Social legislation in India has often been bogged down by implementation issues. The law against the practice of triple talaq brought by the Narendra Modi Government, fortunately, has proved to be a welcome exception.
As PM Modi pointed out during his campaign for recent state Assembly elections, “Triple talaq law saved thousands of Muslim women; they feel safe under BJP Government.” The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act was passed by Parliament on July 30, 2019, amid protests from the Opposition, which blamed the Government for targeting only the Muslim community.
Its impact became visible when the cases of triple talaq came down by 82 per cent within two years of the law coming into force on August 1, which is celebrated as the ‘Muslim Women’s Rights Day’.
At the time of its introduction, Modi-baiters within t the Parliament and outside derisively dubbed it as yet another example of targeting the minority community by the ruling BJP. However, as the then Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad put it, the legislation was brought because the Muslim organizations, particularly, the