You’ve heard the story. That amazing woman who has it all, does it all – and always with a smile. Kids homework. Check. Taking mom for her doctor’s appointment. Check. Employee of the month. Check. Home-cooked nutritious meals. Check. Partner’s go-to shoulder to lean on. Check. Mentor to younger women at work. Check, check, check.

Picture credits: @yolandayoungesq/ The Guardian Early in February, Sidra Aziz tweeted: “I am 31 years old and over the last few years I have very consciously chosen not to have children ever. Marriage, maybe. Children, no.” It was an innocuous enough tweet but the 31-year-old data product manager was taken aback by the response. Within hours, it had generated 42,330 impressions and over 500 replies. The kinder ones advised her to have “one kid at least” for “positive energy”. Others called her a child-hater and still others warned that she would die alone with nobody to bury her. “Nearly all…

India is one of 36 countries where it is not a crime to rape your wife. Well, if your wife is younger than 15, then even the law says intercourse with her is rape. But that is the only exception. Now, even this exception is under judicial scrutiny as a two-judge bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Rajiv Shakdher of the Delhi High Court begins hearing from two individuals and two NGOs, RIT and the All India Democratic Women’s Association. It is also hearing from an amicus curie, or friend of the court, Rajshekhar Rao and has asked another…

A still from The Great Indian Kitchen The cash really began rolling in after 1983 when Kannaian Naidu got a job in Saudi Arabia. His wife, Kamsala would be staying back with their three children in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu. As a single-parent, she had her work cut out and Kannaian assured her he would send money back home. It was a tidy sum. Between 1983 and 1994, Kannaian was able to send back enough for Kamsala to buy four properties. Each time he’d come to visit, he would bring cash, gold and jewellery. By the time he returned for good…

(Source: UNICEF) India’s improvement by eight places, or 1.4 percentage points, to 127 out of 146 countries is a result mainly of the recognition by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which conducts the annual rankings, of women’s participation in local governance where 33% of seats (50% in some states) are reserved for women. Last year, India had ranked 135. This year it continues to lag behind its neighbours Bangladesh (59), Bhutan (103), Sri Lanka (115) and Nepal (116). Pakistan comes in pretty much at the bottom at 142. The WEF gender ranking of countries is based on four parameters: Economic participation, education,…

I am on the phone with the wife of one of my oldest friends, let’s call her ‘A’. It’s April 2020, I remember this because we’re marooned in our homes (and we’re the lucky ones who aren’t trudging back home on foot) just days into the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24. ‘A’ tells me she’s doing it all, the cooking, the cleaning, the washing—while working from home. I get on the phone with her husband my pal and yell at him. Surely he can make the bed and wash his clothes (and his wife’s too)? You Should Have…

The question to ask five months after India’s most celebrated wrestlers began their unprecedented protest is: What does it take to ensure justice for women? What does it take to ensure justice for women?(Hindustan Times) Perhaps the question to ask now, five months after India’s most celebrated wrestlers began their unprecedented protest against Wrestling India Federation head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, is this: What does it take to ensure justice for women? Let’s be clear, justice for the wrestlers, if it comes at all, is still a long way off. Brij Bhushan, a six-time Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament…

The stabbing and bludgeoning to death (I’ll spare you the details) on Sunday night of Sakshi, a 16-year-old girl in Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy, allegedly by 20-year-old Sahil Khan, a man she had earlier been in a relationship with, raises many, many disturbing questions. Chief amongst these is: What could possibly breed this level of rage and violence against a young girl and that too by a man personally known to her? Security officers outside the residence of the 16-year-old girl who was stabbed to death at Shahbad Dairy in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Source: HT) The girl reportedly told Sahil…

In today’s connected world where figures, images and voices are a click of the mouse away, do we really expect the world to believe that India is all malls, highways and high-rises. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Of all the madcap ideas to come out of the Commonwealth Games, possibly the worst is the one to hide away the city’s beggars. Here’s why. Newspapers have been reporting that many beggars have either been arrested or forced off the streets. Unsightly slums are being hidden behind banners of Shera, our ironically chosen mascot whose big smile surely belies his endangered status.…

At 60 she learned to cycle. At 62 she became a long distance runner, running 50 km+ distances. And at 64, she took her first solo holiday to Kashmir. Pushpa Bhatt, now 67, says she has a “good 25 years ahead” to go to places she’s never been. In the past, she’s travelled alone on work trips or with her daughter or in groups. But now the single mother who’s worked hard and invested wisely, has her priorities sorted—like running 72 km through the Khardung La mountain pass in Ladakh last year with plans to run again this September. Representational…

Can we reimagine ways in which the humble bicycle can improve mobility for older women? India’s heaving metropolises are simply not designed for women. The focus on multi-lane highways and flyovers ignores women—and the differently abled and elderly. The metro rail does provide a speedy commute; what’s lacking is last-mile connectivity and affordability (HT PHOTO) As she wheels her cycle out to get to work, Tara ignores the sniggers from neighbours in the densely populated locality of Delhi’s Neb Sarai where she lives. “Is this any age to be on a cycle?” they scoff. The 40-year-old mother of two, who…

(Source: Amazon Prime) Perhaps the only thing more chilling than the fact that so many girls have gone missing from their homes in the TV series Dahaad is the utter indifference of their own families. There is a complete lack of curiosity about their whereabouts and well-being. Why? Because “she-ran-away-and-brought-dishonour-to-the-family-name-so-she’s-dead-to-us”. Written by Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar and Ritesh Shah and starring Sonakshi Sinha as Anjali Bhaati, a sub-inspector at Mandawa police station in Rajasthan, the series on Amazon Prime subtly unpeels so many aspects of everyday patriarchy: The idea of honour vested in the family’s women, attitudes towards employed women, caste, arranged…