-The Hindu Calling the suggestion by Haryana’s Khap panchayats to lower the marriageable age of girls to 16 years to prevent rapes in the State as “illegal and ridiculous”, Union Minister for Women & Child Development Krishna Tirath on Monday said that education and awareness about the rights of women are the need of the hour. “We are in touch with the State Government and have asked them to assess the situation...

-The Times of India The National Commission for Women has recommended removal of the word 'honour' from honour killing while describing crimes when a person is killed to save a family's 'honour'. The NCW's recommendation came after an inquiry into the hurried cremation of a girl by her family in a Greater Noida village mid-June. The girl, studying in a Bulandshahr college, had eloped twice from her home in Bhaipur-Brahampur village, police...

The Guwahati molestation incident throws light on the violence women face overtly and covertly in India, at home and outside. The shocking incident of the beating and molestation of a young woman by a mob in Guwahati in Assam on July 9 has exposed the ugly underbelly of modern, globalised India, where women face violence, covertly and overtly, at home and outside. The incident has also exposed the lackadaisical manner in...

-The Telegraph This is one ascent to the top Bengal could have done without. The National Crime Records Bureau has put the state at the top of the list of crimes against women. According to the bureau’s latest report — for 2011 — Bengal accounted for nearly 12.7 per cent of the total number of crimes against women registered in India. Of them, 2,363 were cases of rape. The report has come at a...

The proposed criminalisation of consensual sex between youngsters in the 16-18 age group is seen as regressive and in denial of social realities. THE minimum age for consensual sex has been raised from 16 to 18 in the amended Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, recently approved by the Union Cabinet. If approved by Parliament, this will make sexual activity with a person below 18 a criminal offence,...