At Delhi’s plush, high gloss marble-floored Garvi Gujarat Bhavan, Geniben Thakor is sitting in her room, her bags packed. She had planned a quick shopping trip before catching a train back home to Banaskantha, Gujarat, but now there’s no time for that and she gamely settles down for a chat. Her hair neatly pulled back, […]
Iqra Hasan had just completed her master’s degree in international law and politics from London’s School of Oriental and Asian Studies when Covid’s second wave struck and she found herself back home in Kairana, Uttar Pradesh. With a B.A. from the Lady Shri Ram College and a law degree from Delhi University, Iqra had submitted
In the video, Sanjna Jatav is dancing to Rajasthani folk music. Her head is covered but her joy shines through. Shot on June 4, soon after the results were declared, the clip has already gone viral with close to 100,000 views and god only knows how many retweets and forwards. The new Congress representative of
No party can ignore us any longer. That would explain the grand announcements and the lofty promises, from eliminating cervical cancer to job reservations; from unconditional cash transfers to night shelters for migrant women. But what does the just concluded seven phase-long election really tell us about political parties and their stand on gender? I
General Elections 2024: Through a gender lens darkly Read More »
On Monday morning, Swati Maliwal, a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), arrived at Flagstaff Road, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence. Kejriwal had just made interim bail and had already plunged headlong into campaign mode. As she waited to meet her party leader in his drawing room, who should
A prestigious constituency in the Capital is offering voters a curious choice: A first-time woman candidate versus a man once accused by his wife of physical violence. It’s infuriating. Do political parties think so little of women that a man accused by his wife of domestic violence is still considered a suitable candidate? To be
At an election rally, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi is speaking about something rarely spoken about by Indian politicians. In academic papers, yes. By feminist economists, also yes. But women’s unpaid care work is not the usual stirring, vote-garnering speech you’d expect from a mainstream politician. After working outside the house for eight hours, says Gandhi, women put in
Everybody loves women. Especially when they’re out voting Read More »
Why would a giant multinational add sugar to a baby product? Come to think of it, that’s the second question to ask after the first: Why is there even a distinction between Nestle’s baby products sold in markets in Africa, Latin America and South Asia and the same brands sold across Europe? The revelation that
India’s Supreme Court has, for the first time, weighed in on climate change, ruling that citizens have a right to lead a life safe from its adverse effects. The apex court was hearing a petition filed by wildlife activist M.K. Ranjitsinh to protect the critically-endangered Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican. Due to the death of
For all their stirring speeches while passing the women’s reservation bill in Parliament in September last year—454 for, two against—political parties across the board have gone back to their usual stinginess in fielding women candidates. Nobody knows when the women’s reservation bill will kick in. A long process must be completed first: A census, followed
The missing link in political empowerment of women Read More »
For the first nine decades of her life, Prabhavati Bhagwati had focused on bringing up her daughters and being a supportive wife. Even after his retirement as chief justice of India, her husband, P.N. Bhagwati had remained busy and active and she had remained busy and active along with him.
The time of their lives: For some women age is just a number Read More »
She left him because, she said, he and his family were torturing her for dowry. Five years later, the husband has gone to court asking for ‘restitution of conjugal rights’. In court the judge noted the woman wasn’t wearing sindoor, which is the ‘religious duty of a married woman’. Go back to your husband, he