social and political structure. The research further
details that although the laws have been amended and female participation in public
life has increased, we still have a long way to go to achieve gender justice and gender
equality.
30) D. Srinivasa & Y. S. Siddegowda, (2015) in their research work ‘Recent Trends in
Women Empowerment: An Analysis’ highlights that the empowerment of the women
is a highly significant issue of our times. There are so many saints and statesmen who
have struggled for the empowerment of women in India. The research paper highlights
about several international conferences organized to take stock of the situation and
prepare grounds for the empowerment of women in all walks of human life. It throws
light that empowerment of women is a multi-dimensional aspect which demands
active participation of various stakeholders in a developing nation like India. The
researcher discusses about series of Constitutional protective and promotional
measures, designed and implemented to achieve the goal of empowerment of women
and women related studies have become an important branch of academic mainstream
in India. Recently series of innovative approaches are adopted to ensure equality of
opportunity and empowerment of women in all respects. Gender justice is considered
as a vital necessity in India. The research work concludes that series of intellectual,
research and developmental initiatives are also developed with a view to empower
women in all respects.
31) P. Lakshmi, (2015) summarizes in this research that the British did not implement
Uniform Civil Code in colonial India because they wanted to divide and rule the state
and even today’s political leaders of the country follow the same policy and avoid to
implement the same. This research work revisits the recommendation of the Apex
Court on various occasions to the legislative wing of State. The research emphasizes
that to put an end to all kinds of division in the society is to bring about much awaited
Uniform Civil Code, which is the need of the hour.
32) M. Padmavati, (2016) discusses about the empowerment of women through SHGs
(Self Help Groups) in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, promoted by the
Government as if women in India may not be resourceful enough to be entrepreneurs.
 The study reveals the need that when the SHGs arrange training facilities to carry out
certain kind of work which are suitable for women in India, bank must arrange
financial assistance to carry out manufacturing and trading activities, arranging
marketing facilities while the Governments will procure the product of SHGs, arrange
for enhancing the capacity of women in terms of leadership quality and arranging for
the management of SHGs by themselves so as to have administrative capacity. The
research emphasizes the spread of the banking network and introduction of new
instruments and credit packages and programs were to make the financial system
responsive to the credit weaker sections in the society. The study emphasized the
promotion of agriculture and other allied economic activities through credit
intervention for ensuring integrated rural development and securing the prosperity of
the rural areas.
33) Smita Paul, (2016) in her research on Vijay Tendulkar's the most controversial work,
‘Kanyadaan’ which is a naturalistic play based on the obnoxious man-woman
relationship in a domestic cultural world and describes the play as a glaring example
of vindication of women, explores the problems of casteism and shows that it is
almost an incurable malady even in a progressive modern society. The play illustrates
dramatically that inter-caste marriage can never be a solution for a casteless society
and obliquely hints at the suffering predicament of the women in a patriarchal society.
The Hindu marriage system that makes a woman 'diasporic' leads to loss of her
identity in the marital world. This article focuses on the fact that female 'other'
undergoes a host of changes, experiences different emotions and sentiments, but she
never gives in and creates her individual identity and thus gives birth to a new poetics
in Tendulkar's theatre world. The underlying dictum of this research in general is that
women are not inevitably destined to be the 'other' in the hierarchical power structure
of the society.
34) Smolovic Valentina & Draskovic Milan, (2016) describes female crime, is a
negative social phenomenon with a tendency of continual growth in Montenegro, but
there is very little empirical research on female crime in Montenegro. The purpose of
the research in this study is to obtain information on the extent, dynamics and
structure of the reported, accused and convicted adult women in Montenegro in the
period between 2001 to 2014, with special emphasis to the research of crime of
convicted adult women who were serving and are serving prison sentence in the given
period. This work tries to define preventive measures and appropriate programs of
 educational corrective treatment in accordance with the standards of the European
Union, with the aim of re-education and re-socialization of convicts during the period
of imprisonment.
35) Dr. Kavya B., (2016) concentrates on the experiences and challenges encountered by
the Dalit women, in obviously different, intense and multidimensional Indian
patriarchal society. Man being a social animal cannot deny his birth and status in the
society and accepts or denies he is born with the tag of caste and culture. This research
explores woman's life in the Dalit Community and discusses on the resistance and
liberalisation of Dalit women towards hunger, poverty, child marriage and caste based
humiliation. It even tries to explain how the impact of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar brought
radical changes in the lives of Dalit female.
36) G. ArunaDevi, (2016), her research work highlights that women are most rising and
impressive entrepreneurs today in a male dominated society and discusses about
problem in base for a starting business enterprise, day-to-day problems of their
businesses. Further the research work emphasizes on noticeable increase in the
number of women entrepreneurs, new jobs, new responsibilities and new experiences
with a high amount of challenging spirit.
37) Dr. M. Padmavati, (2016) in his research describes women education as an essential
need to change their status in the Society and also Empowerment intellectually.
Women Education in India has been a most important preoccupation of both
administrative and civil society because educated women can play a very important
role in the society for socio-economic development, besides political and legal. It is
one of the opportunities for women empowerment because it enables them to response
to the challenges, to confront their traditional role and change their life-style.
Education eliminates inequalities and disparities as the means of recovering their
status with in and out of their families. This study reveals how the women are
empowered through education and its basic need to their family and the society.
38) Milind Ubale, (2016) highlights Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the principal architect of
the Indian Constitution and as an emancipator of the poor and deprived, crusader
against the caste system, a valiant fighter for the cause of the down trodden, an elder
statesman and a National Leader. Dr. Babasaheb's mission in his life was to challenge
the ideological foundation of graded system of caste hierarchy that denied equality,
freedom and human dignity to woman in Hindu Society, but this drawn document is
the living document i.e. Indian constitution brings the equality by the rule of law in
 this nation. The research paper gives closer and analytical insights into the thoughts of
Dr. Babasaheb to appreciate his ideological basis of political, economic and social
justice towards empowerment of the women in Indian Society.
39) Dr. Subhasish Chatterjee & Lt. Col. (Rtd.) Dipali Chatterjee, (2016) reveals that
by and large women staying in rural area are under privileged and sustain a very
pitiable quality of life. The insufficiency of primary education of women is one of the
important factors for underestimation. So far as women health is concerned in rural
areas, they are the most deprived population in India. This research paper brings out
the factors that are responsible for gender inequality and to understand about the
inequality in sharing of ancestral land. Further, it finds out that how far rituals of rural
area are responsible for gender inequality.
40) K S Jayakumar, (2016) highlights that the framers of the Constitution, while drafting
the Constitution were well aware of the unequal treatment meted out to the women
and made special provisions relating to their emancipation. The research deals with
the principle of gender equality enshrined in the Indian constitution in its Preamble,
Fundamental Rights and Duties, Directive Principles of State Policy and under the
other provisions. The research concludes that the State may make laws containing
special provisions for the benefit of women and children and does not require that
absolutely identical treatment as those enjoyed by males in similar matters must be
afforded to them.
41) Dr. A. Guravaiah, (2016) stresses the need for the girl child education. Today’s
educated girl child is an empowered woman of tomorrow. Our country has made some
significant strides in universalizing primary education. The Right To Education Act,
2010 provides for the free and compulsory education to children below 14 years of
age. In India at present some of the school are without any playgrounds and toilets.
42) Sandeep Kumar, (2016) concludes that the issues of gender bias were taken seriously
in mid nineties by our legislature, judiciary and executive through various
constitutional provisions, amendments and other legal provisions. The gender equality
and women empowerment has a positive relation with the socio-economic
development. The research marks out that the liberalization phase has provided
benefit to women in all sectors and increased their participation in different roles.
Although there are interstate disparities in socio-economic status of women and
discrimination index for women and it resulted in increase in crime against working
women. The paper on the basis of facts and figures discussed suggests various
important measures for women empowerment in modern day context.