Challenging gender stereotypes: CJI Chandrachud cites years of him caring for ailing wife

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud today in a lecture dwelled on gender pay gap and homemaker's rights in India. "As a society we ascribe certain roles to certain persons and these roles may not be based on objective but subjective grasp of ability, gender, caste, disability often are the basis of roles we give to ourselves," Bar and Bench reported.

Women, he said, purely on the grounds of gender are often perceived as natural caregivers who must tend to domestic needs of family while men must take care of the remunerative aspect of the family .

"It is so untrue," he added, citing his role as the sole caregiver for a spouse who was battling cancer for almost a decade. National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Chandrachud's first wife, Rashmi, had died from cancer in 2007


"Much as we give designated roles to gender.. these roles are location sensitive.. we have demarcated public and private space where each of this is performed," he added.

The Chief Justice said the purpose of law has to be expanded to safeguard participants in both public and private spaces. The Indian Penal Code, he said, provides that when two or more persons disturb public peace by getting into a brawl, they are said to commit an offence.

"This is punishable only if it is a public place and not otherwise. Thus, the thrust of the law is not only the inherent merit or demerit of brawls, but where it is taking place. A holistic, constitutionally governed society must be willing to look beyond this binary of public and private," the Chief Justice said.

The CJI said that a household as a private space is a site of economic activity for a homemaker who is not remunerated for her service.

"Similarly public places women are confined to distinctive service oriented and often sexualised occupations and thus both sides have rights and their infringement. However if law chooses it will interfere only in latter that is public space then that law will be unjust," he said.

Speaking on the gender pay gap in India, he said, "Despite legal interventions, discriminations persist. For example, workplace discrimination, microaggressions, and unequal opportunities continues to undermine equality.. gender pay gap is a reality for women.... the pay gap widens as it intersects other form of discriminations."

The judiciary while recognising intersectionality of gender and disability it has taken note of indirect discrimination which women may face, he said, adding that an architectural audit was recently completed in Supreme Court and such audits help in removing the physical barriers of access to justice for the disabled.