'Denying anganwadi job to unmarried women illegal'

JODHPUR: Marital status cannot be an eligibility criterion for "public employment", the Rajasthan High Court has said, terming the denial of an anganwadi worker's job to a woman for being unmarried as "irrational, discriminatory and violative of fundamental rights".

Taking a strong objection to the condition spelt out in the Department of Women and Child Development's advertisement for the post that an applicant must be a married woman, Justice Dinesh Mehta termed it as "ex facie illegal, arbitrary and against the very scheme of the Constitution of India which guarantees equality".

The court directed the government to process petitioner Madu Charan's application within four weeks from September 4, in accordance with the rules.

This was a classic case wherein discrimination encountered by women had been given a new facet, the HC said.

The petitioner, who had applied for the post at the anganwadi centre at Gudi in Balotara, was verbally told that she was ineligible, when she went to submit her application.

She moved the high court and contended that the eligibility criterion was "absolutely irrational, discriminatory and violative of fundamental rights of the unmarried candidates".

The government counsel argued that after being recruited, if a anganwadi worker or helper gets married and shifts to a new place, the work at the centre of her appointment would get hampered.

Rejecting the argument, the court observed that an entirely new front of discrimination had been opened by the respondents. The reason cited for denial of job "does not pass the test of reasonableness and prudence, and the mere fact that a candidate is unmarried cannot be a reason to disqualify her", the bench said in its order.

"Depriving a woman of public employment on the ground of her being unmarried, apart from being violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, also impinges upon a woman's dignity," the court further said.


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