Delhi’s winter of discontent…Becomes a spring of hope
The nation-wide protests after the gang rape in Delhi have finally broken the silence around sexual violence, put women’s rights on the political agenda, and established that rape is not a sexual act but a legally punishable crime
Unsafe homes
Why do 1 million children, many of them girls, run away from home every year? Because the home is where social stratification and gender inequality is most acute
Too many cooks
Cooking has always been a gendered activity, and the arrival of gourmet foods as part of globalised lifestyles and cooking as a glamorous spectator sport on TV, has done little to alter the politics around food, writes Manjima Bhattacharjya
Compensation is the last mile in recognising rape as a crime
No amount of money can restore the dignity and confidence of a rape victim, and certainly compensation is meaningless if the guilty are not punished. But monetary compensation does at least recognise rape or sexual assault as a crime, writes Manjima Bhattacharjya
After the Slutwalk
Sheila, Munni and popular culture replete with sexual and sensual references notwithstanding, the debates around Delhi’s Slutwalk reveal that we’re still hypocritical about acknowledging women’s sexuality, says Manjima Bhattacharjya
Molly's story
This April, which is Child Sexual Abuse Awareness month, a story about a searing summer of violations, to crack the wall of silence around the issue and remind us that over 53% of India’s children have experienced sexual abuse
Doing the dirty work of a globalised economy?
The globalised economy of conspicuous consumption requires the outsourcing of domestic labour to migrant women – the Thai, Filipina and Ethiopian migrant in Europe, the tribal in India. Low wages and exploitative conditions are recognised problems, but what about the ethics of passing domestic work ‘down’ to another oppressed category?
We are only halfway to understanding women's 'agency'
Feminism’s deepest belief is that women’s voices must come to the fore, but when they do, we find these voices often scuttle our assumptions about what should be the right/legitimate form of ‘agency’. How do we account for the agency of women returning to violent partners, of women who decide not to throw off the veil but put it on, of women who want to be mail-order brides or sex workers? Manjima Bhattacharjya explores
Redefining rape
Women are increasingly reporting sexual violations/exploitation within the home, workplace, friends’ circle or university that don’t quite match the strict requirements of ‘rape’ or the loose connotations of ‘outraging her modesty’, the two broad types of sexual violations that the law recognises. Will the long-pending Sexual Assault Bill help?
Moving beyond legalisation
The Supreme Court of India recently asked the government why they don’t legalise prostitution if they can’t curb it. But do women in sex work really want a piece of paper called a license? Or police reforms that may lead to freedom from extortion, convictions against traffickers rather than new laws, directives and campaigns that make discrimination against women in prostitution legally punishable and socially condemnable?
