Women’s Perspectives on Public Policy in India: A Half-Century of Incomplete or Lost Agenda?

Abstract

Fifty-two years is not a small period for initiating progress. The promises enshrined in the Indian Constitution and the vision of women’s full emancipation advanced during the nationalist struggle have alas not merely receded, but there is every danger that the lost momentum may not be made up unless once again we gear ourselves to intervene more forcefully in the polity and public policy. What we find despite tall pronouncements and a great deal of rhetoric and sentiment, is that the reality of public policy that emerges is full of ambiguities, ambivalences and contradictions, often taking away with the left hand what the right hand gives. Women’s recommendations towards a radical movement for promoting gender equality in free India got jettisoned. The cost to women of this neglect is documented by plenty of data. In spheres such as employment, education, population, health, family laws, environment, and criminal justice, the response of the state has often been either detrimental to women or merely helped maintain the status quo. In many spheres, while women’s interventions have been substantial, these were like a finger in the dyke, unable to reverse major policy directions.