Legislative Acts for women | Indian Society for UPSC CSE PDF Download

LEGISLATIVE  ACTS

Apart from the existing Constitutional provisions, Parliament from time to time has passed several legislations to empower women & to provide them a legal basis in their fight for equality & justice. 

Some of them are:

• Sati (Prevention) Act 1987 – The practice of Sati which was first abolished in 1829, was revised and made illegal in 1987.The Act seeks to prevent sati, the voluntary or forced burning or burying alive of a widow, and to prohibit glorification of this action through the observance of any ceremony, participation in any procession, creation of the financial trust, construction of a temple, or any actions to commemorate or honour the memory of a widow who committed Sati.
• Hindu Succession Act 1956 – Equal share to daughter from property of father, while a widow has the right to inherit husband’s property. An amendment in this Act in 2005 enabled daughters to have equal share in ancestral properties.
• Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1986 – Suppression of Immoral Trafficking in women and girls Act (SITA) 1956 was amended in 1986 & renamed ITPA.The act states the illegality of prostitution and the punishment for owning any such related establishment. Any person involved in any phase of the chain activities like recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving of people for the purpose of prostitution is also liable to be punished
• Dowry Prohibition Act 1961– This Act prohibits the practice of giving or taking dowry by either party to a marriage. This law also punishes demanding and advertising dowry. The more serious crimes in relation to dowry, such as dowry death and cruelty from dowry demands are punishable under the general law on crimes – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
• Maternity Benefit Act 1961– An Act to regulate the employment of women for certain period before and after childbirth and to provide for maternity benefits like paid leaves for 6 months.
• Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971– Legalized abortion in case if fetus is suffering from physical or mental abnormality, in case of rape & unwanted pregnancy.The Act was amended in 2021 to make the make the MTP more accessible to women. The Act extended the right to safe and legal abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy to all women in the country, regardless of marital status on the basis of a doctor’s recommendation.
• Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 – This Act prohibits indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, and figures or in any other manner and for matters connected therewith.
• Domestic Violence Act 2005-  It is basically meant to provide protection to a wife or female live-in partner from violence at the hands of the husband, a male live-in-partner, or his relatives.  Domestic violence under the Act includes actual abuse or the threat of abuse, whether physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, or economic. Harassment by way of dowry demands is also covered under the definition of domestic violence
• Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 – In the backdrop of Dec 16 gang rape, this Act was passed amending the CrPC based on recommendation of Justice Verma Committee. The new law made provisions for increased sentence for rape convicts, including life- term and death sentence, besides providing for stringent punishment for offences such as acid attacks, stalking and Through the revised Bill, the government amended various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Evidence Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
• The Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013
  The act provides an outline about employer’s requirements to develop a complaint mechanism. It provides for the establishment of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Further, employers are required to display at the workplace details of the penal consequences of indulging in acts of sexual harassment, the composition of the ICC, and the grievance redressal mechanism available to aggrieved employees.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita-relevant provisions

The sections about sexual offences and women’s safety have been brought under one basket, as opposed to the scattered sections and chapters of the present criminal laws. There are other small changes like in Section 64 of the new bill, the punishment for rape is at least 10 years, as opposed to seven years in IPC. The IPC criminalises acts such as rape, voyeurism, stalking and insulting the modesty of a woman.  The BNS retains these provisions.  It increases the threshold for the victim to be classified as a major, in the case of gangrape, from 16 to 18 years of age.  It also criminalises sexual intercourse with a woman by deceitful means or making false promises.