Page 13 - NIS English 2021 November 16-31

An equal share of the women in the workforce as men can

shoot up India's GDP by 27 per cent and the growth rate by
1.5 per cent. With this thinking, the central government has
given top priority to the safety of women in the last few years
and has made strict laws against triple talaq, violence, and
crimes against women, so that women can be empowered.

Various initiatives of the Government aims to provide an equal
opportunity to women to enable them to play a significant role
in the development of the nation. To make women aware of

their rights, the United Nations celebrates 25 November every
year as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women. Under this background, let's find out about the
various efforts undertaken to secure a new India for women.

he incident is from Mumbai, the financial capital of the country. On 30th
November 2019, Jannat Begum Patel's husband divorces her using triple talaq
Tby sending a message on her WhatsApp. Jannat was 7 months pregnant at
that time. Her in-laws were harassing her for a long time for dowry. One such incident
happened in December 2020 in the Jaspur area of Uttarakhand where a woman
named Mumtaz was divorced using triple talaq. She was thrown out of the house by
her husband after the demand for dowry was not met.
You must have heard many such instances of triple talaq before 2019. Like the
very famous case of Indore-based Shah Bano. But times have changed unlike
Shah Bano, Jannat and Mumtaz filed a case against their husband and in-laws
under the new triple talaq law. Jannat is the first woman in the country to file
an FIR against her husband on August 2, immediately after the implementation
of this historic law on August 1, 2019. In both cases, the husband has been
arrested. Justice remained elusive for Shah Bano but now the Muslim women
are getting their rights. The importance of this law can be gauged from the fact
that in just two years after the implementation of this law, there has been a
reduction of 80 to 82 percent in the cases of triple talaq, which provides a sense
of self-respect and security to Muslim women. Before the law came into force
on August 1, 2019, more than 63,000 cases of triple talaq were registered in
Uttar Pradesh, while 221 cases were registered after the law came into force. At
the same time, only 49 cases were registered in Bihar after the implementation
of the Act. Whereas before the law was passed, there were 38,617 triple talaq
cases in Bihar.
Be it girls or young women, women or elderly mothers, if they are showing
resilience to fight then it has been made possible because of the legal initiatives
taken in the last few years by breaking social taboos so that every woman can
fight by being aware of her rights. In the case of violence against women, the
legal provisions have been made so strict and expeditious that in cases like rape,
victims have started getting justice quickly and on time instead of waiting for
several years. In some cases, the decision has started coming even in 24 hours.
A POCSO Court in Jaipur has recently given its verdict in just 9 days in the case

New India Samachar November 16-30, 2021 11