A Study on the Role of Indian Constitution on Ensuring Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Joel Lalichan

Abstract: Man and woman are both equal and both plays a vital role in the creation and development of their families in a particular and the society in general. Indeed, the struggle for legal equality has been one of the major concerns of the women?s movement all over the world. In India, since long back, women were considered as an oppressed section of the society and they were neglected for centuries. The constitution declares that the equality before the law and the equal protection of laws shall be available for all. Similarly, there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground of sex. This article tries to evaluate the status of woman under the Constitution of India and how the Constitution as the supreme document play an important role in bringing gender equality in India and whether the goal has been at all achieved. After the analysis of various provisions of the Constitution it seems evident that the Rights guaranteed to women are at par with the Rights of men. Along with that, in some cases women enjoy the benefit of certain special provisions as well. This paper will also be briefing about the role of Judiciary in case of women empowerment and also movements initiated for empowerment of women in India.

Keywords: Women empowerment, gender equality, Indian Constitution, judiciary, Article 14