Tuesday, August 15, 2023

 Fighting for Freedom Every Day

Shalu Nigam

15 August 2023




Politically, India gained independence on 15th August 1947, however, for those on the margins, freedom is not a one-time event, They are struggling hard and fighting for every inch of space and for freedom on a daily basis at every possible space - public or private. 

Freedom implies a different sense to different people. For the elite and the privileged, freedom may be a one-day celebration. However, for a woman or a child in a violent relationship, a poor trapped in the vicious circle of poverty, a bonded laborer enslaved by the chains of bondage, or a young girl stuck in a trafficking channel, freedom may be desperately seeking liberation every moment. And there are a million men, women, and children who are entrapped in a similar situation. 

The freedom struggle in India has seen a lot of bloodshed and sacrifice by millions. However, several scholars have noted that once India attained independence, it is the powerful and elite Indians who replaced their colonial masters. The situation of the poor and marginalized, therefore, remained the same. 

Those on the margins, therefore, are still struggling every moment of their lives to attain freedom or Azadi - freedom from starvation, freedom from poverty, freedom from illiteracy and ignorance, freedom to study, freedom from patriarchy, freedom from everyday violence and fear of violence, freedom from casteism, freedom from fascism, freedom from majoritarianism, freedom from capitalism, freedom to dream and aspire, freedom to enjoy life. 









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Sunday, August 13, 2023

 The Founding Mothers: 15 Women Architects of the Indian Constitution

2016






The current question of women’s autonomy and rights in India is rooted in the nineteenth century when the quest for independence of the country from British rule was going on and the issues of women’s rights gained a central position in debates on social reforms. Although, at that point in time, the notion of gender justice or gender equality had not gained ground, yet, the social reformers were of the view that something needs to be done about improving the situation of women. Women then were construed as members of the community rather than individuals on their own and therefore, the notion of women’s entitlements was interpreted within the context of the religious, personal, and customary law sphere which never treated women as independent entities. The official colonial and post-colonial discourses in pre-independent India were initiated by male reformers who articulated their thoughts on the abolition of Sati or on the age of consent. The amendments of personal laws were not women-friendly or provided for equality of sexes, rather these were based on orthodox opinions as evident from debates surrounding the Age of Consent Bill, Indian Divorce Act, Indian Succession Act of 1865, Hindu women’s Right to Property Act 1937 or the Hindu women right to Divorce Bill, 1939. Even during the debates on fundamental rights in the Constituent Assembly, men argued that ‘sex’ should not be mentioned as a ground of discrimination. But it was the women members who insisted that where fundamental rights were concerned the term man could not stand in for both male and female. However, in spite of the fact that equality on the basis of sex was mentioned in the Constitution, it could not contextualize women as independent beings and visualize them as members of the community.

The women, though few, raised women’s concerns and voiced women’s questions in the debates in pre-independent India within the given social context; and therefore the Constitution of India when finalized does reflect all of these concerns. These Constituent Assembly debates shaped the process of state formation and also guided the attitude toward women’s questions. This book looks at those women who raised their voices, pushed the concerns for inclusion, and highlighted the women’s concerns when the Constitution was being made. These and many other women played a significant role in the making of the Constitution. Yet, their works remain in the shadow, their faces invisible, their voices hidden and their courage unsung. They were the crucial architects of the Indian Republic who made substantial leaps in the history of India. Here we have made an attempt to look at their life, their views, their thoughts and the issues that they raised, which played a significant role in shaping the document called Constitution. We, therefore, call them the founding Mothers of the Constitution who brought in specific women-related concerns in contrast to the Fathers of the Constitution who sometimes favoured women’s questions, sometimes rejected women’s notions or sometimes overlooked women’s concerns. These women chose an unconventional path and voiced their thoughts in an arena dominated by men, and made their mark while writing the destiny of the Indian Republic.

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Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Law and Our Daily Lives

 “The law is a site where marginalization is challenged and resisted by those who are subjugated. On the one hand, the law reinforces the patriarchal discourse, yet on the other hand, it has the authority to set out the social order. Women and  marginalized groups have used the law to challenge the hierarchy and dominant notions.”  

Shalu Nigam 

In an online session on Law and Our Daily Lives @ 

LPPYF- Law and Public Policy Youth Fellowship, a two-month online immersive legal awareness & action research certificate training course and internship program, on 14th June 2023. 



Session Report
Priyanka Negi

LPPYF Law and Public Policy Youth Fellowship is an Online National Summer School Program, a Two- Month Online Immersive Legal Awareness & Action Research Certificate Training Course and Internship Program, from June-August 2023 by IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute. An informative and interactive panel discussion on “International Human Rights was held on the 14th of June 2023 by Adv Dr Shalu NigamVisiting Senior Fellow IMPRI, Advocate, Author, and Researcher, Gender and Human Rights.

IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi hosted the second session of LPPYF- Law and Public Policy Youth Fellowship, a two-month online immersive legal awareness & action research certificate training course and internship program, on 14th June 2023. Swetha Shankar, researcher at IMPRI, kicked off the session by welcoming the attendees & introducing the panelists. 

The session was chaired by Prof Vibhuti Patel, Visiting Distinguished Professor, IMPRI. Prof Vibhuti Patel began this session with a warm expression of gratitude towards team IMPRI. She then proceeded with a recap of the takeaways from session 1 of the LPPYF program. She informed that session 2 is an important discussion on “International human rights” by Adv Dr. Shalu Nigam, Visiting Senior Fellow IMPRI; Advocate, Author, and Researcher, Gender and Human Rights & Adv Dr. Vahida Nainar, Independent Researcher, Gender & Human Rights Consultant.

Multiple Legal Perspectives

Dr Shalu Nigam reminisced about her first experience as a beginner legal aid & shared an instance that alerted her about the term ‘court’ not being a familiar term on the streets. Instead, she encountered a new term ‘kachahari’ that the masses related to. She drew the conclusion that law is perceived differently among the masses & the court. She gave a brief introduction to the various definitions of law given by theorists, scholars & philosophers.

Dr Shalu Nigam focused on the making & enforcement of the law as her chosen legal perspective. In regards to making & enforcing of law, she shared the following two case studies.

The Struggle of Bhanwari Devi

Bhanwari Devi, a Rajasthan native was married to her husband when she was a 5- or 6-year-old child. Bhanwari Devi’s brave rebellion against child marriage was not well received by the community resulting in her husband being beaten up & Bhanwari being gang-raped by the upper caste men. The authorities right from lodging the FIR to being tested continued to show indifference in the matter. As an employee of the Women’s development project (WDP), the state government her employer who had refused to help her claiming that the assault occurred in the fields.

On November 15, 1995, the district & sessions court dismissed the case & acquitted the 5 men accused. The statements such as village head & elderly couldn’t rape and that upper caste men cannot rape lower caste women because of purity reasons, caused an uproar in the Women’s movement. A PIL was filed in the supreme court. The supreme court in Vishakha versus the State of Rajasthan pronounced a decision that resulted in the formation of Vishakha Guidelines.

This August 1997, judgment gave the basic definition of sexual harassment in the workplace & provided guidelines to deal with it. This was followed by the making of the Sexual harassment of Women at the workplace (prevention, prohibition & Redressal) act, 2013. Dr. Shalu Nigam then briefly discussed the problems with the enforcement of this law. 

Right to food

Dr. Shalu Nigam began this segment by laying out the statistics that very well express the food insecurity that our nation faces. In the Global Hunger Index India is ranked 107 amongst 121 countries. She mentioned how gender roles prevent women in families from consuming nutrient-rich food & that between farm & plate a lot of food is wasted.

She then detailed the case of PUCL versus the Union of India. The petition brought to attention the lack of transparency in the distribution system leading to starvation despite the Food Corporation of India (FCI) Godowns being full. The court attested the Right to food as an important constituent to maintain Article 21 of the Constitution of India which ensures the fundamental & human right to “life with human dignity”.

This was followed by a discussion on the steps taken towards the implementation of the interim orders passed by the court which on June 4, 2009, led to the formation of the National Food Security Act which assured food security to every individual. Further, the gaps & challenges with this act were discussed. 

In the learnings segment, Dr. Shalu Nigam talked about the law, morality, culture & society being intertwined in complex ways. She brought forth the insights from both the cases which depicted challenges faced by the marginal communities seeking justice. She maintained the understanding that the actual realization of rights by powerless people was flawed & needed to be continuously reframed, monitored & enforced. 

The end of Dr. Shalu Nigam’s session included a mindful questionnaire that aptly supplemented the teachings taken up during the session. The questions selected evoked curiosity amongst the attendees to delve into the subject matter more than what had been taught to broaden the horizons of their learning. The questionnaire was followed by Q & A session open for all the attendees.

This session by Dr. Shalu Nigam saw its end on a very important note as was well presented on screen. It read as follows- “The law is a site where marginalization is challenged and resisted by those who are subjugated. On the other hand, the law reinforces the patriarchal discourse, yet on the other hand, it has the authority to set out the social order. Women & marginalized groups have used the law to challenge the hierarchy & dominant notions.”  

Priyanka is a research intern at IMPRI.


https://impriinsights.in/international-human-rights-impri-impact-and-policy-research-institute/?fbclid=IwAR3sR2JIT3-htY79O_9UD6smvMWRSH-0M2dtbZBlylTg4j_sdAWcUy-typw



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Sunday, August 6, 2023

 

Dowry is a Serious Economic Violence: Rethinking Dowry Law in India 

Hardcover – 13 May 2023


This book is about the prevailing practices of dowry, its mechanisms, and the dowry laws as they exist in India. It argues that the practice of dowry is evolving in the commercialized neoliberal while the law has failed to keep pace with the socio-economic changes. Dowry, as it is practiced today, involves gruesome forms of economic violence, including extortion, blackmail, and exploitation of women and their families. The current legal framework ignores this triad of oppression consisting of compulsive, arbitrary dowry demandscoercion, and dowry-related violence, and therefore, it suggests rethinking the socio-legal discourse surrounding dowry in India.

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