By: Swati Singh
Despite decades of progressive efforts, there is still a great deal of inequality in workplaces across the country . In the recent years , government , employees and many businesses have worked to stamp out issues involving salary discrepancies between genders but as long as social justice is an integral part of the constitutional fundamental rights and judges remain sensitive , gender justice will remain non negotiable article of faith. Women in India are frequently considered to be the second gender especially during initial years of India’s independence when women literacy in India was abysmally low. According to a survey conducted in 2019 , women in India are paid approximately 19 % less than men . The participation of women in the workplace is only 26% with merely 9 % being in any kind of leadership position . Nevertheless , we had women like C.B Muthamma who were able to successfully cross all the stereotypical hurdles and crack one of the toughest exams in the country, the Civil services exam(UPSC).She became not only the first women to crack the exam in independent India but also the first woman foreign diplomat of India.
In 1949, CB Muthamma joined the Indian Foreign Services and became the first Indian women diplomat and then the first Indian women ambassador/High Commissioner. But for achieving the Ambassador post , she had to struggle a lot in order to establish the gender equality in India of male-dominated Indian civil services. Her struggles started with the UPSC board interview where the board members tried to persuade her to change her first option for the Indian Foreign Services. In the end , she was given abysmally low marks , in spite of which she topped the Foreign Service list and became the first woman IFS officer in 1949. When she entered the service , she had to sign an undertaking that she may be required to resign from her job once she got married.
According to this outlandish rule intact at the Ministry of External Affairs ,, Kishen Raina in his Indian foreign service journal stated that Mrs. Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea and Mrs. Rama Mehta were among those who had to leave the service. . In addition to facing everyday preconceptions against women in Indian society , which got reflected in the ministry , Muthamma was not accepted by several ambassadors citing various reasons as to why it was inappropriate to send a women to the station .Finally , she was first posted to the Indian embassy in Paris. It was there she understood that it is not only Indian diplomats who had problems with female colleague but also her peers in other embassies who were equally not at ease in dealing with a women in workplace . She then served in Rangoon , London and of Pakistan and America desks in the Ministry of External Affairs in new Delhi.
The turning point of her career was when she was overlooked for promotion to Grade 1 , the highest level of Secretary to Government of India , of the Indian foreign services .The Ministry Of External Affairs had not promoted CB Muthamma to the post of foreign secretary. After carefully weighing all the pros and cons, Muthamma took Ministry of External Affairs to the court in 1979 when she was denied to the promotion to Grade 1 of the service on grounds of merit. She petitioned the government , claiming that she had been overlooked for promotions and that the rules governing the employment were discriminatory.
The case was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1979 during a landmark judgment by a three-member Bench headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer. The Foreign Service was described as ‘misogynist’ by the judgement of Muthamma’s case . The Supreme Court Judgement ensured that henceforth it was not mandatory for ladies officers within the IFS to hunt government’s permission for getting married.
Muthamma’s struggle inspired many other women to follow in her footsteps.The constitutionality of anti woman rules and laws was successfully challenged during a series of historic legal cases. Air India had similar discriminatory rules which were challenged within the case of Air India Vs Nargesh Mirza (AIR 1981 ). It is ironical that even today, whether explicitly or implicitly, unmarried women are preferred for employment in government and personal sectors and married women are considered ineligible. Women are sacked the instant they demand maternity leave. Among the well heeled, family pressure begins to create on women to quit their jobs after marriage. Fearing sexual violence and harassment at the workplace, an out sized chunk of girls feel safer taking care of their household and rearing children. Is this not slaying of women rights by the system?
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