With no milestone achievements in ensuring gender parity, a radical shift in attitudes is needed

Year 2019 was one of mixed fortunes in terms of gender equality and fluidity both for women and the LGBTQ community. While there were a few wins, there was hardly any forward movement towards parity because of the propensity of our policymakers to take one step forward and two steps back. But for judicial intervention, there is hardly any significant momentum for women in the country and the LGBTQ community. Both stand discriminated against and are on the fringes of society. The year saw the undoing of some major advances in LGBTQ rights, which took place in the last decade. In a major step towards gender equality, in 2014, the Supreme Court had recognised transgender people as a third gender and upheld their fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution. It also gave them the right to self-identification of their gender as male, female or third-gender. In another landmark judgment in 2018, the top court decriminalised same-sex consensual relationships. Put together, both verdicts laid the foundations for expanding the citizenship rights of the LGBTQ community. However, this year, legislative reforms failed to keep pace with the path shown by the apex court. Though the passage of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, has been a big step forward, it remains ambiguous on many counts. For instance, while the Act gives every transgender person the right to self-perceived identity, it stipulates a lengthy bureaucratic process for the issuance of a certificate of identity that, too, through a District Magistrate. To be identified as a male or female, one will have to go through a hugely-expensive and painful surgery and then get the certificate revised. This, instead of providing the community with protection, leaves it at the mercy of corrupt, biased and insensitive doctors and District Magistrates. It is also unclear whether applying for such a certificate of identity is a must and will those, who already possess identity documents, have to apply for the certificate again? Also, the Act does not put in place any “clear” procedures in case of denial of the certificate, leaving the door open for costly and time-consuming litigations. Most people from the community can ill-afford this because our society, with its inherent biases, has denied them the dignity and opportunity of education and jobs. Without these two essential tools that will equip them for an economically independent life, there is hardly any hope for their emancipation and uplift. The Act also keeps mum on the vital issue of reservation in jobs and discrimination in the workplace and right of parenthood. The glaring deficiencies make the legislation counterproductive, unresponsive and incapable of meeting the needs of the marginalised community.

While economic opportunities for women are extremely limited at 35.4 per cent, with just 13.8 per cent being able to break the corporate glass ceiling and make their place on company boards, the pay packet taken home by them is just one-fifth of that of a man in a similar position. Economic independence for women is an ongoing battle as only one-quarter of women, compared with 82 per cent of men, engage actively in the labour market and constitute merely 30 per cent of professional and technical workers. Despite the Modi Government’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative, only two-thirds of women are literate as compared to 82 per cent men. Discrimination against the girl child begins from the womb itself as is evident by the dismal sex ratio with just 91 girls being born for every 100 male child. Access to nutrition and healthcare has also not been spared from the age-old biases. Men get a better deal in a country that believes in the concept of shakti and worships goddesses and puts Mother India on a pedestal. Ironically, in a country that was run by a woman for 20 years, today, political empowerment of women remains low with just 14.4 per cent representation in Parliament. In fact, the Women’s Reservation Bill, that seeks to reserve 33.33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women, is one of the country’s longest pending legislations. As a nation we also failed to learn our lessons from the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case. The `2,264-crore Nirbhaya Fund remains grossly underused at a dismal 11 per cent (`252 crore). Poor spending of the fund reveals the lack of political will and the cavalier attitude of the men in power. Calls for criminalisation of marital rape also remained unheard in a male-dominated society. However, in a small step in the right direction, the Supreme Court in a recent judgment criminalised non-consensual sex with a wife between 15-18 years of age. One major achievement of the Modi Government in 2019 was the coming into effect of a new law, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which criminalised triple talaq. But much more needs to be done to ensure gender equality. Let’s hope for a better year ahead.