Know the law

The Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence begins TODAY.

We're delighted to announce the launch of a new series on this blog, 'Know the law', by Sandhya Ramaswamy, one of our volunteers who is a law student at ILS Law College in Pune. Over the next 16 days, Sandhya will outline and explain the basic provisions of several laws related to the issue of gender violence and violence against women.

For the last two decades, there has been sustained lobbying and advocacy by women's organisations, for effective legislation. As a result, India has several strong laws on many different of violence including pre-natal sex selection and domestic violence. A law on workplace sexual harassment and substantial revisions to legislation on rape are also in the pipeline.

It is up to each one of us to become legally literatre, to know our laws, understand how we can use them. Of course, legislation isn't a one-step solution - there are issues related to effective implementation of the laws as well as other concerns outside the judicial sphere.

But the fact is, this is a critical step towards eliminating violence against women. So follow the Campaign Chronicle, know your laws and of course, feel free to give us any relevant feedback.