In India, moms are equal to dads - almost

Hariharan's lawyers tried to nullify two major pieces of legislation enacted by the Indian Parliament 43 years ago that govern marriage, minority rights, and guardianship.

During the period prior to and just after Indian independence in 1947, under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian constitutional law underwent what was then considered a progressive reform. The numerous disparate traditions and practices that existed throughout Hindu India were brought together, codified, and partly harmonized with a more modern constitutional tradition articulated by the ruling British.

Yet as noted by Jayanthi Natarajan, a female member of the Indian Upper House of Parliament, the Nehru reform "never intended to upset or substantially alter the power structure of the family." Women were to be given equal protection under the law, but only in the traditional role of wife and mother, and never on an equal footing with husbands or fathers.

For example, legally, crimes of rape and adultery are considered crimes against the husband if the woman is married. In cases of adultery brought by a husband, the wife is not allowed to speak in court. Property rights remain mainly with males in the family. Also, husbands are still considered "guardians" of their wives.

Even in the Hariharan ruling, the mother is not accorded absolute equal status with the husband. She is given the status of natural guardian in cases where the father is absent, delinquent, or abusive, and where she can argue her custody is in the best interest of the child.

Yet even the reforms of Prime Minister Nehru have not weathered the social and legal developments of the past 40 years, particularly the claims made by women in the West who have fought in courts and legislatures for equal status.

India is still struggling with orthodox personal laws. Hindus, Muslims, and Christians each have their own special laws that govern family relations and religious practices. Hindus make up 82 percent of India's population.

Impact in villages?

It is unclear how deeply the Supreme Court ruling on behalf of mothers will seep into a society where most women live at subsistence levels in villages governed by patriarchal sentiments. India in general is going through a period of increased religious conservatism typified by the Hindu traditional family-values platform of the ruling nationalist party. The minister of education this fall tried to ban the wearing of dresses that show schoolgirls' legs, and to require home economics for girls. The proposal was narrowly defeated and was later withdrawn, but the aim to place young girls in traditional roles persists.

To women like Hariharan, it is an open question as to whether the assumptions of gender equality they grew up with in post-independence India are not being rolled back.

Indian civil rights advocates take heart in a small but savvy generation of highly educated female college students who will not accept second-class status. They point also to a speedy ruling by the Indian Supreme Court in the Hariharan case, and the fact that even the opposing lawyer representing the federal bank agreed that the law needed to be changed.

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