-The Indian Express The CPM has demanded that the maximum punishment in cases of “aggravated sexual assault” and “rape” be enhanced to rigorous life imprisonment till death and suggested that laws related to sexual assault be made “Gender specific”. The party is not in favour of death penalty as it feels existing laws provide for capital punishment in “rarest of the rare” cases of gangrape and murder like the Delhi incident. In...

-The Hindu Refusal by Dalits to work as agricultural labour and to perform menial duties plus their relative economic improvement have made them the targets of caste violence In the recent violence against the Dalits in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, about 300 of their houses were burnt down and other properties destroyed by the Vanniars, a numerically strong intermediate caste, sections of whom have been economically stagnant. The immediate cause for...

-The Times of India With violence against Indian women on the rise, the debate over feminist politics and its relevance has acquired new importance. Academic Nivedita Menon has researched this in Seeing Like A Feminist. Speaking with Amrita Nandy, Menon discussed the role and energy of feminism today, how rape and dress are analysed by convention versus feminism — and how feminism eventually liberates women, even from being feminists: * You write...

-The Hindu The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will introduce “Human Rights and Gender Studies” for Class XI and XII students from the coming academic year. The subject will be elective. Similarly, a handbook for teachers, “Women Safety and Empowerment through Curriculum,” will be introduced in the training courses by the National Council for Teachers Education. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has been receiving representations for promoting value education in schools...

-The Indian Express Gangrape speaks of the deep pathologies in the way young men are socialised. We should look within I hate item numbers,” exclaimed a (male) film actor in the midst of a talk show about the gangrape in Delhi that shook the nation. Immediately, there was a heated discussion about the uselessness of item numbers in the midst of Hindi films. Some spoke vehemently about how these songs were sexually...