On September 6, 2018, after a long and hard fight, India finally struck down Section 377, thereby decriminalizing same-sex relationships. Lawyers and partners Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy played a key role in bringing about this change.
And now Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy are all set to take on The Marriage Project i.e. a project to legalize same-sex marriages in India.
At the speech that Guruswamy and Katju delivered at the Oxford Union, they stated that “India is a marriage country”. And thus, through The Marriage Project, they aim to provide an equal standing, legally and socially, to people from the LGBTQ+ community.
We are not simply a family society, we are also a marriage society…The reality of that country is that gay people and straight people, left-handed people and right-handed people, all aspire for one thing in common – to find love. And for many who find love, they also aspire to have the law and society recognize, protect, affirm, and give legitimacy to that love. One way of doing that, is marriage.
-Menaka Guruswamy
And on October 14, the Delhi HC began the hearing for plea seeking marriage equality for same-sex couples.
The hearing ended with the HC issuing a notice to both, UOI and Delhi government, and setting the next date of hearing for January 8.
In a country that still struggles to accept inter-caste and inter-religious wedding, despite it being legal, The Marriage Project will clearly be an uphill task. But, it is also an important one, and it’s heartening to see Guruswamy, and her legal team, take the first step in legalizing same-sex marriages in India. Because it’s high time we stop policing love.