At a time when opinion and ideology is sharply polarised, when a rant is what passes for news debates and large sections of mainstream media are under attack for a litany of sins including loss of credibility and openly aligning with one or another political party, when social media is patrolled by paid trolls and […]
Good news websites: Silver linings playbook Read More »
The Global Slavery Index estimates 45.8 million people globally are in some form of slavery. With 18 million people as slaves, India has the highest absolute numbers. They are found in the sex trade, in mining, as bonded labor, as domestic labor, in manufacturing, in fishing and agriculture. One-fourth of all trafficked people are children.
Trafficking is the fastest growing black market trade and it’s all around us Read More »
Some call this an age of mass distraction. I pick up my phone to make a call and before I know it I’m swirling down the rabbit hole of pings and updates, phone call quickly forgotten only to be substituted by a hastily remembered text message much later. I struggle with information overload. That guy
We live disconnected lives as our connection to virtual world increases Read More »
Passed by Parliament, the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Bill fails our children, again. Ten years ago Mehboob Hossain didn’t know the meaning of the word future. Ten years ago Hossain, now 20, worked in a zari sweatshop in Delhi’s Shahpurjat, embroidering glittery saris. “I know what it’s like,” he says about child labour. “We
Child labour law: We have once again failed our children Read More »
A tragedy can be the starting point of change, and while changing laws don’t always immediately result in social change, scrapping Section 377 would at least be a beginning, and a fitting homage to 49 dead in Orlando. It would affirm their humanity — and ours. In the week that his nation was celebrating his
How we label a crime says a lot about our own priorities Read More »
The Hanumanthappa story plays out at a time when few ideas unite us as a nation. It reminded us of our better selves, of how some things are worth fighting for and how some things must remain inviolate. We have lost a soldier up on the glacier, but also perhaps who we once were as
The Hanamanthappa story reminds us some things must remain inviolate Read More »
The sari will endure because when we Indian women want to dress up, when we attend weddings or festivals, when we want to feel special, the inevitable garment of choice is the sari. We are not the generation of our grandmothers and mothers who wore only saris (yes, even on the beach, alas), but our
A never-ending love affair with saris Read More »
By placing the onus on individual participation, Narendra Modi is challenging every citizen. Can we actually stop to pick up and clean up our own mess. In the darkened Goa multiplex, the cheers and whistles from the audience are what usually follow when Salman Khan rips his shirt off on screen. But the whistle and
Time to clean up your act Read More »
Progressive Muslim women’s organizations look to help women solve problems within the code of Islamic law. Mumbai: The women in the airy, well-lit room could be women anywhere talking of things that women often talk about. An adult son who won’t contribute to the household expenses. A daughter who is finding it difficult to adjust to
A voice for Muslim women Read More »
Through the 1980s when dowry deaths were routinely passed off as kitchen accidents, Satya Rani Chadha was the face of the anti-dowry movement. To a generation of connected, social media-savvy users, Satya Rani Chadha will not be a familiar name. But this was the name that launched the anti-dowry movement in Delhi and across India.
Satya Rani Chadha: The face of India’s anti-dowry movement Read More »
Across India, millions of women and girls either wake up well before dawn or wait until late at night to use the open fields that function as their toilet. New Delhi: Under cover of a hot night in May in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district, two teenage cousins stepped out to do what millions of girls and
Toilets at home will not stop rapes, but can reduce risks Read More »
Chanted as a mantra by nearly all parties, but always preceded by other priorities, the issue has so far failed to translate into political reality. India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking for a big idea, he might want to look no further than women’s empowerment. Chanted like a mantra by nearly every political party in
A big idea for Modi: women’s empowerment Read More »