Gender Equality Research Paper

Women constitute half of the world’s population. Despite of equality in number with the men, women do not enjoy the equal status with respect of men in each and every sphere of society. women are considered as a weaker sex. Research shows that female foetus is always healthier than the male foetus. But process of socialization makes her weaker. Thus female who was born with a strength at par with male ends up with a tag ‘weaker sex’. In Ancient times especially during the early vedic period women had an equal status at par with men. This can be illustrated by studying the vedic literature written by Patanjali and Katayanan. In this literature it is mentioned that women used to marry at a mature age and Svayamvar

In 1950’s our constitution came in to existence with special focus to provide certain provisions to female to make them at par with the men. Our constitution is based on the principles of ‘Equality, Liberty and Fraternity’ which is reflected in the ‘Preamble’ of the constitution. The principle of ‘Equality’ is an important one when we talk about the ‘Gender Equality’. There is stress on the ‘Gender Equality’ throughout the Indian constitution whether it is ‘Preamble’, ‘Fundamental Rights’, ‘Fundamental Duties’ or ‘Directive Principle of State Policy’. On the International level also, India favours the equal status for women at par with men.

India is a part of various conventions that are in the favour of providing equal rights to women and elimination of all kind of discrimination against women. Forerunner among these conventions is the ‘Convention on Elimination of All the Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1993. There are a large number of provisions which are given to women to safeguard the interest of women. These provisions in the form of articles are as

Article 243 D (3): This article provide the reservation of one third seats for women in Panchayat elections. This article was added by 73rd constitutional amendment to safeguard the interest of women in political sphere.

Article 243 D (4): This article favours the reservation of one third of total number of seats of chairpersons in the Panchayats’

Article 243 T (3): This article was added in the constitution by 74th constitutional amendment and recommends the one third reservation in municipal corporations.

Article 243 T (4): This article recommends the reservation of offices of chairpersons in Municipal corporations according to the legislature of a state or law.

Legal Safeguards for Women

Besides the constitutional provisions there are large number of legal provisions that are related to protect women against all kinds of violence, atrocities and discriminations. These legal provisions are there to enact the safeguards provided in the constitutional provisions. These legal provisions are divided in to two parts:

a) General Legal Provisions under Indian Penal Court