LEGAL INTERVENTIONS IN GENDER INEQUALITY : FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES FROM INDIA

One of the most comprehensive projects of social engineering through law of any post-colonial nation-state in the world, the framework of laws governing gender equality in India has grown from fundamental rights under the Constitution to legislation designed to deal with issues such as domestic violence, matrimonial cruelty and reproductive freedom, gradually increasing the repertoire of language that the state is willing to dedicate to the recognition and enforcement of women's rights. The continued existence of gender-based violence, the deep and enduring patriarchal framework, and the huge disparity between what the law actually says and the experience it generates necessitates a more critical analysis of what it does and what it does not do. I will argue that even when framed as responses to past wrongs, Indian gender laws have failed in significant ways through complicity with the patriarchal principles they were intended to destroy. I will demonstrate this through an analysis of four important laws Hindu Succession Act of 1956 (amended 2005), Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 (amended 2021), Section 498 A IPC, and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, important judicial decisions Joseph Shine v. Union of India and Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, through the theoretical lenses of feminist legal theory, intersectionality, and the substantive equality doctrine, show a recurring trend of laws as a locus for formal gains but substantial regressions within the existing patriarchy in all three areas: in patriarchal social norms, patriarchal institutional structures, and patriarchal enforcement cultures.