Review of the book "Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India" by Poulami Roychowdhury (original) (raw)
Related papers
Women's Resistance against Gender-Based Violence in India: A Reading Note
Revista Lüvo, 2020
We recently published the chapter « Indian Federalism and violence against women in India: A complex web of power relationships » in the Handbook on Gender, Diversity and Federalism, edited by Jill Vickers, Joan Grace and Cheryl N. Collier (Edwar Elgar, 2020). This has been the opportunity to reflect upon the links between women’s resistance to gender-based violence and the federal architecture of India.
Speaking of Injustice: Women and Domestic Violence Law in India
South Asia Journal , 2020
On February 5, 2020, a news report appeared which reads, “Man beheads wife, walks to police station with severed head for 3 kms” in Uttar Pradesh Barabanki district. On February 15, 2020, another news item reported “Woman found hanging in UP, Family alleges dowry death”, also, on February 4, 2020 in “Odisha: A woman battles for life after in-laws set her on fire over no dowry” says another news item. On January 23, 2020, a “newly wed woman killed for dowry in D’nal”. There are many more of such news items which appear on daily basis and depict the manner in which war is being waged on women within homes. Frequently, domestic violence is trivialized and normalized and is being dismissed as minor altercations or trivial disputes by the society, police and courts while disbelieving women as victims and survivors of violence. This work reflects that there is a need for greater introspection to `make homes safe’ for women.
Women and Domestic Violence Law in India: A Quest for Justice
Routledge , 2019
This book critically examines domestic violence law in India. It focuses on women's experiences and perspectives as victims and litigants with regard to accessibility to law and justice. It also reflects on the manner in which the legal process reproduces gender hierarchies. This volume: • Analyzes the legal framework from a gender perspective to pinpoint the inherent stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory practices that come into play while interpreting the law; • Includes in-depth interviews and case studies, and explores critical themes such as marriage, rights, family, violence, property and the state; • Presents alternatives beyond the domain of law, such as qualitative medical care and legal aid facilities, shelter homes, short-stay homes, childcare facilities, and economic and social security provisions to survivors and their children. Drawing on extensive testimonies and ethnographic studies situated in a theoretical framework of law, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of law, gender, human rights, women's studies, sociology and social anthropology and South Asian studies. Shalu Nigam is an advocate, researcher and activist working at the intersection of gender, law, governance and human rights issues. She is currently practicing at the courts in Delhi and is associated with the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Delhi, India.
International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2024
India is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and has attempted to ensure that legislative and judicial reforms work toward ending violence against women. Yet, as this paper will show, it is often the institutions of the state that compromise the full reach of the law by targeting and maligning women who use the law to secure their lives. In this contrastive field of increasing legislation to secure women's human rights and doubting women's intention when they do work with the law, lies the fate of the litigious Indian women. This article will delineate how the Indian judiciary has tended to frame litigious Indian women as fabricators of fake cases and how these framings work towards diluting the stringent provisions of laws safeguarding women's lives and human rights.
Violence against Women in Indian Society and Legal Safeguards
International Journal of Advanced Research, 2015
Women are the pillars of our society. They constitute half of the population and play crucial role in all spheres of life. Creating life, nurturing it, she also guards and strengthens it. Through her role as mother, she plays vital role for the nation. Why then has her status been ranked lower as compared to a man's status? She has no identity of her own. Her identity is being her relationship with a man-being mother, wife, daughter and sister of a man. Despite playing these vital roles women are discriminated by male counter parts and others. Growing violence against women is increasing day by day in India. The article just describes the problems and legal safeguards for women.
" Women's Rights and Gender Based Violence in India ---Issues and Challenges "
Denial of women's rights means denial of human rights of half of humanity. Gender based violence is one of the worst forms of violation of woman's basic human rights. Gender Violence is highly pervasive and the increasing number of cases reported confirms this point. The growing concern of the women's movement has placed violence against women (VAW) on the global agenda. At the same time efforts are being made by various groups to eliminate VAW by not only reaching out to the victims but also addressing violence prevention. The present paper discusses women's rights and the nature of gender based violence in India and shares a model of preventing violence by generating community participation. Women's Rights 1974 is a landmark year in the history of women's movement in India. " Towards Equality —Report on the Committee for Status of Women in India (CSWI) " was released in this year which gave a comprehensive view of the status of women in independent India. The report revealed startling facts which showed that even after 25 years of the country's Independence, women continued to be without any rights despite the many legislative enactments in their favour—they suffered in terms of education, health, political decision making, and careers. Six decades later we in India still are engaged in improving the status of women in the aforesaid areas—education etc…It is not that the Indian government is not gender sensitive, in fact we have one of the most gender sensitive Constitutions framed way back in 1949. We have gender sensitive laws, ratified CEDAW (1993), schemes, programmes and a National policy on women's empowerment. Despite all this the national sex ratio continues to be adversely biased against women who are excluded from benefits of basic human rights and development. International Scenario: Violation of women's rights is not one country specific but is found prevalent world over with variations in nature of violation. Though it is unfortunate that even in the 21 st century we have to propagate women's rights but the fact is that women all over the world have fought for and continue to fight for equality, dignity and freedom. The UN Document Women (Women 1991) lists at least six areas of common concern to women all over the world. These include legal literacy, health, education, work, politics and violence. The only difference is that while in the developed world gender discrimination takes the form of inequality in employment opportunities and in wages, in the developing countries the discrimination is more broad based ranging from not only in employment
Women Caught In Crossfire: The Dark Side of Violence and Human Rights Violation in Manipur
isara solutions, 2020
For many decades, an internal war has been brewing in Manipur with more than 40 insurgent groups demanding their right to self-determination and self-independence. The Government's response has been massive militarisation of the area and imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, (AFSPA) 1958, under which arbitrary killings, torture, massacres, forced disappearances, rape and molestations by the security forces have taken place over the years but unreported in media houses. Hitherto, much of the angst of people of the state and varying human rights violations and other excesses in the name of safeguarding India’s internal security may have gone unnoticed, unreported or sidelined before the 2004 Nude protest by 12 mothers; with their public demonstration, the Mothers of Manipur made the world sit up and took notice of the happenings in the remotest corner of the Indian state.