Introduction
Swami
Vivekananda once said “…there is no hope of rise for that family or country
where there is no estimation of women, where they live in sadness.” In the
post-independence era, it was a great challenge for our “state-planners” to
protect the human rights of the women and to protect them from religious and
social. The Indian Constitution provides an equal right to the men and women
through the Article 14 and Article 15. In this regard, it is to be noted that
Article 14 states that the state must ensure the equality before the law and equally
protect of law, whereas Article 15 states that the state shall not make any
discrimination on the ground of race, caste, religion, gender and place of
birth. However, our patriarchal social structure and some religious foundations
are creating stumbling blocks for the women in getting their constitutional
rights.
Apart from being deprived of their rights, the rate of crimes against
the women in India is also rising day by day. The following statistics can be
considered as proof of such crime against women in recent years.
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| Figure 1: Crime Against Women in India (Source: Hrw.org) |
This
article is completely dedicated to the mothers, daughters and sisters of our
country to let them know their right and shed light on the offences, which are
taking place against them regularly in the name of social or religious ritual.
Human Rights for Women in India
Right
to equality
Right
to education
Right
to live with dignity
Right
to liberty
Right
to politics
Right
to property
Right
to equal opportunity for employment
Right
to free choice of profession
Right
to livelihood
Right
to work in equitable condition
Right
to get equal wages for equal work
Right
to protection from gender discrimination
Right
to social protection in the eventuality of retirement, old age and
sickness
Right
to protection from inhuman treatment
Right
to protection of health
Right
to privacy in terms of personal life, family, residence, correspondence etc
Right
to protection from society, state and family system
Human Rights Violation
Violation
of “Right to Equality:
The
right to equality is associated with the right to protection against gender
discrimination. In this context, it is very unfortunate to state that the
discrimination against the girl child starts from the time when her body starts
taking the human shape in her mother’s womb. The parental sex discernment
facilitates the parents to a newborn baby to test the sex of their baby (who
is in the mother’s womb) before taking birth. If the test discloses that the mother
is carrying a girl child, relatives or even parents start violation of the
“right to life” after or even before taking the birth. Even if the girl child
is allowed to take birth, they are discriminated from other children on the
excuse that the baby child will become untouchable in the society if she
appears in public or gets education.
Violation
of “Right to Education”
In
order to provide education to every child, the Right to Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act was enacted by the Government of India in 2009. In
this regard, it is also to be noted that this act came into force for
protecting the fundamental right of children to get education as provided in
Article 21-A of the Indian Constitution. In spite of having the fundamental
right to get education, the girl children are not provided with proper
education. From the very early stage of life, the girl children are brought up
to be housewives.
In
this regard, it is to be noted that this kind of social disorder create a restriction for the girls to develop their personality. If the literacy rates
of men and women are compared, it can be seen that there exists a large gap
between the primary literacy levels. Near about 60 million girls do not have
access to primary education. The most important consequence of the lack of
education among women is that they do not even have knowledge about
their own human rights. Actually, in our society, women are forced to be dependent
on their husbands.
Violation
of “Political Right”
The
women population in India is around 49%, whereas the participation of women in the upper house and the lower house is only roughly 12%. This statistical figure
clearly states that the political status of women in our country is not
satisfactory. In this regard, it is to be noted that there is a reservation of
33% seats for women, however, the women participation is only one-third of such
reserved seats. This can be concluded with the note that the reservation is
just a vocal support, which does not have any practical implementation.
Violation
of “Right to Property”
The
right to hold property by a woman can be discussed with the reference to the
Hindu Succession Act 1956. According to section 21 of the stated act, if any property
is possessed by a woman, whether acquired before or after the commencement of this
act shall be held by such owner as a full owner, and not as a limited owner. Due
to weak enforcement of law, the women do not even know their right to hold a
property. It is our social custom that property of a person is divided among
their sons and the daughters get the share of the property only when her father
gives such right.
Violation
of “Right to protection of health”:
The
World Health Organisation has pointed out the malnutrition as the main reason
behind the infertility among the women. In this regard, it is required to be
noted that the malnutrition also consequences in giving birth of abnormal child
and death of mother at the time of delivery. The Human Development Report
clearly indicates that the female children in India are suffering from serious
malnutrition from as compared to the male children. Here, the improper
intra-family food allocation between the male and female child can be spotted
as the reason behind such difference in malnutrition. As per the report
published in Human Development Report, more than 20% female children in Punjab
are suffering from severe malnutrition, whereas the statistics of malnutrition
among male children is 3%. This clearly states that the right to protection of
health is getting violated in our country.
Violation
of “Right to live with dignity”:
The
term “right to live with dignity” is constitutional, which means the right to
get respect as a human being from others. In this regard, it is to be noted
that eve teasing has become the most common incident that contradicts with the
above mentioned constitutional right. The eve-teasing is regarded as the terror
act that violates the right to live with dignity. The eve-teasing and its most
horrible descendant sexual abuse have completely destroyed the fundamental
rights of the women in India. Indian Penal Code criminalises any man committing
any act that takes the right to live with dignity of the women. Physical
contact, requesting sexual favour and showing pornography are the crimes under
the aforementioned code. The following data can be considered as evidence
of the violation of the right to live with dignity.
Conclusion
A
tip on an iceberg is covered through this article, and the rest of the parts is
there, which can only be accessed with rationality and social consciousness. Women
need the support of society to live their lives like a human. Different NGOs are
there to support the exploited women however this number is not enough to fight
against the “selfish giants” of our society.
Bibliography
Researchgate.net
Hrw.org
.
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