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Around 200 million women in the world are victim of a life threatening practice known as the female genital mutilation. This heart wrenching operation is practiced basically in the north eastern, eastern and western Africa along with the Middle East and south East Asia, Europe and America. In this dreadful operation, babies who are only a couple of days or weeks or months old are put through a destructive surgery which involves removing the genital organs from their body with an objective of inhibiting the sexual feelings that might arouse in future.
The worst part of this practice are the terrifying consequences that a girl child has to face throughout her life. In short, it is more of a lifelong punishment for being born as a girl in a society filled with pointless taboos. The immediate effect mostly includes severe bleeding, infections, tetanus, Paralysis of the bladder or blood poisoning and sadly, if a child can’t take it, it even results to death. In long term, the victim is subjected to infertility, psychological trauma and pain while urinating and during menstruating.
The stigmatic belief that cutting the genitals of women will keep them in control is absolutely absurd and it rather takes the lives of young girls in most of the cases. But a gadget has been able to prohibit this practice in most of the countries and save the lives of millions of girl child. This gadget is no other than a law which is implemented in these countries to forbid this system of removing the genitals and if found, the parents or the people who are responsible for it are put behind the bars. Laws are the product of the society and they are responsible for the social transformations in the society. Without them, a society is paralyzed. Moreover, the stereotypical beliefs of the society against the inferiors prevails as the superiors feels a right over them in the absence of the control by law.
A society can be better described as a shelter of the weak animals (human beings) who can easily be lured by the materialistic gains such as the financial riches, power, luxuries, etc. Humans can’t escape themselves from the sniff of these money-oriented gains and they often cross their boundaries for it. Thus, laws are created to prevent humans from the wrongdoings. This shows the inseparable relationship between law and the society. It is believed that both the society and the law come hand in hand and they came into existence at the same time. According to the biblical history of creation, when god took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it, he ordered the man that he is allowed to eat freely from any tree in the garden except the tree that has the knowledge of good and evil in it. If he goes against his command, he will have to lose his life as a punishment. It proves that laws were created for the governance of the mankind and is necessary for shaping an individual as well as communal moral behaviors.
Change is inevitable. At some point of time, whether it be a human or a society, it changes. Social change is a universal phenomenon as it remains constant in all the societies. The phenomena is constant but the pace of social changes differ from society to society. It is observed that the rate of the social evolution in the urban areas is usually high as opposed to the rural areas. It also varies according to the age. Thus, Social transformation occurs and there are a lot of factors behind it. Like, it may be due to the changes in the education system, ecosystem, demography, and technology, and ideology, changes in the economies, political lives, urbanization, and industrialization and so on. It is necessary that the law should transform itself according to the requirement and the necessity of the society. Laws created for the society should always remain updated according to the contemporary form of the society on the basis of the technological advancements made, transformed ideas and ideologies and so on.
Let us now look at some examples which proves that laws are an instrument for social change.
1. INFANTICIDE :
Infanticide can be simply described as the killing of the infants willingly. Though it is now made illegal, this was widely practiced in the ancient times. It was mainly done to dispose of the unwanted children. If we talk in context of the Asian countries, some people even do it to prevent the birth of a girl child. They believe that girls are a burden to the family and can’t support them financially. Other than this, some infants were killed mercilessly because they were born with some disabilities. These deformities made the parents consider their child more of a waste, lifelong burden and may lead to financial difficulties. Due to this factors, they had to lose their lives. It is believed that in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras the infanticide rates varied from 15 to 50%.
In India, the female infanticide prevention act was passed in 1870 in order to cease the murder of the female infants.
2. SATI PRACTICE:
Sati was a largely historical practice in which the widows were bound to sacrifice themselves by sitting atop her deceased husband’s funeral pyre. It was mainly practiced by the Hindu women in the various regions of the south Asia. While it was described as voluntary in some cases, it was seen that in some cases it was forced too. For being a part of it mandatorily, sometimes it was found that the women were drugged with opium and tied to the pyre so that they couldn’t escape it.
This heart wrenching practice was abolished on December 4, 1829 in India.
3. HINDU WIDOWS REMARRIAGE ACT:
The life of the women whose husband died was more of a hell in the ancient times. They had to go through a lot of discrimination and were usually suppressed by the society. Widows were not allowed to perform any ritual in the functions like marriage, child birth, etc as they were considered to be impure. Getting married again was considered to be a sin and they were mainly a left out member of the society.
The enactment of the Hindu Widow’ Remarriage Act was a major social transformation that occurred in the year 1856 to improve the condition of the widows in India.
4. EARLY MARRIAGES RESTRAINT ACT:
Popularly known as the Sarda Act, the early marriage restraint act was imposed to fix the age of marriage for girls and boys in India. Due to this practice, lots of girl child were deprived of education and had to suffer from various reproductive issues and pregnancy related deaths. Other than this, they often become a victim of the domestic violence like being beaten, slapped or threatened by their husbands as opposed to the older women.
5. THE HINDU SUCCESSION ACT:
This act was passed for the amendment of the law relating to the interstate or the unwilled succession. According to the rules of the Hindus, the properties were usually passed on to the sons rather than the daughter. This law abolishes the Hindu woman’s limited estate and provides her full power to deal with the property according to her consent.
6. FACTORY ACT:
The factory act was implemented in the year 1948. This act was imposed for maintaining the safety, health, efficiency and well-being of the person at work places.
7. ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOUR:
Children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood and snatching away their right is more of a crime. The child labor protection and regulation act which was passed in 1986 prohibits children below 14 years of age to work. The act has also listed 17 prohibited occupation and 65 processions in schedules A and B.
Looking into the Indian society of eighteen century and comparing it with current Indian Society, we can easily observe that the Indian society has evolved to a huge to extent in order to reach its present state. And the continuous introduction of new law in the society which were mostly contradictory to the contemporary social custom and belief of Indian society is the key reason behind it. The role of Law is undeniable in transforming the conservative Indian society, where Sati Practice prevailed, into an open and liberal society which acknowledge the right of LGBT community. And this sole example signifies that Law is really an instrument to the change in Society.