UN support to common civil code? 'Eliminate multiple legal systems of marriage, family affairs in India'

In what may seem to be a direct support to the NDA government’s expressed “need” for a common civil code in India, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has expressed serious concern over “the coexistence of multiple legal systems with regard to marriage and family relations” in country. It has added, these multiple legal systems “apply to the different religious groups and which results in the deep and persistent discrimination against women”.
However, it should not be any comfort to the powers-that-be, as CEDAW simultaneously insists on changes in the Special Marriage Act and the Hindu Marriage Act by bringing them in consonance with internationally-accepted standards, promulgated under the auspices of the UN. CEDAW takes strong exception to certain “proposed amendments to the Special Marriage Act and Hindu Marriage Act”, currently before Parliament, saying, these “only provide a limited and discretionary possibility for distribution of marital property”.
Favouring “review of the application of the Special Marriage Act to remove procedural barriers regarding the application for permission to marry and the registration of marriages”, CEDAW insists, there should be “equality between women and men in marriage and family relations.”
Pointing towards what it calls “continuing reluctance to review its policy of non-interference in the personal laws of communities without their initiative and consent”, CEDAW believes this is in contravention to the articles 5(a) and 16(1) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. (click HERE to see).
CEDAW -- which has just put out its "concluding observations" on conditions of women in India -- expresses concern about “the procedural requests of the Special Marriage Act”, which it believes “de facto hamper couples, especially women, from seeking permission to marry and register marriages. It underlines, “The committee is particularly concerned that spousal property is overall governed by a regime of separate property so that women are not awarded their share in the property accumulated during marriage.”
This could be done, CEDAW says, by ensuring that “all the laws on marriage and family relations governing the different religious groups, as well as their further amendment, are in full compliance with articles 15 and 16 of the Convention and the Committee’s General Recommendation no. 21 (1994) on equality in marriage and family relations.”
It further says, there is a need for “ensuring that all the laws on marriage and family relations governing the different religious groups, as well as their further amendment, are in full compliance with articles 15 and 16 of the Convention and the Committee’s General Recommendations no. 21 (1994) and no. 29 (2012) on equality in marriage and family relations and on economic consequences of family relations and their dissolution” (click HERE to see details).
In fact, CEDAW calls for “reviewing existing legal framework on spousal property relations so as to ensure women are provided their share in the marital property in light of the Committee's General Recommendation no. 29 (2012) on equality in marriage and family relations and on economic consequences of family relations and their dissolution”.
While noting that the implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006) has led to a certain decrease in the number of early and forced marriages of girls, CEDAW notes that there is still a “high prevalence of such marriages”.
It adds, “Victims of child marriages must file a petition with a court to void the marriage within two years after reaching the age of majority.” In this context, it expresses serious concern “at reports that judges often authorize marriages of under-age girls based on Muslim Personal Laws, and that no legislation ensuring the registration of all marriages (in India) has been adopted.”

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Search This Blog