Gender Equality Should Guide the Process of Reforming Family Laws and Not National Integration

This chapter makes a powerful argument in favor of UCC from a very different vantage point. The author asserts that what we need is a “Uniform” Civil Code and not “Common” Civil Code. Evoking Ambedkar’s statement in the Constituent Assembly that the UCC need not be enforced on unwilling citizens, it is claimed that we should march towards a uniform regime of gender-just family laws but also draw from the diverse traditions and allow space for diversity. In his opinion gender equality alone should be guiding this process and the same could be achieved through gradual reforms of existing family laws.