In a recent judgement Supreme Court of India  has declared Triple Talaq as void, illegal and unconstitutional. By 3-2 verdict The Court held the practice as against the basic tenets of Quran. Women of the nation have something to rejoice about. The journey for improvement has started but lot of ground needs to be covered.
This landmark judgement has been welcomed by all political parties. Is this enough? The author wants to point out some more steps which are needed.
Supreme Court
The bench delivering did not have a women judge! No doubt legal ability ought to be free of gender bias, but still a woman judge could have made the other judges see some aspects which they may otherwise miss.
Unfortunately our Supreme Court has only one Lady as Judge. Honourable Mrs Justice R Banumathi is the only lady among total 25 judges. Reforms and improvement need to be driven from top. One may raise question of ability, but then this again raises a point that probably enough is not being done to encourage rise of women in judiciary.
 
Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament
Mr H D Deve Gowda, former Prime Minister of India has expressed the need for all political parties to pass the women’s reservation bill in Parliament.
This bill was first introduced in 1996. This landmark bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women. During their 10 year rule the UPA government did not do much to pass this bill and the opposition criticized them. Mr Lalu Yadav’s Rashtra Janata Dal and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party opposed this bill tooth and nail. This happened when the all powerful UPA Chairperson was a lady. Now the  Congress party is in opposition and pointing fingers at BJP!
Mr Venkaiah Naidu in his earlier capacity as Information and Broadcasting Minister had assured that the Bill would be passed once BJP has majority in Rajya Sabha.
Now with Mr Venkaiah Naidu as Chairman of Rajya Sabha in his capacity as Vice President and BJP with majority, what prevents passage of this bill is difficult to understand.
Are our politicians serious about this issue? If not,this amounts to whiling away time in Parliament and thus wasting tax payer’s money.
Delayed Justice
It  takes 15 years for the administrative and judiciary set up to give justice to two ladies. Yes, this refers to the case of Baba Ram Rahim. Judgement included remarks like- “Behaved like wild beast, does not deserve mercy”.
In 2002, a Sadhavi wrote to the then PM Mr Vajpayee and Chief Justice of High Court of her plight and sought justice. Wheels of justice have taken 15 years and may be further prolonged through appeals. Is it justice?
 
We hear lot of slogans like “Beti Bachao” and what not.
Our dynamic Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi can definitely make a huge difference in the status of women by passing the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Mr Narendra Modi has the majority in parliament to do that.
One hopes he has the will.