Browsing by Subject "Gender Equality"

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Open Access
Access to Justice or Illusory Right? A Comparative Analysis of Legal Aid for the Protection of Women's Rights
(University of North Bengal, 2025-03) Sumit
The operationalization of women's rights, transforming them from abstract legal pronouncements into tangible realities, is fundamentally mediated by access to justice. State-provided legal aid services represent the primary mechanism for bridging the gap between formal equality and socio-economic disparity; yet, their efficacy remains a site of critical contestation. This paper examines whether these systems serve as genuine conduits for justice or, as this analysis suggests, merely an illusory right for the women they are designed to support. Employing a comparative analytical framework, this research examines the de jure promises and de facto realities of legal aid in India, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Grounded in the substantive equality standards articulated by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women particularly its General Recommendation No. 33 the study evaluates the structural integrity of each national model. The analysis reveals a 'paradox of progressive universalism' in India, where an expansive legal right for all women is systematically nullified by profound implementation deficits. By contrast, the United Kingdom's model presents a 'legislated illusion,' where fiscal austerity has deliberately curtailed access, weaponizing procedural hurdles like the 'domestic violence gateway' to exclude even its most explicitly protected beneficiaries. South Africa, in turn, illustrates a 'prioritisation paradox,' with its constitutional mandate for legal aid overwhelmingly resourced for criminal defense, thereby systemically marginalizing the civil justice needs most critical to women's empowerment. Ultimately, this paper argues that despite their divergent political rationales, these systems converge in their failure to provide accessible, high-quality, and responsive services. By foregrounding the persistent gap between legal promise and lived experience, this research contributes a critical, cross-jurisdictional perspective on the structural impediments to women's access to justice, challenging the assumption that the mere existence of legal aid frameworks equates to their functional reality.
Open Access
Women in politics: An analysis of Women Representation in State Legislative Assembly of Sikkim
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Bhutia, Karma Sonam
Gender equality in politics is still a distant reality across the globe, with only one-third of the countries exceeding the global target of 30 per cent women’s representation in legislative bodies. The under-representation of women in national parliaments, therefore, poses a problem in terms of both the practice and the theory of politics. In practical terms, the under-representation of women in political leadership is even more remarkable when one realises that women have succeeded in gaining access to other sectors of society in many countries. Moreover, equality between men and women is now a leading political principle across the globe. Taking part in decision-making however, in politics as well as in the private sector, typically remains a male privilege. As far as women is concerned, very few of them hold leadership roles in decision-making processes. This unfortunate reality holds true especially at the national and state levels and Sikkim is no exception to this. It is in this backdrop, this paper seeks to study the representation of women in politics in Sikkim and to shed light on the reason of low representation. Besides, the author also seeks to provide strategic and practical recommendations for advancing women’s representation at all levels in the decision-making process.