-Economic and Political Weekly The vigorous public discourse following the recent brutal gang rape and mutilation of the 23-year-old in Delhi is a positive sign but hopefully the demand for quick solutions will not ignore the complexities involved in dealing with all forms of violence against women. There are also other connected issues that require urgent attention including the description of a rape as a "state worse than death", making out...

-Open Democracy Were Ram Singh and his cohort simply claiming a notion of masculinity promoted every day by their role models in politics, business and the media? Ruchira Gupta writes of the steady creeping of a rape culture into the fabric of India, and what needs to be done to counter the idea that women are commodities Let us talk about Ram Singh, the chief rapist accused in the case of Damini,...

-The Hindu The old Penal Code exempts it as an offence if a wife is not under 16 Opposing the death penalty for those guilty of rape, women’s groups have demanded that marital rape, stalking and stripping be regarded as serious offences. The old Penal Code and the proposed amendments exempt marital rape as an offence if a wife is not under 16 years of age. This exemption, totally and unreasonably, ignores the...

-The Hindustan Times The recent arrest of two young girls in Maharashtra - Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan - for posting and liking a Facebook comment questioning the shutdown in Mumbai for Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray's funeral reminded me of an incident that happened a few years after Independence and Partition. It was 1952 and I was playing in a neighbourhood park when some children coerced me into telling them my name....

-The Hindu Wrapped in a shawl turned grey from grime, the three-month-old baby girl was brought to meet this correspondent near the Taimur Nagar police post. “How do you like her,” the girl’s maternal aunt, Rahima, asked. “I know she is too skinny, so she looks horrible. But one month of proper food, and she will turn healthy. Look, her features are so sharp.” Rahima had made contact hoping to sell the...