Ambedkar's Women Empowerment through Legislative Reforms

"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved" - Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar

In the pre-independent and post-independent eras, very few leaders stood up for women's rights especially if we speak of the legal rights of women. However, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was one of the first activists to root for it. He championed shaping up rights for women through legislative reforms. Here is how-

 

 

Apart from advocating or speaking for the rights of women, he actually worked to ensure that women were also protected under labour laws. He played a vital role in reducing the number of working hours and improving working conditions. When he was a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay in 1928, he supported a Bill granting paid maternity leave for women working in factories.

 

 

He believed that if the employer was benefiting from women’s labour, they should also, in part, be supporting women when they are on their maternity leave. On the other hand, he also believed, women should be paid by the government as it was in the interest of the nation. One of the acts was Mines Maternity Benefit Act.

 

As a Labour Minister in the Viceroy executive council between 1942 and 1946, he brought up the Mines Maternity Benefit Bill for women all over India which asked for equal wages and equal representation of women on the welfare fund for the coal mine workers and emphasized equal citizenship and women’s rights to economic development as crucial for women’s rights in India.

 

Under this act, a woman working in the mine is entitled to maternity benefits for a period of 8 weeks. This period of 8 weeks is divided into two parts of four weeks each, one part preceding delivery and another part succeeding delivery. Besides, it also dealt with casual and privileged leave, compensation in cases of injury and pension.

 

 

Ambedkar also believed that women have the right over their own body which is still not being practiced in developed countries like USA. For e.g Abortion Rights. He said that conception was a choice that women should make.

 

He argued for reproductive rights for women, recommended that birth control facilities be made available to them and was a strong advocate of women’s reproductive freedom. He also pushed for family planning measures for women, and ensured the enactment of universal adult franchise, thereby legalising voting rights (earlier reserved only for the privileged) for women and several other minorities and marginalised people.

 

 

The aim behind these rights was to let them have their freedom of choice, which in turn led to their empowerment. Through the Hindu Code bill, women—who earlier had not been allowed to sell property while they were alive, and after their death, their property would go to someone in their husband’s family—were granted ‘absolute right’ in matters of property.

 

Apart from reforming property rights, he also introduced two ground-breaking clauses—namely, the restitution of conjugal rights, and judicial separation. These allowed women the personal choice and freedom to file for legal divorce.

 

• the Hindu Marriage Act (1955) which gave women the right to divorce, and maintenance in some cases
  
  
• the Hindu Succession Act (1956) which gave them the legal right to inherit family property
  
  
• the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (1956) which allowed women to legally adopt a child
  
  
• the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956) which allowed a woman to be the natural guardian of her child.

 

His influence also led to the passage of various other pro-women acts like the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976, the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the Family Courts Act, 1984, Protection of Human Right Act, 1993, The Maternity Benefit Act 1961, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, The National Commission for Women Act, 1990, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, to cite a few.