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At the heart of the Supreme Court marriage equality hearings lie a host of patriarchal anxieties over the challenge to the definition of family Nobody can predict which way the courts will rule. But to listen to the proceedings, is to hear the story of a nation where people fall in love and dream of […]

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. The police met her, her partner and her father to conduct an ‘inquiry’. Why get married in court?

According to a 2015 Dasra report, 23% of girls eventually drop out of school because of a lack of menstrual hygiene facilities (HT PHOTO) At three of the four schools I attended, including a co-ed one, the uniform was a dress or skirt. Teachers were obsessed with the length of the dress, and let me

There’s never been a better time for women athletes in India The first time Anne Aiza Khan wore a pair of shorts was at a football tournament in Kolkata. (Courtesy: Anne Aiza Khan) The first time Anne Aiza Khan wore a pair of shorts was at a football tournament in Kolkata. The year was 2016

There’s a unique opportunity for the five-judge bench that will start hearing arguments on same-sex marriage from April 18. What it will decide will send a signal to India and the world What is the havoc that solicitor-general Tushar Mehta fears? If personal religious laws don’t recognize same-sex marriage, then there’s the Secular Special Marriage

He leadership of a new generation of Dalit women–articulate, clear about strategy, and utterly fearless despite death threats and opposition from groups including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu American Foundation When Indians migrate, they can carry the prejudice of caste with them. The first comprehensive UN report on caste-based discrimination found at least

when old age still seems a long way off. It’s not like turning 70, where the clock ticking to where we’re all headed must only get louder. It’s that muddled place of no longer middle age, but not quite old age Turning 60 is not like turning 50At 60, you know you’ve lived longer than

Karnataka had a head-start as one of the earliest states, along with Tamil Nadu and Kerala, to have public libraries act. In 2019, it decentralized 5,623 rural libraries and handed them over to the panchayats Across the state, 2.8 million kids now have library cards. Senior citizens, self-help groups, and accredited social health activists are

Trial by Fire quietly unpeels the dignity and grit of families who should never have had to be so brave but were In 2010, Neelam met with the law commission asking for a separate law for man-made disasters that enhanced jail time from the current two years. A report was prepared in 2012. Then, nothing

A decade after a brutal gang rape in Delhi led to our toughest laws, the National Crime Records Bureau continues to report an upward trend in crimes against women. The problem is not a lack of laws but sheer callousness when it comes to the lives of women. (Amal KS/Hindustan Times) Barely into the new

In the summer of 2017, five judges of the Supreme Court (SC) sat down to answer one question: Was the practice of triple talaq — where a Muslim husband could divorce his wife by saying the word for divorce three times — “fundamental” to the practice of Islam? The hearing was long overdue. India’s personal laws allow different religions to follow their customs in marriage, adoption, inheritance and divorce. While Hindu law reform began in the 1950s (to great protest by status quoists), Muslim personal law proved trickier.

In the decade since data has recorded a rise in numbers not just of rape but also of all crimes against women. Ten years ago, we claimed ownership of the 23-year-old as “India’s daughter”, bestowing on her an unasked-for martyrdom by calling her Nirbhaya. (File Photo) We were so angry then but so full of