Gender
Gender
Issue Articles
How Should We Remember the Violence and Suffering of Partition?
"What does it mean then to remember the ‘horror’ of partition at a time when identities are so polarised. Do we remember only what was done to us, leaving out all that we did to others and to our own?"
Redefining the Same-Sex Marriage Question
Even as courts begin to consider the lawfulness of restrictions on same-sex marriages, queer groups should engage with the burdens of legal marriages and help build on feminist efforts to turn marriage into an equal partnership.
Marigolds and Domestic Abuse
My journey from an Indian wedding to the courts
Challenging India's legal system that privileges the father for custody of a child was a painful process. However, much was gained. My case was a legal first in India for women.
Sexual Violence Against Dalits at the Current Conjuncture
'Both Dalit suffering and Dalit resistance unsettle us because both point to what we do not wish to acknowledge: that there are no bodies that do not suffer when hurt, and there are no bodies that will not resist when they suffer, angrily or creatively.'
Women and Contraceptive Decision-Making in Kerala
Kerala's below-replacement fertility figures obscure the poor awareness of contraceptive methods amongst women, pointing to the unfinished task of promoting independent and informed reproductive choices.
Women Bring a Spring of Hope to the Farm Movement
Women have been reinforcing the farmers’ protests on Delhi’s borders, right from the beginning. Their experiences of the agrarian crisis are broadening the demands of the movement beyond defending minimum support prices for crops.
The Burden of Conflict that Women of Kashmir Bear
Women face an unequal burden from the conflict in Kashmir. As state and society turn against them, circumstances force them to renegotiate their positions and even their consciousness.
Planning the Family, Planning the Nation
India’s family planning programme advertised the small middle-class family as a means to develop the nation. But its top-down approach meant that sterilisations became the default contraceptive option for poor and working class women. This legacy persists.
The Wages of Low Public Spending on Child Nutrition Programmes
Stagnant government funding and mis-allocation of available resources in recent years are together resulting in limited improvements in levels of child nutrition, anaemia and mortality.
Casting Away Misogyny
An important memoir discusses how patriarchy and misogyny in Hindu society are sustained by caste.
The Right to Rest: Women at Leisure
The idea of women at leisure is redolent with derogatory connotations. Yet, snatched between mundane responsibilities, leisure is a space for women to express themselves in personal ways. A photo essay.
What Did You Do in the Last 24 Hours?
Some reflections on India’s first Time Use Survey in historical perspective
The first nation-wide survey of the time spent by men and women on various activities during all 24 hours of the day brings out the gender inequalities in the work that each of them do.
How can more women take up paid employment?
The abysmally low participation of women in paid work in India even today is very worrying. Policy interventions should look at how to encourage higher work participation, through offers of higher wages and better social security.
Gendering the Pandemic in the Prison
'For women, prisons are built with stones of "patriarchal" law. It is time to campaign against incarcerated pregnancies and custodial childbirths as making for cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women.'
India 2019
A curated set of 25 articles published in "The India Forum" during the past year that described, discussed and critiqued the many important events that took place in India in 2019, a momentous year when a project to reshape the country was begun.
Ujjwala Yojana Needs to be More Ambitious to End Pollution in Rural Kitchens
The free LPG connection scheme has seen a huge increase in the number of poor rural homes with gas stoves; more needs to be done to make LPG affordable and encourage the use of this clean fuel, thereby ending indoor pollution and improving women's health.
The Visible and Invisible Barriers to Indian Women Working
Cultural factors do not explain why so few women are in paid work. The demands of housework and the need to care for the elderly limit the ability of many women to work outside. When they do look for work, it is neither available close by nor easy to get to.
Sexual Violence 2012-2018 and #MeToo
A Touchstone for the Present
Sexual violence and harassment seem to have secured a central focus for women’s issues. What structural aspects of women’s oppression are obscured by this centrality of violence? What fresh insights does it nevertheless offer?
No more articles!