We can’t seem to stop talking about sexual violence from strangers, but cannot seem to start talking about it (or even acknowledge), about the violence many women face from within their own homes. If a picture says a thousand words, then a graphic illustration of 137 figures — the number of women killed every day […]
Home is the most dangerous place for many women Read More »
What will it take for political parties to increase women’s representation in electoral politics? After all, there is no shortage of talent and women have occupied 33% of all seats in panchayats and local civic bodies. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment granted American women suffrage, a record 116 women, including the first Muslim,
A woman’s place is in the House Read More »
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 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 »
Muzaffarpur is emblematic of the large-scale systemic abuse of institutionalized children that we choose not to see. One fought with her stepmother and ran away from home. Another was sold into prostitution and rescued in a raid. And a third was brought in by her mother who was too poor to feed her. The girls
Hell house ‘shelter’ horror Read More »
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 Hindustan Times: Atul Kochhar is the symbol of a far more widespread problem – the normalization of prejudice against Muslims. I run into my college friend after a gap of some years. Post the usual small-talk, she wants to know my views on the tolerance/intolerance debate. I tell her I am worried about the
The bigot in my drawing room Read More »
In Hindustan Times: I argue that Section 377, which criminalises sex against ‘the order of nature’, should be scrapped because it is past its use-by date, conforms to outdated values of marriage and family and is a blatant violation of human rights. When Padma Iyer’s son, Harish, told her he was gay in the early
What makes us human? The right to love Read More »