Daughters and sons

Public discussion has proved of immeasurable value in this instance. The present Bill is a greatly improved version of the draft the Cabinet had cleared last December. The new Bill incorporates important changes put forward by a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which in turn had accepted the suggestions of legal experts and academics who had studied the issue. Consequently, the scope of the legislation has been considerably expanded. Now, for instance, married daughters will no longer be excluded and widows will not lose the right of inheritance on remarriage. Similarly, the heirs of pre-deceased daughters will be treated on a par with the heirs of pre-deceased sons.

Fortunately there is a political consensus at the national level for such a measure, a fact that the Union law minister has acknowledged. This is as it should be. Half a century after women in India were granted constitutional equality and decades after several states unilaterally changed their property laws to make them more gender-just, this is the least that can be expected from our law-makers.