We feel the quest for the ultimate legal provisions that, by way of social enginering, will accomplish social reform an sich, has to be shifted towards a more integrated strategy of providing a solid legal basis for ongoing social agitation. The slogan Let s not built castles in the air was echoed several times, calling for legal realism. A good exemple was set by the discussion of compulsary female education as an important remedy component. While several delegates defended legeslative work on this, Ms Jethmalani pointed out that this is a matter of implementation since the compulsary education for both boys and girls is already provided by the law upto 14 years of age. Obviously passing a law is not the end of the story.
Social reform requires changing the mindset of the people.
As we learnt in this conference a lot of initiatives, linked to the broader context of dowry abuse, are already up and running for several years, delivering very good work. Subsequently we feel that the first step in any plan aiming to generate immediate live saving mechanisms has to start by taking into account the work that has already been done. One of the rather cynical lessons social work has taught us over the last years is that organisations are often claiming a certain social problem, becoming rather resistant in working together with like-minded initiatives. This is exactly the reason why, in announcing and organising this conference, we have been stressing its crucial function of bringing people together. Throughout the panel discussions it became clear that the delegates, from various backgrounds and organisations, represented an invaluable amount of expertise.