Entries from Byline Portal tagged with 'India'
The Identity Question
by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - At a time when secular-thinking liberal Pakistanis are under attack from the Taliban, reading Azadi’s Daughter by Seema Mustafa (no relative) proved to be a thought-provoking exercise for me. Sub-titled Journey of a Liberal...
Rape of 5-Year-Old Indian Girl Sparks New Outrage, Old Questions
by Krista Mahr, TIME, USA - At a major hospital in New Delhi, the 5-year-old victim of another grotesque rape has been making the first steps in what is sure to be a long recovery after being kidnapped, sexually assaulted...
Why Steubenville Is Not Delhi: How We Are Failing in This Country
by Lauren Wolfe, Women Under Siege, USA - The rape of a teenager in Steubenville, Ohio, is being dissected to pieces in terms of the “who, what, where,” but very few people are taking a look at the “why.”...
We Must All Counter the Mood Music of Rape Culture
by Libby Brooks, The Guardian, UK - In trying to understand the horror in India, we would do well to define the beliefs that excuse or condone sexual violence....
Why Did It Need an Incident So Unspeakably Brutal to Trigger Our Outrage?
by Shoma Chaudhury, Tehelka, India - Rape is almost culturally sanctioned in India, made possible by crude, unthinking conversations in every strata of society. Conversations that look at crime against women through the prism of women’s responsibility: were they adequately...
To Each His Own
by Barkha Dutt, Hindustan Times, India - Social media is not above the law. Nevertheless, a draconian IT law can't have the last word over what we write and how we think....
Why a Mamta or a Mayawati Does Not Mean India’s Women Are Empowered
by Makepeace Sitlhou, The Alternative, India - Earlier this year, India was declared the worst country to be a woman and in 2011, among the 5 most dangerous countries for women in two successive polls by Trust Law, of the...
The Problems with Policing Sexism on Twitter
by Kavitha Rao, The Atlantic, USA - India has started arresting men who abuse women on the social network. Is this a triumph against misogyny or a threat to free speech?...
Ashes of Sino-Indian War Stay Warm
by Dr. Namrata Goswami, Asia Times, Hong Kong - Half a century has gone by since a border war between China and India broke out in the eastern Himalayas on October 20, 1962. Memories of that war linger not only...
Walmart? Nein, Danke!
by Padma Rao Sundarji, Outlook India, India - Walmart in India. Will it create jobs and benefit farmers? Provide consumers a one-stop convenience? Instal cold storages to eliminate the current losses of roughly 40 per cent of rotting agricultural produce?...
India's Politics Rule - Economy Be Damned
by Swati Lodh Kundu, Asia Times, Hong Kong - With the aim of staying relevant for their constituencies so that they can be re-elected in the next term, the focus is increasingly on undertaking populist measures which leads to immediate...
‘Genetically Modified Crops No Panacea for Food Security’
by Gargi Parsai, The Hindu, India - The debate on the pros and cons of genetically engineered/modified crops is universal. In India, in the face of vociferous protests, the controversy has only deepened leading to a moratorium on cultivation of...
Clashes Expose India's Communal Divide as Elections Loom
by Nita Bhalla, Altertnet, UK - The grisly scenes unfolding in the far-flung northeast may fan communal politics in a country where simmering tensions between Hindus and Muslims have often been exploited for electoral gain....
Employment Eludes Kashmir's Youth
by Prerna Suri, Al Jazeera, Qatar - No new industries coming up in Indian-administered state, which is still feeling the effects of civil unrest....
Thirsty South Asia's River Rifts Threaten "Water Wars"
by Nita Bhalla, AlertNet, UK - As the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this north Kashmir valley, Indian labourers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one...
Artist Soraya Nulliah On: Art, Apartheid, Women and Violence
by Rita Banerji, Gender Bytes, India - While the issue of violence is personal to me, I also know it’s a common experience for so many others, especially women in the Indian community. Every single friend I have in the...
Petals in the Dust : South Asian Mother Produces Film about Endangered Indian Girls
by Anjum Choudhry Nayyar, Masala Mommas, Canada - This is the worst genocide in India’s history and unless we act soon, the Indian girls will continue to be eliminated....
A Movie Moment
by Sunaina Kumar, Tehelka, India - Project Cinema City scavenges a hundred years of cinematic history to make a larger than reel life monument to movies and Mumbai....
The War for India's Internet
by Rebecca MacKinnon, Foreign Policy, USA - Why is the world's biggest democracy cracking down on Facebook and Google?...
Was It Just a Mirage Then?
by Lola Nayar, Outlook, India - With the economy in a bind and the government clueless and apathetic, the Indian middle class sees its dreams unravel....
Pitfalls of Surrogacy in India Exposed
by Neeta Lal, Asia Times, Hong Kong - IVF experts say that under the terms of most surrogacy contracts in India, the surrogate mother and her partner agree that if the childbearing woman is injured or diagnosed with a life-threatening...
Her Bill of Writes
by Garima Jain, Tehelka, India - A domestic worker by day, and acclaimed author by night, Halder first claimed the spotlight in 2006, with the publication of her bestselling A Life Less Ordinary. But she steps away from its glare...
For Many Indians, the Land of Opportunity Is the Land They’re Going back To
by Stephanie Nolen, Globe & Mail, Canada - Canada has traditionally competed for India’s skilled migrants with Australia, Britain and the United States. But now there’s a new country in the mix, a destination with increasing appeal for young, educated...
Long Journeys to Parenthood
by Smita Mitra, Outlook India, India - Couples from countries across the world—chiefly Islamic countries and Africa—are seeking babies in Indian clinics....
Machismo Is the Problem, Not the Solution
by Kavita Krishnan, Tehelka, India - A number of campaigns against sexual harassment endorse the stereotypes they set out to debunk....
Shutting the School Doors on the Muslim Child
by Hem Borker, The Hindu, India - The increasing communalisation of social spaces is limiting the educational choices of Muslim students....
Private Toilets for Rural Women Continue to Transform Lives
by Shuriah Niazi, Women News Network, USA - A new women’s movement has been building in rural India. It’s demanding something never considered before for women who often live in areas without adequate or clean running water. Often these are...
No Country for Rape Victims
by Nishita Jha, Tehelka, India - "I look at women who choose to testify against rapists with wonder all the time, simply because we all know that once they admit to having been raped, they will be violated repeatedly by...
For a New Highway, from Rio to Delhi
by Estefanía Marchán, The Hindu, India - Brazil and India can benefit from each other's experience for an inclusive development agenda....
Come South, Young Man, but Here Be Dragons
by Madhumita Dutta, The Hindu, India - The interstate migrant is a much-reviled figure, often unjustly so. Ghettoised and insecure, and lacking any legal or social protection, the interstate migrant workers become easy targets for the state, administration, overzealous nationalist...
There’s a Whole Lotta Lovin’ Goin’ on
by Ira Trivedi, Outlook India, India - Indian couples are exploring a few ‘open’ ways out of desultory middle life....
Indian Tribals Reject Maoists, and Delhi
by Sudha Ramachandran, Asia Times, Hong Kong - Anger over widespread displacement, lack of basic amenities and poverty in southern Odisha has driven hundreds of tribal youth to join the Maoists, prompting security analysts to describe these districts and entire...
Indian College Teaches Solar Lessons to Women
by Prena Suri, Al Jazeera, Qatar - As world leaders debate solutions at the UN climate change conference in Durban, a college in the Indian state of Rajasthan is teaching communities how to harness solar energy....
The Other Half - Another Battle Won
by Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, India - The Supreme Court clears the way for women to become In-Flight Supervisors in Air India. Thanks to those women who believed in and fought for equality at the workplace....
Green Economy and Poverty Alleviation
by Marianne de Nazareth, Counter Currents, India - By regenerating the forest our project proves that a healthy forest can be the source of sustainable income generation for the impoverished mountain communities....
Adivasi Parliament
by Gayatri Parameswaran, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - Tribal people are being pushed off their forest land because the government leases out forest areas for development projects. One of the major demands of the ‘adivasi parliament’ is access to forest land...
The Gifts That Keep Giving
by Avesta Choudhary, Tehelka, India - Several NGOs are turning trash into treasure helping protect the environment and empowering many....
A Twitter Handle Forces Ghaziabad Police to Do Its Duty
by Avesta Choudhary & Yamini Deenadayalan, Tehelka, India - Forty-eight hours after her 22-year-old daughter Naina’s death, Malti Singh, 55, managed to lodge a first information report (FIR) at the Vijay Nagar Police Station in Ghaziabad on Monday after Twitter...
Global Forum On Sanitation Begins In Mumbai
by Marianne de Nazareth, Countercurrents, India - Some 500 activists, business leaders, health professionals, governmental officials and others from 70 countries are attending this first-ever Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene. Arranged by the Geneva-based WSSCC and the Governments of...
The Need To Separate Gender And Capitalism In The Urban Indian Context
by Shreya Sanghani, Counter Currents, India - Is co-opting the women's movement into the larger structure of corporate globalization really the way forward?...
Trial by Fire: Shirin Juwaley Acid Attack Survivor
by Dheera Sujan, South Asia Wired, Netherlands - Shirin’s journey provides us with one inspirational thought: that while some of us can be broken by life’s tragedies and others can choose to feel victimized by them, some of us –...
The Women Bringing Solar Power to Sierra Leone
by Meena Bhandari, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - An Indian college is training 12 Sierra Leonean women to become solar engineers as part of a drive to bring electricity to rural communities....
Reign of the Tin Men
by Shoma Chaudhury, Tehelka, India - The charade of Anna Hazare’s arrest exposes a government bankrupt of political ideas. But there are some lessons there for everyone else too....
Personal Narratives of Belonging
by Aparna Kolar, OpenDemocracy, UK - It strikes me that most of the recent conversations I have had with the people I meet seem to be rooted in these four core questions of identity: “Who am I? Where am I?...
Kashmiryat: Religion Or Class?
by Inshah Malik, Countercurrents, India - In laymen terms as it demands recognition, to consider oneself belonging to a particular region or simply being Kashmiri. But discourse presents to us rather not so simple picture of belongingness. In Kashmir secularism...
Drugs and the Valley
by Dilnaz Boga, Dawn, Pakistan - The two-decade conflict in Kashmir, the highest militarised region in the world, is responsible for a spiraling drug problem amongst its populace, psychiatrists maintain....
India-Sri Lanka Ferry Hits Troubled Waters
by Sudha Ramachandran, Asia Times, Hong Kong - In Sri Lanka, the ferry is seen as a tangible sign of the enormous change in the security environment after the defeat of the LTTE. In New Delhi, the ferry is being...
Hunger Strikes Unify a 'Middle India' that Is Sick of Corruption
by Rashmee Roshan Lall, The National, United Arab Emirates - The hunger strike is becoming the dish of choice in India's political market. And therein lies a bitter pill about truth and falsehood in the world's largest democracy and one...
Watts in it for Me?
by Tusha Mittal, Tehelka, India - Thermal. Hydro. Nuclear. Every kind of power project brings its own set of detractors....
World Over, Quotas Help Women Enter Politics
by Madhavi Rajadhyaksha, Times of India, India - When Mrinal Gore won a seat in the BMC in the 1960s, there was no reservation for women. A socialist, Gore had untiringly worked to better citizens` facilities in Goregaon, prior to...
A Medical Service for Villagers, Run by Village Women
by Priyanka Golikeri, Daily News & Analysis, India - Till a year ago, Gyarsidevi was like any other woman in the village. Attending to the needs of her children, caring for her ageing in-laws and cultivating bajra and millets from...
Rehabilitation Cuts no Ice with India's Sex Workers
by Astrid Zweynert, Trustlaw Reuters, UK - What many sex workers want more than anything is to have their work decriminalised. In India, selling sex is not illegal but activities around sex work, such as soliciting or running a brothel,...
Budget Allocation Cuts Relief for Rape Victims
by Madhavi Rajadhyaksha, The Times of India, India - After the celebrations for International Women's Day, here's some grim news. Despite the rising number of rapes in the country there has been a mind-boggling reduction in the budget for the...
The Curious Case Of Commercial Surrogacy
by Sneha Banerjee, Counter Currents, India - The social construction of ‘infertility’ often drives the commissioning parents to spend an insane amount of money to have a ‘biological’ child, while adoption is rendered an unfortunate option of ‘last resort’....
Dreamers & Fighters
by Suchita Vemuri, Deccan Chronicle, India - The very fact that we are still dedicating reams of newsprint to the “emancipation” of women bears testimony to the fact that a lot more needs to be done. This does not, however,...
Maternal Mortality Rate among Worst in India
by Snehlata Shrivastav, Times of India, India - "It is shameful that India, one of the fastest growing economies, is amongst the five countries with worst maternal mortality rate at 250-300 per lakh."...
Environmentalism of the Poor: What Democracy Is Teaching Us
by Sunita Narain, Triple Crisis, India - The fact is today development projects take local resources—minerals, water or land—but cannot provide employment to replace the livelihoods of all those they displace....
It's Time for Indian Companies to Act More Ethically
by Nishika Patel, Guardian, United Kingdom - The global economic fallout and mounting concern with sustainable growth and climate change has spawned a new breed of ethical investors. They are urging companies to report on the environmental and social costs...
Wayanad Tribals Are Soft Targets for Sterilisation
by Shahina KK, Tehelka, India - Permanent sterilisation is keenly promoted by health workers but not temporary birth control measures....
'Niyamgiri You Are Still Alive’
by Suma Joson, Counter Currents, India - In 2006 Sterlite, a subsidiary of UK mining company Vedanta built a refinery in Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa, India. The toxic waste material from the refinery pollutes air, ground and water....
Ignoring Hunger Is Nothing Short of Genocide
by Priyanka Borpujari, Times of India, India - There is widespread hunger in the country today and the increasing levels of displacement and dispossession are further robbing the poor of their meagre means of livelihood...The situation is nothing short of...
Can Women Break Free of Societal Fetters?
by Ragini Nayak, The Hindu, India - The fear of violence restricts a woman's autonomy, curtails her mobility and her ability to work and participate in social activities....
The Scramble for Arms
by Huma Yusuf, Dawn, Pakistan - In an effort to balance the Indian Army`s weapons procurement and growth, the Pakistan Army will seek to pursue and legitimise those foreign policies that yield the best real returns (read arms deals). The...
Malware in the System
by Smita Mitra, Outlook India, India - Stress and obesity are triggering early hormonal imbalances in pre-teen women....
India-Iran Relations at Nadir
by Sudha Ramachandran, Asia Times, Hong Kong- Iran's adoption of the Kashmir cause as its own is part of a larger attempt to assume the leadership mantle for the Muslim world....
Break the Silence
by Nileena M. S., The Hindu, India - We consider ourselves members of a civilised society, yet have not learnt to recognise and respect a section that constitutes half the population....
MSF Wants EU's 'Hands off' Life-Saving Generic Drugs
by Ranjitha Balasubramanyam, Deutsche Welle, Germany - As the European Union and India try to reach a free-trade agreement, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders is concerned. It's afraid the deal could limit access to affordable generic drugs it relies...
Success in India: Child Deaths Cut
by Divya Gupta, Panos, UK - "It's no age to die" says the doctor whose work has helped dramatically cut infant and maternal mortality rates across the states of Jharkand and Orissa. The NGO says its approach - which puts...
Kashmir Issue on the Backburner
by Prerna Suri, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Separatists in Kashmir are hoping Obama will show some support for their cause. But given the sensitive nature of the issue in the context of India-Pakistan rivalry, it is unlikely to be discussed...
Food Security as if Women Mattered: A Story from Kerala
by Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, One World South Asia, India - Kerala, hailed as God’s own country, attributes its high development indices to the local women. Through their group, Kudumbashree, these women are not only rejuvenating the local agrarian economy but are...
India is Tipped to Emerge From China's Shadow
By Emma Wall, Telegraph, UK - If there were a popularity contest for emerging markets, India would struggle to win a medal. As the Commonwealth Games host has had difficulty enticing crowds to the sporting event, so too have investors...
MDGs and Food Security
by Vandana Shiva, South African Civil Society Information Service, South Africa - Last week more than 140 countries met at the UN, to track progress on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are more than one billion hungry people...
The Ten-Year-Old Teacher of Untouchables
by Rajni George, National, United Arab Emirates - As an orphan and an ‘untouchable’, young Bharti Kumari seems the unlikeliest of schoolmistresses. But the stoic Indian village girl with an old soul has grasped new opportunities and is a charming...
Does India Have an Endgame in Kashmir?
by Jyoti Thottam, Time, USA - Leaders from every major Indian political party flew to Srinagar this week to demonstrate India's seriousness about resolving the political crisis that has seen months of protests bloodily suppressed in Kashmir. But the three-day...
The Trade-Off Between Food Security and ‘Development’
By Thingnam Anjulika Samom, InfoChange India, India -Most of Manipur’s population, especially people in the valley area, depend on the lake’s fish and vegetation resources for their nutrition and food security. The Loktak hydropower project has given them a few...
The Trickledown Revolution
by Arundhati Roy, Outlook India, India - The insurrection in the Indian countryside, in particular in the tribal heartland, poses a radical challenge not only to the Indian State, but to resistance movements too. It questions the accepted ideas of...
The Other Half: Dying of Indifference
by Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, India - Every eight minutes a woman dies in our country due to pregnancy-related complications. Why aren't we able to devise an accessible healthcare system?...
Lost Children of the Prophet
by Neha Dixit, Tehelka, India - Madrassas are the cornerpiece of Muslim community life. In a disturbing twist, some of them are being used as transit shelters for child trafficking. Or worse, doubling up as sweatshops themselves....
The Hollow Language of Women's Empowerment
by Nandita Sengupta, Times of India, India - India broke into a powerful song of equality 63 years ago. It was finally time to build a brand new state, men and women together. The worst times were ‘behind them’ and...
Why Kashmir Burns
by Smita Singh, Hard News, India - It's our inability to talk about Kashmir outside the framework set by popular media, government propaganda and the rhetoric of nationalism, that fails us in the eyes of Kashmir today....
India Draws a Line over Kashmir
by Sudha Ramachandran, Asia Times, Hong Kong - The UN's role in the India-Pakistan conflict over disputed Kashmir has raised hackles in Delhi for decades....
The Feminist and the Sex Worker: Lessons From the Indian Experience
by Srilatha Batliwala, Himal Southasian, Nepal - Despite decades of tension between feminists and sex workers, today it is finally becoming clear that the former has much to learn from the latter.From the earliest days of ‘second wave’ feminism, the...
Cross-Border Unions: How Indo-Pakistani Marriages Prosper
by Vinita Bharadwaj, National, United Arab Emirates - While relations between their countries may be at an all-time low, Indians and Pakistanis who marry each other often find extended family ties confound their nations’ mutual hostility....
South-South Cooperation and Africa: A Better Way?
by Catherine Sasman, New Era, Namibia - Africa’s formal involvement with its current Southern partners dates back to 1955, first with Asian countries, after a conference in Bandung, Indonesia, which called for economic and cultural co-operation. Although Africa actively took...
Heeding the Call of the African Continent
by Neha Chowdhry, Business Standard, India - With India's markets in the West faltering as a result of the global financial crisis, Indian firms stand to gain by stepping up investments in Africa. With its deep historical linkages to India,...
TV for a Cause!
by Kaplana Sharma, Times of India, India - Television serials are flooded with social issues, from child marriages to female infanticide and domestic violence. Is this the real India we live in?...
The Killing Fields Of MNCs
by Vandana Shiva, The Asian Age, India - From Bhopal to pesticides to GMOs to nuclear plants, there are two lessons we can draw. One is that corporations introd u ce hazardous technologies like pesticides and GMOs for profits,...
India's Super Rich Educators
by Shailaja Neelakantan, GlobalPost, USA - Rajendra Pawar said he and Vijay Thadani started NIIT University after it became clear to them that the Indian government does not have enough money to take on the myriad challenges facing the country's...
The Riddle of Representation: Castes and the Census
by Cynthia Stephen, Info Change India, India - The inclusion of caste as a classification in the ongoing census has been the subject of much debate recently. While many believe that it should have been included in the census questionnaire,...
Subcontinent: Invoking Indira Gandhi
by Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail, Canada - Her murder set off days of anti-Sikh riots, in which at least 3,000 people were killed here in Delhi. Mrs. Gandhi's strong-featured face - the hawk nose, the swooping dark eyebrows,...
Involving All People in Policy Formulation
by Pamela Philipose, The New Nation, Bangladesh - As the global community prepares to review its progress on the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) this September, many civil society activists in India see the process as an opportunity to...
Indo-African relations: Is the Elephant playing catch-up with the Dragon?
by Denine Walters, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - “From scouting for diamonds in the deserts of Botswana to signing oil deals with Sudan and sending peacekeepers to [the] volatile [Democratic Republic of the] Congo, India is busy trying to...
Towards Protecting Women
bu Shailaja Chandra, The Hindu, India - In the absence of whole-hearted steps to implement the provisions effectively, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is falling short of expectations....
Gandhi's Long Shadow
by Isabel Hilton, The Guardian, UK - In calling for a large salary increase, India's MPs can again turn themselves into servants of the poor. The argument about MPs' salaries stands for a deeper anxiety about India's direction, the uneven...
India Shuns Poor in Commonwealth Games Makeover
by Nita Bhalla, Reuters AlterNet, UK - As millions across the globe focus their attention on the World Cup in South Africa, the Indian capital New Delhi is busy preparing to host another international sporting event - the 2010 Commonwealth...
India-Pakistan-Afghanistan: The Path Ahead
by Nirupama Rao, Mainstream, India- It is a truth universally acknowledged that India, Pakistan and Afghanistan share bonds and linkages that transcend the immediacy of the present....
The Membrane Between Adoption and Trafficking Is Money.
by Dheera Sujan, South Asia Wired, Netherlands - What if my daughter had been stolen or appropriated wrongly from her mother. What if her mother has spent the last eight years as miserable as my daughter and I’ve been happy....
China’s Rising Costs are India’s Big Chance
by Reshma Patil, Hindustan Times, India - India is emerging in the spotlight of multinational companies as a wave of labour unrest and wage hikes in China’s foreign factories, making your Apple iPhone to Honda cars, portends the close...
Operation Green Hunt’s Urban Avatar
by Arundhati Roy, Dawn, Pakistan - While the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities....
A “Zhengyou” Relationship With China
by Vidya Subbrahmaniam, The Hindu, India - While it may be difficult to locate the precise point when tensions began to ease up, analysts on both sides agree that India and China were well served by the “Copenhagen spirit.”...
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