Changing the Terms of the Discourse

Excerpts from Towards Equality

Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1974)

Guiding Principles and Criteria

1.35 Our guiding principles and criteria follow naturally from our terms of reference: The first of these are the values and goals put forward in the Constitution, namely equality and social justice.

1.37 Equality is an article of faith in our Constitution and guaranteed by specific articles: We could therefore, treat this as a settled fact, for which no discussion was necessary. Our investigation, however, proved that there was still considerable ambiguity as well as ambivalence in the general understanding of the need and implications of sex equality in our country.

1.38 The history of the discussion on women’s rights, ...