Show and tell

Show and tell

Drafting an actual Uniform Civil Code will give people better idea of what to expect. Considerable political energy has been expended in highlighting social injustices due to the absence of a Uniform Civil Code.

But the same vigor is missing when it comes to legislating UCC. For an issue festering so long, discourse has not progressed yet to drafting actual UCCs for jurists, lawmakers and citizens to weigh in on. In their absence public opinion is often shaped by ignorance and polarised views: barbs that one community is being exempted from equality before law and scaremongering on the other end that UCC will infringe upon religious freedoms. From shoot `n' scoot strategies ¬ using UCC as a convenient peg to beat up on one's political enemies. ¬ it is now time to progress to show and tell.

The Union government is awaiting a Law Commission report on UCC pitched as a “comprehensive exercise of the revision and reform of family law“. UCC will conflict with Sharia and even the government codified laws of Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis.

Many women are still unable to exercise their rights under these codified laws.

So the danger of UCC sliding off the reform agenda is very real.

Central to piloting UCC is consensus that religious personal laws cannot dictate or regulate matters of marriage, divorce, alimony and inheritance. Can a BJP-led government overcome conservative opposition to conceive a “secular“law that enforces complete separation between state and religion, as many Western nations have done? Those who argue this is not practicable in India suggest that equal rights for women can be achieved through legal pluralism and personal law reform. For example, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a petitioner in the triple talaq case, wants government to codify Muslim personal law first as it did for other communities.

It is not that UCC models do not exist. The Special Marriage Act 1954 already governs matters of marriage, divorce, and alimony outside the pale of personal laws. There is no reason why the age of consent, restrictions on polygamy, grounds for divorce, or rules for inheritance should differ for religious denominations. Over time the evolution of religion in patriarchal societies created unequal laws. While waiting for the Law Commission report, government and civil society can get to work to codify a UCC. The issue needs informed debate, not politicking and tu tu main main.