In an open debate on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday, India underscored the urgent need for the body to begin the robust integration of women into sanctions regimes, “including listing terrorist groups in armed conflicts that carry out violence against women.”
“Violence against women and girls perpetrated by terrorists deserve our strong condemnation. Such women-targeted violence distorts the very basis on which civilized societies rest,” the Indian delegate said.
Additionally, the Indian side also noted that humanitarian crises and conflict situations further hold back girls and women from achieving progress, stating that “The further burdening of the health care and the economic fall-out of COVID-19 threatens to put women and girls in war-torn, fragile and humanitarian contexts at even higher risk.” In this vein, the representative stressed that the advancement of rules-based democratic structures in post-conflict states is necessary to address the gendered inequalities faced by women so as to “ensure their full and meaningful participation for peaceful and inclusive development.”
The Indian delegation stressed that member states of the Council are committed to implementing the WPS agenda by increasing the number of women peacekeeping troops, both civilian and uniformed. He pointed out that women currently make up merely 5.4% of military and 15.1% of the police forces deployed in peacekeeping missions. In 2007, India had sent the UN’s first all-women Formed Police Unit (FPU) for its peacekeeping mission in Liberia, which the delegate said provided a critical backbone needed to police gender-based and sexual violence.
Lastly, India reiterated its support to working for the meaningful involvement of women in issues of security of peace, claiming that it has been successful in mainstreaming women in leadership roles, especially as part of the country’s political process. The delegate claimed that more than 1.3 million elected female representatives in India spearhead public policy formation at the grassroots level. They noted that the systemic and structural patriarchy fuels inequalities and discriminatory power dynamics, inhibiting women’s rights, and effective conflict mitigation. India stressed that the WPS agenda could be transformative if member states move from verbal commitments to actionable changes in government structures and civil society.
However, for a country that has diplomatically distanced itself from directly commenting or getting involved with post-conflict states, India does not provide a strong enough precedent for democratic reform. Not only does it lag far behind in women’s political participation in top leadership roles, but it has failed to mitigate violence against women or create safe and inclusive spaces for them to prosper. Notably, only three of the 24 officials holding portfolios in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet are women, from whom one—Harsimrat Kaur Badal—resigned last month over disagreements regarding the government’s newly introduced farm bills. Further, only three others have been designated as Ministers of State. A recent scandal involving a top leader from the political opposition calling his female opponent an “item” also raised alarm about underlying attitudes against women in politics.
It is difficult to verify the Indian delegate’s claim of over a million women being involved in grassroots policymaking, since most of these processes are informally structured. However, the pandemic has brought to light the government’s severe ill-treatment of Accredited Social-Health Activist (ASHA) workers, who are mostly women and have been grossly underpaid and underequipped despite their crucial roles as frontline workers in the grassroots’ public health sector.
Further, the past few years have seen an increase in brutality and sexual violence against women, with several cases involving social and political leaders. In the recent Hathras horror, there were shocking reports that political leadership in Uttar Pradesh supported the accused and eventually denied that the victim was even raped, and that they claimed that it was an international conspiracy. Further, reports claiming that political leaders disallowed the lower-caste family of the victim from speaking to the media and participated in the disposal of the body of the victim by carrying out a police-led cremation at midnight sparked global outrage, bringing up several questions about the reality of marginalized women’s rights in India, especially under the current administration.
India is not a signatory to the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, and marital rape is still a legal reality in the country. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports from 2019 show that of more than 405,000 reported cases of crimes against women, over 30% were those of domestic violence. These numbers are expected to increase multifold due to coronavirus-induced lockdowns and rising unemployment rates that are forcing women to stay home with abusive family members.
Most importantly, with respect to the WPS agenda, India has not yet developed a WPS National Action Plan (NAP). Further, more in-depth investigations into its Liberia mission showed that female officers’ participation centred more around providing caregiving support rather than roles in the military aspects of the mission. Therefore, at its core, the initiative was not aligned with the primary goal of UNSCR 1325 that demands the equal recognition of women as partners at every stage of security governance. Sending women as part of infantries, but restricting their roles in participation is lip service at best and does not make a dent on the resolution of larger gender disparities, especially in the armed forces. In its own military, India has allowed women to hold permanent commissions, but they are still prohibited from combat roles. The Modi government has also not spoken of any explicit nationalized policy that focuses on conflict prevention or centring the role of female participation in these processes as per the WPS agenda. Moreover, a drafted national plan on women’s inclusion in security submitted to the Union Government by the Control Arms Foundation of India in 2015 failed to gain any political traction.
Therefore, India’s focus on the WPS agenda at the UNSC meeting must be taken with a grain of salt. It has rubbished the UN’s criticism of its inaction towards cases of violence against women as “unwarranted.” At most, it is a talking point for the country in foreign policy circles but fails to be a domestic policy concern for the government.
India Calls for UNSC to Integrate Women in Peace Processes
However, the country's domestic track record shows a shaky commitment to the WPS agenda.
October 30, 2020
Women officers of the Indian Formed Police Unit (FPU) in Liberia, 2008. SOURCE: UNMIL