Can we even begin to understand the courage and grit it takes for a woman to speak up against her sexual assault? In a climate that is changing, we still continue to shine a spotlight on the victim, not her predator. My column in Hindustan Times: The complainant in one of India’s most high profile sexual […]
The courage to speak up Read More »
In Hindustan Times, I argue that the goal of India’s #MeToo movement is not the taking down of a few predatory bosses but a new deal for women at work. The resignation of minister of state for external affairs, MJ Akbar, might seem like a victory for the #MeToo movement, but it’s far too premature
Beyond #MeToo, there’s #WeCount Read More »
In Foreign Policy, I write on workplace sexual harassment from Bhanwari Devi to the resignation of M.J. Akbar, what’s changed over the years and which way India’s #MeToo movement is likely to go. For close to two weeks now, many of India’s women, particularly in the English-language media and entertainment businesses, have taken to social
What made India’s #MeToo possible Read More »
In The Print, I write about the current movement against workplace sexual harassment that for me has summoned up old ghosts and taken me back to my own #MeToo moment 30 years ago. Has nothing really changed? Or is it that a new generation of women journalists are telling predatory, entitled male bosses to back
My #MeToo moment goes back 30 years, and it still makes me angry Read More »
In my Hindustan Times column, I look at a state that has, despite having India’s worst gender indices (sex ratio at birth, crimes against women, including gang-rape and stalking), there is a high level of ambition and aspiration amongst young girls and women. Yet, when there’s a gang-rape of one woman, it impacts and restricts the
It hurts a village Read More »
Today, we know that while floods, droughts, fires, earthquakes, and tsunamis do not discriminate on the grounds of caste, religion or gender, their impact is profoundly discriminatory. Studies have shown that it is women (and the poor and marginalized) who bear their heaviest burden. When Swarna Rajagopalan, a political scientist who specialises in gender issues,
Women should lead the way in rebuilding Kerala Read More »
In Foreign Policy: A new act gives more maternity leave — and reinforces the same old patriarchal values. American progressives often bemoan the country’s lack of maternity leave, but in India, the problem may be too much time off, not too little. As many as 12 million Indian women could lose their jobs next year
Motherhood Is Kicking Indian Women Out of Work Read More »
Extending paid maternity leave from three to six months reinforces the same old patriarchal ideas about women’s ‘work’. American progressives often bemoan the country’s lack of maternity leave, but in India, the problem may be too much time off, not too little. As many as 12 million Indian women could lose their jobs next year
In Hindustan Times: Frankly, I find this business of ranking ‘worst’ countries to be tedious. To be bad is bad enough; better or worse is an academic argument. That report, the one that damns India as the worst country in the world for women, came out in a week when one of the country’s most
Worst, second worst or 5th worst doesn’t matter. India is bad for women. Read More »
In IndiaSpend: Anti-trafficking activist Sunitha Krishnan, one of three finalists for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity spoke to me on sex slavery, rehabilitating victims of sex trafficking and death for raping children. New Delhi: She’s dodged an acid attack, had a fatwa issued against her and survived 17 separate physical assaults. But Sunitha Krishnan, 46, doesn’t seem
Children don’t seem to be a priority in this country Read More »
In Hindustan Times: Recent gang-rapes and our reaction to them tell us how far we’ve descended in six years after Nirbhaya. When we allowed our anger to spill over into the streets following the December 2012 gang-rape of a physiotherapy student, we didn’t ask about her religion. We didn’t put labels on our fellow protesters’
No country for women Read More »
The murder of a woman in Alwar points to India’s most shockingly under-reported story on why nearly 200 lakh women have quit jobs. All Usha Devi wanted was to give her kids a good education. The wife of a construction worker knew that her husband’s income was not enough to educate her children, Tanuja, 15,
Why women are falling off the employment map Read More »