"Awareness About The Rights Of Women Can Be Truly Meaningful If That Awareness Is Created Amongst The Younger Generation Of Men In Our Society": Justice Chandrachud

"There is no one identity for women as a group or a class. There are multiple identities within the large class of women for whom the law has entitled the conferment of rights. It is important for us to understand that there must be an intersectional approach to discrimination and violence which women face", observed Justice D. Y. Chandrachud on Saturday.He continued to elaborate that in a recent judgement that the judge has delivered, where he came across discrimination against scheduled caste women, he has observed that when the identity of a woman intersects with her caste, her class, religion, disability and sexual orientation, she may face violence and discrimination due to 2 or more grounds. "Transwomen, for instance, may face violence because of their heterodox gender identity", he elucidated.The judge was speaking on 'EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN Through LEGAL AWARENESS' at the Nationwide Launch Of Legal Awareness Programmes by NALSA in collaboration with the National Commission for Women."Our Constitution is a transformative document that sought to remedy the structural inequalities rooted in patriarchy. It has become a powerful tool to secure material entitlements and provide public affirmations of dignity and equality of women. Legislations like domestic violence act, prevention of sexual harassment at workplace act have been enacted to achieve the goal of fulfilling the constitutional rights of women. However, every day in our lives as judges of the Supreme Court, we come across injustice against women. There are real-life situations which show that there is great divergence between ideals of the law and the real state of the society today", sighed Justice Chandrachud."You come across a case of a daughter-in-law being thrown out from the house in a matrimonial dispute and then, when she complains under the domestic violence act, she is informed that the husband has no right, title or interest in a joint family home or that the home that belongs to the father! When the award of maintenance is sought to be enforced, the woman is told that the business belongs to the joint family and the husband is only a salaried partner in the business!...there is a matter where a woman was denied maternity leave for the first born child on the ground that her husband, from a prior marriage, had two living children! So a woman who was in a relationship, a marriage, with her husband for the first time was denied maternity leave because her husband had children from a previous marriage!...Just two days ago, there was an advertisement which a company was required to pull down- the advertisement was Karva Chauth by a same-sex couple. It had to be withdrawn on the ground of public intolerance!", he indicated.Justice Chandrachud expressed that there are laws creating rights for women, which the Constitution recognises, and which extend to matters of property and succession, extend to the workplace, extend to entering the workplace and protect women once they are in the workplace. But it is important to spread legal awareness for women about how they can get into the workplace in the first place."How do they join the army? The Supreme Court has recently opened the doors for women to join the armed forces. But how does a woman access the armed forces? How does she become a member of the armed forces? How does she become a judicial officer? So legal awareness has to be spread about these avenues for women to enter the workplace", he urged.He showed that the Food Security Act, for instance, recognises the woman as the head of the household- "A woman can be the head of the household in order to facilitate the right to food security. When I was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, we held that that right must extend to a woman who is a transgender who must also be recognised as the head of the household for the purpose of the Food security act""How do we facilitate the entry of women into the workplace in order to facilitate an inclusive workplace, an inclusive society, where women will be able to join the workplace at an equal footing with men?", he asked.Justice Chandrachud reflected that the entitlements which the law has created for women should not become a ruse or an excuse for perpetuating the domination of men- "So when women have been given political representation in legislatures across the country, it should not become a ruse for a man who is standing behind a woman and really is asserting a patriarchal domination over the right of the woman to be a representative of the people at large!"He asserted that legal awareness of the rights of women is not merely a matter for women-"Awareness is not only a woman's issue. Awareness about the rights of women can be truly meaningful if that awareness is created amongst the younger generation of men in our society. Because I believe that the deprivation of rights of women, if we have to find an answer to them, the origin must be in the changing of mindset, both of men and...

"Awareness About The Rights Of Women Can Be Truly Meaningful If That Awareness Is Created Amongst The Younger Generation Of Men In Our Society": Justice Chandrachud

Mehal Jain

"Our Constitution is a transformative document that sought to remedy the structural inequalities rooted in patriarchy", said Justice Chandrachud

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