Understanding Need of Gender-Neutral Laws, A Step Towards Equality

Author: Shravani Santosh Patil, Adv. Balasaheb Apte College Of Law, Mumbai.

ABSTRACT

India is a developing nation, and while growing, we have to take all people of different religions and genders into consideration. The Indian Constitution states that the law applies to everyone equally, meaning everyone is equal before the law. But 'equality before the law' does not imply that Indian society is now free from biases.

Legal provisions exist to protect the ignored and uplift them to bring them to equal footing; this is seen in the case of women. Indian laws are more inclined, or we can say are in favor of women, because before independence, women were the most overlooked. There are laws present in the Indian Constitution which are gender-neutral. But most provisions often neglect gender diversity and assume that men are culprits and women are victims. For this reason, there is a need for applying gender-neutral laws. This article will discuss the need for gender-neutral laws and help to understand their importance.

KEYWORDS

Gender-neutral laws, social biases, need for change, legal perspective, equality, discrimination.

What is Gender Neutral:

Gender-neutral refers to a term or identity that does not specifically assign or imply a particular gender. It aims to avoid reinforcing traditional gender binaries.

What is Gender Neutral Law:

Gender-neutral laws are legal frameworks that do not favor or discriminate based on gender, ensuring rights to all genders. These laws aim to protect people from discrimination based on gender. Gender-neutral laws help to create an environment where everyone is treated with dignity and fairness, regardless of their gender.

INTRODUCTION

Gender-neutral laws are one of the controversial issues. But it is necessary to understand the need for gender-neutral laws due to the rising false cases and unfairness of the law towards men. India's legal system is more inclined towards women than men, and while it is necessary to protect women, by doing this, men's right to justice is being violated. Many laws in the Indian Constitution are biased by gender. Understanding gender-neutral laws is the need of the hour. Many women are taking advantage of the favor provided by the Indian Constitution to them by registering false cases.

Because of them, many women don't get justice even if they are suffering from harassment, and many men suffer mentally due to false cases. Women in India are safeguarded by different laws; they can file a case against anyone for the violation of their rights. Despite having equal fundamental rights for both men and women, the rights of men are not vocalized as compared to women. Part 3 of the Indian Constitution states that men can avail their rights in India regardless of their caste, sex, religion, place of birth, or race. These rights guarantee liberty to men so they can live without harassment.

There is a need for gender-neutral laws in rape legislation, harassment at the workplace, and many more. Because in many cases, only men are regarded as culprits, and women are always victims. Under Section 375 of the IPC, men are always accused, and women are victims. But under Section 377 of the IPC, men are considered victims, but only when the accused is also male. Indian law, in general, does not consider men as victims in rape cases. Section 498A of the IPC was introduced to protect women from harassment and cruelty that she is subjected to by her in-laws, and it was a non-bailable offense. Under this provision, the husband used to get 3 years of imprisonment. Up to 2014, based on a complaint filed by a woman, her husband and in-laws were arrested without any warrant or FIR. But after 2014, it was changed, and now the husband or in-laws get arrested only when it is necessary. Because our law states that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Even under Section 113B and Section 304B, if a woman dies within 7 years of marriage by committing suicide, then it will be considered a dowry death. But it is not the same in the case of men; for men, there are no laws like these.

The Justice Verma Committee, in its report, suggested replacing the word "women" with the word "person." But the Criminal Law Act, 2013, re-established the gender-specific definition after getting criticized by feminist groups.

Even in Section 376 of the IPC, under Anti-Rape Laws, if a man harasses a woman at the workplace, he will be punished under this section. But on the other side, if a woman takes sexual favors from her male colleague or harasses him at the workplace, she will not be punished. In another case, if a man makes a physical relationship with a woman by promising to marry her, then he cannot break up; it will be considered rape. But on the other side, if a woman does so, she will not be punished.

The Delhi High Court expressed worry over the increase in false rape cases. Some women are taking advantage of their rights, and some women who are really suffering are not getting justice.

Section 354 of the IPC deals with assaults and acts which are done to harm their modesty, which is another gender-biased law because under this law, men will be arrested for committing this offense, but if a woman does the same with another woman or with a man, she will not be punished or get arrested.

In a recent case of Atul Subhash, who was working in a Bangalore-based company, committed suicide over alleged torture and a demand of Rs. 3 crore by his wife, Nikita Singhania, for a divorce settlement. Nikita and her parents were constantly giving mental torture to Atul. Bilas, who is the brother of Atul, states that Atul was taunted in court by saying that either give Rs. 3 crore or die. After that, Nikita and her parents were arrested by the police, but they got bail. Here, Atul still has not gotten justice. For evidence, Atul wrote a letter and a 1.5-hour video in which he tells about all the mental torture and his sufferings. This is happening because there are not enough laws to protect men.

Some years ago, there was another case of Jasleen Kaur v. Sarvjeet Singh. In this case, a girl took a photo of a boy sitting on his bike and posted it on the internet, and overnight Sarvjeet's name became 'Delhi Ka Darinda.' He lost his job and suffered from mental stress. After 3 years, he was proven innocent, but the girl who defamed him did not get any punishment. This is the sad reality. According to the NCRB report of the year 2021, a total of 1,64,033 people died by committing suicide. In which approximately 81,063 married men and 28,680 married women are there. Based on these reports, we can see that there is a higher number of men who have died due to suicide, meaning somewhere men are getting mentally tortured, or we can say due to the fear of not getting justice, they are committing suicide.

Nowadays, divorce is becoming a new business of earning money. Many women take advantage of the favor provided by the law to them. But in this process, the spouse, corrupt police, and lawyers get money, and an innocent person suffers due to these fake allegations.

There are some existing Gender-Neutral Laws in India, as follows:

POCSO ACT, 2012: This is the abbreviation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act of 2012. This legislation was enacted to protect children who are minors or are below the age of 12 years from harassment and sexual assault.

The Transgender Persons Act, 2019: The Transgender Act prohibits discrimination and provides them equal rights in the field of education, healthcare services, and also in jobs. In the case of sexual harassment against transgender people, the culprit will get a punishment of imprisonment of a minimum of six months and a maximum of 2 years. But this sentence is much lesser than the IPC's sexual assault against women. Under IPC Section 375, the punishment will be up to 7 years and could also increase to life imprisonment.

How Gender Neutral Laws Will Benefit:

Protect Citizens of India from Discrimination: By amending gender-neutral laws in the country, it will protect people who may face discrimination based on their gender. It will help to give equal rights, and justice will be served to all people regardless of their gender.

Recognition of Diversity: Gender-neutral laws help to accept the diversity in gender and to accept the flaws of others.

Equality: First of all, these gender-neutral laws will help to give equality. By acknowledging the spectrum of gender identities, these laws will help to abolish harmful stereotypes and will help to make a respectful society.

Emotional and Mental Well-being: By establishing gender-neutral laws, these will give legal recognition to different gender identities, and people will live authentically without any fear and discrimination. Because of it, people's emotional and mental health will improve.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This article helps to understand the need for gender-neutral laws. According to the current scenario, this is a most important topic. As it is high time to make our laws gender-neutral. In this literature review, we get an overview or perspective of other theories and articles. By reviewing the other literature, this will help to understand the topic more easily and will provide a deep understanding of the topic.

Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity states that gender is not something that is biologically determined but rather it is a performance. Gender is a series of repetitive actions and behaviors. The repetition of gender acts creates an illusion of a stable gender identity. Butler's theory challenges essential conceptions of gender and the identity state that these concepts are fluid. This point of view of Judith Butler opens up a space for questioning and deconstructing conceptions of gender identities and imagining new possibilities of gender expression.

Oliviero and McKay state that gender-neutral laws are very important because they will ensure equality.

Theodore Bennet states that gender-neutral language should be there in legislative drafting. But they state that this also comes with challenges.

There are many such literatures present that suggest that gender-neutral laws are necessary, which will come with some challenges but will definitely benefit the citizens of the country.

METHODOLOGY

This article comprises qualitative research, looking at various journals, case studies, articles, and blogs. By gathering different points of view and by taking real-life examples, it helps to understand the need for the respective topic.

The focus of this research is to state the need for gender-neutral laws and to understand it in a better way. This study does not talk much about transgender rights, but it is focusing on the discrimination in providing rights to different gender identities.

Ultimately, this study helps to provide some crucial insights.

Challenges That Will Come After Legislating Gender Neutral Laws:

Social and Cultural Opposition: Many people will not accept different gender identities. There may be significant resistance to accepting non-binary gender identities. There is so much public unawareness about this topic. The widespread education about gender identities and non-binary categories is still very limited in some places. Some religious groups may oppose gender-neutral laws.

Ambiguity in Policy: Courts and employers might still struggle with how to apply the new legal changes in their practice. The transition to a system that recognizes gender neutrality may require comprehensive legal remedies, which can be difficult to achieve.

Workplace Issues: Employers will need to rethink everything regarding dress codes and other facilities like bathrooms to make their offices more inclusive. Some employees may feel uncomfortable with the changes, and if they don't accept gender diversity fully, it will create an issue.

Healthcare Services: The healthcare system will need to make some changes to meet the needs of different gender identities. Insurance policies may need to be reconstructed to accommodate non-binary people.

Global Variability and International Complications: If an individual who legally identifies as non-binary in one country might face some challenges when they travel to any other country where non-binary recognition is not accepted.

CONCLUSION

While adopting gender-neutral laws, it is a very critical step to create an inclusive society. It will come with certain challenges and also with beneficiaries. This article shows why there is a need for gender-neutral laws and how it will provide equality, its benefits, and also the challenges that it will face.

Most of our laws are gender-biased, so these gender-biased laws are becoming a loophole for some devil-minded people. By using the favor that some groups of society are getting by law, they are misusing it and harassing mentally the other groups. Because of some devil-minded people, some genuine people are still not getting the justice that they deserve. These gender-biased laws are becoming a really critical issue for society. The alarming increase in false cases is indicating that it is high time to implement gender-neutral laws.

Gender-neutral laws will promote gender equality and will uplift the marginalized genders. But while implementing these laws, many groups of people will oppose it without giving a single valid reason.

On one side, we talk about women's empowerment, and on the other side, we make gender-biased laws, and by doing this, we are making them feel weak. By enacting gender-neutral laws, they do not undermine the extremely cruel acts that are happening with women. This just argues that men and women are equal, so they should get equal rights. Some pseudo-feminists will also oppose these laws. We cannot state that these genders will always commit a crime, and this specific gender will always be a victim. These gender-neutral laws will help to give punishment to every person who has done something wrong and has violated the law. The law must be such that anyone who harasses, rapes, murders, or tortures will be punished despite being of any gender; the person must get punishment. This will bring equality and spread a sigh of justice. The law is for protecting, not harming anyone, but if some people are misusing it, we should prevent it. Gender-neutral laws are the need of the hour. It contains some complexities, but it will definitely prove to be a perfect remedy.

There are many countries that have accepted gender-neutral laws to some extent.

Canada: Canada has accepted numerous gender-neutral laws. For example, the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, and they also have gender-neutral options for identification documents.

United States: Various states like California and New York have laws to protect people of different gender identities and non-binary individuals.

Germany: In 2018, Germany opened a third gender option on birth certificates, recognizing the interests of non-binary individuals.

United Kingdom: The U.K. has also implemented gender-neutral policies in the areas of healthcare and legal.