Guest post: SOWL holds 2nd Annual Conference on ‘Law, Social Change and Gender’

The India International Centre, hosted SOWL India’s 2nd Annual Conference themed “Law, Social Change and Gender” which brought together prominent lawyers, academics and policy-makers. The violent sexual assault perpetrated on a student last year in Delhi which served as stimulus for appointment of the Verma Committee and the legislative amendments thereafter along with a slew of ‘women-centric’ initiatives, formed the theme of this year’s conference. SOWL India brought together various voices that are influencing law and policy pertaining to violence against women, as part of its 2013 Annual Conference.. The event commenced with a keynote address by Retd. Justice Leila Seth who reminisced about the challenges she faced as one of two lady lawyers in the Patna High Court. Her anecdotes drove home the misogyny that those of her ilk had faced and overcome for it to be smooth sailing for us thereafter. She talked about her experiences as a member of the Verma Committee and underscored her disappointment with the piecemeal amendments of the criminal law. She remarked that change was always incremental and although an 80 year old (Late Justice Verma) and an 82 year old (herself) had believed along with the solitary ‘young man’ on the Committee (Mr. Gopal Subramaniam) that it was time to outlaw marital rape, our law makers didn’t think it was time.. The first panel moderated by Swathi Sukumar, Litigator and Member of the Governing Council focused on the inter-relationship between law and civil society. Nivedita Menon underscored her healthy distrust of the law and discussed the various feminist critiques of the law. With specific reference to women’s reservation in India she talked about how while one set of feminists advocate the ‘sameness’ approach that treats all beneficiaries as equal, it cannot work when women have traditionally been undermined either by patriarchal laws or misogynistic interpretations of the law (case in point: Justice Seth’s illustration of how despite the Constitution treating women as equals, they were considered persona non grata and were not allowed to practice law despite the Advocates Act applying to ‘persons’). On the other hand the ‘difference’ approach is fraught with risks in that it promotes protectionism. The next speaker was Colin Gonsalves who talked about a range of issues from the hurdles faced by legal aid warriors to the lethargy and lack of inertia in established legal aid centres to dispense genuine aid.. Post lunch it was a panel that Shwetasree Majumder, General Secretary of SOWL, moderated. The opening speaker, Dr. (Prof.) Mrinal Satish, whose doctoral dissertation at Yale was on Rape Sentencing in India, highlighted the recommendations of the Verma Committee and the glaring procedural and substantive errors in the law as it was amended. For instance he highlighted how despite the legislators purportedly enacting the amendments in response for the public outcry for the death penalty have, on account of slipshod editing, omitted to add the death penalty for gang rape while proscribing it for aggravated rape by an individual. Advocate Malavika Rajkotia who spoke on the Women’s Reservation Bill thereafter viewed the legal instrument as doing only lip service and no real good for the cause of women. Noted criminal lawyer and Senior Advocate Rebecca John spoke thereafter on police reform and relied on a number of real life examples to demonstrate that the autonomy of the police is only one half of the picture and that if political control is removed and there is no civil society or judicial control to take its place corruption will be an even bigger malaise. She concluded on a poignant note with the words “When courts curtail liberty we trust them, when they defend liberty we are suspicious.” Karuna Nundy, a Delhi based lawyer spoke about the recently enacted and highly problematic Sexual Harrassment in the Workplace Act. Finally Nandini Sundar made an impassioned plea for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act for the havoc it wreaks on women in conflict zones.. Meant to act as a platform for professional development, mentorship, pro-bono activity and legal activism, SOWL’s second Annual Event made a conscious attempt to involve the attendees in an active conversation with some of India’s foremost legal minds..For more information on SOWL and the Annual Conference, visit http://www.sowlindia.com/ Or write to contact@sowlindia.com