Ambedkar had vision for women's welfare

Dr BR Ambedkar, during his days of struggle for the freedom of the country, also opened the ground for women’s advancement and their release from long-standing social bonds.

Courtesy the legacy of intellectual and socially conscious individuals like Dr Ambedkar, India is one of the few nations that offers women adequate chances. Dr Ambedkar was of the opinion, “Unity is meaningless without the accompaniment of women. Education is fruitless without educated women, and agitation is incomplete without the strength of women.”

Women still find themselves in a contradictory situation where on the one hand, they are revered as goddesses and on the other, they are still harassed for dowry.

Dr Ambedkar had said, “I am a great believer in women’s organisation. I know what they do to improve the condition of society if they are convinced. In the eradication of social evils, they have rendered great service and I testify that from my own experience. Ever since I began to work among depressed classes, I made it a point to carry women along with men.”

Dr Ambedkar had presented an analytical study on artificially constructed gender relations under the Hindu social order that “not only shapes attitudes of Hindus towards their women but also conditions women to confirm to a stereotype”.

It effectively illustrates Dr Ambedkar’s vision for women empowerment. He put in every effort to imbibe a sense of women empowerment in the Constitution.

Dr Ambedkar proposed a number of ideas through the Hindu Code Bill to improve the Hindu system, one of which was the idea of civil marriages. He hoped that in the event of a civil marriage, caste and sub-caste would be abolished. He favoured the idea of outlawing polygamy and pushed for the legalisation of monogamy. — The writer is Minister of Power & PWD, Punjab, & research scholar at Panjab University