The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud has called out the practice of shunning the employment of women in fear of 'sexual harassment allegations' terming it as 'unfortunate'.
While addressing a gathering at the event to lay the foundation stone for additional court buildings in the District Court campus at Madurai and the Inauguration of the District and Sessions Court and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Mayiladuthurai, the CJI highlighted the issue of the low representation of women in the legal profession.
He blamed the 'stereotypes' that exist against women for lower employment of women overall in various industries as it makes it difficult for them to get recruited.
He pointed out that in Tamil Nadu alone, for every 50,000 male enrolments, there were only 5000 female enrolments and that similar statistics prevail in the whole country.
With respect to the legal community, he said that the same stereotypes make Advocates restrained in hiring young women lawyers for Chamber. One of the prevalent ones is that women will not be able to put up with long working hours due to personal or family commitments.
The CJI stressed that women shouldn't be 'punished' for taking up different roles and responsibilities and rather should be provided 'institutional support'.
"We should understand that childbearing and child care is a choice and women should not be punished for taking up that responsibility. A young male lawyer might also choose to be involved in child & family care. But as society we force the responsibility on women and use it to deny them opportunity. If women want to balance family and career, it is our duty to provide institutional support," he said.
In this regard, he urged the Courts to provide creche facilities
inside the court complexes in line with Delhi High Court to support
professional women in balancing out families and careers.
Highlighting another major stereotype, the CJI pointed out that male employers are relatively reluctant in employing women as they assume 'sexual harassment allegations' is a highly likely probability and consider it 'safer' to not include women at all.
"Such stereotyping denies opportunity and ridicules the innumerable stories of sexual harassment at workplace. We must strive to constantly and consciously unlearn these biases", he said.
Stating that the trends are positively shifting, he cited the recent recruitments to the district judiciary which accounts for almost 50% of women. The CJI highly emphasized that it is important to provide women with equal opportunities so that they don't fall by the wayside for undertaking multiple responsibilities.
The CJI also once again reiterated that Junior Lawyers should be paid fairly and mentioned that poor entry-level pay disproportionately affects the members of marginalized communities.
He urged the Senior members of the Bar to shed the 'paternalistic' approach and start giving a fair share to the younger generation which he praised as sharp, hardworking, and hungry for work.
The CJI prompted them to have broader conversations with the young clan and said that they will be pleasantly surprised by their 'fresh approach'. Discussing the issue of language barriers, he asked the young advocates to not be disappointed for not conversing in eloquent English and requested the judges of the High Court to encourage young lawyers.
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(With input from news agency language)
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