{"id":191247,"date":"2022-06-18T20:45:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T15:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=191247"},"modified":"2022-06-18T20:45:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T15:15:59","slug":"a-mans-parliament-striving-for-an-inclusive-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-mans-parliament-striving-for-an-inclusive-india\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018man\u2019s Parliament\u2019 striving for an inclusive India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News:<\/strong> There is a burgeoning movement<\/strong> for gender inclusivity<\/strong> during the past few years. In solidarity, citizens have begun asserting their gender identity by specifying their personal pronouns (she\/her, he\/his, they\/them, etc.). This trend has been, in fact, reflected in the context of Indian Parliament.<\/p>\n

Role of Women in the Struggle for Indian Independence and in the Post Independent India<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Thousands of women across profession, class, caste, and religion participated in the struggle for India\u2019s Independence.<\/p>\n

At a time when women formed only 1.7% of the total members of the United States Congress and 1.1% of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, India was leading the way in the fight towards more inclusive<\/strong> world democracies with 5.5% women representation. <\/strong><\/p>\n

India has also seen a woman as the Prime Minister, and a woman as the President of India<\/p>\n

What are the gender issues in the Parliament of India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There are systemic issues due to which the Parliament of India continues to alienate women.<\/p>\n

The number of women representatives is still considerably small. Further, the Parliament as a workspace continues to be built exclusively for men.<\/p>\n

There is a lack of gender-neutral language<\/strong> in the Parliament of India. The Parliament refers to women in leadership positions<\/strong> as Chairmen instead of chairperson. For example, the Vice-President of India is referred as the ex-officio Chairman, as per the rules of procedure of Rajya Sabha.<\/p>\n

In law-making<\/strong>, there have hardly been any gender-neutral Acts<\/strong>. For example, women in profession like policing are referred to as policemen.<\/p>\n

Most of the ministerial replies<\/strong> to questions asked by the Women Parliamentarians are given with the use of the salutation \u201cSir\u201d instead of (sir\/madam).<\/p>\n

What are the trends of gender-neutrality in the law making bodies in India and across the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Internationally, even mature democracies<\/strong> that legalised universal suffrage<\/strong> after India, such as Canada (1960 for Aboriginal women), Australia (1962 for Indigenous women), and the United States (1965 for women of African-American descent), have successfully adopted a framework for gender-inclusive legislation<\/strong> and communication<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Rules of Procedure of the Lok Sabha<\/strong> were amended to make it entirely gender neutral. Since then, each Lok Sabha Committee Head has been referred to as Chairperson in all documents.<\/p>\n

Consequences<\/strong><\/h5>\n

When Parliament<\/strong> and government offices<\/strong> reinforce gender biases through stereotypical language <\/strong>in their communication<\/strong>. It sends the wrong message to the people of India.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court judgment in National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India\u00a0, 2014<\/em><\/strong>, has given impetus to gender identity and has given the movement greater impetus.<\/p>\n

There should be political will to amend legal documents to make them inclusive for all genders.<\/p>\n

In the 21st century<\/strong>, the Indian Parliament needs to send the right message<\/strong> for citizens to follow. It can begin with an amendment<\/strong> to the Constitution<\/strong> and the entire reservoir of laws. Thereafter, the Parliament can shift its focus on other deeper issues like women empowerment, aspirations<\/strong> and growth of its woman workforce etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Parliament must lead to sensitivity, equal treatment, and appreciation for the people of India, regardless of gender<\/p>\n

The Indian Parliament can conduct gender audits<\/strong>. For example, in 2018, the U.K. Parliamen<\/strong>t conducted a gender audit<\/strong> to understand its culture, environment, and policies as a workspace.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cA man\u2019s Parliament striving for an inclusive India\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 18th<\/sup> June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: There is a burgeoning movement for gender inclusivity during the past few years. In solidarity, citizens have begun asserting their gender identity by specifying their personal pronouns (she\/her, he\/his, they\/them, etc.). This trend has been, in fact, reflected in the context of Indian Parliament. Role of Women in the Struggle for Indian Independence and… Continue reading A \u2018man\u2019s Parliament\u2019 striving for an inclusive India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-191247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704957522},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}