Abstract
The book under review is a collection of papers published as a part of an interdisciplinary seminar on ‘Gender Justice’ organised by the School of Legal Studies, Central University of Kashmir, in October 2013. The overarching scope and purpose of the book is to outline and deliberate upon inter-linkages between women, gender and justice organised into seventeen chapters with an Introduction that provides a general statement of purpose. The respective chapters are varied in nature and attempt to address the issue of gender and justice in conceptual and empirical terrains. On the whole, the chapters can be thematically categorised (which the editor should have done) as gender and justice-related concept and theory, violence against women (VAW), State interventions and gender justice, women’s activism and gender justice among other. On the conceptual and theoretical note, a chapter on Socialist feminism is included. One chapter on Jammu and Kashmir on the absence of women’s rights along with two chapters on Kashmir focusing on the health ailments of women and the prevalence of the practice of female foeticide underscore the argument that justice for such women is still afar. The quest to gender justice through legislations and Acts is also traced as evident in four chapters that focus on Hindu Succession Law and property rights; the contentious issue of sexual harassment at workplace and its negation and rights and entitlements of the transgender community in India. It is the VAW in India which emerges as the dominant theme of the book. Though, scantly elaborated upon and defined with its distinctive ‘gendered’ nature, yet its myriad forms are discussed in respective chapters ranging from media to education. The chapters address how the VAW has a ‘spatial’ character and how it has resulted into the exclusion of women from the public space/place. Such exclusion stems from the patriarchal values and norms that have also seeped into the law and order mechanism of the state. Similarly, the chapter on the Nirbhaya gang rape case of December 2012 in Delhi points out the nature of insecurity (both physical and sexual) being faced by the women in their day-to-day daily lives as they step out in the ‘public place’. What is singular here is that even though the women are in public place, they are not safe from the inhuman acts of sexual ‘infringement’ (i.e., the offence of stalking) upon their body. Subsequently, there is a discussion upon the Justice J. S. Verma Committee and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013.
The modalities, implementation and the grassroot impact of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, are the focus of two chapters. After providing the context of the sexual harassment against women and its varied connotations, these chapters move on to provide a global and national/regional scenario of the same. The legality of the same and how these are aimed to provide women workforce a humane, just and violence free working space is discussed thereafter. Interestingly, the content analysis of how much space/coverage has been given to issues related to women in the mass media by Telugu news channels in particular and national news channels in general is also presented in one of the chapters. Fusing gender and its concern into the pedagogy of classroom teaching, the chapter on teaching gender in university has flagged points so as to make the teaching learning process a ‘gendered’ process; these are dialogue building, confidence building, sharing of experiences, being gender sensitive and using gender lens in classroom teaching.
Through the textual analysis of Mirza Waheeed’s The Collaborator, the author of the respective chapter has attempted to make the reader aware of the trials and turbulence of the village and the everyday life of ‘silence’ of the ‘narrator’s mother’ in Nowgam in Kashmir during the 1990s. In a subtle way, the narratives of violence, sufferings and silence intersect with gender and are infused with the patriarchal ‘gaze’. The narratives speak of horror and violence in the name of nationhood and are reminisces of VAW in the name of honour and prestige closely tied to the community. The book concludes with a chapter on Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussing her ideas on gender equality and women’s activism towards gender equity. It is worth noting that she is a US Supreme Court justice, the second woman to be appointed to the position as she took the oath of office on 10 August 1993 in its 212-year history and has been actively negating sexism both inside and outside the legal fraternity.
In summary, this collection of essays covers a range of topics in gender and justice. As far as the substance and the value of the book is concerned, it is wanting on certain fronts. Though the book engages with the inter-linkages of gender and justice and myriad ways in which these manifest; yet there is an absence of serious conceptual and theoretical engagements with the idea of gender justice itself which could have added to the strength of the book. Similarly, it could have contributed more to the field of gender/women’s studies if it had taken up the issue of VAW with a more in-depth discussion on it. The contents could have been organised around central themes rather than simply listing of the chapters. For example, the conceptual chapter on Socialist feminism should come first then the others could follow. Similarly, the editor should have also taken into account the perceptions of lawyers in India regarding understanding gender justice. As the book is located in the backdrop of Indian society, any discussion on gender justice needs to come face-to-face with the ‘gender and caste question’, the reader would have benefitted if it would have been included in the book. Overall, the book offers an introductory reading in the field of gender and gender justice primarily in Indian context and in doing so, is a contribution to the ever-increasing academic corpus on sociology and gender/women’s studies in its own way especially for those interested in the field.