"Women's protest rights and paternalistic state responses in Indian democracy"
Participatory Parity
Nancy Fraser's principle that social justice requires equal capacity to participate in public life, not merely formal legal equality.
Article 19(2)
Constitutional provision listing the grounds on which free speech may be restricted; does not include mere offensiveness or impolite tone.
The Indian Constitution establishes a formal architecture of gender equality that is among the most comprehensive in the world. Article 14 guarantees equality before the law; Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex; and Article 15(3) specifically empowers the State to make special provisions for women and children, providing the constitutional basis for affirmative action. Article 19(1)(a) guarantees freedom of speech and expression to all citizens, subject only to the reasonable restrictions enumerated under Article 19(2) — which include sovereignty, public order, decency, and morality, but do not include the mere offensiveness of language or the gender of the speaker.
Despite this formal framework, the structural participation of women in Indian political life has remained limited. As the NCERT Democratic Politics textbook notes, women's representation in the Lok Sabha had barely crossed 14 per cent even by 2019, and their share in state assemblies has historically remained below 5 per cent. The 106th Constitutional Amendment Act (2023) — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women, but this reservation becomes operative only after the next delimitation exercise, meaning its practical effect is deferred. The gap between constitutional aspiration and political reality is thus not merely statistical; it is also cultural, manifesting in how women's political expression is received, policed, and framed by both state actors and public discourse.
Historically, as the NCERT account of the nationalist movement illustrates, women's participation in public life has often been welcomed symbolically while their substantive authority within political organisations was curtailed. The Congress during the freedom movement was, as the textbook notes, "keen only on their symbolic presence" even as women took on significant roles in civil disobedience. This pattern — visible participation, invisible agency — has persisted into contemporary democratic politics.
The article under analysis identifies a specific and recurring phenomenon: the application of a double standard to women's political expression, whereby the same conduct — profane or aggressive language during protests — is normalised when performed by men but pathologised when performed by women. This is not merely a cultural observation; it has direct constitutional implications.
Article 19(1)(a) protects speech that is impolite, provocative, or even offensive, as long as it does not fall within the grounds specified under Article 19(2). The Supreme Court has consistently held that the right to protest is a fundamental right, and that the state cannot condition the exercise of that right on the manner of expression meeting a standard of civility set by those in power. The language of "forgiveness" extended by a state authority to protesters therefore mischaracterises the constitutional relationship: citizens do not require absolution for exercising a fundamental right. …
Consider the following statements regarding 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam':
1.These provisions will come into effect from the 18th Lok Sabha.
2.After becoming an Act, this will be in force for 15 years.
3.It has provisions for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes Women within the quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
With reference to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (106th Constitutional Amendment, 2023), consider the following statements:
1.It reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.
2.The reservation will come into effect from the first Lok Sabha constituted after the next delimitation exercise.
3.It does not provide for any sub-quota for women belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Supreme Court's judgment in Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M. (2018) — the Hadiya case — is primarily significant because it held that:
Assertion (A): Women's political expression in India is often subjected to a civility standard that is not applied equally to men's political expression.
Reason (R): Article 19(2) of the Constitution explicitly permits the state to restrict speech on grounds of gender-based decency norms.
Which of the following is correct?
Which of the following constitutional provisions, taken together, form the primary legal basis for challenging the application of a gendered double standard to women's political expression in India?
1.Article 14 (equality before law)
2.Article 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex)
3.Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression)
4.Article 32 (right to constitutional remedies)
Select the correct answer using the codes below:
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