Government for stricter punishment in stalking cases
In what will surely come as a relief to women across India, the government wants stalking to be made a separate offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), punishable with up to seven years in jail. Presently, stalking cases are dealt with under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (outraging the modesty of [...]
I adjust but not fight…???
I was walking down the alley. It was almost past 10 in the night. But not to worry, this is my locality. “Was I asssuring my own self?” I looked back and forth, noone. I continued to walk. A sudden burst of light, I looked up,blinded for a moment. The sound of a bike, I [...]
Mahila Hakkina Mela: The Change Theory
The mrudangam played the beats in perfect rhythm and the rain clouds gathered their might to pour over our Mahila Hakkina Mela towards the end of the day. The journey between Bangalore and Gubbi (where the mela was held) was long and it took us a daily commute of over 4 hours each day to [...]
Breakthrough presents ”Mahila Hakkina Mela”
Along with Aware Trust, Breakthrough launches a Naari Adaalath for fast tracking cases on Domestic Violence Breakthrough’s Bell Bajao! Campaign against domestic violence will take a step ahead with the formation of a Naari Adaalath in Tumkur on the 13th of May, 2011. This initiative came in partnership with Aware Trust.The daylong “Mahila Hakkina Mela” [...]
Employers Tolerate Sexual Harassment
Why has sexual harassment reached epidemic proportions at the workplace?
Going through death to give birth
Yet a large number of societies and parents continue the practice of early marriage for several reasons including blind faith in culture or religion, hopes of financial and social gains, relieving their own responsibilities towards the child based on her gender and so on. In my view, the continuation of the practice is rooted in social acceptance of slavery of women. Internalization of servility and acceptance of the correctness of the practice is more likely to be successful if women are tamed early, as early as possible. Girl children and young adult women are easy to terrorize and therefore easier to be kept under control and by the time they could be expected to have developed some courage to protest, they are likely to be pregnant and socially isolated as a result of lacks of education and interaction with their peer groups. They are forced to accept their condition as their destiny. Many states and their governments, despite being signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, continue to turn a blind eye to the practice.
The article was first published by the Yemen Times: http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=22147
Domestic Violence Act-Please Redefine
The confusion about the DV Act is about to be settled. A Petition has already been filed in Delhi High Court.
Regulation of Disabled Women’s Sexuality
In general, women’s voices for their specific rights in the disability rights movement in India are hardly present. Voices of disabled women is almost absent in the mainstream women’s rights movement. The politics of ‘normal’ or ‘able’ bodies and minds is further complicates disabled women’s identity. Societal norms with regard to the ‘ideal’ womanhood and the ‘ideal body’ render physically disabled and mentally challenged women invisible. They become objects to be hidden, never to be seen, heard or felt. Since feminism is a politics of the oppressed against being pushed to the margins, disability, in my view, is a feminist issue. As an oppressed group, disabled women and men face challenges related to educational and training opportunity, inclusion, occupational attainment, economic status, and social outlets. But disabled women face particular issues of reproductive rights; control over their bodies; physical, sexual and emotional violence; and sexual rights and representations, which are considered taboo topics by the disability movement. It is important, therefore, that feminisms in India change towards inclusiveness and support the disabled women in rejecting the traditional subservient and invisible role. There is a need for a new emancipatory politics for the disabled women, which is led by the disabled women from the centre of the Indian women’s movement.
Pre marital sex – Delhi high court calls it rape
I don’t how true this news item is considering the levels to which media is ready to stoop in order to create sensation but if even half of this is true then I don’t know what to say. Where are we heading? Are we going forward or are we going backward by leaps and bounds. [...]
And Now, You May Kick the Bride
Most of us skim over an occasional report in a newspaper or hear it mentioned once in a while on TV, but we don’t know what really goes on in dowry-related cases. Once in a blue moon, a dowry case is highlighted by the media but what with the skin-deep journalism we are accustommed to, [...]
