women equality Archives

By Dheeraj Diwakar

“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which the women have achieved.”

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Introduction

In 2004, Columbia University released a list of the world’s best top 100 scholars, and the list was topped by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. He made enormous efforts to make sure that society follows a path of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. The same can be witnessed from his various writings and speeches.

The concept of caste is so deep-rooted in Indian society that whenever the name of Dr. Ambedkar comes up, the first image of him is that of a messiah of Dalits. But what a lot of people don’t know about Dr. Ambedkar is his fight for women’s empowerment and his pursuit of gender equality in all dimensions of national and private life. This short piece aims to highlight some of the main achievements and endeavours of Dr. Ambedkar for women’s equality in India

Ambedkar And Women’s Rights In Pre-Independence Era

Dr. Ambedkar was aware of the miserable conditions of women. He believed that women are the worst sufferers of the oppressive, caste-based, and rigid hierarchical social system. His main effort was to liberate Indian women from various social and religious ties and provide access to necessities which they were deprived of i.e., Education and Inheritance rights. He regarded education as the only tool for the emancipation of women. On 20 July 1942, while addressing the second All India Depressed classes women’s conference he said, “I shall tell you a few things which I think you should bear in mind. Learn to be clean; keep free from all vices. Give education to your children. Instill ambition in them. Inculcate in their minds that they are destined to be great. Remove from them all inferiority complexes.”

Ambedkar’s approach towards women was completely different from other social reformers i.e. Mahatma Gandhi, Jyotiba Phule, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who tried to reform without questioning the social hierarchical order.

In the early days of 1928, a women’s conference was established in Bombay with Ramabai (Ambedkar’s Wife) as its President. About 500 women participated in Kalram Temple’s entry Satyagraha at Nasik in 1930. The number swelled up to 3000 women participating in the historic Mahad Satyagraha. He believed that family planning measures for women should be taken. In 1942, while serving as a labor minister of the executive council of governor-general he introduced a Maternity Benefit Bill. The bill aimed to provide maternity leave to women workers. In his journals i.e. Mooknayak and Bahiskrit Bharat, he made sure that the issues related to women get an equal place in it.

Hindu Code Bill

Hindu Code Bill is one of the most important initiatives made by Dr. Ambedkar to improve the miserable condition of women. Being the first Law Minister of independent India on February 24^th, 1949, he took an initiative and introduced the draft of the Hindu Code Bill in the Constituent Assembly. The bill aimed to release women from various social bondages created by the Hindu social order. The proposed legislation seeks to provide women with the Right to property and other legal rights which were prohibited by the Manu law. The Bill aimed to put men and women in equal places in terms of legal status. He argued that the ideals enshrined in the Bill have their origins in the Indian Constitution which promotes equality. The Bill was first delayed by the parliamentarians and was later rejected leading to Ambedkar giving his resignation from the post of Law Minister.

He introduced four Acts that were also incorporated in the Hindu Code Bill. The acts improved the conditions of women and strengthened their position. The list of Acts along with important provisions for women are as follows:

Hindu Marriage Act 1955: Section 5 of the Act increases the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 years. Section 17 of the Act provides punishment for bigamy. Provisions related to alimony and permanent maintenance have been provided in Section 25 of the act.

Hindu Succession Act 1956: Section 8 of the Act empowers the widow to adopt Son or Daughter. Section 14 ensures that the property of women will be her absolute property. Further, section 15 of the act makes sure that there would be a uniform succession to the property of a Hindu Female who dies intestate.

The Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956: Under Section 8 of this act, widows are empowered to adopt children. Earlier under Hindu law, they were not entitled to do so. Before this act came into force, daughters could not be adopted. Section 9 of the act makes it compulsory that the wife shall be consulted while carrying on any adoption.

The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956: Section 6(a) ensures that in case of custody if the child has not completed the age of five then the custody lies with the mother. Under 6(b), if the child has been born out of an illegitimate relationship, then the first natural guardian would be mother and then father. The act also empowers the mother to change a guardian of a child who has been appointed by the father.

Constitutional Provisions

Dr. Ambedkar worked as a Chairman of the Drafting Committee and is regarded as the Father of the Indian Constitution. In many of his speeches in the Constituent assembly, he debated for equal rights for women. His approach towards women’s rights played a significant role in ensuring that Women’s rights find a special place in the Indian Constitution. Some of the important constitutional provisions protecting women’s rights are,

Article 14: This article ensures equality for all citizens irrespective of Gender, Caste, Creed, Religion, and race.

Article 15: This article prohibits discrimination on the grounds of Religion, Gender, Caste, Creed, and Race.

Article 16: This article says that there shall be an equality of opportunity in Public Employment.

Article 23: This article prohibits Human Trafficking and Bonded Labour.

These were some important provisions related to women. Apart from them, many other articles protect the rights of women i.e. Article 39(a) and (d), Article 42, Article 51A(e), Article 243D(3), Article 243T(3), and Article 243T(4).

Conclusion

Even in the 21^st Century, the issue of gender inequality still finds its deep roots in Indian society. The condition was more critical in the pre-independence era and the early parts of post-independence. It was Dr. Ambedkar and some other handful of social reformers who came forward to lessen the plight of age-old sufferers i.e., Women. Interestingly, when the Hindu Code Bill was to be introduced by Ambedkar, numerous women opposed the Bill. The efforts made by Ambedkar with regards to Women’s equality haven’t been much recognized or if recognized get faded because of the title he carries i.e., Liberator of Dalits.

Author: Dheeraj Diwakar

Judith Sargent Stevens Murray (May 1, 1751 – June 9, 1820) was an early American advocate for women’s rights, an essay writer, playwright, poet, and letter writer. She was one of the first American proponents of the idea of the equality of the sexes—that women, like men, had the capability of intellectual accomplishment and should be able to achieve economic independence. Among many other influential pieces, her landmark essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” paved the way for new thoughts and ideas proposed by other feminist writers of the century.

According to Judith Sargent Stevens Murray, if women seemed inequal or incapable when compared to men, it was entirely due to the fact that women lacked the right to education and nothing else.

Murray argues against the idea that women are not mentally equal to men in all areas. She notes that the “province of imagination hath long since been surrendered to us”, but that women are extremely limited in how they exercise their imaginations. She scornfully points out that women have channeled this creativity into fashion, slander, and gossip to incredibly skilled ends, but stresses that she is not pointing this out in order to “furnish these facts as instances of excellency in our sex” but to be used as “proofs of a creative faculty, of a lively imagination”. Murray then states that traditional female activities like sewing and cooking will not bring out women’s creativity and intellects to their fullest potential, as she views these as activities that do not require much thought or attention, and that women cannot fulfill that potential if other avenues of expression and learning are denied to them.

She argues that if the woman was given the ability to accompany her brother in his studies, the woman could have excelled in subjects like astronomy and geography that could have made her better able to appreciate Jehovah. This would have the benefit of not only discouraging her from idle, destructive pastimes but to also encourage her to come up with ideas that could greatly benefit mankind and to foster stronger friendships and marriages. This does not mean that women cannot or would not take care of activities such as cooking or sewing, but that this will give them the liberty to reflect upon their education and come up with positive ideas as opposed to negative ones. Murray then poses that some would state that women only need to take care of domestic duties, only for her to argue that this idea is degrading, as women would thus be forbidden from contemplating anything more complicated than “the mechanism of a pudding, or the sewing the seams of a garment”.

She further supports her argument by comparing and contrasting two two year old siblings, one male and one female.

“Will it be said that the judgment of a male of two years old, is more sage than that of a female’s of the same age? I believe the reverse is generally observed to be true. But from that period what partiality! how is the one exalted, and the other depressed, by the contrary modes of education which are adopted! the one is taught to aspire, and the other is early confined and limited. As their years increase, the sister must be wholly domesticated, while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science.”

Murray empahizes that the souls of women are equal to that of man and that there have been women throughout history that have shown that they can be man’s equals. She further notes that some naysayers have argued for the mental superiority of man because they are also physically stronger, but that this concept is faulty for several reasons. Not only are many animals that are stronger than men, but that there are also effeminate men and robust women. She further comments that even if “animal strength proved any thing”, that it is possible for women to have been given the ability to have superior minds to make up for this imbalance. However, Murray stresses that she is only mentioning this possibility because she wants to be equal, not because she wants one sex to be superior over the other.

Murray acknowledges that there are passages in the Bible that could be used to back up the argument of male superiority, but that she considers these passages to be metaphors and not fact. She also points out several examples of biblical men that were imperfect, such as Job cursing against God, which she feels invalidates the idea of using the Bible to support male superiority. Murray restates that women should be allowed equal access to education, as this would prevent women from seeing men as adversaries and would discourage issues that would arise from this line of thought.

At a time when the American Constitution was being drafted and the fate of women was being decided, predominantly by men, it was noteworthy that one woman was arguing vehemently for the equality of the sexes.

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