In India, there’s no one-size-fits-all coming out story. While some members of the LGBTQI community are lucky to have supportive families, others pay a heavy price In a society where the Indian Psychiatric Association clarified only as recently as 2018 that homosexuality is not a mental illness, where there is as yet no explicit ban […]
Mind the Gap | Coming out is not a ‘one-step process’ Read More »
India’s #MeToo movement left out the voices of 195 million women in the informal sector Many women employed in the informal sector have normalised sexual harassment as one of the many workplace hazards. Like their counterparts in the formal sector, they don’t speak up because they are either unaware of their legal rights, scared of
Expanding the ambit of the MeToo movement | Opinion Read More »
The withdrawal under social media pressure of a Tanishq ad that depicts an interfaith marriage tells us that even in modern India some alliances continue to be out-of-bounds. Provisions in a law that enables secular marriage are, ironically, often a tool for harassment. My story with Surbhi Karwa for Article-14. When she was in the
Khabar Lahariya, a women-led digital platform that today counts 30 reporters and stringers across 13 districts in Bundelkhand has, for close to two decades, been chronicling a side of India that is seldom written about. “The family is pleading that they have no strength to speak but the media has not stopped thrusting mics into
A model for rooted, inclusive journalism | Opinion Read More »
How a digital platform in Bundelkhand is telling the story of rural India through a feminist lens. At Hathras, a gaggle of media and OB vans has descended on the house gutted by tragedy. Reporting from the scene, Khabar Lahariya’s editor Kavita Bundelkhandi and reporter Meera Devi have clambered up onto the roof to take
To say don’t make the Hathras incident about caste is ignorance and privilege. But the systemic oppression of Dalit women isn’t new The outrage over Hathras is justified and necessary. But there is nothing new about the systemic oppression of Dalit women aided by State-backed institutions: The police who won’t file FIRs, lawyers who urge
Being a Dalit woman in modern India Read More »
Couples who wish to marry under the Special Marriage Act must serve a 30-day notice during which their personal details are on public display. This violates their privacy and leaves many vulnerable to parental and community reprisal. In October last year soon after ‘S’ informed the district magistrate’s office in Lucknow that she wanted to
Couples who wish to marry under the Special Marriage Act must serve a 30-day notice during which their personal details are on public display. This violates their privacy and leaves many vulnerable to parental and community reprisal Hadiya’s marriage was eventually restored by the SC, but serves as a cautionary reminder that Indian society, including
The autonomy to choose one’s partner Read More »
The spike in child marriage, a side-effect of the pandemic, threatens to reverse gains by years of activism. But a government proposal to raise minimum age to 21 for girls is not going to solve the problem, I write in Hindustan Times Gita got married when she was 12 but, like most married girls in
There has been a surge in child marriage, a side-effect of the pandemic. But to reduce child marriage at any time, expand opportunities in education and work, rather than increase minimum age of marriage Gita got married when she was 12 but, like most married girls in her village in Rajasthan, continued to live with
Covid-19 and the spike in child marriages Read More »
India’s army of community health workers feels invisibilised despite the critical role they play in fighting Covid-19 On August 7, 600,000 Ashas and 100,000 anganwadi workers went on strike across India. Their demands: Better pay, health insurance and protective gear(Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO) Sunita Rani knows the meaning of hard work. As an accredited social health
Covid-19 and the heroic role of women health workers | Opinion Read More »
India’s army of community health workers, the one million Asha workers and 1.3 million anganwadi workers, are invisibilised despite the critical role they play in fighting Covid-19 Sunita Rani knows the meaning of hard work. As an Asha — the acronym stands for accredited social health activist — her days used to start at 7
India’s one million strong fighting force of women Read More »