The red carpet’s “naked dress” is a tired and tried trope
Some see her as a victim of a domineering and abusive husband. Others assert her right to dress (or not) as she pleases. Bianca Censori, the wife of rapper and designer Ye, the man formerly known as Kanye West, has been notoriously tight-lipped about what she thinks about nudity, the female form, her husband or even, for that matter, the weather. That inscrutable face reveals nothing that the body attached to it so generously reveals. Since she got married in 2023, Censori has almost always been photographed wearing very little by Kanye’s side in what New Yorker calls a “pure,…
Mind the Gap: ASER survey finds the kids are (more than) alright
There’s a lot to be happy, and hopeful, about the latest ASER or Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) that has since 2005 measured Indian schoolchildren’s ability in reading, writing and arithmetic. Fears that the pandemic, when India had one of the world’s longest school closures, would disrupt learning outcomes and lead to children being pulled out of school have proved unfounded, the survey released earlier this week found The nationwide household survey of 649,491 children in 15,728 schools in 605 districts across 29 states finds that children are not just back to pre-pandemic levels of learning, but have exceeded…
When law seeks to make the State the Big Brother
The first uniform civil code in independent India could have been an opportunity to showcase a progressive template for other states. It ought to have restricted itself to marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance—areas governed by personal laws that create discrepancy among citizens. Instead, the state of Uttarakhand has taken on the role of Morality Police by inserting a clause that requires couples cohabitating together to register on an online portal. There’s a 16-page form, liability on landlords and certification by a religious leader that the couple is eligible to marry should they so desire. It’s an odd requirement for a…
Mary Ellen Iskenderian: Why the financial inclusion of women matters
One billion women around the world are estimated to be out of the purview of the financial sector. Closing the gender gap “would be the right thing to do as a matter of equity alone,” writes Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the president and CEO of Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global non-profit that seeks to provide low-income women access to financial tools and resources. Ensuring women’s independent access to finance has another more profound impact on human development. “There is ample evidence that she will spend that money in ways that contribute directly to the well-being of her family…when money in…
Why American companies are wrong to roll back DEI policies.
It’s a tiny word, an acronym to be precise, but few topics have been as explosive or divisive as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Donald Trump’s America. In an election campaign where Trump made race, gender and ‘wokeism’ central issues, promising to rollback DEI initiatives and scoffing at Kamala Harris as a ‘DEI candidate’, no surprises that vast swathes of corporate America has quickly fallen into line with its own announcements. The most recent to join the party is Meta, the parent company for Facebook and Instagram. Days after scrapping its third-party fact-checking programme, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it…
Why we need to talk to boys about rape
In Kerala, India’s most developed and literate state, an 18-year-old Dalit athlete has revealed to social workers that she has been sexually abused since she was 13 by 64 men. Gang-raped five times in as many years, she says. Let that sink in. At the time of writing, police in Pathanamthitta district have detained 42 people and 30-odd cases have registered. The girl is now in a shelter home, and I can only hope she is receiving the counselling and care she undoubtedly needs. Who are these men? Their ages range between 17 and 47. Their names are Amal, Adarsh, Joji…
Why L&T’s SN Subrahmanyan needs to talk to more women
Larsen & Toubro chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s advocacy of a 90-hour work week is deeply problematic on so many levels that it merits examination beyond the usual 24-hour social media cycle. In a video on Reddit apparently during an employee interaction the 64-year-old was asked why the multibillion-dollar conglomerate was making employees work on Saturdays. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays…because I work on Sundays,” the CEO retored. Then, he added, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” A 90-hour, seven-day week works out to just under…
The Challengers: Women who shook the status quo in 2024
BBC has a list of 100. Financial Times has just 25. But writing from an Indian perspective, viewing India from within, who were the women who made the most impact? Who were those who would not give up whatever it took? And who are the changemakers to remember? These are the women, from India and the rest of the world, who moved me this year. Gisele Pelicot: Breaking the silence By refusing the anonymity allowed to her as a rape survivor under French law, the 72-year-old grandmother is challenging the narrative on how we talk about rape. “It is not…
Breaking the gender glass ceiling across disciplines
Hope lives in the town where the daughter of an autorickshaw driver grows up playing in the paddy fields of Wayanad, Kerala. At a school for tribal children, a sports teacher senses promise. And so begins S Sajana’s cricket journey, her ₹150 daily allowance enough to keep her going. Earlier this year, when she was picked for ₹15 lakh by Mumbai Indians for the Women’s Premier League, she was able to pay off her family’s debts. Hope shines through Gwalda village in Haryana’s Mewat district where non-profit Cequin found it impossible to recruit girls to play football in 2012. This year, when the…
Death, tragedy and serious accusations in Bengaluru
What can we learn from the tragic death by suicide of a Bengaluru techie tormented by demands he said his estranged wife and her family were making on him? In a 24-page note and 80-minute video, Atul Subhash details instances of ugly marital strife including what he describes as extortionist demands: ₹3 crore to settle cases filed by his wife, another ₹30 lakh for visitation rights to his four-year-old son. He talks also of the legal process—40 trips to the family court in Uttar Pradesh—and, specifically accuses the trial judge of harassment and corruption. A police complaint has been filed against the…
Absolutely the best books by Indian women in 2024
There is much to be concerned about the year gone by. The politics was the most divisive that I can remember. Wars and genocide raging and women’s rights from Afghanistan to the US under attack. Unabated crime and violence against women and the sobering reality that for too many of us the home is the most unsafe place to be. And then, there were the books Provocative, lyrical, brutal, honest, thought-provoking, entertaining, wry, heart-rending. What were some of the best books of 2024? My four judges are prolific readers and writers. They come from journalism and publishing. Coincidentally, since none…
The misguided debate over declining fertility
In his concern over declining fertility and prescription for women to have more children—three please—RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat joins the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. If Bhagwat’s stated apprehension is the fading away of languages and culture with dwindling populations, the chief ministers know a smaller population could impact both budgetary allocations and Parliamentary representation. The angst might seem premature in the world’s most populous nation of 1.4 billion people. Yet, around the world from South Korea, which has the world’s lowest fertility rate at 0.78, to the European Union, where the number of births in the 27…