Shailendra Singh (Image source: thenewsminute.com) Like many stories of its nature, this one begins anonymously on social media. On March 16, an unidentified person on Instagram’s Women of the Wild India handle posted allegations of a “history of sexual harassment” against Shailendra Singh, a top wildlife conservationist and the director of the Turtle Survival Alliance India (TSA India), a non-profit that works to conserve and protect wild tortoises and freshwater turtles under the Wildlife Conservation Society. Like many stories of its nature, that first revelation paved the way for similar accusations against Singh by at least three other women who used their names.…

“And ladies,” she said accepting the Oscar for best actress “Don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up.” Michelle Yeoh (Source: Getty images) Michelle Yeoh, who will be 61 in August, had reason to celebrate many firsts. The first Asian to win an Oscar. Only the second woman of colour after Halle Berry in 2002, to take home the prize. Dressed in white, which also happens to be the colour of the suffragettes, Yeoh did reference “all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight” before she delivered her knockout punch.…

There’s a unique opportunity for the five-judge bench that will start hearing arguments on same-sex marriage from April 18. What it will decide will send a signal to India and the world What is the havoc that solicitor-general Tushar Mehta fears? If personal religious laws don’t recognize same-sex marriage, then there’s the Secular Special Marriage Act of 1954 that allows interfaith couples to marry. A government that talks of a common civil code can easily extend this common law to sexual minorities. It’s hard to imagine that Armageddon will be unleashed by extending marriage rights. (HT PHOTO) The lines for…

Source: Feminisminindia.com Ok, imagine this. Every now and then, you get a godawful migraine where the slightest sound or teeniest bit of light leaves you in absolute agony. Would you go to work? Could you? Or put it another way, would you expect an employee to report to work in that condition? Now imagine, that employee is a woman, not one who gets the usual uncomfortable menstrual cramps but the one with acute pain—abdominal cramping, nausea, diarrhea, pain in the legs, lower back and lower abdomen, fainting, headaches–that up to 29% of women experience. Would you really expect her to turn up to…

He leadership of a new generation of Dalit women–articulate, clear about strategy, and utterly fearless despite death threats and opposition from groups including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu American Foundation When Indians migrate, they can carry the prejudice of caste with them. The first comprehensive UN report on caste-based discrimination found at least 250 million people worldwide face dehumanizing discrimination, with women and girls vulnerable to sexual violence. (Shutterstock) It’s hard to say when this story begins. Perhaps it’s 2015 when Dalit activist and author, The Trauma of Caste Thenmozhi Soundararajan co-founded Equality Labs with the goal of…

Source: medium.com I’ll spare you the graphic details of the abuse and torture of a minor girl by a couple in Gurugram, Manish Khattar and Kamaljeet Kaur. The 17-year-old daughter of Gond tribals had been brought from Simdega, Jharkhand by a placement agency and for the past five months had been caring for the couple’s three-and-a-half year old daughter. When she was rescued on February 7, she had visible injuries on her body. The rescue began as a tip off to the NGO, Sakhi when a visitor to New Colony in old Gurugram saw the injured girl eating out of a community dustbin.…

when old age still seems a long way off. It’s not like turning 70, where the clock ticking to where we’re all headed must only get louder. It’s that muddled place of no longer middle age, but not quite old age Turning 60 is not like turning 50At 60, you know you’ve lived longer than the years left in the tank. So much still to do in the time when you can do it. That road trip. Dance classes. A marathon — well, maybe, an easy hike. Sinking the patriarchy. (Shutterstock) The year I was born, Valentina Tereshkova became the…

Karnataka had a head-start as one of the earliest states, along with Tamil Nadu and Kerala, to have public libraries act. In 2019, it decentralized 5,623 rural libraries and handed them over to the panchayats Across the state, 2.8 million kids now have library cards. Senior citizens, self-help groups, and accredited social health activists are all welcome (Namita Bhandare) The daughter of an autorickshaw driver and a mother who works in the Channapatna toy industry, Sushmita, 20, is dreaming big. The BCom student says she plans to take the competitive exams to “get to a position where I can help people”.

Source: PTI That hardy perennial, the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), popping up with regularity ever since it was written as a desirable goal in the Constitution 74 years ago, has in the past few months been gaining traction. A private member’s bill to implement it nationwide was listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session and comes just weeks after a similar one was introduced in the Rajya Sabha. In January, the Supreme Court clarified that state governments indeed had the power to examine its feasibility. Going back to July last year, a five-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana…

On the first day of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s “complete war” on child marriages, 1,800 people were arrested under provisions of the Prohibition of the Child Marriage act that puts the minimum age of marriage at 18 for women and 21 for men. Those arrested included 52 qazis or priests and many arrests are reported to have been made in Muslim and Adivasi-dominated districts. Sarma has insisted that his campaign is not directed at any one community. India’s enduring shame In absolute numbers, India is home to the largest number of child brides in the world with 1.5 million girls under 18 married every…

When I quit my full-time job, my then boss wanted to know why. I loved my job, I told her. It gave me a sense of identity and pride. But it also left me with feeling terribly guilty. My girls were growing up, fast. Most days when I got home, I was just too wiped out for anything more than cursory conversations about brushing their teeth and finishing their homework. Tik tok, tik tok at the back of my head: I will never get back this time with them again. Resigning was privilege talking. My salary made a very satisfying thuck when…

Image source: Google Almost 100 years ago, Sarojini Naidu, one of the 15 women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly and a leading figure of the freedom struggle, asserted she was not a feminist. According to her, to be a feminist is to acknowledge that one is repressed. Hers was a particularly formal and somewhat limited view of equality. More recently, speaking at the LM Singhvi memorial lecture, Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud called the Constitution a feminist document. Given these two divergent views, one of a sitting Supreme Court judge, and another of a woman constitution-maker, does it matter whether…