-The Hindustan Times As India debates ‘capital punishment’ for rapists, millions of men maintain that ‘corporal punishment’ is the right sentence for a wife who serves chai gone cold. Since it is often invisible, violence committed by husbands has escaped public outrage. Crimes such as beating, punching and forced sex usually go unpunished because it is common belief that a husband has the right to punish his wife.   Though we do...

-The Hindu Twenty years after the Babri Masjid riots, a survivor recounts her tale of horror Mumbai: It may be 20 years for everyone else but for Safia (name changed on request), it seems like 20 seconds. Overwhelmed by the nationwide outrage over the Delhi gang rape, she is anguished that no one helped when she and her 19-year-old daughter were stripped and gang-raped. The mob burnt her daughter alive while she managed...

-The Hindu In protecting husbands from marital rape and khap panchayats from accountability for sexual wrongs, the government has lost an opportunity to change the way in which our society treats women In its eagerness to demonstrate that it is “doing something” about rape in response to the overwhelming protests over the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old Delhi student last December, the government has issued an ordinance that is both...

-The Hindu Women’s groups demand a separate Centrally-sponsored scheme with enough funds to ensure proper implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 Women’s groups have questioned the Centre’s commitment to address the issue of domestic violence and ensuring women’s security in the wake of its failure to allocate sufficient funds for the implementation of the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Women’s groups and activists are now demanding a separate...

-The Hindu Seeks an exception for the definition of marital rape in the existing laws Backing the long-standing demand of the women’s activists that marital rape be considered as an offence, the Justice J.S. Verma committee has said marriage or any other intimate relationship between a man and a woman is “not a valid” defence against sexual crimes like rape. The three-member panel, which was constituted to recommend amendments to criminal laws in...