ERADICATING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION: LONG ROAD AHEAD?
Downloads
Keywords:
Discrimination, Human Rights Principles, EqualityAbstract
Female Genital Mutilation is practiced in more than 30 countries including India. The practice of female genital mutilation towards young girls is a very derogatory, barbaric and inhumane. FGM interferes with normal healthy female genital tissue and sexuality, and is a violation of every woman’s right to the highest attainable standard of health. FGM violates a series of well-established human rights principles, norms and standards, including the principles of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex, the right to bodily integrity, the right to life (in cases where the procedure results in death), and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. FGM reflects deep-rooted inequality and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. FGM is practiced in India by the name of Khatna or Khafz/Khafd by Bohra community, a Shia sub-sect found most prominently in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, although there are no official records on the same, but this has been going on behind the stage. This paper is an attempt to highlight the silent existence of this life-threatening practice behind the curtain of culture and religion, tracing the reasons for practice, its consequences, existing legislations, role of international organizations, lastly it emphasizes on the alarming need of a specific legislation on criminalization of Female Genital Mutilation in India.
External References to this Article
Loading reference data...
License Terms
Ownership and Licensing:
Authors of research papers submitted to any journal published by The Law Brigade Publishers retain the copyright of their work while granting the journal specific rights. Authors maintain ownership of the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Simultaneously, authors agree to license their research papers under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.
License Permissions:
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License, others are permitted to share and adapt the work, even for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given to the authors, and acknowledgment is made of the initial publication by The Law Brigade Publishers. This license encourages the broad dissemination and reuse of research papers while ensuring that the original work is properly credited.
Additional Distribution Arrangements:
Authors are free to enter into separate, non-exclusive contractual arrangements for distributing the published version of the work (e.g., posting it to institutional repositories or publishing it in books), provided that the original publication by The Law Brigade Publishers is acknowledged.
Online Posting:
Authors are encouraged to share their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) both prior to submission and after publication. This practice can facilitate productive exchanges and increase the visibility and citation of the work.
Responsibility and Liability:
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted research papers do not infringe on the copyright, privacy, or other rights of third parties. The Law Brigade Publishers disclaims any liability for any copyright infringement or violation of third-party rights within the submitted research papers.
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2026 by Shrinkhala Swaroop
The copyright and license terms mentioned on this page take precedence over any other license terms mentioned on the article full text PDF or any other material associated with the article.
