Women

They had three sons. They were not rich, but “were quite contented”. In the mid-1950s, her husband responded to the Naga movement and joined the Naga army. He rose through the ranks to become an important officer. His wife and children stayed behind in the village to fend for themselves by labouring in their fields. The Indian army kept constant surveillance and often raided the house hoping to capture him. She lived through constant fear and harassment. After several years in the Naga army, the...

It is women in Jharkhand who have been facing the brunt of Operation Jharkhand. There have been several reports and allegations of police and other security forces inflicting brutal violence on villagers during their anti-Maoist operations in areas under Operation Greenhunt, including rape and sexual violence against women, which rarely, if at all, get reported. This investigation by Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS), a non-funded group, were told of news reports of rape...

Women from minority and indigenous communities are targeted for rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and killings specifically because of their ethnic, religious or indigenous identity, Minority Rights Group International says in its 2011 annual report launched last week. In the flagship annual publication, State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2011, MRG documents cases from across the world showing how women from minority and indigenous communities often face...

It’s difficult for a journalist visiting Kashmir to return without meeting her. For, hers is one face of resilience in the 22-year Kashmir conflict. The unlettered Parveena Ahangar has been the voice of families left traumatised and bereaved in this protracted unrest. Her placid face masks the ordeal she has herself endured. But as chairperson of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), she leads from the front – she does not give up hope. Ahangar’s tryst with Indian authorities...

No sooner had Mamata Banerjee made her “I am a simple man” gaffe on CNN-IBN, than Twitter went ablaze. Digs and jokes ranged from the derisive to the racist. And sexist, of course. They went on. Yes, accents and pronunciations can indeed be funny. Quite often. And if you are a pundamentalist, you can always have a rolling day out in a multi-lingual country like India. But this Mamata ‘slip of the tongue’ was more a ‘slip of the mind’, and it was certainly not punny. Mamata is not known for her...

The West, led by the United States, has been incessantly pounding Libya in the name of humanity the last few days. Saving humanity, so we are told. Yet, the gravest humanitarian crisis of our times remains grossly neglected by the same self-righteous nations. If the rape of 400,000 girls and women in a 12-month period is not a humanitarian catastrophe, what on earth can be one? If the rape of 1.8 million women in the 15-year Democratic Republic of Congo conflict is not macabre, what on earth can...

Now before we rush out to buy that Mother’s Day card or put up a nice-sounding status message on Facebook, here’s something that ought to have a sobering effect on us. India, reveals the State of the World’s Mothers 2011 released Saturday, ranks 75th among 79 less developed countries in terms of the importance that the country gives to its women and mothers. The Index also tells us a lot, by default, about what the Congress-led government in New Delhi has been doing for women and mothers – India...

Four out of five female sex workers in India have joined the profession voluntarily; they were not forced or sold into it. Prostitution is just one among several livelihood options available to women from poor backgrounds, says a new survey. The ‘First pan-India survey of sex workers’, conducted by Pune University researchers Rohini Sahni and V Kalyan Shankar, found that 79.4 per cent of sex workers (both those who entered the profession directly as well as those with prior experience in other...

You, more often than not, become a product of the times and the circumstances that you live in. If you live in a conflict zone, the incessant bloodletting gets to you sooner than later. Either you become inured to brutalities, or start believing that killing one’s fellow human beings is the only to either to gain salvation or to solve your immediate existentialist problems. But suppose you were to extend this analogy to a place where cattle-rearing is one of the mainstays of the people. Would...

Women who win the Best Actress Oscar are at a higher risk of divorce than nominees who do not win. On the other hand, Best Actor winners do not experience an increase in the risk of divorce after an Oscar, a new study insists. Tiziana Casciaro, an assistant professor of organisational behaviour at the Rotman School of Management, studied the marital graphs of 751 nominees in the best actor and actress categories of the Academy Awards between1936 to 2010. The results, which have been published...