Feminization Of Poverty In India: Legal Gaps In Addressing Gendered Economic Inequality
- IJLLR Journal
- 19 hours ago
- 1 min read
Reham Fatima, Bennett University
Aryan Thakur, Bennett University
ABSTRACT
Poverty in India has increasingly taken a gendered character where women face deeper economic deprivation as compared to men. This phenomenon is described as feminization of poverty but it is not just the result of social disadvantage but is closely related to law and policy structure access to work, property, and welfare. This paper examines how despite strong constitutional guarantees and judicial interpretations, legal frameworks in India fail to address the gendered economic inequality in practice. Drawing on various provisions, laws, and welfare schemes, the paper argues that the problem is not in the absence of laws but rather than in its limited gender-sensitive application and weak enforcement.
The paper highlights how poverty measurement and welfare delivery is household centric which doesn't give women an independent economic agency. It analyses the gap between formal equality in inheritance and labour laws, and the lived realities of women, particularly those in informal work. While it acknowledges certain institutional success, it also shows that they haven't been sufficient to reverse structural economic disadvantage. Ultimately, the paper contends that feminized poverty persists because law continues to treat women as dependents. It concludes by providing the recommendation of shifting from welfare-based approach to a legal framework which is justice oriented so that it recognizes women's economic rights as central to all the other constitutional guarantees.
