Gender-Just Family Laws and Feminist Engagements in South Asia Resistance, Resilience, and Reforms

Saumya Uma is Professor and Dean of Faculty of Law, Manipal University Jaipur, India. She worked previously as Professor of Law and Director of Centre for Women’s Rights at Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India. She has over 32 years’ combined work experience as an academic, law researcher, law practitioner, trainer, writer and campaigner, working at the intersections of gender, law, and human rights. She has taught family law for over ten years and worked as a matrimonial law practitioner in Mumbai courts for several years prior to the same. She has published several articles on aspects of family law and gender justice. She has served as a research consultant with the UNDP, UNOHCHR and the International Commission of Jurists. Her latest monograph titled ‘Violence, Gender and the State’ was published in 2024. Dr. Uma is a life member of Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS), member of Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (GCEFL), among others. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of Indian Journal of Gender Studies .

Sarasu Esther Thomas is Professor and Director at Manipal Law School, Bangalore Campus, India. She has worked at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) from her LLM days in 1996. She has held various leadership positions during her tenure with NLSIU, including the position of the Registrar of the University. She headed the Centre for Women and the Law and set up the Ford Foundation Human Rights Lawyering Project at the Law School. She was also Chair Professor, Ford Foundation Chair on Public Interest Litigation. She has handled projects and consultancies with the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women, Tata Trusts, UNDP, UNODC and others. She has served on bodies including the Steering Committee on Women’s Agency and Child Rights for the Twelfth Five Year Plan, and the Drafting Committee, Legislation on Matrimonial Property, National Commission for Women among others. She has served on the Boards of Studies of Universities and Complaints Committees under the POSH Act of governmental and non-governmental institutions. She is also a Founding Member of the Alternative Law Forum.

Prakriti Malla is Assistant Professor at the School of Law, GD Goenka University, Sohna, India. She is also Visiting Researcher at Department of Law, Uttara University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She completed her PhD from South Asian University, New Delhi, India, where her research focused on the intersection of private international law, international organisations, and international family law. Dr. Malla previously served as a faculty member at Nepal Law Campus, Tribhuvan University and the School of Law, Kathmandu University, Nepal. She has also gained international research experience through internships at the Hague Conference on Private International Law (2022), Hague, Netherlands, and UNIDROIT (2025), Rome, Italy. Her scholarly work includes publications in national and international journals on various issues in family law, particularly international parental child abduction, same-sex marriage, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign divorce judgments.