The colour purple and the issue of gender parity

Last year, the Supreme Court reimagined many existing biased perceptions against women and has paved the way for novel jurisprudential foundations to end gender inequality.

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"EACH time a woman stands up for herself , without knowing possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women" – Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist.

International Women's day stands symbolic of not only solidarity towards the overall ostracisation and discrimination against women, but also as a beacon of hope for fostering objective goals for governments to prioritize. The reasons behind celebration of International Women's Day are manifold and need no reiteration at the cost of repetition. Amongst myriad hues associated in symbolic representation of the varied causes for the achievement of gender parity for women, the colour purple has been an overarching theme this International Women's Day. Dating back to 1908 when the shade was included to connote justice and dignity in attempts to attain gender equality, in toto what it denotes are the achievements achieved and those left to be achieved.

In a similar vein, the Constitution of India embodies constitutional morality that seeks to reconstitute the society while being sensitive of the fact that old hierarchies cannot be merely wished away. The onus of transition is on the State that truly imbibes the transformative character and pursues it via stimulating the various organs of the government towards achieving the said goals. A common buzz-word which has often found parlance in academic debates and judicial discursive spheres is 'transformative constitutionalism' wherein the central role of the State is centred on fulfilling the emancipation and constant development of constitutional ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer quite succinctly opined in one of his Supreme Court judgments that, "To interpret the Constitution rightly we must understand the people for whom it is made – the finer ethos, the frustrations, the aspirations, the parameters set by the Constitution for the principled solution of social disabilities."