-The Indian Express In 2000, when Sutia village of West Bengal was virtually ruled by alleged rapists, a young schoolteacher stood up to them, starting a movement that helped villagers overcome their fear. Villagers say the gangsters, primarily extortionists, had punished a number of reluctant donors by gang-raping the women of their homes, often in front of the rest of the family. The fear this created had stamped out any hopes of...

Apparently, people across the country, bridging class, caste and income divides, are deliberately ensuring that girls are simply not born. The child sex ratio of 914 girls per 1,000 boys is a tragic situation and a poor reflection on India’s growth and development. This is in spite of laws, schemes, relentless activism and media campaigns spanning three decades in support of the girl child. According to activists and economists, a...

-The Hindu House-hunting for a Muslim in Delhi can be a long and excruciating exercise….  I shudder even now when I think of the incident of my husband, a media relations executive, being called a terrorist. Five years ago, in Dwarka’s Sabka Ghar Apartments here in the Capital, we were not able to get our favourite news channels on cable TV. My husband had been calling the cablewallah without much success. One day...

-The Hindu At Kottaguda village, residents are yet to come to terms with loss of lives A week after a late-night raid by the police and the CRPF led to the death of several tribal villagers in Bijapur district, the Chhattisgarh government announced a judicial inquiry to ascertain the chronology of the events, the reasons behind the firing and the identities of those killed. The inquiry will be headed by a judge of...

-The Hindu The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to submit an affidavit within two weeks in response to a petition on the issue of athlete Pinki Pramanik’s mistreatment by the police. Pramanik’s gender has come into question following allegations of rape against her. A Division Bench comprising Justices J. N. Patel and Justice Sambuddha Chakrabarti heard the matter. The court has also directed the State to produce...