JOIN USNo holistic development without gender justice, says PM Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said 1.3 billion Indians have disregarded apprehensions and "wholeheartedly" accepted recent critical judicial verdicts which were subjects of global discussion.
Modi was alluding to the judgement related to long-pending Ayodhya dispute.
Speaking in an International Judicial Conference 2020 on 'Judiciary and Changing World' attended by judges from over 20 countries, Modi said no country or society of the world can claim to achieve holistic development or claim to be just society without gender justice.
He said our Constitution guaranteed gender justice under the provision of the right to equality. India is among the few countries of the world which have ensured the right to vote for women since independence. After 70 years, their participation in elections is at its highest level.
“For the first time in India, the enrolment of girls in educational institutions is more than the boys. This is on acount of successful programmes such as Bedi Bachao Beti Padhao,” he said.
Modi said the government has brought about many changes by allowing appointment of women in military service, in selection of fighter pilots and giving them freedom to work in the mines at night, to ensure gender justice. He also cited the law ensuring transgenders rights and making triple talaq punishable offence in this regard.
He said India is among those few countries of the world which allowed paid maternity leave of 26 weeks to career women.
Chief Justice of India S A Bobde the success of the rule of law in countries depended on how the judiciaries responded to such challenges and how they emerged.
He said at the heart of the Constitution was the individual as the rights were recognized as ‘fundamental’. These rights, however, have been beautifully balanced with the demands of public order, morality and health.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi who once said “real rights are a result of performance of duty”, the CJI said fundamental duties imposed on every citizen to abide by the constitution, and respect its ideals and institution were a neglected feature of our Constitution.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said rights and duties have to be balanced. One should speak her mind, ask questions but in a manner that identity of India remained intact and respected, he said, maintaining the terrorist and the corrupt had no right to privacy.