India can solve its rape problem. The question is: Do we want to? Protest against rape/Creative Commons. A week after an “encounter” with Telangana police left four rape and murder-accused men dead, it might not be out of place to ask if India has solved its endemic problem of violence against women. Have men stopped raping women, or killing them, or dousing them with acid, or beating them just because women talked back, didn’t heat dinner adequately or simply because the men felt like it? Sadly, no. We’ve done the easy part — brought in tough laws, sanctioned fast-track courts,…

The rise of fundamentalism, chauvinistic nationalism and macho leadership has made defending women’s rights that much harder, I report from Bangkok at the Beijing +25 review. BRICS leaders at the G20 Summit, November 2015/Creative Commons Away from the tight-lipped silence of government officials locked in negotiations, some 150 people sat huddled on the floor outside one of the cavernous conference halls of the United Nations (UN) building in Bangkok. The group was plotting and planning steps to take at the Beijing +25 review, a conference held to take stock of where the world stands on promises made on gender equality…

One in three women worldwide faces violence. But in a post-MeToo era, conversation around sexual violence is in the open and so is the need for change. Globally one in three and, in South Asia, 37% of women face some form of violence: Physical, emotional, financial and, increasingly, online(Raj K Raj/HTphoto) Women have been told to be many things – patient, accommodating, docile even. Now, for the first time on an international platform, they are being told to be angry. Not that they needed prompting. Anger was in evidence at the regional Beijing +25 conference held this week in Bangkok…

India has the largest number of underage brides in the world and 26.8% of girls marry before they are 18 . This is the age of consent under a 2012 amendment, which makes even those under 18, in consensual relationships, vulnerable to parental backlash, with boyfriends and husbands branded as sex offenders. The story of adolescent girls and their quest for love is rarely told(Manoj Kumar/Hindustan Times) They met at a wedding; she was 16 and he was 18. They exchanged numbers and were soon in love. When Anju’s father started looking for a match for her, she told her…

One in three women worldwide faces violence. We should be angry. Pic courtesy: Breakthrough India Women have been told to be many things – patient, accommodating, docile even. Now, for the first time on an international platform, they are being told to be angry. Not that they needed prompting. Anger was in evidence at the regional Beijing +25 conference held this week in Bangkok where UN Women deputy executive director Anita Bhatia told an audience of 500 ministers, policy-makers and civil rights organisers from 35 countries, “Be angry. Ask your government for change.” She was speaking at the launch of…

Perhaps the biggest transformation has taken place in rural India where in 2016, 70% of 18-year-olds were already in college. But do they want daughters to pursue careers? That’s another story. The surge of women and girls in education is an ongoing trend that every year makes tiny, but significant, gains(PTI) To call Sunita Khokar’s resume impressive is an understatement. Khokar, the daughter of a farmer who never saw the inside of a classroom, has a list of degrees that includes three MAs (economics, political science and sociology), a B.Ed, an M.Ed and an MPhil. And, yes, she’s currently working…

More girls than ever before are now studying. But this is not necessarily translating into jobs. Creative Commons/bthomso To call Sunita Khokar’s resume impressive is an understatement. Khokar, the daughter of a farmer who never saw the inside of a classroom, has a list of degrees that includes three MAs (economics, political science and sociology), a B.Ed, an M.Ed and an MPhil. And, yes, she’s currently working on her PhD. Khokar, 41, married with two children, would certainly figure in the government’s latest findings on higher education where the gap between women and men is at its lowest. Female enrolment…

A conversation that began post the December 16 Delhi gangrape has grown louder. We may be miles away from a world free of sexual assault, but we are certainly a few notches closer If India’s MeToo movement has achieved anything, it is awareness, among corporates and employees, of the law; among predatory bosses that it’s #TimesUp; among women of the power of their collective voice(AP) So, was it worth it, after all? One year after India’s MeToo movement, it isn’t out of place to paraphrase TS Eliot’s existential question. On the face of it, there is plenty to be depressed…

A conversation that began after the 2012 Delhi gangrape has grown louder. We may be miles away from a world free of sexual violence, but we are certainly a few notches closer. Pic taken by Namita Bhandare during the 2013 protests in Delhi So, was it worth it, after all? One year after India’s MeToo movement, it isn’t out of place to paraphrase TS Eliot’s existential question. On the face of it, there is plenty to be depressed about. A law student who has accused former minister Chinmayanand of raping her had to threaten suicide over the failure of the…

Concerns about a national law on population revolve around two questions. Will it be coercive and will it further skew our already precarious sex ratio? Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of India’s ‘population explosion’ in his Independence Day speech, an RSS-backed organisation declared that there was no need for sex education in schools. It’s an astonishing stand in a country where 240 million girls are married before 18 and only 7.1% of married women between the ages 15-19 use contraception. Awareness of birth control (along with sex education) is a key driver to fulfilling the PM’s assertion that…

Underlying the BJP’s concern about a ‘population explosion’ is a false belief that one community, Muslims, are reproducing at a faster rate than others. Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of India’s ‘population explosion’ in his Independence Day speech, an RSS-backed organisation declared that there was no need for sex education in schools. It’s an astonishing stand in a country where 240 million girls are married before 18 and only 7.1% of married women between the ages 15-19 use contraception. Awareness of birth control (along with sex education) is a key driver to fulfilling the PM’s assertion that keeping…

Despite the hardships they face, teenage girls are pushing back for change Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, before starting her journey across the Atlantic to New York where she will attend the UN Climate Action Summit next month(AFP) One is on a zero-carbon Atlantic voyage to attend climate change conferences in New York. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old activist who inspired a global youth movement, has reported dolphin sightings – and, mercifully, no sea sickness, yet. Another, in Samastipur, Bihar, triggers a movement just by saying no to marriage. In a state where 39.1% of girls marry before they turn 18,…