14 Oct 2023 : Daily Answer Writing
Mains Answer Writing
14-october-2023
Q1) Discuss the crucial role played by the National Commission of Women in shaping the discourse on gender-sensitive laws in India. To what extent the elevation of the National Commission for Women to a constitutional body would reinforce its authority?
ANSWER
- National Commission for Women is a statutory body established under the “National Commission for Women Act, 1990”. It was established to ensure the empowerment of women in India and enable them to achieve equality and equal participation in all spheres of life. It strives for effective policy formulation, legislative measures, effective enforcement of laws, implementation of schemes, and devising strategies for solutions to specific problems arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women.
ROLE OF NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN (NCW) IN GENDER-SENSITIVE LAW DISCOURSE
- Gender Profile: The NCW creates gender profiles to assess the level of empowerment of women belonging to different sections, classes, and other socio ascriptive groups. This helps in breaking the practice of women as a homogeneous group without due regard to socio-economic backgrounds.
- Review of Legislations: The NCW regularly reviews various laws like the Indian Penal Code 1860, The Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplaces Act, 2013, etc. in order to revise and update the laws according to the changing profile of society and women.
- Awareness Generation: The NCW regularly undertake awareness generation activities through camps, events, and discussion in order to create discourse on recognizing the issue of gender justice.
- Suo Motu Notice: It takes care of complaints and also matters about the deprivation of rights of women and ensures implementation of laws favoring the welfare of women.
- Special Studies and Investigation: To understand the limitations in the system and curb it with strategic plans and mechanisms in order to ensure better recognition and protection of rights of women.
HOW CAN CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS FOR NCW ENSURE BETTER AND MORE EFFECTIVE GENDER JUSTICE
- With constitutional status, it will be obligatory for Union and State Governments to consult NCW in policies affecting women like 33% reservation for women in Legislatures, increasing the legal age of marriage for women to 21 years, etc.
- NCW shall have resources of the Central Government at its disposal and better finances to perform its functions effectively.
- NCW shall have the powers of a Civil Court in investigating complaints filed before them and shall have the powers to summon authorities like police officers.
- Constitutional Status will help Parliament to look into the reports of NCW which shall be laid before the Houses of the Parliament by the President and act and legislate accordingly.
- The members of the NCW shall be appointed by the President and shall have the security of tenure which will help them act impartially and swiftly without any political pressure.
- NCW will have powers to demand any document, receive evidence on affidavits, obtain any other records from the court or police, and also issue a commission for the examination of witnesses and documents.
CHALLENGES WILL REMAIN UNADDRESSED WITH THE CONSTITUTIONALIZATION OF NCW
- Its recommendations shall not be binding on the governments even after constitutional status. This has been observed in the cases of NCSC, NCST, and NCBC too.
- No trickle-down effect is observed by mere constitutionalization of a commission. For e.g., despite having constitutional status, NCSC or NCST have been ineffective in dealing with crimes and atrocities against SCs and STs.
- This is due to no or poor delegation of functions on these Commissions in important legislations like SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act).
- The Commissions usually tend to favor the Government in most of the cases which leads to poor trust-building among the common citizens.
- NCW shall have a limited role in changing the socio-cultural sphere where women face discrimination due to the patriarchal setup. These issues can be dealt with at grassroots levels only and mere constitutional status to NCW shall have limited or no impact.
To effectively address the issue of gender inequality and discrimination against women, NCW should be given independence, a quasi-judicial role in dealing with complaints, and better awareness campaigns and this must be complemented with effective implementation of safeguards available in the Constitution and other Statutes.
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14 Oct 2023 : PIB
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14 October 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Notes PDF
