An announcement by two political parties, the TMC and BJD to earmark a significant number of seats for the 2019 general election to women has not been an example for other political parties. Despite talk of ‘women’s empowerment’ both the BJP and the Congress continue to be miserly when it comes to fielding women candidates.  When Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced they would be fielding an unprecedented number of women for the 2019 parliamentary elections, there was a general sense of euphoria at a historic imbalance being set right. Would other parties…

In panchayats, women now average 46% in leadership posts, above the legally mandated 33%, with states like Bihar and Odisha bumping up the quota to 50%. There is growing evidence to show that nearly a quarter century of reservations has led to the creation of an empowered and aware constituency of women at the grassroots level. Nearly seven decades after our first election, half this country’s population cannot continue to be represented by a measly 12.1% in the Lok Sabha. We can no longer accept assemblies in which the national average for women’s representation is 9%.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO) When Naveen…

These girls are our future citizens. Amongst them are leaders, heads of corporations, Members of Parliament, innovators, change makers. All we need to do is leave them alone and let them find their voice. Women struggle to talk about themselves positively, says Aparna Jain, author, leadership and diversity coach. At the workshops she organises, “There’s so much self-doubt.”(Getty Images (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)) I often attend gender conferences where women outnumber men roughly 20 to one. Yet, even amongst us, there will always be the one who begins apologetically, “I didn’t come prepared,” and then go on to astound the room with…

Men tend to over-estimate their ability and performance, while women tend to downplay both (from a Cornell University study). Men are four times more likely than women to ask for a raise (Linda Babcock, author of Women Don’t Ask). Why do so many really smart, talented women come across as diffident at the workplace? Understanding the gender confidence gap: I often attend gender conferences where women outnumber men roughly 20 to one. The gender world’s like that, I guess. Yet, even amongst us, there will always be the one who begins apologetically, “I didn’t come prepared,” and then go on…

The world’s longest and largest march by survivors of rape and sexual assault covering 24 states over 10,000 km in India seeks to break the silence and stigma around rape. My Hindustan Times  column.  Y’s husband beat her senseless when he found out that she had been raped by three men in the fields where she had been working. Then he threw her out of the house and told her to go back to her parents. “I had done nothing wrong. I was just trying to earn a living,” she says. When M managed to escape from three male captors, who…

In Hindustan Times, I argue for the need fathers to take a far more meaningful role in bringing up their children by taking paternity leave.  It was after his son Viggo was born that Swedish photographer, Johan Bavman, then on parental leave, began looking for information about stay-at-home-dads. He found nothing. What he did find was a study that asked children who they turned to when they needed to be comforted. Their mums, said the children. Dads came at fifth place — below the option of not going to anyone at all. Sweden has among the world’s most generous parental…

In Hindustan Times, I look at the bleak prospects for women in the forthcoming 2019 general election. Although women are exercising their franchise in larger numbers as voters, their presence in Parliament and the assemblies remains dismal.  It is early days but already a troika of powerful women — Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and, now, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — is dominating the headlines. In a country that has been notoriously stingy in fielding women candidates as MLAs and MPs, this is a pleasant blip but nobody is counting on a New Deal for women with Elections 2019. When women do manage…

The world’s largest march of rape survivors seeks to change the way you see victims of rape and sexual assault. Y’s husband beat her senseless when he found out that she had been raped by three men in the fields where she had been working. Then he threw her out of the house and told her to go back to her parents. “I had done nothing wrong. I was just trying to earn a living,” she says. When M managed to escape from three male captors, who told her they had bought her for ₹2 lakh, her family barred her from…

Social assumptions about Noble Mothers who sacrifice careers for their children are deeply ingrained According to a July 2018 International Labour Organization (ILO)(Pratik Chorge/HT Photo) It was after his son Viggo was born that Swedish photographer, Johan Bavman, then on parental leave, began looking for information about stay-at-home-dads. He found nothing. What he did find was a study that asked children who they turned to when they needed to be comforted. Their mums, said the children. Dads came at fifth place — below the option of not going to anyone at all. Sweden has among the world’s most generous parental…

Women and politics are no longer strangers. Not only are women exercising their franchise in larger numbers, but over the past 25 years, an estimated one million women have been elected at the village, block and district level in panchayati raj institutions where 33% of seats are reserved for them. Almost none graduate to Parliament or even the assemblies. Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati speaks to media during a press conference on her 63rd birthday, Lucknow, January 15, 2019(Subhankar Chakraborty/ Hindustan Times) It is early days but already a troika of powerful women — Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and, now, Priyanka…

In Hindustan Times, I argue for the need to commemorate the memory of more women, whether by building their statues or naming roads or institutions after them. Why? Because it’s crucial to remember who we are as a people and that our legacy includes not just powerful men in public life but also women who, despite the odds they faced, still surged ahead.   The conference room at the National Commission for Women (NCW), a statutory body that advises government on policies for women, is remarkable for one feature: The absence of women on its walls. There are standard-issue portraits of…

A new book by my friend and college room-mate  Sohaila Abdulali explores the idea that victims of sexual violence are not broken beings. Awful as it is, rape is survivable, and those who have been raped are deserving and capable of happiness again.  I don’t remember the precise moment when my then college roommate, Sohaila Abdulali, told me about being gangraped when she was 17. It was just an incontestable fact of her life: she was from Mumbai, she loved to dance, her parents grew orchids, she had been raped. This is not to imply that being raped was not…