-The Hindustan Times Stalking — physical or electronic via phone calls, text messages or emails — is now a criminal offence, punishable with one to three years in jail. The provision is part of the law that came into force after President Pranab Mukherjee on February 3 signed an ordinance, which widened the scope and ambit of the laws dealing with sexual violence against women. The ordinance included a number of recommendations...

-The Hindu One of them fell in love with an upper caste girl, whose father is one of the accused. The police are yet to file a chargesheet in the case. Malegaon (Nashik): The first day of this year took Maharashtra down to a new low. Adding to the growing list of atrocities against Dalits, three young men were killed, allegedly by a mob of upper caste men to keep their family’s...

-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 Indian Express While most incidents of rapes and molestation are never reported because of the social stigma attached to the crime, these, ironically, still form a bulk of the crimes against women that get registered with the police. The reporting of many other crimes, for example foeticide, is abysmally low. The number of cases registered for foeticide in the entire country in 2011 was only 132. In the two preceding years, this...

-The Indian Express With life term being one of the stringent punishments being considered for crimes against women, the Centre has sent an advisory to all states to clear the air on the meaning of the term. Life imprisonment means jail term for the entire life of the convict and not just 20 years or 14 years in prison, the February 1 advisory states. The clarification follows the prevailing confusion on the...