Daughter dearest

The judgment was based on Section 19 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, which recognises the daughter’s “independent and personal” right to her parents’ support during their lifetime if she has no means to a livelihood. As the Bench observed: “This provision also indicates that in a case of a widowed daughter-in-law of the family, if she has no income of her own or no estate of her husband to fall back upon for maintenance, then she can legitimately claim maintenance from her father or mother.” This is certainly a step in the right direction, but it is still only a step.

Inheritance laws continue to discriminate grossly against the daughter, who has no claim to ancestral property defined as any property held within the family for three generations and more. Some states in the country, like Andhra Pradesh, have introduced legislation to address legal injustices of this kind, but they are few and far between.

The pernicious effects of families discriminating against their daughters is already manifesting itself in disturbing ways. The demographic consequences manifested themselves in the 1991 census which registered the national female-male ratio dripping to a new low: 929:1000. From all indications, the 2001 census will reveal a further dip. Despite legislation banning female foeticide following sex-determination tests, and despite the country’s premier medical bodies having decided to punish doctors who stoop to provide such a service, the practice carries on regardless. There is also recent evidence of rising instances of female infanticide.

All this urgently demands an enabling environment for the girl child, and not just in terms of superficial gestures that a Prime Minister may wish to make from the ramparts of Red Fort in order to be politically correct. It is here that education for the girl child has a decided role to play.

Maintenance for the destitute widow is a worthy cause and must be supported. But, at the same time, every effort must be made to ensure that a daughter is not reduced to destitution, in the first place.