-PTI   Laxmi, a victim of acid attack has been selected by the US for the prestigious International Women of Courage Award. Ms. Laxmi would receive the award from First Lady Michelle Obama at an awards ceremony in Washington. She was 16 when an acquaintance threw acid on her face while she waited at a bus stop in New Delhi's Khan Market in 2005, disfiguring her permanently. "Many acid attack victims never return to normal...

-The Hindu Rights may be self-evident and constitutionally secured; however, they do not automatically implement themselves In the last two years the highest courts in the country have responded to a mass call for more protection for women. Alongside, there have been many judgments from non-constitutional decision-making bodies like khap panchayats and kangaroo courts sanctioning violence against particular women or curtailing women's freedom in significant ways. Why is it that while there...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Hindustan Times When 22-year-old bride Harpreet Kaur entered a salon in Ludhiana on December 2 to get her bridal make-up, little did her family expect that she would fall prey to a feud in the groom's family and that they would lose her in a few weeks' time. According to reports, two men barged into the salon and threw acid on Harpreet. She was later taken to Mumbai and...

-The Hindustan Times On 16 December, D, 25, a Kolkata resident, was returning home, from the fashion boutique he owns, when some people on the street threw eggs at him. A day or two earlier, a group of approximately seven men from the neighbourhood had blocked his way, demanding to know how much they would have to pay him in return for sexual favours. He was also groped on the street....