Women’s groups in Goa have called for justice rather than uniformity to be the first priority in their initial comments sent to the Law Commission of India’s call for views on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The groups comprising several NGOs working for women’s welfare have expressed concern that a state like Goa, which already has a uniform civil code, could stand to lose positive provisions women already have like equal rights to parental property among others.
“We come from the location of a state that has near uniform family laws. There are also provisions in Goa’s family laws that are uniform in discrimination, there are also provisions that are uniform across religions but not substantially equal, and there are also provisions that may be different but can enable empowerment, given our realities. Therefore, we believe that the goalpost has to be justice for all stakeholders in the family, and for all communities, rather than uniformity,” the statement signed by six women’s collectives said.
“We are concerned that in the rush for a UCC, we in Goa may lose the positive provisions we have, like equal rights to parental property, as also the possibility of working towards reforms in each specific family law, including the family laws of Goa,” the groups said.
{{/usCountry}}“We are concerned that in the rush for a UCC, we in Goa may lose the positive provisions we have, like equal rights to parental property, as also the possibility of working towards reforms in each specific family law, including the family laws of Goa,” the groups said.
{{/usCountry}}Explaining uniform discrimination, advocate Albertina Almeida said the code gives the husband the right to administer properties, including the properties that belonged to the wife prior to marriage.
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“The right to administration of the properties of the couple, without exclusion of the exclusive properties of the wife, is the prerogative of the husband. Thus, the law makes the ‘control’ button available to the husband. This provision is uniformly applicable to all communities. Is this the uniformity to aspire for where one gender is privileged to control across all communities?”
The groups have sought more time to deliberate and then share their views on the UCC.
“A month’s time does not suffice to deliberate on complex matters covering a wide range of areas such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession, guardianship, adoption, marital property, inheritance, different forms of property, and other related matters such as gender just tenancy rights, ‘gender-just comunidade’ (village communities as in Goa) holdings, community holdings, positions on conflict of laws, that has repercussions for us in Goa, for the whole country and for its diverse populations,” the groups said.
“The atmosphere has to be created for people to articulate the challenges they face in accessing the law or because of the law, which cannot easily happen within a rhetoric where laws of a section of society are cherry-picked for critique. This kind of attitude can only drive women and marginal stakeholders in the family to silence,” advocate Almeida, speaking on behalf of the groups, added.
Dating back to the year 1867 when it was first enacted in Portugal before being extended to Portugal’s overseas provinces (including Goa) in 1869, the Goa Civil Code law has been praised for being more “gender just” than similar laws in other states.
The Goa code includes mandating compulsory registration of marriages before a civil authority, ensuring that the wife is an equal inheritor and is entitled to half of the couple’s “common assets” including those inherited by her husband in the case of a divorce.
The code also stipulates that parents must compulsorily share at least half of the property with their children, which must then be equally distributed among them with daughters entitled to an equal share.