Women, like men are both born and made. Still in almost all societies in the world, we find scathing attack against women. In different situation women have given good and bad names for instance, either she has been seen as Devi or as property or slave of Men but never given equal status as men. In India it is centuries old practice of male domination where women have given status of second class citizen. The Constitution of India guarantees equal of opportunity and status and women. It directs that women shell not only have equal rights and privileges with men but also that the state shell make provisions-both general and special for the welfare of women . Despite the above constitutional guarantee, women have been subjected to deprivation, brutality and extortion, thus still women are fighting for their right and here in my project I will throw light on some issues related to gender justice in India and Indian democracy which required, First, women’s political rights ¬ with politics being broadly defined to include everyday concerns ¬ are an integral and inseparable part of their human rights; and human rights, in turn, are a fundamental aspect of any democratic framework. A second argument for linking gender and democracy is that in a democracy the points of view of the different groups involved must be taken into account in formulating any decision or carrying forward any strategy. In other words, democracy must be inclusive of the opinions and perceptions of women as well as men. This argument is also used to justify the need to bring minorities into decision-making processes.
Finally, perhaps the single most important rationale for linking democracy and gender is that women effectively constitute half the world’s population, and half of each and every single national population. Women’s studies and the amalgamation of practical experiences repeatedly have pointed out that women are not and should not be considered a minority. Indeed, women are as much a “minority” as men are in such a context. To conceptualize issues and develop policies which will affect, directly or indirectly, citizens’ lives without taking into account the situations, perspectives and realities of all those who will be affected is no longer credible in today’s world.
Taking into account gendered perspectives and involving women and men in decision-making processes is a sine qua non of any democratic framework. Hence democracy, by definition, cannot afford to be gender-blind. It must strive towards equality and representation of women and men in decision-making processes and in the opportunities to achieve both these goals. But for the understanding of current situation of women one must have the knowledge of pre-independent India.
II Women in Pre-Independent India
There are examples from all over the world that the state craft id essentially male-craft and from centuries women are discriminated by male dominated society. Although in Vedic period their condition was good and equal to men, but with the passage of time situation changed and women became property of her husband.
Manu Consider woman as Slave like suddara, and said she should be under the control of her father, brother and if married then of husband. He said, NARI NARAK KA DUAR HAI, and also NARI MUST BE KEEP UNDER THE CONTROL OF FOOT, she was forced to lead miserable and unwanted life. Child Marriage, and Sati was rule of Dharma. Women were not allowed to get education, rich women had right to education but not equal to men. Although women was need in all religious ritual but seen as nothing more than a machine who has to give birth the child and work at home as mad of husband. She was given either status of Devi or slave but not human being equal to male. Under Muslim ruler condition became worst they were forced to be under cover, no right to get education, political participation and lead good life like men. With the time reform were also made as by BUDHA< MAHAVIR JAIN< and GURUNANAK, by saying SO KIO MANDA AKHIYE JIT JAME RAJAN . In long history of kingdom in India we have very few names of women ruler as Raja Sultan and Rani Laxmi Bai only. With the help of British Ruler social reformer like Rajaram Mohan Rai and many others made attempt to empower women, and success to stop Sati. But Women did not get right and status like men.
III Women and Gender Justice in Post- Independent India
Serious attempts were made to elevate the status of women after the independence of India promise to secure to all its citizen justice-social, Equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all: Fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation.
As equal citizens of India, women benefit from all rights with men. However, since the constitution recognized the unequal social position of women, a special clause/Artical15 (3) empowers the stats to make special provisions for womenand children even in violation of the obligation not to discriminate among citizens. This power has been used to enact special laws for the protection of women workers in factories, mines and plantations and in addition to provide maternity relief to women workers in the organized sector.
Equality of opportunities in public employment and office under the state is guaranteed by Artical16. This clause has helped to ensure a significant position and status to Indian women demonstrated by the increasing number of women in the public services and in position of power and dignity. The principle of adult franchise, irrespective of sex, seeks to ensure women’s full participation in shaping and sharing of power but still women are struggling for equal status because of male domination in the parliament and other legislative bodies. If see all high official posts, every where men are numerical strong then women and if there are women there conditions is very bad, they suffered lots of harassment at work place, and its very good example can be given by Vishakha v. State of Rajastan case, where she was rape victim at workplace. Even in resent case filed in Rajasthan where a constable of Rajasthan police named Maya Yadav was raped and murdered by cook and driver of Chehat Poice station on September, 29 2010, in the room where she was residing from December 2009 because of posting in that Police Station. Thus what is security of women among common people if a lady constable is not safe in Police Station?
Women not safe even in law also here I would like to refer Muslim personal law, where men have given right to merry with five women at one time, even if he does not have means of livelihood for one wife. But women cannot even ask for divorce if husband not treat them equally and husband can give her divorce by just saying talaq, here we can give example of Shah Bano and Gudia case.
Women are not safe even in custody of police, they raped in police-station, if women go to police for FIR they asked them such question which forced them to live without justice. If women are rape victim, proceeding of court is itself victimization of victim. We have many examples as Imrana, Jasica Lal Murder, Anaara Gupta and Ruchica abetment of suicide cases.
We have recent case of Priydarshna Mattu who was raped and murdered by accused but Supreme Court; commute his punishment to imprisonment of life from death sentence. Another example a brave girl who killed two terrorist in Kashmir has been harassed by high official of ant terror institution.
Now if see the political participation of women in India is also not good. Recent reports in India indicating that many women politicians are finding it difficult to participate in politics, let alone equalize the gender gap that exists, point to an increasing need to analyse the role that women play in Indian politics. The latest elections, with its saga of violence and conflicting rhetoric, further support this need.
“Times of India” report corroborates much of what has been discussed in this handbook: namely that “domestic responsibilities, lack of financial clout, rising criminalization of politics and the threat of character assassination” are making it increasingly difficult for women to be part of the political framework. Moreover, women politicians point out that even within the political parties, women are rarely found in leadership positions. In fact, “women candidates are usually fielded from ‘losing’ constituencies where the party does not want to ‘waste’ a male candidate”. Here we would like to mention women movement which raised voice to empower women in Policy making and other sectors.
Women Movement and issue of Representation
The demand for greater representation of women in political institutions in India was not taken up in a systematic way until the setting up of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) which published its report in 1976. Before this the focus of the growing women’s movement had been on improving women’s socio-economic position. The CSWI report suggested that women’s representation in political institutions, especially at the grass-roots level, needed to be increased through a policy of reservation of seats for women. In 1988, the National Perspective Plan for Women suggested that a 30 per cent quota for women be introduced at all levels of elective bodies. Women’s groups insisted that reservation be restricted to the panchayat (village council) level to encourage grass-roots participation in politics. The consensus around this demand resulted in the adoption of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Indian Constitution in 1993.
In 1995, the question of quotas was raised again, but this time the focus was women in parliament. Initially, most political parties agreed to this proposition. But soon doubts surfaced. When the bill addressing this issue was introduced in the Eleventh Parliament in 1997, several parties and groups raised objections. The objections focused around two main issues: first, the issue of overlapping quotas for women in general and those for women of the lower castes; second, the issue of elitism. Most women’s groups felt that the caste issue was a divisive one for women. Also, many felt uneasy about giving special privileges to elite women by ensuring seats for them in the parliament, while they had previously supported quotas for women at the grass-roots level of the panchayats. To date, the amendment has not been passed by parliament. However, the current government of the Hindu nationalist BJP has committed itself to introducing another quota bill for women in parliament. The 39 women representatives in the 1991-¬1996 Indian Parliament were mostly middle-class, professional women, with little or no links to the women’s movement. A significant number of them accessed politics through their families, some through student and civil rights movements, and some as a result of state initiatives aimed at increasing representation from the lower castes. Women representatives have thus benefited from this success of the women’s movement. However, there has been limited interaction between women representatives and the women’s movement ¬ one of the important areas of weakness behind both the effectiveness of women MPs as well as that of the women’s movement. This is, perhaps, the issue that the women’s movement needs to address as part of its expanding agenda for the 1990s. But this movement fail now the failure of the women’s movement is partly down to the speed of its early successes, and the speed with which its activists were absorbed into the establishment - which led to a backlash. Among India’s middle-class and lower-middle-class women, feminists are perceived to be unpopular conference-hoppers or political climbers. There is a reluctance to take “women’s issues”, when they are described as such, seriously. India’s official feminists talk about dowries, not sexual revolution, and feminism has ceased to be a living force among women.
IV Conclusion
Today, in India,”women’s empowerment” is a government slogan; it is a feature of every party manifesto. There is a ministry for women and child development. There are laws against female foeticide, domestic violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. The number of working women is exploding: businesswomen such as Kiran Majumdar Shaw and sportswomen such as Sania Mirza show that talented, determined women are making it in every corner of this traditional society - a society that was entirely male-dominated in 1947 . Yet, in the first decade of the 21st century, Indian women - seemingly protected by law, celebrated by the media and nursed by activists - remain second- class citizens, most obviously in rural areas, but in some senses everywhere.
Crimes against women continue to escalate; female foeticide remains common even among educated women; stray incidents of sati, or suttee, still take place, with women either jumping or being thrown on to their husbands’ funeral pyres. Arranged marriages are commonplace. The father is still the head of the family. And in the same year that Patil became head of state, Kiran Bedi, India’s first female police officer, has been denied promotion to the post of Delhi’s police chief. It seems as though only a certain type of Indian woman is approved of these days. Meanwhile, for millions of Indian women, it is not women such as Bedi or Patil who are role models. Instead it is the heavily made-up and bejewelled women of the soap operas, with their hair full of sindoor (red powder) and their minds full of domestic politics. Today, these are the women to be emulated.
Thus I would like to say in simple words in conclusion that although now there are laws in favour of women as Domestic Violation Act, Dowry Act, Indian Succession Act, Indian Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Family Court Act, Human Rights Act, Special Marriage Act, Muslim Women Protection in Divorce Act, etc. But still situation is not equal to men. Female fratricide continue even law prohibited, social and economic reasons, women take less interest in politics because of reputation, harassment. Girls suffered harassment in every sector whether it is private or public. Still women are numerically less in every high official post e.g. in Military and Paramilitary forces, Politics, Public Sector except Entertainment, where they want women nothing more than a show piece. Thus I conclude that still there is need of awareness among the women from grass-root level to top, for the equal status and gender justice in Indian democracy which is half without it
