Forty-two laws, specifically relating to women or affecting them, which have been enacted during the last two centuries for empowering women of India and which are administered by various Ministries and Departments, are under scrutiny of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Legal Equality, which monitors status of amendments of such laws to make them more women friendly. So far, the UPA Government has amended six laws, enacted two new laws and issued executive orders in respect of five statutes.

Some of the laws that are under active consideration for their amendments are: the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, the Dowry Prohibition Act,1961, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, the Factories Act, 1948, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ( the last two laws specifically relating to rape and sexual assault to make it friendly to women in order to safeguard their personal dignity and individual honour). Besides, a bill for compulsory registration of marriages is on the anvil. Amendments to the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1887 are being introduced to make the provisions of the Act more stringent, deterrent and effective. The amendment is intended to help re-orient the existing perception of the woman attempting to commit sati as an offender and instead, treat her as a victim of prolonged social conditioning. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill is under finalization. Steps are underway to eliminate female foeticide. Added to this, a bill to amend the Factories Act, 1948 has been introduced in the Parliament to provide flexibility in employment of women during night while requiring employers to ensure measures for their safety and protection.

Meanwhile, through coming into force of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, more effective protection has been provided to women who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within a family. The Act enables women to negotiate non-abusive and non-violent matrimonial or other domestic relationships and provides them a civil remedy hitherto not available in the criminal law regime. The Hindu Succession Act, 1955 has been amended to make Hindu women's inheritance rights in coparcenaries property equal to men's across states, overriding any inconsistent state laws. Besides, amendments have been passed by the Parliament prohibiting arrest of women after sun set and before sun rise. Medical examination of persons accused of committing or attempting to commit rape, and mandatory judicial inquiry in case of rape while in police custody have been ensured by the amended law.

The UPA Government has introduced a bill in the Parliament for amending the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 to make the provisions of the law more stringent, deterrent and effective against traffickers, pimps and brothel owners. The bill seeks to omit such provisions of the Act as are discriminatory towards women victims of sexual exploitation. It also seeks to provide for in camera proceedings to protect the privacy and dignity of victims, and provide for setting up of a Central authority as well as state authorities for preventing and combating effectively trafficking in persons.

Gender budgeting for assessing and focusing the impact of Government spending on the welfare of women and improving the gender sensitivity of programmes and schemes has been introduced. One-third earmarking for women has been done under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Gender Budgeting Cells have been established in 50 Union Ministries and Departments. The outlay for 100 per cent women- specific programmes during the current fiscal year 2007-08 is Rs.8,795 crores and for schemes where at least 30 per cent sum is allocated for women is Rs.22,382 crores.

As for girls education, 2,180 new residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya schools have been sanctioned for providing free residential education up to class V111 for girls. A new scheme to incentivise secondary education of girls through deposit of a sum of Rs.3,000 in the names of girl children passing class V111 and enrolling in secondary school with entitlement to withdraw upon attainment of majority has been introduced.

In a significant step, tenure of short service commissioned women officers in the Army has been extended from 10 years to 14 years, bringing it on par with their male counterparts, making them eligible for promotion as captain, major and lt. colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service.

Well, the measures taken for empowering women so far sound just, equitable and fair on paper. Only when such measures are implemented meaningfully, the plight of our women will improve effectively. For such steps, all official machineries need to be made accountable for their action. Only then, situation will improve perceptively, which will make a difference on the ground. #