NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY

HISTORY I

POSITION OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT INDIA

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. UDAYPRATAP SINGH SIR

SUBMITTED BY: VAGEESHA KUMRE, 2014BALLB116

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT............................................................................................................3

LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................................4

LIST OF CASES........................................................................................................................5

LIST OF STATUTES................................................................................................................6

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM..................................................................................................7

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY........................................................................................................7

HYPOTHESIS...........................................................................................................................7

RESEARCH QUESTIONS........................................................................................................8

METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................8

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS............................................................................................13

Position of women during British rule.....................................................................................13

Suggested Reforms and Laws in action...................................................................................14

The landmark judgements that changed the course for women in India..................................16

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS..................................................................................21

REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................23
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I sincerely thank Prof. UdayPratap Singh Sir for his skilful lessons, constant upgrade or more
the entirety of his firm trust in me without his guidance and endowments I couldn't have
finished my exploration work. He has been a steady wellspring of motivation to support my
confidence in my scholastic interests. Extraordinary much gratitude goes to the library staff
of NLIU Bhopal just as the specialized staff for giving distant admittance to the school assets
in the midst of the Covid-19 Crisis. Likewise, I might want to stretch out my thankfulness to
my class mates and guardians who have upheld me all through in this undertaking.
LITERATURE REVIEW

 Evelyn Reed, in his book, beautifully wrote about the “Issues of Women’s
Liberation” particularly written about the economic & social roots of women’s
oppression from primitive to modern & capitalistic society. His book was written 5
years ago but yet has the potential to relate the status of women from past to current
scenario in India. In six articles, the author has tried to look women’s future in this
world positively. This book is a type of mish-mash of feminist wave. A well written
book that can answer questions such as why women are being oppressed and whether
the changes really has been undertaken from primitive to modern era? Thus, this is the
great book to assess the position of women in ancient era 1
 Elaine Weiss, has written a book namely “The Woman’s Hour” in which the author
had mentioned how women were able to accomplish their right to vote. This book was
particularly written on an incident where three women were trying to find out the best
way to gain maximum vote to their party called ‘Stuff’. The author in this book has
explained about the ways in which those women had gained votes and raised money
even after being impend by men 2.
 M. Suguna wrote about “Women Empowerment and Education in India” in her
article and explained about women education in detail which has always remain
remarkable distraction for the common society and administration. Some people
believed that women can also play a critical role in the up liftmen of the society and in
the advancement of the nation, education play a crucial role in this concern through
which women may become independent and get the right to ask anything & fight
against all difficulties and odds to become authorized. In this article, the author has
claimed that education would be the best option for the females to empower
themselves & stand independently 3. Therefore, the author agreed that education has
the potential to make this whole world a beautiful & better place to live without any
kind of discrimination.
 Gayatri Gupta (2012) has wrote a book in which she had written about the
“Concept of women empowerment, along with this, she had also talked about the
decentralization of governance & social situation of women. In a nutshell, the author
1
Rout, Naresh. "Role of Women in Ancient India." Odisha Review (2016): 43-48.
2
Ibid
3
Roy, Babulal. "WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN ANCIENT INDIA." In Doctoral Colloquium, p. 50. 2018.
 has discussed on numerous political issues that were faced by women in ancient era
and explained the situation in a very analytical way 4.
 S.K Kulkarni (2012) wrote about the status of Hindu women in his book and
analysed the changes that has been undertaken from the Vedic age to current period
along with highlighting the steps that should be pursued by Indian women to improve
their condition. The author has found that economic empowerment and women
education are the key factors that can bring a positive and significant change while
reducing gender bias. According to Kulkarni, it is necessary to bring a transformation
in the attitude of men and the whole society if Indians want their country to be called
the nation of equality 5.
 Sudha Sharma (2016) in her book assessed the political, cultural, economical &
social position of Indian women in medieval India and explored the changes that took
place with the arrival of Turks, Arabs and Afghans whose traditions & customers has
affected the current Islamic society 6.
 Biswas Manjari (2010) highlighted in his book about the role and importance of
education in developing Indian women and the backbone of the Hindu society. He
communicated about the benefits of proper education for women by outlining few of
them such as education generate self-consciousness, self-awareness and self-dignity in
women in regards to the society they belong 7.
 Geraldine Forbe (2004) in his article wrote about the lives of Indian women that has
began to change knowingly in the late 19 th century. In his article, it was mentioned
that during that period, the Indian women were freely attending schools & colleges
and were happily involved in political meetings too. They also had joined the freedom
movement and called as the “new women” of new generation 8.

4
Gupta, Gayatri; Status of women in ancient India; Shree Niwas Publication, New Delhi, 2012.
5
Kulkarni, S.K; Women in Hindu society, Acritical appraisal of their status in India from the Vedic period to
modern times, Indus Source Books, Mumbai, 2012.
6
Sharma, Sudha; The status of Muslim women in medieval India, Sage Publication Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2016.
7
Manjari, Biswas; The Status of women in India: From antiquity to modernity, Abhijeet Publication Delhi,
2010.
8
Forbe, Geraldine; Women in colonial India, Essay on politics, medicine and historiography, Chronicle Books,
New Delhi, 2008. 9. Bose, Mandakrante; Faces of the feminine in ancient, medieval and modern India, Oxford
University Press, New York, 2000.
LIST OF CASES
1. Vishaka Vs State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 301
2. Medha Kotwal Lele V. Union of India, (2013) 1 SCC 297
3. Mary Roy Vs State of Kerala & Ors on 24 February, 1986
4. Lata Singh Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Another on 7 July, 2006
5. Roxann Sharma Vs Arun Sharma on 17 February, 2015
6. Laxmi V. Union of India, AIR 2015 SC 3662
7. Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti
8. V.D. Bhanot v Savita Bhanot, (2012) 3 SCC 183
9. The Hindu (2006) Prohibition of Child Marriage Act
10. Lok Sabha Secretariat (2013) Crime against Women

LIST OF STATUTES
1. The Hindu Widow’s Remarriage Act, 1856
2. Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 9
3. Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act, 1937
4. Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
5. Hindu Minority & Guardianship Act, 1956
6. Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act, 1956
7. Hindu Succession Act, 1956
8.

9
Verma, Arvind, Hanif Qureshi, and Jee Yearn Kim. "Exploring the trend of violence against women in India."
International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice 41, no. 1-2 (2017): 3-18.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

It is well known that more than half of the world population is constituted by women but in
India, women were not honoured and treated fairly as men, they were often treated as a slave
who perform their job without any wages. In Ancient times, women were not allowed to
speak loudly in public places and also were not given freedom to participate in social,
political, economic and personal activities 10.

At present, equal status is being provided to women as per the Indian constitution based on
the principle of equality but Indian women had come a long way to attain this freedom and
liberty. As of now, social attitude towards women had changed and this was only because of
the socioeconomic impact of female education.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
This study aims at outlining

 The problems faced by Indian women over the years

 The status of Indian women from ancient time
 The socio-economic position of Indian women in modern time
 The involvement of Indian women in numerous activities for up liftmen of society,
community and family that can lead to their overall development

HYPOTHESIS
The gender ratio of India shows that the Indian society had been discriminatory against
women over years, the problems faced by Indian women include lack of education, dowry,
poor health, lack of power, overworked, mistreatment, female foeticide, trafficking and
crimes against women. These issues have become a part of woman’s life, they have to
constantly suffer these obstacles and keep on struggling to make their mark in men’s world.

 The status/position of women improved from primitive society to modern society

 Ancient era is witness of the inequality between males and females
 Female education correlates with higher social and economic levels of development

10
Punam, Shashi, and Naina Sharma. "The role and position of women Ancient society to modern society in
India." Patiala: Twenty First Century Publications (2017): 127.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 What were women’s rights in ancient India?
 Does the life of women were easy in ancient India?
 What was the position of women during British rule?
 Whether the changes really occur from primitive to modern era?

METHODOLOGY
In this study, the information has been chiefly gathered by concentrating on textual approach,
papers and books written by eminent scholars on various National and International Journals.
In addition to this, religious and Vedas books has also been considered to review the position
of women during that period 11. Therefore, the sources from where the data has been gathered
are secondary and has provided better convenience and cost-effectiveness to the researcher
since someone has already collected the data. This study is descriptive in nature 12.

11
Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come. Qualitative and
quantitative methods in libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626.
12
Gatrell, Anthony C. "14. Using and analysing secondary data." Handbook of Theory and Methods in Applied
Health Research: Questions, Methods and Choices (2020): 268.
INTRODUCTION
Primitive man was merely a species of animal, governed by no fixed responsibilities or laws.
Earlier, males played more active and operative roles in the society while females were only
considered for passive and inactive roles. Therefore, in ancient India, the societies were very
male dominated. However, many authors have contradictory views in relation to the socio-
legal status of women in the ancient times. Before the Vedic period, the Mother goddess was
said to be the undying symbol of life. The clan life raised the Mother goddess to the prime
position, in which the mother lead entire family. Considering this analogy between male &
female, men are heavily dependent upon women as she acted as a sole provider of their
comforts 13.

It was not easy for human to determine situation of women in pre-agricultural period, as they
were not able to explore the operations & happenings during that period. However, it was
evident that females were the one who carried the loads and burdens. But, the bondage of
reproduction including childbirth and pregnancy was a terrible handicap and reduced their
capabilities to work at times due to which they have become fully dependent upon men for
food and protection .14 From the beginning, the position of men and women differs in number
of way, the successes of men have been celebrated always whereas the activities undertaken
by women have always been undermined.

The situation changed when Aryans came. During that period, the mean of survival was
hunting, fishing & maintaining a fire due to which men had to go out whereas women had to
stay with their children in the caves 15. Thus, different modes of life were developed for both
men and women where women were restricted to stay inside & men were going out living life
full of adventures. Aryans introduced male-controlled culture & family system in ancient
India and later created Rig Vedic Civilization by expanding their Kingdom. The Aryans were
cultured & civilized people, large amount of information about their social, cultural,
economic & political life received from Vedas 16.

13
Ayub, Sheikh J., and Asif R. Raina. "Status of Woman in Ancient India: A Comparative Study of North
Indian Society and Kashmir." Journal of South Asian Studies 6, no. 3 (2018): 159-164.
14
Jungari, Suresh, and Bal Govind Chauhan. "Caste, wealth and regional inequalities in health status of women
and children in India." Contemporary Voice of Dalit 9, no. 1 (2017): 87-100.
15
Ibid
16
Jayal, Shakambari. Status of Women in the Epic. Motilal Banarsidass, 2016.
The Rig Veda had pointed out a highly organized society, Vedic era was considered to be the
golden era so far as during that period, personal freedom & status of women were highly
considered. People started giving due respect to women, their family and the society as a
whole. Women started getting equal rights & freedom than men and were also allowed to do
things in accordance to their own choice. The Vedic era was the period where women were
honoured and recognised and their actual place has been given to them in their family and the
society 17.

The Vedic era exhibited that women are equal as men in relation to the access to highest
knowledge. During this period, the expression to the truth had been explored and named
Suktas. Such hymns and Suktas is included in the Rig Veda, however majority of the hymns
were revealed by male rishis, many of the hymns were the work of women seers. Later, these
were known to be the brahmavadinis and rishikas. This was the period where women enjoyed
fair rights, equality and freedom as men and also the education was looked upon for women
and justified with the statement of AtharvaVeda that states “A woman’s success in her life
heavily depends on the training she received during the Brahmacharya”. Initially, women
studied in gurukul with men. They were allowed to take participation in philosophical
discussion and get higher education, they were also allowed to chose their life partner and
moved freely out of their houses 18. Further, Upanishads discussed over the intellectual life
where women and men were equal participants, both were free, vigorous, brave and highly
cultured. The women signified the best instance of conjugal love, sacrificing their lives to
demonstrate their feelings for their life partners. Women such as Maitreyi and Gargi were
known to be the highly advanced intellectuals. During Vedic period, women were also taught
fine arts such as singing and dancing that were not considered to be the accomplishments fit
for men. Also, the entire responsibility of family and the household were given to women
where they acted as guardians for their children and other family members 19.

During post Vedic period, the caste system was developed due to which the position of
women significantly came down, many social evils arose who had ruled the society and
highly affected the dignity of women. There were numerous reasons found for lower status of
17
Khandelwal, Neeta. "Gender sensitization among women in ancient India and their contemporary relevance."
(2016).
18
Jungari, Suresh, and Bal Govind Chauhan. "Caste, wealth and regional inequalities in health status of women
and children in India." Contemporary Voice of Dalit 9, no. 1 (2017): 87-100.
19
Rani, Shally. "STATUS OF WOMEN-A REVISIT FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN." Editorial Board 9, no.
4 (2020): 113.
women in the society such as lack of education, rigid restrictions by case system, imposition
of Brahmanic austerities, foreign invasion, joint family system and more. The position of
women also degraded due to the rule of child birth, this system had a great effect on women
and their career, they were not allowed to educate themselves and enjoy the life of
studentship 20. This shows that women were deprived gradually of higher learning and due to
lack of educational knowledge, they further became incapable of performing any religious
duties. It shows that education placed on lower level of importance and even literacy of
women also was unwelcomed 21.

The turning point in the life of girls was Child marriage due to which a woman again become
dependent on a man, this led to lose the independent value of marriage. Daughters later
become unwanted and undesired to the people, also the new social ideals didn’t believe in
offering equal rights & freedom to Hindu women, they have accepted that women always are
22
dependent on somebody, either their husband, father or son . This altogether brought a
major change in the attitude of men towards women. The ancient Hindu legislators spelt out
the goal for women, as Pativrata dharma (a women devoted to their husband). The status of
women in India became more complex when the country was conquered by British rules,
women were used to put behind the veil when armies were roaming the countryside. Due to
the safety & security of the nation, movement outside were restricted which further had
denied opportunities for women in community affairs 23.

In the higher sections of Hindu society, purdah system became well grounded in Northern
India with the incident of Mongol invasion. Thus, it was not at all surprising that women
recognised the walls of social laws closing for them. The seclusion of women & development
of purdah system was another by product of such fear. A female child did not have an
organized educational system to sustain her and thus often married before she had learnt
anything, remained absolutely relied upon men in many ways. The Muslim era later marked a
major change in the behaviour of society towards women. During that era, the Hindus were

20
Punam, Shashi, and Naina Sharma. "The role and position of women Ancient society to modern society in
India." Patiala: Twenty First Century Publications (2017): 127.
21
Rani, Shally. "STATUS OF WOMEN-A REVISIT FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN." Editorial Board 9, no.
4 (2020): 113.
22
Castilla, Carolina. "Political role models and child marriage in India." Review of Development Economics 22,
no. 4 (2018): 1409-1431.
23
Nayak, Sameera, and Beth E. Molnar. "Child Marriage and Lifetime Violence Victimization of Women in
India." In APHA's 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo (Nov. 2-Nov. 6). American Public Health Association, 2019.
forced to follow numerous Muslim customs and suffered a lot under the socio-political
influences of Islamic rule. Muslims ruled the nation for about 700 years when there was a
complete breakdown of social institutions 24. The Hindu society were subject to all types of
strains and stresses during their rule including social, political and cultural which in turn
affected their way of living. Hindus were forced to follow certain customs, laws and religious
practices as ruled by Muslims. Hindus were treated unfairly with discrimination in all fields.
Women were also forced to live under seclusion without having any access to the facilities of
education. As an outcome of this, the social life of women narrowed down 25.

Position of women during British rule

In the initial period when Britishers ruled the nation, the women were not in satisfactory
position. The exposure of a female child by throwing them at the sea, the enforced child
marriage, the violence with women and many similar acts have had made the women an
object of pity, this made her feel wish she had never been born in India, an unfortunate
country for women. However, later on, the position of women in India became better with the
introduction of Christian Missionaries, they attacked lower classes & untouchables and
moved them into Christianity. Also, they have started educational institutions to bring a better
position of women in the society, they were also against to polygamy, child marriage, dowry,
the infanticide etc. 26

British rule was meant to dominate Indian but the result brought was completely different.
With the education under British rule, the Indian women become aware about their degrading
status in the country through the democratic values of the system. This has affected the
liberation of women indirectly. Thus, the social reform era would not be unsuitable to call the
British period. Yet, the status of women improved during this period, there were many factors
responsible for the up liftmen of Indian women, the very first was the direct influence of the
British rule and the second one was the general awakening of Asians in the 20 th century 27.
Also, the political struggle for the independence of the nation has given considerable force to
the Indian feminist movement. In line with this, the British passed an act called- Hindu

24
Chattopadhyaya, Sudhakar. Social life in ancient India (In the background of the Yajnavalkya-Smriti).
Academic Publishers (1965), 2018.
25
Ibid
26
Thakur, Pallavi. "A journey of Hindu women from Shakti to Sati in ancient India." International Journal of
Engineering, Technology, Science and Research 4, no. 6 (2017): 383-385.
27
Ibid
Widows Remarriage Act, 1856 in order to remove all kinds of legal barriers for remarriage of
Hindu widows.

Moreover, the war of independence in the year 1857 inspired both men and women of India.
Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi set a great example of women by sacrificing her live in the field of
battle. She acted as the exposure of potentialities of women. Later on, the social reformation
movement were begun during the British rule, there were few prominent figures such as
Mahatma Gandhi, Ishwar Chand Vidya Sagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy who had focused on
the education of Indian women, lifting of Purdah system, abolition of Sati, early marriage and
removal of dowry. Raja Ram Mohan Roy who was known to be the father of the Indian
Renaissance implored that it was wrong considering women as weak in virtue & lacking in
resolution. He opposed the custom of polygamy and Sati and encouraged widow remarriage.
He has utilized the English education to convert the social system that was responsible for the
desolation of women 28. Despite of this strong opposition, on 14th December, 1929, a historic
resolution of great significance was passed under which sati was said to be the crime of guilty
homicide punishable with imprisonment, fine or both.

The British enacted female education, however the system of early/child marriage came
across its way and brought hurdles in the spread of female education. Therefore, the Child
Marriage Restraint Act was passed in the year 1929, the motive of this act was not only the
prohibition of child marriages but also has set a minimum age for girls to get married. This
act has not only removed the evil of child marriage but ultimately has improved female
education system. Later on, in 1937, they also have realised that the custom of sati can also
be removed by police force but then the widows had to suffer due to not having their own
property. For this, the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act was passed in 1937 which has
improved the economic condition of Indian women. Under this act, a widow has full right to
claim for the partition so that she can enjoy the right throughout her life. In addition to this,
the Hindu Women’s Right of Separate Residence & Maintenance Act was passed in 1946
under which the Indian wives were allowed to claim maintenance even without judicial
separation under some circumstances 29.

28
Verma, Arvind, Hanif Qureshi, and Jee Yearn Kim. "Exploring the trend of violence against women in India."
International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice 41, no. 1-2 (2017): 3-18.

29
Ibid
Suggested Reforms and Laws in action
Therefore, social reforms found that Indian women need betterment in their lives. Some
reformers focused on sending women return to the Vedic glory while others have emphasized
on certain plans to eliminate the problems of women. As a result of their efforts, many of the
laws were introduced that include

 Regulations prohibiting Sati had been enacted in 1829 that were issued by General
Willian Bentinck
 The Hindu Widow’s Remarriage Act, 1856
 Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 30
 Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act, 1937

In addition to the struggle of social activities & their efforts put against social evils, some of
the women’s institutions had also been established to work & fight for the causes of women.
These firms mainly aimed at

 Uplifting women i.e. reformulating social practices in order to enable the women to
play a more constructive & important role in the society
 Equal rights for both women and men

In a way to attain these objectives, the organizations had taken up the fields such as Hindu
Law reforms, women education, material & moral progress of women and abolition of social
evils. However, only few of the women took benefit of such measures, their initiation was
truly significant. The legislature had even taken a more positive attitude after independence in
the issue of law reform & as a result, enacted some of the exciting measures that the British
31
administrator were tentative to undertake . After a huge deal of internal strife and
differences in opinions of numerous factions & political leaders, the Hindu Code Bill was
passed in the year 1955. This was further divided into 4 separate acts

 Hindu Marriage Act, 1955

 Hindu Minority & Guardianship Act, 1956
 Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act, 1956
 Hindu Succession Act, 1956

30
Verma, Arvind, Hanif Qureshi, and Jee Yearn Kim. "Exploring the trend of violence against women in India."
International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice 41, no. 1-2 (2017): 3-18.
31
Ibid
Many more acts were enacted in the following years.

The landmark judgements that changed the course for women in India

As we know that the time is dynamic and according to time we need to change in accordance
to the demand of time or society. Social transformation is a good way to change the society
according to the need of time. There are two ways of Social Transformation.

1. Changing in person according to the society

2. Society changed according to the demand of person

Change the law in favour of women and for their advancement and protection of the women
in the society and now in present there are many laws for the advancement and protection of
the women.

1. Vishaka Vs State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 301

A social worker from Rajasthan- Bhanwari Devi was cruelly harassed by five men, her
mistake was nothing but to prevent a child marriage. In a search for justice, she went to court
and filed case against the men. However, it was shocking that all five accused were declared
innocent and not guilty for the act. A Group for Women’s Education & Research- Vishaka
took up the cause of the social worker and filed a petition before SC complaining sexual
harassment at workplace. As a result, the court put the onus on the organizations by
commissioning the Vishaka guidelines on 13th August, 1997 to provide a safe working
environment to women.

2. Medha Kotwal Lele V. Union of India, (2013) 1 SCC 297

A Public Interest Litigation was filed in this case stating that the guidelines produced in the
previous case of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, were not implemented and followed. As a
result, the women still were subjected to the actions of harassment at their work. The SC took
the note of the petition and held that there must be observance of the Vishaka guidelines, also
the SC stated that the states need to made amendments in their service rules and organizations
place mechanism ensuring that victim is not intimidated.

3. Mary Roy Vs State of Kerala

A woman from the Syrian Christian community, Kerala was prohibited from inheriting
property because of the male-controlled traditions. This verdict was challenged by a woman’s
right activist & educator- Mary Roy. She filed a case in against to her elder brother stating
that after the death of her father, she was deprived of equal share and property in the family’s
inheritance. However, the appeal was not accepted by the lower court, yet the High Court of
Kerala overrules the judgment. As a result, the SC announced a landmark judgment in 1986
according to which the Syrian Christian women must have the right to pursue equal share in
the family’s inheritance.

4. Lata Singh Vs State of Uttar Pradesh

An adult woman, Lata Singh left her home to marry a man belonged to lower caste. A report
was filed by her brothers who were unhappy with the decision stating that she had been
kidnapped. As a result, three innocent men were arrested who belonged to the family of her
husband. Due to this, Lata Singh took the decision to file petition, the landmark judgement by
the SC stated that an adult woman is free to marry a man of her choice.

5. Roxann Sharma Vs Arun Sharma

Roxann was a woman fighting for the custody of her child with her separated husband. This
was the case held in Goa court where the court decided to grant her provisional custody of
their child, but the man taken the child away & didn’t let Roxann meet their son. Roxann
filed a case against him, the SC announced that when separated parents are involved in a
battle for custody of a child who is under 5 years old, the custody will remain to the mother.

6. Laxmi V. Union of India, AIR 2015 SC 3662

Laxmi, an acid attack victim, placed an appeal in 2006 searching for measures to control acid
sales & offers passable compensation to the victim. The SC also considered other complaints
and petitions filed by acid attack victims and found that the ratio of just rising, hence imposed
stringent regulations on acid sales in 2013 such as selling acid to a person below 18 years is
not allowed, also the buyers need to provide a valid identity proof with complete personal
details.

7. Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti

This case result to the first belief under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The appeal
stated that a woman was being harassed by Suhas Katti, the accused, was she refused for
marriage. The man started sending obscene & defamatory message to the woman on her
social accounts, also the woman began to get calls from unfamiliar people. The victim filed a
petition in 2004, as a result the accused was find guilty within several months.

8. V.D. Bhanot v Savita Bhanot, (2012) 3 SCC 183

Under the provisions of the DV Act, a petition was filed in this case by the wife, for seeking
accommodation and protection. The judgement was made in the favour of the wife, however
she filed appeal in front of the additional sessions judge as she was dissatisfied with this
judgement. The Delhi High Court and the SC held that the DV act would only be applicable
to the cases in which the cause of action had arisen before it came into force. The intention
was to protect the woman right preserved in the Art. 14, 15 and 21.

All the above judgements act as a great tool for women that they can use to safeguard their
dignity.

It was observed that Child marriage alongside dowry, POCSO and gender gap is another
major issue of attention in India. Recently, the Supreme court held in a judgement that
Section 9 of Child Marriage Act is concerned with punishing a male adult marrying a female
child. Under this act, if a male adult above the age of eighteen years, contracts a child
marriage will be punishable with fine or with rigour imprisonment which may extend to more
than two years. However, recently SC had held that this is not the correct interpretation of the
law rather it is against the ‘legislative history’ of the law. Thus, a differential metric has been
adopted after the prohibition of this act, that states that a man has to reach the age of 21 to be
said as an adult, thus if a man belong to the age group of 18-21 years and marry a girl then
too, the law would treat it as a child marriage and would punish the male.

It was the case concerned with a 17-year-old boy living in Punjab married a 21-year-old
woman, the court of Punjab and Haryana had set apart its own order to protect the couple.
However, Prosecution was established against the young boy as he contracted a child
marriage, where he himself was the child. The SC set sidewise the order of High Court,
stating that the motive behind Section 9 of Child Marriage Act was not to punish a boy or a
child contracting child marriage. Supreme Court bench has held that neither does the
provision punish a woman for marrying a child not a child for marrying a woman as in Hindu
society, the decisions in regards to the marriage are often taken by the family of bride &
groom, and women have no say or usually have little say in the matter.
The Supreme court bench said that the sole aim of the provision is to punish a man who
marries a girl. Also, it was stated that the only intention behind punishing male adults who
contracts child marriage was to protect girls. In a nutshell, it can be said that Child Marriage
Act, 2006 chiefly aims at giving an option to the prospective grooms who belong to the age
group of 18-21 years to opt out of marriages.

According to the analysed facts of UNICEF, however there has been a decline recognised in
the events of child marriage all across the world, the pace of change is expected to remains
slow. The ratio of child marriages was 54% in the period of 1992-93 and declined to 27% in
2016, this was mainly beneficial for the girls belonging to the age group of 15-18 years. Also,
the fact is that the incidents of child marriages are less prevalent in urban areas (29%) and
more in the rural areas (48%), the rates are lower in southern & eastern parts & higher in the
western & central parts of India.

The states in India having large number of incidences of child marriages include Jharkhand,
West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The
increasing number of child marriages directly affecting the status of women in India, however
the laws and legislations enacted by government are protecting minor girls by treating
marriage as null or void.

It is equally important to discuss Violence against women when talking about the status of
women in Indian society. Violence include any sort of misbehave or physical aggression and
when committed at home referred as domestic violence that further include hitting, shoving,
kicking, biting and throwing objects. In broader terms, violence is directly associated with
sexual abuse, intimidation, emotional abuse, kidnapping, abduction, murder and all kind of
threats. Indian women had been facing domestic violence from years, mainly they have been
witnessing dowry death, sexual abuse, wife battering and maltreatment of a window, these all
cases of criminal violence has affected a large portion of the society. In any case of crime, a
woman can file case and seek help from a protection officer under the PWDVA 2005 i.e.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Women in ancient India has performed a crucial role in building up the dynamism of
development, she was known to be the force behind every man whether by being a mother,
sister, wife or daughter. However, all these just sound rhetoric and hyperbole when the status
of the women downgrades in the nation. This study revolved around investigating the status
of Indian women from ancient to modern times and analysed that position of Indian women
improved from primitive to modern era. In accordance to the Rigveda, women are said to be
the queen of the house and thus deserves to enjoy independence and high status in the Hindu
society, they deserve to get education and each qualification required for their upliftment in
the society 32. Saswati, Sulabha, Gargi and Lilabati are few of the great examples of women
who had participated in utter mantras and Vedic sacrifices, even some of the hymns were
composed by women seers. On one hand, Lilabati was a great and well-known mathematician
in ancient India and on the other hand, Gargi was a great Indian philosopher and honoured
with the title of a great natural philosopher in Vedic literature.

Only law enforcement agencies & legislations are not enough to prevent the continuous
events of crimes against women including child marriage, acid throwing, domestic violence,
dowry. sexual harassment, honour killings, trafficking, female infanticide, accusations of
witchcraft and other crimes due to which the status of women is degrading continuously in
the Hindu society. There is a huge need for social change and awakening in the attitude of
men and masses, such that equal status and due respect can be given to women. It is the
correct time in 21st century when each female whether a mother, wife, sister or daughter need
to be given her due. It would be suggested to the Hindu society to bring social awakening
among women by education campaign, this would be the great thing to make women aware
of existing social evils in the society along with the ways of eradicating the same. At present,
mass media is playing an active role in reaching every corner of India and spreading
messages. Further, there are large number of NGOs available that are holding a responsible
position in India and are able to highlight socio-economic causes that lead to such major
crimes along with disseminating the information about the catastrophic effects of those
crimes on womanhood & the society as a whole 33.

32
Ayub, Sheikh J., and Asif R. Raina. "Status of Woman in Ancient India: A Comparative Study of North
Indian Society and Kashmir." Journal of South Asian Studies 6, no. 3 (2018): 159-164.
33
Chattopadhyaya, Sudhakar. Social life in ancient India (In the background of the Yajnavalkya-Smriti).
Academic Publishers (1965), 2018.
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