Safeguards or Symbolism? The Enforcement Crisis of Women’s and Children’s Rights in India

Abstract

Protection and empowerment of women and children remain at the forefront of the Indian Constitution framework by giving equality, justice, and dignity to the relationships and marginalized families. Despite an established Constitutional and legislative framework, the reality of lived experiences manifests systemic indifference and persistent socio-legal disparities. While the Indian Constitution enshrines provisions such as equality, prohibits exploitation, child labor, and affirmative actions for the empowerment of women and children, bureaucratic inefficiencies, cultural and institutional barriers hinder its effectiveness. The paper critically explores the disconnect between constitutional ideas and their limited realization through legislative safeguards. Additionally, the study considers whether the provisions effectively address children’s and women's vulnerabilities, and whether the intended purpose amounts to results.  The paper uses a mixed-methods approach by combining doctrinal analysis with empirical research to assess whether rights-based safeguards for women and children are adequate. The paper comprehensively discusses the statutory law, the government reports, the NCRB, the NFHS data, and real-world case scenarios to explore the real-world implementation effectively. The Findings reveal stark disparities between legal mandates and their ground-level enforcement, including a 4% increase in violence against women and overwhelming judicial backlogs (95% case pendency). While judicial activism has expanded, these protection failures, such as inadequate victim support, infrastructure, and gender-insensitive law, undermine its efficiency. The paper underscores collaborative multidimensional reforms from all stakeholders, such as judicial capacity building, accountability, and targeted grassroots-level programmes to combat these challenges. The research indicates that going from constitutional commitments to social action entails legal reform and conscious and transformational change to protect the rights of women and children in India.