This study explores criminal justice reforms for women in India through the New Criminal Laws, 2023, comprising the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. These laws seek to move aspects of India’s criminal justice framework beyond inherited colonial legal structures, while raising continuing questions concerning dignity, consent, equality and implementation. Key reforms include expanding the definition of sexual offences, recognising forms of violence through digital platforms and introducing victim-centred procedures, such as simplified reporting and audiovisual recording of statements. The analysis shows that the new legal framework expands statutory and procedural protection for women, but its practical significance depends on judicial interpretation and institutional capacity. However, institutional weaknesses in policing, prosecution and judicial administration continue to limit their effectiveness.
Fiscal decentralisation is a cornerstone of democratic governance in India, evolving from the colonial period into the post-independence constitutional framework. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Indian Constitution, brought a scholarly understanding of public finance and decentralisation, rooted in his doctoral research at Columbia University on ‘Provincial Finance in British India’ and his Doctor of Science (DSc) thesis at the London School of Economics on ‘The Problem of the Rupee’. These works laid the intellectual foundations for India’s fiscal federal structure and underscored the centrality of financial autonomy to effective self-governance. Ambedkar’s constitutional vision consciously adopted the ‘individual’, ‘not the village’ as the basic unit of democracy, in contrast to Gandhian idealism, reflecting his concern that decentralisation without financial safeguards could entrench local hierarchies and perpetuate social exclusion. This article is written in the context of the centenary of Ambedkar’s PhD thesis, which was first published in book form in 1925. The article employs a qualitative historical-analytical approach to examine his vision of fiscal decentralisation and its enduring relevance for democratic decentralisation. The article concludes that, from an Ambedkarite perspective, true democratic decentralisation requires financial autonomy, social accountability and equitable resource distribution, not merely functional devolution.
