There is a complicated relationship between abortion as such and the selective abortion of female foetuses. This dilemma is one with which the women’s movement in India has been grappling since the late 1980s. In my discussion of this dilemma, I would like to move away completely from Satyamev Jayate, the television programme, (on which a discussion has been initiated by Shohini Ghosh on kafila.org). In any case, there the...

-The Economist HOW should one judge the lot of women in India, a country that is in many ways progressive, modern, tolerant and yet by turns repressive and hostile? Women hold the highest political positions (the presidency, speaker of parliament, leader of the ruling party, leader of the opposition in parliament, several chief ministers of large states) and in theory they are protected by a variety laws promoting equality. Though development indicators...

-The Economist An absence of optimism plays a large role in keeping people trapped in poverty THE idea that an infusion of hope can make a big difference to the lives of wretchedly poor people sounds like something dreamed up by a well-meaning activist or a tub-thumping politician. Yet this was the central thrust of a lecture at Harvard University on May 3rd by Esther Duflo, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute...

-The Times of India Gurgaon: The state health department has asked medical officers in the city to keep tabs on the ultrasound centres of the city. In a measure to curb female foeticide, the department has made it mandatory for pregnant women to present their ID proof. The director general of the health department on May 3 directed officials concerned to give guidelines to the hospitals and the private centres to check...

Bench asks government to reach out to the women, think of an immediate alternative The Supreme Court on Wednesday set up a seven-member committee to look into the deplorable conditions of “widows/destitutes” living in Vrindavan and set an eight-week deadline to complete its report. The committee, headed by the chairman of the Mathura District Legal Services Authority, will prepare a list of the widows with their names, age and reasons for being...