Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Convener: Kathy Mumford, Australia
From Ignorance to Empowerment: Legal Literacy Holds the Key to Women’s Human Security
Jyotika Kalra and Mina Singh, Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations
To further the mission of the University Women’s Association of Delhi at the local level, the Indian Federation at the national and IFUW at the international, we started the Empowerment Through Legal Literacy project, with the aim of raising awareness in the maximum number of rural and urban women of Delhi, so that women:
- Recognize when a conflict is a legal conflict
- Understand that they can seek redress of grievances in court
- Know their legal rights and responsibilities and so avoid infringing the law
- Use the legal system to get justice
- Assert their rights to bring about human security and peace in Indian society, and 6. Men and women understand the principle of positive discrimination in laws protecting women’s rights
The project aims to provide women with para-legal aid — to the point where they can recognise and challenge injustices more forcefully and effectively. This paper describes our experiences, focusing on our finding that in spite of new laws being framed to empower women, women’s security within the home is constantly undermined by their own relatives and by neighbours, and women’s security in the workplace threatened constantly by their own denial of their exploitation. As far as cultural, religious and social conditioning goes, women themselves lay down injunctions that sanction violence against them. As such, legal literacy must also include changing both women's and men’s attitudes towards the law, so that women can reap the full benefits of the progressive laws currently being framed by Indian legislatures.
Advocate Jyotika Kalra holds degrees in Commerce and Law from Delhi University, where she is a part-time Lecturer in Law. She is a member of the Bar Association of the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, and the Committee of Experts on Law, National Commission for Women, New Delhi.
Mina Singh holds a Masters Degree in English from Delhi University. Since retirement as Reader in the Department of English, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, she has pursued a career as a columnist and editor. Her novel A Partial Woman was published by Kali for Women, New Delhi, in 2000.