Wednesday 18 March 2015

Antonym Of Patriarchy - Factories Act, 1948


Deepak, a poor labourer was smoking and chatting with his fellow mate during break at the factory where he worked.

"What do I do Hasan Ji? My wife died last month leaving behind chutki, my 6 month old."

So? women die all the time. get a new wife.

No, I can bring up my daughter alone, even if I AM a majdoor. I will educate her someday.

But you work round the clock. Where will u leave the child? Alone at home?We poor labourers do not have the money to afford a caretaker, my friend.

Hasan bhai, Why is there no cretch in the factory? I don't understand. There are people here with kids. I cannot work knowing my daughter is alone at home, I AM HER FATHER

No use deepak bhai, last month few modern arrogant asses in black & white suit buit came here to give us help. Apparently, they called themselves laayers.

They started giving advice what we should do.Chameli asked them to give cretches. They said that the LAW says

A factory will have to provide cretches only if there are 30 or more women employed and we have only 20 women.Aghast by such a prima facie stupid law, Deepak spoke up, "so the children of these 20 women don't count? or because there are only 20 woman does the law think it as an unnecessary waste?

I don't need their education to understand that on an average if there are 2 children per woman, 40 children should have no security because both their parents are poor labourers earning their bread at factories while they may cry to the deaf walls of home!!!

And what about me? Am I not a parent or will the law decide that too for me, for my fellow workers, for a man whose wife is not there to take care of children for whatever reason? Because I am a male, I am not allowed the natural right of taking care of my daughter by a LAW.

One day, Deepak went home and found his daughter missing. . . his 6 month old daughter...

"without giving her education...he lost her..."

What should have deepak done?


  • Married twice against his will because that is what the law implies, if you want a child, you need a woman.
  • What if deepak's ship sailed to the other side and he adopted chutki? If he married a man, would he be then allowed the benefit?
  • What should a man do if his wife left him? Give up the child because he cannot keep it with him?

There are endless cases. Deepak is just another one...

My question is, why is law deciding on a patriarchal form of society? Who is law to decide that? Is it law or the law maker's wish?

Replacing the term woman with person is not such a difficult task. Why is it taking so many years? Where is the scope of so called "intellectual discussion"?

The feminist school of jurisprudence says that a feminist does not mean that I want a female dominated society. It means I want equality where both are equal and differential treatment where both are unequal.

If a female is born to procreate, then very obviously men cannot get maternity benefit until they change their sex. If a man is facing harrassment from the woman, instead of criticizing a feminist, go ahead , file a case or an FIR which in India, is sure to scare many. . .

Why I wrote this is because criticizing is the easiest job to do... you criticize what you wont change

Note: This article or author does not support extremist behaviour neither is written in favur of feminism. The purpose of this article is to show the failure of law using the example of factories act in India and the real meaning of the word feminist forgotten by the feminist supporters themselves.


What this law said:

As per the provisions under Section 48 of the Factories Act, 1948 any factory employing 30 or more women workers are required to provide creche facilities for the use of children under the age of 6 years for the women employees