A widowed, unlettered refugee from Bangladesh who remained unsure about her age, she had come to Delhi with two young sons, acquiring employment, a bank account and a property in what was then called the East Pakistan Displaced Persons Society, now Chittaranjan Park Representational Image. (Getty Images) With the death of my Amma last week, I joined the hundreds of thousands of Indians coming to terms with grief and loss. Still, I guess, she was one of the lucky ones who managed to get not just a hospital bed but, crucially, oxygen and an intensive care unit support.

Much has been written about Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen, streaming on Amazon Prime. Its truth prevails across the globe. Leisure is a male pursuit while the women chop, clean, sweep, fry, wash, simmer, serve A screengrab from The Great Indian Kitchen. The unannounced guest is someone we’ve all met. “The women can rest today,” he says grandly. The men are taking over the kitchen. After dinner, you can see from the way her shoulders sag that the kitchen is an apocalyptic mess: Dirty utensils, splattered curry, onion peels, and, from afar, a voice demanding two cups of black…

A wake-up call to first set up a national-level task force to study the pandemic’s impact on gender and, next, to suggest possible remedies. The blunt truth is India cannot afford to mutely witness any further erosion in gender rights. India’s fall in ranking stems largely from an old crisis: The exit of women from paid work. Since 2011-12, 25 million women, roughly Shanghai’s population, have quit the workforce. If you go back to 2004-05, it’s 47 million. (ANI) Whichever way you look at it, India’s 28-point tumble to land at 140 out of 156 countries in the annual World…

Who can quarrel with free washing machines, except to point out that it reiterates a belief in what male-dominated parties hold to be woman’s true place? Someone should tell them, it’s not behind the spin cycle. It’s in the House. And it’s time women voters delivered that message. The demand for 33% reservation of seats in the assemblies and in Parliament gets a great deal of lip service in party manifestos. This humbug is both tired and dated. When we are half the population, why settle for anything less in the legislature? (PTI) Travel concessions for women, a salary for…

In the run-up to the International Women’s Day, it’s good to celebrate the undeniable gains on our road to gender equality. But it’s also worth remembering just how far we have to go — and how little has changed. Six decades after the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the continuing prevalence of dowry remains India’s national shame. The 2019 National Crime Records Bureau data tells us that a woman is subject to cruelty by her husband and in-laws every four minutes. (Reuters) Her name was Ayesha. She was 23, worked at a bank and was hoping to complete a master’s…

The MeToo Movement undoubtedly gave a few women a voice and a platform, but it left out the vast majority of India’s working women, women employed as domestic workers, in brick kilns, as farm labourers, in garment factories. Dalit, tribal, trans and marginalised voices were never heard. Despite new laws passed in the aftermath of the December 2012 gang rape, India’s women continue to fight a battle of endemic sexual violence. (AP) The asymmetrical shape of power that colours sexual abuse was on display on February 17 when former minister MJ Akbar entered courtroom 203 on Rouse Avenue. Escorted by…

In the past few years, India has broken traditional silences on sexual abuse, on consent, and on the rights of sexual minorities. It’s time to break another traditional silence It takes courage to push a conversation that evokes almost zero public sympathy in an audience that is inclined to believe that consent has no place on the marital bed(Shutterstock) Accused of a crime that carries the death penalty, the woman will not reveal her truth. She is too ashamed to say that her husband, an upstanding, respected lawyer, used to rape her. Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors is a fictional show.…

The end of a year is a good time to take stock – just how much we’ve achieved, how much more must be done and, this year in particular, how much is in danger of being lost We do know that the pandemic’s economic impact has been higher on women. At the end of the year, 13% fewer women (2% fewer men) than the previous year were employed, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.(HTPHOTO) In a number-crunching Covid world—infections, cases, deaths — here are some others, less grandiose but significant all the same: Seven, eight, nine. Seven is…

To stop gender-based violence, target attitudinal change through interventions in education, ad campaigns and other behaviour change communication A study of violence during the lockdown by Saravana Ravindran and Manisha Shah published on(AP) Head bleeding, the woman had managed to get to a police station in Delhi only to be told to come back with a mask. Elsewhere, another victim of domestic violence was chastised: “People are dying and you want to file a case for such a small issue.” The two incidents, documented in a seven-state survey, At Home, At Risk by a consortium of eight non-governmental organisations (NGOs), highlight the…

The solution is not to ban interfaith marriage, as this ordinance effectively does, but to make it easier for citizens to exercise their autonomy, regardless of parental approval At the heart of the issue is a fight for our rights as women to lead independent lives with dignity(Shutterstock) Twenty years ago, Asif Iqbal wanted to marry the love of his life, Ranu Kulsheshtra. Neither wanted to convert and, so, the Special Marriage Act (SMA) enacted in 1954 for interfaith couples — and those who wanted a secular marriage — was the obvious, and only, option. But the marriage officer at…

Online child sexual abuse is worse than the pandemic that has resulted in its horrific rise. Increasing economic vulnerability and kids out of school have contributed to a 400% increase in the sexual exploitation of children in videos in 2020 On November 14, news of a raid in 76 cities by the CBI led to 83 arrests for making “obscene videos of children” (AFP) She was barely 14. He was six years older and promised his undying love. Then he raped her, filmed the act, and coerced her into having sex with other men. That video remained in circulation. Finally,…

It’s the job of institutions and government to provide infrastructure. We need a coherent policy tailored to specific regions and needs that will look at the complexities of online learning. It’s the job of institutions and government to provide infrastructure. We need a coherent policy tailored to specific regions and needs that will look at the complexities of online learning. In Kerala, a 14-year-old girl set herself ablaze in June because she could not attend online classes since she didn’t have a smartphone. Kerala is one of the few states that offers classes on TV, but the set at home…