"Sexism as a cross-party political tool undermines women's dignity in India"
Cognisable offence
an offence for which police can register an FIR and arrest without a magistrate's order.
POSH Act, 2013
Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment Act; mandates Internal and Local Complaints Committees in workplaces.
The Indian Constitution guarantees equality before law under Article 14 and prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex under Article 15. Article 15(3) specifically empowers the State to make special provisions for women and children, forming the constitutional basis for affirmative action in political representation. Despite these guarantees, the structural participation of women in Indian politics has remained limited: women constitute roughly 15% of Lok Sabha members even after the 106th Constitutional Amendment (2023) — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — which reserves one-third of seats but makes that reservation operative only after the next delimitation. The gap between formal constitutional commitment and actual political culture is wide, and the use of gendered rhetoric as a political weapon is one of the most visible symptoms of that gap.
Historically, Indian political discourse has oscillated between celebrating women leaders and deploying misogynistic language against them. The phrase goongi gudiya — attributed to socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia in reference to a then-Prime Minister — illustrates how even ideologically progressive formations have not been immune to gendered attacks. The Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment Act, 2013 (POSH Act) and the Indian Penal Code provisions on outraging modesty (now carried forward under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) provide legal recourse, but their application in politically charged contexts has been inconsistent, as the wrestlers' protest case demonstrated.
The phenomenon described in the article — the instrumentalisation of women as political symbols — operates at two distinct levels. At the rhetorical level, women are invoked, demeaned, or weaponised to diminish political rivals, reducing individual women to proxies in contests that are fundamentally about male political power. At the institutional level, political establishments demonstrate selective accountability: harassment allegations against allies are minimised or delayed, while identical conduct by opponents is amplified as evidence of moral failure.
The wrestlers' protest case is instructive. When women athletes alleged sexual harassment against a sitting Member of Parliament who also headed the Wrestling Federation of India, the institutional response was slow. It required sustained public protest at Jantar Mantar and a Supreme Court intervention before the Delhi Police registered an FIR in what was a cognisable offence — meaning police had a legal duty to register the case without requiring a magistrate's order. …
Democracy's superior virtue lies in the fact that it calls into activity
Which of the following correctly describes a 'cognisable offence' under Indian criminal law?
Consider the following statements regarding Article 15 of the Indian Constitution:
1.Article 15(1) prohibits the State from discriminating against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
2.Article 15(3) empowers the State to make special provisions for women and children.
3.Article 15(4) was inserted by the First Constitutional Amendment to enable reservations for socially and educationally backward classes.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Assertion (A): The Women's Reservation Act (106th Amendment, 2023) has not yet come into operational effect despite being enacted.
Reason (R): The Act makes women's reservation in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies operative only after the next delimitation exercise is completed and notified.
Which of the following is correct?
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