Supreme Court Calls Out The "Insidious Patriarchal System" In The Indian Army
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-03-27 06:22:04
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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Not hesitating to call a spade a spade, the Supreme Court lashed out at what it called an "insidious patriarchal system" which created structures that appeared harmless but were actually "a facially equal application of laws to unequal parties" which it termed a farce "when the law is structured to cater to a male viewpoint".
Although the court said this in respect of the denial of Short Service Commission to women in the army by applying discriminatory standards, it holds true in many other fields where, as the court said, "the structures of our society have been created by males and for males". Males set the standards and then act as doorkeepers to ensure that women are not admitted in areas where they do not want them.
In a landmark judgment that quashed the application of fitness standards of a 35-year-old male officer to women who were in the 40-45 age group, the court said that "the pattern of evaluation deployed by the Army to implement the decision disproportionately affects women".
Basically, without granting a favour to the women officers, the court ruled that the male norm has to give way to a more flexible norm that accounted for the difference in the physical structure of males and females and did not follow discriminatory criteria. The court noted that it was a matter of right for the women.
Gender bias exists in many fields in India and although the glass ceiling is increasingly being breached by outstanding women who have consistently shown that they are in no way inferior to their male compatriots, there is still a lot of hostility and resistance to admitting women in preserves that males have appropriated for themselves. This is mainly because the norms have been set by men. This will change after this landmark order and women will get their due as a matter of right.
