---------------------------------------------------------- Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ----------------------------------------------------------
Rotary District Conference in Goa 30 January - 2 February, 2004. Theme: Uniform Family Laws. Gender mainstreaming in inheritance laws exists only in genetics. Civil laws enacted the world over are either matriarchal or, more generally, patriarchal in nature. Either the sons or the daughters inherit family properties. It is only in Goa that both sons and daughters have equal share in the property of their parents, on the death of either or both. It is rather peculiar that the vision enshrined in the Article 44 of the Constitution of Independent India finds its fulfillment in a law enacted during the colonial era in Goa. The "Directive Principle" in Article 44 reads thus, " The state shall endeavor to secure a uniform Civil code throughout the territory of India." Article 12 of the Constitution of Portugal recognises the family. It reads thus,"The State secures the constitution and protection of the family as the source of conservation and development of a generation, as the primary base of education, discipline and social harmony and as a foundation of political and administrative order." Such a provision is absent in our constitution. During the last conference on family laws at Goa in 1979, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Y.V. Chandrachud said, " It is heartening to find that the dream of a uniform civil code in the country its realisation in the Union Territory of Goa Daman & Diu. How many people outside Goa are aware of this, I cannot guess". The District Conference in January 2004, the centenary year of Rotary International, is designed to make more people aware of the successful experience in Goa since 1910 with compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages and a uniform civil code. -------------------------------------------------------
