Gender Inequality and Social Justice

Gender justice is a myth for most of the Indian women. Gender based discrimination represents the ugly face of Indian Society. The term gender is applied to the cultural aspects of male and female roles. These cultural aspects become the basis for masculine and feminine roles. The Indian Constitution is a women-friendly document. Fighting for justice as a female or crying for gender equality is not the fight against men. It is the fight against old traditions that have chained them. Most of the sex equality laws are centred on employment and the workplace. Even after the advancement of modernisation, human nature remains the same. Neither the extreme, cruel punishment stopped the crime against women, nor has leniency in imposing punishment decreased the crime rate. This paper highlights the plight of women in Indian society and reflects the challenges encountered by them. Historical practices such as Sati, Jauhar, Purdah, Devdasis, and Child Marriage are a few traditions reflective of gender imbalance in Indian society. Though these practices are largely unused, now, due to legal reforms, the essence of dysfunctional gender equality still is uncontrolled and expressed today through Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Dowry Deaths, Female infanticide, Female foeticide, Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment at the workplace. Because these evils are so deep-rooted that they can be weeded out only if we attack them at the roots. But the men of the Indian society are still fighting for gender neutral laws.