Looking back at the feminist fabric of India's Constitution

The gendered assumption that ignores the contribution of women to the new charter constricts the full enjoyment of what it offers to the people, particularly women

- Madhavi Goradia Divan

The Constitution was a charter for change. It called for the disruption of a deeply entrenched social order defined by inequalities of caste and gender, community and colour. The social revolution that the Constitution heralded is attributed almost entirely to the "founding fathers". The gendered assumption that ignores the contribution of women to the new charter colours our reading of the Constitution and constricts the full enjoyment of what it offers to the people of India, particularly women. That there were 15 founding mothers in the Constituent Assembly, and their very presence shaped a feminist vision, far ahead of its times, is often overlooked. The Constitution was not an act of paternal benevolence, as Achyut Chetan compellingly argues in his book Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic. The voices of these founding mothers transcend the text of the Constitution. Their aspirations resonate in the moral content of the directive principles where one finds the clearest statement of the constitutional vision for women.

Three-quarters of a century ago, at a time when there were very few women in the formal workforce, the framers of the Constitution laid the ground for creating conditions conducive to women entering the workforce in a very significant way. That itself was a radical break from the past. While the fundamental rights contained in Part III were made enforceable rights, unlike the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV, it is the latter that gives us an insight into the role the Constitution framers foresaw for women as equal partners in the workforce and in the task of nation building.