WOMEN AND PREJUDICE:
Role of Lawyers, Judges
and Courts in Women Empowerment
This article
explains the historical background of International Women's Day (IWD) and is an
introduction to a workshop on Women Empowerment.
This speech was
delivered in a workshop 'Role of lawyers, judges and courts in
women's
empowerment' held by
17.03.2013 at the
Chhattisgarh High Court, Bilaspur.
Namastey, Jai Johar, and a very good morning to all of you.
'A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women'
(for link see below)1 is UN theme for this
year's International Women's Day (IWD). It is to mark this day that we have
organised this talk. But, what is this IWD and why is it
celebrated?
Well, as the mythology tells us, gods were
on the receiving end; they had lost the war with Mahishasur; they did not know
what to do; they went to Vishnu for advise. It is there that they put together
their powers with those of Brahma; Vishnu and Mahesh. This is how Maa Durga,
the slayer of Mahisasur, was born.
She has hundreds of hands, having different weapons. She is an embodiment
of shakti, all divine energy: she was empowered. With
this might, she killed Mahishasur. But are today's Durgas, today's Mothers
empowered? The answer is in negative. It is necessary that they be empowered;
they be made Durga again. It was to make
the society understand the need for their empowerment that the IWD came to be
observed.
IWD was first celebrated on
In 1910, the Socialist International conference, was held in
In 1917, women in
According to the Julian calendar, last Sunday of February in 1917 fell on
February, 23 but according to Gregorian calendar, it was March, 8 in the rest
of the world. It is for this reason that IWD came to be celebrated on March, 8.
In 1975,
during International Women's Year, the United Nations began elebrating
8 March as International Women's Day. Two years later, in December 1977,
the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's
Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their
historical and national traditions. However, in almost all countries it is
celebrated on 8th March.
This year is important. It was two hundred
year ago that Jane Austen wrote her
classic 'Pride and Prejudice'. This year, it is being so celebrated. But why am
I bringing it up today in a function to mark IWD. Oh, just wait, just bear with
me.
The story
in the novel is set at the turn of the 19th century but it still
retains a fascination for modern readers as well and continues to be the 'most
loved books'. It is one of the most popular novels in English literature and
has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. There are number of dramatic adaptations
and it has been made into film, several times.
A Bollywood style adaptation of the novel titled 'Bride and Prejudice' was
also made in 2004, a romantic musical film, primarily in English, with some
Hindi and Punjabi dialogue.
Front page of the first illustrated 'Pride and Prejudice'
The story of the novel centres around Bennet family, consisting of the
bookish Mr Bennet, his wife, a woman somewhat lacking in social graces and
primarily concerned with marriage of their five daughters.
Mr. Bennet has a respectable income from his estate but because of
peculiarity of English law of 'entailment' his estate was to be inherited by
next closest male relative, Mr. Collins.
This troubled Mrs. Bennet, who is worried about her daughters' welfare after
Mr. Bennet.
Mr. Collins proposes to the second daughter Elizabeth, who is the
protagonist of the novel. But she refuses. The story unfolds from her
view-point as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality,
education, and marriage (basically of women) in the society of the landed
gentry of early 19th-century
The reason that I wanted to bring this story up was to bring about the
strange facet of English law of 'entailment' and the devastating effect it had
on women empowerment in
In common law, fee tail or entail is an estate of inheritance that cannot
be sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the owner; it which passes
by operation of law to the owner's heirs (male) upon his death. It was for this
law that estate of Mr. Bennet was to go to his nearest male heir Mr. Collins.
It was abolished by the Law of Property Act in
Eighteenth and nineteenth century was the time that legal doctrine of
coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was enforced in
In some cases, a woman did not have personal legal liability for her
misdeeds, since it was legally assumed that she was acting under the orders of
her husband. And this doctrine gave one of the most quoted quotation of all
times.
Front and back page of the first edition of 'Oliver Twist'
You remember Charles Dickens, his birth bi-centenary celebrations, just
went by in 2012: Dickens was born 1812. In his classic 'Oliver Twist', Mr
Bumble was the beadle at the parish workhouse, where Oliver was born. Later, Mr
Bumble arried dominating Mrs Corney, who was the matron of the parish
workhouse. She had stolen a trinket that belonged Oliver's mother. However,
because of the doctrine of 'coverture', Mr. Bumble was accused. This is how the
scene is described in the
novel,
'“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking
round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room. That is no
excuse," returned Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of
the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two,
in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your
direction."'
If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble,
squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot.
If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the
law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.” '
Let us see, what effect entailment and coverture had on women rights in
Women's estate or widow's estate was unknown to Mitakshra and widow or daughter
never had limited rights under Hindu law: they inherited like male heirs. Privy
Councillors, the British Judges could not imagine rights of women otherwise. They—warped by status of women in England2 and influenced by later developments
in law of Dayabhag (by Jimutvahan to get over difficulties in
I see some students in the audience. I will be happy if they undertake a
research project on the topic 'Entailment , coverture and Widow's limited
rights in Mitakshra'.
Howsoever important law may be in women empowerment but it (women empowerment)
cannot be brought about merely by changing laws. It has to come through a
change in the status of women in the society: this is where role of lawyers and
courts are important.
The first step for changing women's status in the society is to change the
mental set up of the society. Has our mental set up changed, it is not an easy
question [2]to[3]answer.
Let me put a problem.
A father and a son were going in a car. They meet with an accident. The
father dies on the spot. The son was taken to the hospital, but the surgeon
refused to operate him saying,
'I cannot operate, the boy is my son'.
Is it
possible: the father had died in the accident?
If you can find solution to this problem, then one can say that society is
mentally ready for the change. Even if you are not able to find the answer ,
don't despair: a lot of progress has
been made. Though, a lot is still to be achieved.
Will there be complete women empowerment in this century, is for future to answer
but we can only make efforts. About half a century ago, someone (Robert
Kennedy)
said,
'Some men see the things as they are and say why, I dream things that never
were and say why not?'
If we think about women empowerment, talk and dream about women empowerment,
then there is no reason, why we will not achieve it.
What were those dreams that we have had; what role has the lawyers, law and
courts have played in those dreams; what role they should play in future, is
the theme of today's talk. And who can better tell us than our guest of honour
Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and our chief guest Justice HL Dattu.
Thank you
very much, Jai hind
EndNote-1: All pictures are from Wikipedia.
[1]
See at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/
[2]Those who are interested in knowing about status of women in England and how
it changed may read the chapter 'The Story Of Emancipation’ in part six, ‘The
Deserted Wife's Equity’ part seven and ‘The Wife’s Share In The Home’ part
eight of the book 'The Due Process Of Law' by Lord Denning. Some indications
are also given in S vs. HM Advocate 1989 SLT 469 quoted in R vs. R (rape:
Marital exemption); (1991) 4 All ER 481 mentioned in paragraph 36 of this
article