What are the UN conventions regarding the elimination of women discrimination in India?
Women have been facing discrimination in many forms since ancient times. It includes forcing them to do sati, depriving basic rights of education, not having equal decision making powers like men and always being the only caregiver of the family. With the passing of time and upgradation of society, the need to have a law protecting women and their basic rights was highly needed.
Every country has its constitution and offers basic fundamental rights to each citizen without discriminating in gender, race, religion or place of birth. The constitution and the Indian Supreme court stand tall and strong as a guardian to every citizen. If a person- man, woman, child, transgender, etc. are denied any fundamental rights, they can at any time exercise their Right to constitutional remedies i.e., Article 32 of the Indian constitution. This right is the true essence of the constitution. It gives the freedom to the deprived citizen to directly approach the supreme court.·
Steps taken by the International Agency Against The Issues Of Women
International forum like UN has also come across the issue of women discrimination since several years. The issues were surging so rapidly that it had to dedicate an entire wing for women security and legislation. In July, 2010 the UN general assembly created UN women, the United nations entity for gender equality and empowerment. The creation of this body came as a part of the UN reform agenda bringing together all the mandates for greater results.
Main role of UN Women – (i) – to help and guide inter-governmental bodies to formulate policy and norms keeping in mind that development of women is more important.
(ii) – to help member states implement policy and cater any kind of technical or financial needs if required.
(iii) – regular monitoring of the policy and rating system so that the member states take it seriously and implement women centric laws.
The advantage of the UN entering into these issues is that every country will take women centric legislation seriously and would want to establish a good image and rapport in the international front. The global stats speak that every third of all women and girls experience physical assault once in their lifetime. 1 in two women were killed worldwide by their partners in 2017, mostly due to alcohol, drugs. There are only 52% married women who are able to make free decisions in contraceptive use and health care rest are driven by the patriarchal decision.
India’ scenario is no good when it comes to women and their protection. In 2017, almost 4 lakh cases of crime against women were reported. It included domestic violence, rape, molestation, acid attack, marital rape, etc. Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest number of crimes whereas states like goa, Meghalaya reported the lowest number of crimes against women.
International Day For the Violence Against Women
25th November every year is marked as International day for the elimination of violence against women, giving a tribute to the Mirabal sisters who were brutally murdered. The theme for the year 2019 was Orange the world – Generation equality stands against rape. The UN’ secretary general’ campaign for the year 2020-22 was to specifically focus on rape committed on women during peace or war.
The sustainable development goals (2015-2030) of the United Nations was an extension of the Millennium development goals. It focuses on 17 goals which cover almost all dimensions necessary and crucial to be looked at. The sustainable development goal number 5 focuses on establishing gender equality by 2030.
No matter how many legislation and judiciary participate in making women’ discrimination, it cannot be completely curbed unless the society becomes gender sensitive and gender neutral.
Reference - Times of India, UN website, Drishti IAS website.