On August 1, 2019, the act of pronouncing instant triple talaq in Islam became an illegal practice in India.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 made instant triple talaq pronounced in any form — spoken, written or via electronic means — illegal and void. Punishment for the husband pronouncing triple talaq includes up to three years in prison.
One year on, the Ministry of Minority Affairs will be commemorating the historic passage of this law on Friday. It comes a day before Eid-ul-Adha on August 1.
On Friday, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will speak with Muslim women via video conference at 11 am.
The groups of Muslim women will gather across ten different locations in the country to listen to the ministers as they speak via video conference.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs is calling this occasion ‘Muslim Mahila Adhikar Diwas’ (Muslim Women’s Rights Day).
The Bharatiya Janata Party has also started trending a hashtag on social media — #ThanksModiBhaiJaan — with videos from Muslim women thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government for abolishing the age-old practice of instant talaq.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, “One year ago, Narendra Modi government enacted a historic law to ban triple talaq, which is a landmark in our efforts for gender justice, equity and empowerment of women.”
As per data shared by the government, there has been a sharp decline in the number of cases of triple talaq being reported since the law criminalising the act.
A state like Uttar Pradesh, which reported 63,400 cases between 1985 to August 2019, averaging roughly 1864 cases per year, had only 281 cases reported in the last one year.
After Uttar Pradesh, maximum cases in the 34 years upto 2019, were reported from erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, with 41,382 such total cases. In the last one year, however, only 203 cases were reported from both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Naqvi called the passage of the law, a “defining moment in the empowerment of women”.
