There can be little quarrel with the argument that India requires a comprehensive policy to prevent sex selection as put forward by National Advisory Council members Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shiva Kumar in The Hindu (“India & the sex selection conundrum,” January 24, 2012). That the use of sex selection technologies to abort female foetuses is linked to the increasing devaluation and disempowerment of women is well known. It is...
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Panel for income-linked cap on marriage spend by Mahendra K Singh
-The Times of India How much you can splurge on the buffet, trousseau and finery at a family wedding may depend on how much you earn. A high-powered government panel has recommended income-linked cap on marriage expenditure, including gifts and food served. The recommendation by the Planning Commission's Working Group on Women's Agency and Empowerment is part of the effort to tighten the provisions of dowry Prohibition Act, 28 years after its...
More »dowry death: One bride burnt every hour by Subodh Varma
In a crime that is prevalent only in India, greedy husbands and his relatives harass the newly wed bride for getting more dowry, and often kill her in the process. And, very often, she is burnt alive. This horror is therefore calledbride-burning or in official terms, dowry death. In 2010, there were 8391 reported cases of dowry death in the country. That works out to a shocking one death every hour...
More »India & the sex selection conundrum by Farah Naqvi & AK Shiva Kumar
What was our immediate response to further decline in the child sex ratio in India? Within days of the provisional 2011 Census results (March-April 2011), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reconstituted the Central Supervisory Board for the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act 1994 , which had not met for 3 years, and on November 30, 2011 the Ministry of Women and Child Development...
More »Law Commission wants dowry law toned down by Dhananjay Mahapatra
In what could raise the hackles of women's rights activists, the Law Commission has recommended to the Centre that the strict law dealing with dowry offences be made compoundable - a move that will allow an accused to escape a jail term by paying a fine. The recommendation to alter the tough provisions of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code comes in the backdrop of Supreme Court suggesting it may...
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