The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 affirms the ideal of equal rights of men and women. The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979 observes that discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity. Similarly, social justice is the keystone of the Indian Constitution. One facet of it is gender justice. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties, and Directive Principles. In this article, we shall study Constitutional provisions for women’s empowerment.
Constitutional Provisions:
The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women for neutralizing the cumulative socio-economic, education, and political disadvantages faced by them. Fundamental Rights, among others, ensure equality before the law and equal protection of the law; prohibits discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, and guarantee equality of opportunity to all citizens in matters relating to employment. The meaning and content of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution of India are of sufficient amplitude to encompass all the facets of gender equality including prevention of sexual harassment or abuse. Gender equality includes protection from sexual harassment, the right to work with· dignity, and the right to education which is a universally recognized basic human rights. Important Constitutional Provisions are Articles 14, 15, 16, 21, 21A, 23, 24, 38, 39, 42, 44, and 55(e). In this article, we shall study Article 15 of the Constitution of India and its interpretation with respect to women’s empowerment.
Right to Equality:
Right to Equality means that all citizens enjoy equal privileges and opportunities. It protects the citizens against any discrimination by the State on the basis of religion, caste, race, sex, or place of birth. Right to Equality includes five types of equalities.
- Equality before law (Article 14)
- Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth (Article 15)
- Equality of opportunities in matters of public employment (Article 16)
- Abolition of Untouchability (Article 17)
- Abolition of titles (Article 18)
Bare Act Provisions of Article 15 in
The Constitution of India: Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth:
- The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them
- No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, and palaces of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads, and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public
- Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children
- Nothing in this article or in clause ( 2 ) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes
- Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.
- Nothing in this article or sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 or clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making, (a) any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clauses (4) and (5); and (b) any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clauses (4) and (5) in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30, which in the case of reservation would be in addition to the existing reservations and subject to a maximum of ten per cent. of the total seats in each category.
Explanation: For the purposes of this article and article 16, “economically weaker sections” shall be such as may be notified by the State from time to time on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.
Article 15 is an extension of Article 14. Originally the Article had only three clauses. Later on, clauses (4) and (5) were added by way of the First Constitutional Amendment Act, 1951 and the Ninety-Third Constitutional Amendment Act, 2005 respectively. The insertion of clause (3) in Article 15 in relation to women is the recognition of the fact that for centuries, women of this country have been socially and economically backward. In order to eliminate the socio-economic backwardness of the women and to empower them in a manner that would bring about effective equality between men and women Clause (3) is inserted in Article 15.
Article 15 says that the state shall not discriminate against only of religion, race, sex, place of birth, or any of them. Under Article 15 (3) & (4), the government can make special provisions for women & children and for a group of citizens who are economically and socially backward. The ‘special provisions’, which the State may make to improve women’s participation in all activities under the supervision and control of the State, can be in the form of either affirmative action or reservation. The State can reserve seats for these categories in educational institutions, grant fee concessions, or arrange special coaching classes.
In Anjali Roy v. State of West Bengal, AIR 1952 Cal 825 case, the Court observed that Article 15(3) is an exception to Article 15(1) and enables the state to discriminate against males by making a special provision in favour of females.
In Dattatreya Motiram More v. State of Bombay AIR 1953 Bom 311 case, the Bombay High Court looked to the social, historic, and economic inequality of women and upheld the reservation of seats for women in municipalities as a special provision to raise the position of women to that of men.
Under Article 15(4) State can make special provisions and arrangements for socially and economically backward citizens and backward classes of society. Using this provision for women’s empowerment there are exclusive Women’s colleges, reservation of seats for women in trains, buses, panchayats, Municipalities. There are certain legislations like Maternity Benefits Act, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act in favour of women. Women cannot be arrested or called to the police stations between the period from sunset to sunrise. Summons under CrPC cannot be served to a female members of the family.
In Air India v. Nergesh Meerza AIR 1981 SC 1829 case, where Regulations 46 and 47 of the Air India Employees Service Regulations had
discriminatory provisions for male (Flight Pursers) and female (Air hostesses). These provisions and discretionary powers of the Managing Director in this regard were challenged as a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The apex court after hearing arguments from both the parties ruled that the clauses regarding retirement and pregnancy are unconstitutional and held that these provisions are arbitrary, selfish, and cruel, and are in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. Court ordered to be struck down the provisions with immediate effect. Similarly, the apex court termed the discretionary powers of the Managing Director as the excessive delegation of powers without any reasonable guidelines to police the same.
In Charu Khurana vs. Union of India, 2015 1 SCC 192 case, where the petitioner, a Hollywood make-up artist, and hairdresser submitted an application to R-5 association to issue her a membership card to work there as a make-up artist and hairdresser. The association refused the application submitted by the petitioner as they were not giving membership to the female worker as a make-up artist and hairdresser. The court held that there can be no discrimination solely on the basis of gender. Equality cannot be achieved in any field if women will not be given equal opportunities. It was also stated that the registrar of the Trade Union should not allow or see that no other trade union should make any such provision which is inconsistent with the constitutional provisions. This was the writ petition was filed by the respondent under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.
In C.B. Muthamma v. Union of India, AIR 1979 SC 1868 case,
the court considered the provision in IFS rules which stipulated that a woman would have to resign if she gets married after joining the foreign service as clearly against ‘gender justice’ (violation of Articles 14 and 15) and in defiance of Article 16 of the Constitution.
In Vijay Lakshmi vs. Punjab University and Others, AIR 2003 SC 3331 case, on the issue as to whether the state could establish separate colleges and schools for girls and appoint only lady principals and lady teachers to these schools. The Supreme Court held the provision valid and not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. If we study the classification on the merit and its relationship with the objects of such rule, we can confirm that the classification is reasonable.
Conclusion:
The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women for neutralizing the cumulative socio-economic, education, and political disadvantages faced by them. Article 15 is an extension of Article 14. When studying the Constitutional provisions for women’s empowerment, we shall study its use with all the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution simultaneously. Fundamental Rights, among others, ensure equality before the law and equal protection of the law; prohibits discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, and guarantee equality of opportunity to all citizens in matters relating to employment.