(Source: UNICEF) India’s improvement by eight places, or 1.4 percentage points, to 127 out of 146 countries is a result mainly of the recognition by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which conducts the annual rankings, of women’s participation in local governance where 33% of seats (50% in some states) are reserved for women. Last year, India had […]
Iceland still #1 for women. India at 127 Read More »
I am on the phone with the wife of one of my oldest friends, let’s call her ‘A’. It’s April 2020, I remember this because we’re marooned in our homes (and we’re the lucky ones who aren’t trudging back home on foot) just days into the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24. ‘A’ tells
How India’s raja betas are using weaponised incompetence to wriggle out of housework Read More »
The question to ask five months after India’s most celebrated wrestlers began their unprecedented protest is: What does it take to ensure justice for women? What does it take to ensure justice for women?(Hindustan Times) Perhaps the question to ask now, five months after India’s most celebrated wrestlers began their unprecedented protest against Wrestling India
What does it take to take down patriarchy? Read More »
The stabbing and bludgeoning to death (I’ll spare you the details) on Sunday night of Sakshi, a 16-year-old girl in Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy, allegedly by 20-year-old Sahil Khan, a man she had earlier been in a relationship with, raises many, many disturbing questions. Chief amongst these is: What could possibly breed this level of rage
Murder in public view: Five questions Read More »
In today’s connected world where figures, images and voices are a click of the mouse away, do we really expect the world to believe that India is all malls, highways and high-rises. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Of all the madcap ideas to come out of the Commonwealth Games, possibly the worst is the one
India must stop living in denial Read More »
At 60 she learned to cycle. At 62 she became a long distance runner, running 50 km+ distances. And at 64, she took her first solo holiday to Kashmir. Pushpa Bhatt, now 67, says she has a “good 25 years ahead” to go to places she’s never been. In the past, she’s travelled alone on
The irresistible charm of solo travel Read More »
Can we reimagine ways in which the humble bicycle can improve mobility for older women? India’s heaving metropolises are simply not designed for women. The focus on multi-lane highways and flyovers ignores women—and the differently abled and elderly. The metro rail does provide a speedy commute; what’s lacking is last-mile connectivity and affordability (HT PHOTO)
Freewheeling women Read More »
(Source: Amazon Prime) Perhaps the only thing more chilling than the fact that so many girls have gone missing from their homes in the TV series Dahaad is the utter indifference of their own families. There is a complete lack of curiosity about their whereabouts and well-being. Why? Because “she-ran-away-and-brought-dishonour-to-the-family-name-so-she’s-dead-to-us”. Written by Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar and
The mystery of the girls who go missing Read More »
The 36-year-old rape survivor in the Muzaffarnagar riots. (Image Source:Raj K Raj/HT Photo) When the riots broke out in her village in Muzaffarnagar that day on September 8, 2013, her husband had taken their elder son who had a fever to the hospital at Shamli. She was alone at home with their three-month old baby boy.
The survivor’s tale: The unacceptable price of justice Read More »
In the patriarchal dustbowl of India, sport has been the key to transforming the lives of girls. Now, a generation of girls stands to lose what their predecessors laid out for them A prolonged protest could derail the progress of the past few years. The website Scroll reports that the wrestlers’ agitation has already resulted
The wrestlers’ protests can save the akhada Read More »
For some weeks now, India’s top court has had marriage on its mind. One five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is hearing why the LGBTQI+ community should be (or should definitely not be, depending on your perspective) granted marriage rights at par with other citizens. Another five-judge bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishen
Marriage on our minds Read More »
The wrestlers are strong, articulate, disciplined winners who’ve travelled all over the world and are public figures in their own right. Yet even they had to knock on the Supreme Court’s doors for the most basic demand of getting the police to do their job and lodge an FIR (first information report). On April 21,
Battling the Bahubali muscle: women’s struggle for justice against powerful politicians Read More »