Registration of marriages

The Bengal government has finally moved to implement a Supreme Court directive making registration of marriages compulsory - but with a fine of Rs. 25/- for non-compliance, the move is not expected to achieve much.

Religious subsidies allowed for this year

The Supreme Court has allowed subsidies for Mansarovan and Haj yatras for this year, while requesting the Allahabad High Court to dispose of the matter quickly. The High Court stayed the subsidies on the ground that they discriminate on the ground of religion.

Rights of Parents

The Cabinet has approved of a Bill to oblige children to take care of their parents.

Sharia Bill

The Jammu and Kashmir legislature has passed a Bill enforcing sharia law in the state in civil matters.

Child Marriages law

The Rajya Sabha has passed a Bill allowing child marriages to be declared void. Perhaps law should make similar provisions for adults forced into a marriage by their parents as well.

Incentive for inter-caste marriages

The government is offering cash incentives for inter-caste marriages.

Supreme Court refuses to touch muslim personal law

The Supreme Court yet again took the easy route of characterising it as a policy issue by refusing to judge a constitutional challenge to some muslim personal laws on the touchstone of fundamental rights.

Discriminatory adoption laws

The adoption laws in India allows Hindus to adopt but denies the right to Muslims. It took a tragedy to point this out - will the Parliament amend the laws?

Domestic Violence Bill passed

The Lok Sabha has approved of the Domestic Violence Bill. Indira Jaising reviews the new legislation.

Domestic Violence Bill

After years of campaigning, the women's movement seems to have impressed upon the government to come up with a strong Domestic Violence Bill. The chief features of the Bill are:

• The bill will create a civil law where domestic violence is very broadly defined.
  
  
• The crime will be non-bailable.
  
  
• Earlier laws covered only violence by husbands or in-laws. This time all relationships are included.
  
  
• So far, women who lodged criminal cases would find themselves cut off from all financial support. But now women will have a right to interim compensation.
  
  
• The bill also guarantees that women have a right to residence.

Property law favours Hindus

Indian property law, like most of the family law, is based on religion. For Hindus, this allows a legal entity 'Hindu Undivided Family' to be accepted as a separate body for tax purposes. This means that a hindu family with any given income is liable to pay much lower income tax than a christian or a muslim family. Making it meet the constitutional muster under Article 15, which guarantees equality on the basis of, among other things, religion, very important.

Property Rights of Hindu women

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice has recommended an amendment to the Hindu Succession Act to grant equal property rights to Hindu women. A long standing demand of the women's movement for legal equality in property relations might be close to realisation.

Rights of Muslim women

The Muslim Personal Law Board has pretended to give women more marital rights, through its model Nikahnama. The move is totally sham, designed to deflect cricitism. But as Kalpana Sharma tells us, things are changing for the better for Muslim women in India. And for the most part, they are driving the change themselves.

There are many more groups representing Muslim women around the country than in 1985. In Mumbai, for instance, the Muslim Women's Rights Network has prepared its own model nikahnama and has already used it in several marriages. Some older women have persuaded their husbands to take the marriage vows again using this nikahnama. These women are clear that they do not want to wait for a Board made up almost exclusively of men to decide how their rights in marriage will be determined. Twenty years ago such a situation would have been unimaginable.

We also have to note that Muslim women have formed their own Muslim Women's Law Board. They too have rejected the AIMPLB draft and plan to bring out their own. They are speaking out in the media without any fear. And most unusual of all developments is the determination of Sharifa Khanam of Puddukottai, Tamil Nadu to build a separate mosque for women. She argues that when women go to the police, they are referred to the Jamat, which holds its meetings in the mosque. Here women cannot enter and the Jamat is exclusively male. So, she says, women's problems should be settled in a place where women can meet. Why not a mosque for women?

Its still a breeze of change, but what is important is that its blowing. Muslim women in India seem to be closer to the realisation of their rights than ever before. Of course, the journey ahead is long and tiresome, but hope will lead the way.