Late last month the Prime Minister of India opened up a new political battlefront when he declared intentions to set the ball rolling for introducing a uniform civil code (UCC) -- a law that will apply uniformly across religious and ethnic communities across the country to replace the currently diverse set of personal laws that govern marriages, succession, divorce and other aspects of family life in India.
The Law Commission of India has also opened up a window for suggestions and objections as part of the process of “consultation” on the UCC and has offered a 30-day period to send suggestions and objections.
Understandably, there has been concern expressed across the country including from Goa, where the women’s groups have questioned the short duration since, “a month’s time does not suffice to deliberate on complex matters covering a wide range of areas such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession, guardianship, adoption, marital property, inheritance, different forms of property, and other related matters such as gender just tenancy rights, gender just comunidade holdings, community holdings, positions on conflict of laws even for a small state like Goa never mind a large and diverse country such as India.
Adding to the confusion, the Union government hasn’t offered any kind of proposal or proposition on what is the draft of the code that they intend to introduce but has only raised the issue -- in what appears to be a bid to politically profit from a year ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections to be held next year. However, worryingly, given the huge diversity in the country, there is no way of knowing how this can turn out and how it will play out, especially in the hands of a government whose intentions are suspect.
Concerns have been raised not just among India’s religious minority communities including Muslims, but also among tribals and other vulnerable groups that do not identify as belonging to the loosely defined ‘majority’ community in India and could yet play out in ways that could end up embarrassing the ruling BJP.
The demand for a UCC is an age-old demand that predates Independence. At the root of the demand is an urge to regulate polygamy that is not banned among Muslims, while being largely banned for other communities depending on the personal laws they follow. Women’s groups in Goa have argued that Goa could end up being a net loser if a uniform civil code is implemented across the country as several women's positive provisions and gender-just provisions, could be wiped out if they are not specifically protected.
More importantly, if a code is to be implemented, it needs to be discussed in a dispassionate, threadbare manner, and one in which women’s opinions and choices are actively considered -- the present atmosphere of majoritarian bullying is not ideal for the kind of discussion that needs to take place if we are to have a civil code that is not just, ‘just’ but also pro-women.
As the Goa women’s NGOs have stated: An atmosphere has to be created for people to articulate the challenges they face in accessing the law or because of the law, which cannot easily happen within a rhetoric where laws of a section of society are cherry-picked for critique. This kind of attitude can only drive women and marginal stakeholders in the family, to silence.
