-The Hindu Fears that they would set a “bad example” to others Is there any bar on married girls pursuing their education in Class XI of a government school? This intriguing question has arisen in the minds of many people at Melur, a town situated about 20 km from Madurai, abutting the highway leading to Tiruchi and Chennai. This year, the only government girls’ higher secondary school in the town denied admission to...

Men from subaltern communities must confront the violence that tears apart some of their homes and families The two books under review are quite dissimilar in what they set out to do. Dalit Women Speak Out comprises a detailed review of a set of related studies carried out in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on the violence endured by Dalit women. It revisits the notion of ‘atrocity' both...

Mention crime, and murder and rape are the first to strike the mind. But there is another crime that arguably causes similar trauma, yet goes almost unnoticed: abduction.  The felony rose by 77% in six years, from 23,991 in 2006 to 42,580 in 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In comparison, murders remained around the 34,000 mark in the corresponding period and rapes rose by 24% (from 19,348...

India has decided to throw its weight behind the civil society on issues related to family planning, and articulate its rights-based approach at a summit scheduled in London in the next few weeks. India has kept away from planning family policies since the 70s, and incorporated population stabilisation programmes in the health policies focussing on sexual and reproductive health rights and women's empowerment. While the Centre has discouraged a targeted approach...

11 children go missing every hour in India. This and other disturbing statistics cry out for urgent action Every hour, 11 children go missing in the country. Four of these remain untraced, concludes a nation-wide research on missing children. During 2008-10, close to 1,17,480 children were reported missing in 392 districts. Of them, 74,209 children were traced while 41, 546 remain untraced. The information has been collated by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA)...