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3 INDIAN LAWS THAT ARE FAMOUSLY ANTI-FEMALE
3 Indian Laws That Are Famously Anti-Female
There was once a goal to completely eradicate gender inequality worldwide by 2030, but it seems we’re not quite there yet. Women still cannot say that they’ve been given carte blanche to live their lives as they see fit without the fear of societal pressure, discriminatory pay, and numerous other problems.
Some appalling laws still exist that, until they are repealed, will never allow women to be equal to their male counterparts. And they aren’t discussed nearly as much as they should. Here are three such shocking laws that exist in India itself:
1) A divorced woman does not have any claim to any assets, such as houses or commercial buildings, brought fully under her ex-husband’s name during the period they were married. Not unless she has an income and can prove to the court that she contributed to its purchase. Otherwise, she can only ask for nominal "maintenance" costs for her and her children. This is a huge loss for Indian housewives, whose circumstances seem to be their downfall.
Even today, women feel societal pressure to quit their existing jobs to help domestically. And due to the existence of such laws, Indian women are indirectly discouraged from filing for divorces or annulments, even if they are stuck in unhealthy or harmful marriages or for a host of other genuine reasons.
2) Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act states that "Any property inherited by a female Hindu from her father or mother shall devolve, in the absence of any son or daughter of the deceased (including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter), not upon the other heirs referred to in subsection (1) in the order specified therein, but upon the heirs of the father."
This law states that in the absence of children and the husband, the husband’s parents stand to inherit the deceased woman’s property before her mother and father do. Indian norms state that after marriage, the woman becomes part of her husband’s family. She takes her husband’s surname, lives in her husband’s house, and devotes her entire married life to her "new family". The legal code promotes this belief, and this law further alienates the woman from her parents.
3) A law in Goa’s Civil Code states that if a man’s wife fails to produce a male child by the age of 30, the man is permitted to remarry. The same applies if she does not produce any offspring by the age of 25.
This puts a large amount of pressure on married women, while men remain unblamed and unscathed.
Every such law is three steps back from India’s advance towards gender equality, and their existence proves to be a thorn in every woman's side in her struggle for equality and recognition. India, by itself, can never claim equality so long as laws like these exist.
No injustice will ever correct itself unless we are willing to do something about it. So, it is safe to say that the future of our country lies entirely in our young minds and the concepts we believe in.
Citations:
https://scroll.in/article/668709/these-nine-laws-make-indian-women-less-equal-than-men
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/685111/
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