JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA
VOL. 21, 2022
are a welcome boost to feminist campaigns for gender justice within intimate relationships
and living arrangements.
4. In Lieu of a Breakdown
Finally, what happens when these unions and partnerships break down? Even as far back
as 1887, we have the example of Rukhma Bai, who challenged the restitution of conjugal
rights and refused to live with her husband, claiming that she cannot be forced as she
was married off as a child. But what of those women for a majority of whom marriage is
the only means of economic security for themselves. In addition, women contribute to the
household through the unpaid and unrecognised labour, which leaves her without any
entitlement in the event of a breakdown of a marriage. The focus of laws dealing with the
personal realm has to be on providing gender justice, especially ensuring that women’s
invisible labour within the domestic (private) sphere is recognised and compensated.
Hence, the matrimonial home as the residence of a married woman has to be ensured in law,
along with equitable right of ownership and access to property belonging to the partners at
marriage. Additionally, the domestic work that women put into maintaining the household
and the care of the dependent and ailing members of the household should be part of the
maintenance. Proper calculations have to be made via inclusion of all the contributions of
women into the household (FAOW 2017).
In this connection, it is worth recalling a significant judgement of the Madras High Court
in 2009 in the case of compensation awarded to a child following her parents’ death in an
accident by the insurance company, where the court dismissed the company’s objection to
providing compensation for the mother’s death saying since both parents died in the same
accident, only the father needs to be compensated. The court was emphatic that both claims
have to be dealt with independently and on its own merit. The judgement is particularly
significant for the campaigns for gender justice within the family and the home, as Justice
Prabha Sridevan went ahead to comment that the monetary computing of the work done by
women is something that has not been really assessed, and says that the time has come to
scientifically assess the value of the unpaid homemaker both in accident claims and in the
division of matrimonial property. She refers to the UN Convention on Elimination of all Forms
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