Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Women & the four pillars of Justice.

This blog post was published as a featured post on Women's Web. Featured Posts are a careful selection of highly relevant and interesting posts picked by  editors @Women's Web .each day


The Times of India dated 7th of November, 2019 published a study Litigants lose nearly  50,000 crore annually in  India " .The report went on to say that all states & Union Territories s spend less than 1% of GDP on judiciary .Delhi is the only state which spends 1.9 % of GDP on judiciary. The average for India works out  to 0.8% of GDP on judiciary. The score by the states on the four pillars of justice namely legal aid, judiciary, police & prison is equally pathetic.

The represenation of women in judiciary is slightly more than one fourth, at 26.5 % whereas in the police it is merely 7 % & for prisons, it is slightly better at 10 % .Because the number of women lawyers is less, the empanelment of women is even lesser. Only  Tamil Nadu ,which had a good number of women in the judiciary & police,  came out on top in diversity. Diversity helps the cause of justice. 


The India Justice Report , 2019  says that vacancies in police, prison & judiciary is the main cause of delay in justice. And denial of justice over long periods  leads to economic  loss & may lead to social unrest & instability . Prisons are overcrowded except jails for women. Legal aid looks like a cruel joke  as it is pegged at only 75 paise on a per capita basis every year.


Women are caregivers & caretakers .So its better to utilise them in areas such as prison reforms & even in police & the judiciary.Women are the sensitised lot & are more responsive  than men in cases of rapes of women, children, etc.Even today , the POSCO act is rarely invoked to punish the accused in the cases of child rapes. This would change ,if women are in charge . So, the need of the times, is more women in the workforce. A beginning ,can be made by increasing the number of women in the lower strata of the police, prisons & the judiciary. Over time, these ladies from the lowest ranks can move to higher ranks in the respective fields . Since women are less in the work force , appointing them at the higher levels without relevant experience would seem unfair & may be unworkable. 


The percentage of women in the workforce is less than 25 %.There are many reasons .One is patriarchy as women are supposed to manage home & hearth. Safety is another factor .And because, there are few women in work force , there is lot of gender disparity in  wages, in both informal  as also the formal workforce. 


Hence ,more women need to be brought into the work force. And they need to do paid work not housework. This will increase India's GDP by 20 % as per one estimate .


In another study by two Harvard students, it was found ,that more women in workplace would lead to a rise of nearly 27 % in the GDP of India. There is lot of discrimination which happens during hiring ,over qualifications, experience, etc. So the need is to increase gender diversity, to get more women into doing paid  work.


Unfortunately, in India, the women are leaving paid work & sitting at home taking care of family & housework. This ,in spite of higher GDP & higher employment .As women  get better educated & get married into higher income families, they give up paid work because of socio cultural reasons. The Government wants women to take an increased role in the armed forces & yet ,there's lot of resistance. A silver lining has been the commissioning of flight commander S. Dhami as Flight Commander in the officer cadre .Lieutenant Commander Karabi Gogoi has been selected as the Assistant Naval Attache at Russia. She is a naval engineer & at present is posted at Karwar naval base, Karnataka.Lets trust, this the beginning ,of a long line of female officers in the Armed  Forces


Similarly, government should enforce that more women are at work in the police, prisons & the judiciary  .Though private companies can do their bit in hiring more women , government can set the finest example, by making it easy, to hire women.  Women in correctional services & law & order services would lead to better safety environment for all ,especially for women, children & the elderly. And hence ,better law & order promoting peace. As the number of women increase in the judiciary, the police &  the prisons, legal aid  will get utilised to help the underdogs . This will lead to amore equitable society.  This will lead to stability, in which India can prosper faster, leading to better living conditions for all .


Since vacancies in judiciary are more at lower rungs,as high as 52 % in Mizoram  it would suffice if women are employed on contactual terms initially .This would ease burden on the exchequer .
Because shortly & surely, women would  set up such a high bar that there they would earn their place/ s in the aforesaid services .And the number of judges at subordinate courts need to rise too .In India, there is one judge for 50,000 people. This needs to improve. So more judges are needed at subordinate courts .And the courts need to work in shifts ,as there are lakhs of cases pending in courts .This shift working will help clear the backlog of pending cases. This will help in employing more women as well.

.Just like in the local self governments, there is reservations for women , even at lower rungs in judiciary, police & prisons, 50 percent  or more jobs  can be reserved for women .This is allowed by Indian constitution under Fundamental Rights.Article 15 ( 3 ) of the Constitution allows reservation in favour of women.Moreover, India is a signatory to the Convention for Elimination of Dicrimination Against  Women . India has also signed the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights .


The women need to have a bachelor's degree in law .With this basic degree , they can dispense justice at lower rungs with some basic training thrown in. A similar plan can be drawn up to employ more women  in the police & prison services. The best among the women so employed, must be given chances to rise up in the services. Soon, there will be more & more women breaking the glass ceilings. Obviously, the percentage rise in India's GDP will the cream on the cake !


And as more women participate in the labour market by doing paid work, gender parity in wages will become better & better. And  gender equality will lead to better family life, less stress, better health & a society that has does not judge on masculanity.In short, better living conditions for all ! 









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