-The Indian Express Thirty-four years after the death of 20-year-old Kanchanbala from 100 per cent burn injuries, and 27 years after her case led to changes in the dowry law, the Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of her husband for abetment to suicide. In a verdict on the eve of Women's Day earlier this month, the court linked it to his demand for a scooter made two days before Kanchanbala's...

-Live Mint Preventing entry of Dalits, tribespeople to places of worship should be made a punishable offence, says NAC Preventing Dalits and tribespeople from entering places of worship will be made a punishable offence under legal changes proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the social policy for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Obstructing members of such groups from using community resources will also be made an offence under...

-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...

-Bloomberg.com One of the most obscene moments after the death of the gang-rape victim in New Delhi was a tweet by Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, offering regret and condolences to the dead woman’s family. Modi, who has quelled restive minorities by allowing attackers to subject women to unspeakable horrors, has done more than any man to numb his prudish country to sexual violence. Yet he...

-Outlook Delhi: Women in the national capital seem to be as unsafe in their homes as they are outside with close to 1,500 cases of cruelty against them by their husbands or relatives registered during 2011. According to Home Ministry data, there has been a surge in instances of violence against women by someone from the family as 1,498 such cases were registered in the capital during 2011 as against 1,273 in...