Fair sex fares badly in judiciary

KOCHI: Kerala might never have been a model when it comes to placing its women in key positions of power. But despite this bleak background, the picture presented by the judiciary seems to be alarming. The figures of women holding various positions in the courts show that as the seniority level  goes up the proportion of women goes down. So much so that there are only two women judges in the state and two designated senior advocates.There are a total of 34,879 advocates in the  state, according to the figures with the Kerala Bar Council. Of these 10,891 are women. This would mean approximately 1 female advocate for every 2 male advocates (10,891:23,988). In the Kerala High Court, on the other hand, there are a total of 5,313 enlisted advocates, according to the Advocates Association of the High Court of Kerala. The association does not have separate lists for female and male advocates. But the Kerala Federation of Women Lawyers has 538 women advocates enrolled as life time members. But the members in the organisation say the actual number of women lawyers must be much higher. “There are many women lawyers who are not regular practitioners here. They are enrolled in the Advocates Association but not here. If you count them and the non-life time members, the total number of women lawyers should be around 1000,” said advocate Suhara Muzhra, executive committee member of KFWL.This would mean that the High Court roughly has 4,313 male advocates and 1,000 female advocates taking the proportion to 1:4, while across the state it is around 1:2.  But this proportion takes a massive dip when it comes to senior levels. There are a total  of 74 designated senior advocates in the Kerala High Court, out of this only 2 are women. This would mean a proportion of 1:32 or 1 senior woman advocate for her 32 male counterparts. Meanwhile, there are only two women judges out of a total of 29 judges in the High Court. Moreover, till 2006, there were no women designated senior advocates at all in the Kerala High Court. The lawyers list several reasons for the high drop out of women at senior levels. Flexible timings, break in the profession caused due to marriage and pregnancy, long working hours, low number of law firms in the state, individualistic nature of the professional etc are some of the reasons. “The working culture in litigation is such that women find it much more difficult to sustain. In other states there are a number of firms where work is done collectively. This will offer better opportunities. In Kerala law firms especially those under women are very less. Here a woman has to single-handedly establish herself under a senior lawyer. This might take many years. Moreover, once there are breaks in the profession it also takes time to re-establish herself,” says advocate Sandhya Raju, Director of Human Rights Law Network.But senior members in the profession say now the situation has become much better. “Now we find more and more women are dedicated to the professions. We have come a long way from the days when very few women took to the profession,” says retired High Court Chief Justice K K Usha.