The India International Centre, hosted SOWL India’s 2nd
Annual Conference themed “Law, Social Change and Gender” which brought together
prominent lawyers, academics and policy-makers. The violent sexual assault
perpetrated on a student last year in Delhi which served as stimulus for
appointment of the Verma Committee and the legislative amendments thereafter
along with a slew of ‘women-centric’ initiatives, formed the theme of this
year’s conference. SOWL India brought together various voices that are
influencing law and policy pertaining to violence against women, as part of its
2013 Annual Conference.
The event
commenced with a keynote address by Retd. Justice Leila Seth who reminisced
about the challenges she faced as one of two lady lawyers in the Patna High
Court. Her anecdotes drove home the misogyny that those of her ilk had faced
and overcome for it to be smooth sailing for us thereafter. She talked about
her experiences as a member of the Verma Committee and underscored her
disappointment with the piecemeal amendments of the criminal law. She remarked
that change was always incremental and although an 80 year old (Late Justice
Verma) and an 82 year old (herself) had believed along with the solitary ‘young
man’ on the Committee (Mr. Gopal Subramaniam) that it was time to outlaw
marital rape, our law makers didn’t think it was time.
The first
panel moderated by Swathi Sukumar, Litigator and Member of the Governing
Council focused on the inter-relationship between law and civil society.
Nivedita Menon underscored her healthy distrust of the law and discussed the
various feminist critiques of the law. With specific reference to women’s
reservation in India she talked about how while one set of feminists advocate
the ‘sameness’ approach that treats all beneficiaries as equal, it cannot work
when women have traditionally been undermined either by patriarchal laws or
misogynistic interpretations of the law (case in point: Justice Seth’s
illustration of how despite the Constitution treating women as equals, they
were considered persona non grata and were not allowed to practice law despite
the Advocates Act applying to ‘persons’). On the other hand the ‘difference’
approach is fraught with risks in that it promotes protectionism. The next
speaker was Colin Gonsalves who talked about a range of issues from the hurdles
faced by legal aid warriors to the lethargy and lack of inertia in established
legal aid centres to dispense genuine aid.
Post lunch
it was a panel that Shwetasree Majumder, General Secretary of SOWL, moderated.
The opening speaker, Dr. (Prof.) Mrinal Satish, whose doctoral dissertation at
Yale was on Rape Sentencing in India, highlighted the recommendations of the
Verma Committee and the glaring procedural and substantive errors in the law as
it was amended. For instance he highlighted how despite the legislators
purportedly enacting the amendments in response for the public outcry for the
death penalty have, on account of slipshod editing, omitted to add the death
penalty for gang rape while proscribing it for aggravated rape by an individual.
Advocate Malavika Rajkotia who spoke on the Women’s Reservation Bill thereafter
viewed the legal instrument as doing only lip service and no real good for the
cause of women. Noted criminal lawyer and Senior Advocate Rebecca John spoke
thereafter on police reform and relied on a number of real life examples to
demonstrate that the autonomy of the police is only one half of the picture and
that if political control is removed and there is no civil society or judicial
control to take its place corruption will be an even bigger malaise. She
concluded on a poignant note with the words “When courts curtail liberty we
trust them, when they defend liberty we are suspicious.” Karuna Nundy, a Delhi
based lawyer spoke about the recently enacted and highly problematic Sexual
Harrassment in the Workplace Act. Finally Nandini Sundar made an impassioned
plea for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act for the havoc it wreaks
on women in conflict zones.
Meant to act
as a platform for professional development, mentorship, pro-bono activity and
legal activism, SOWL’s second Annual Event made a conscious attempt to involve
the attendees in an active conversation with some of India’s foremost legal
minds.
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