Feminism In India

Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad reportedly assaulted a pregnant Dalit woman while taking her husband away for questioning in connection with a theft case. The woman later died, prompting the suspension of six police personnel for alleged negligence. According to the victim’s husband, Gaurav Kumar, a police team arrived at their home around 11:45 PM on September 13. The officers had come to take Kumar in for questioning in connection with a theft at a local grocery store. The victim, 28-year-old Anjali Verma, who was nearly eight and a half months pregnant, pleaded with the police personnel not to take Kumar away. Her family alleges that Sub-Inspector Dharampal Singh kicked her in the abdomen, causing her to fall. Kumar was then taken away. However, the victim’s condition began to deteriorate after the fall. She was taken to a hospital in Shikohabad, where she delivered the child, but her condition subsequently worsened. She was then referred to a private hospital in Firozabad, where she was declared dead. The newborn was also in critical condition and was referred to a hospital in Agra for treatment. Kumar was released following his wife’s death. Six police personnel were suspended after a preliminary inquiry. Those suspended include Sub-Inspectors Dharmpal Singh and Satyapal Singh, Head Constables Mohan Singh and Arvind Kumar, and Constables Bhavtosh Kumar and Kuldeep Kumar. However, in a publicly issued statement, Firozabad Police denied the allegations. Further investigation is underway. [[Gender-Based Violence, Violence Against Women, Uttar Pradesh, Firozabad, Police, Dalit Woman, Pregnant Woman, Negligence, Institutional Bias, Casteism, Caste, Crime, India, News]

#DailyArticle: We don't really believe love has no age. Rather, we’ve conveniently decided whose age doesn’t count and whose does. #BethlehemKudumbaUnit #AgeGap #RomanticRelationships #Patriarchy #Misogyny https://lnkd.in/dXmuRWCg

India has retained its 131st position in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual Global Gender Gap Index. The index ranks 145 countries, with only 13 countries ranking below India, most of them in West Asia and North Africa. The index measures progress towards gender equality based on four subindexes: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The report noted that while countries at every income level have made progress in closing the gender gap in the last 20 years, it would take another 120 years to achieve true gender parity. It further noted that greater gains were made between 2006 and 2016 compared with the decade that followed. In India, gains in closing the gender gap stood nearly 5 percentage points below the global average. Since 2006, gender parity has increased by 4.3 percentage points in India, with most of the progress attributable to improvements in educational attainment. According to this year’s report, India has seen increased participation by women in the legislature, among senior officials, and in managerial positions, along with a marginal improvement in labour-force participation and gains in health. However, one area where the country lagged was the sex ratio at birth, which was one percentage point lower than in 2006. However, among all the subindexes, India performed best in the Political Empowerment category this year, with 24.5 per cent of the gender gap closed in this regard, ranking 67th globally. What do you think are the other socio-cultural factors contributing to India’s low levels of gender parity? Let us know in the comments.

TW: Child Sexual Abuse, Graphic Descriptions of Violence A special POCSO court in Chhattisgarh’s Durg has sentenced 24-year-old Somesh Yadav to death for raping and murdering his 6-year-old niece. The incident occurred in April 2025. The accused, who is the child’s paternal uncle, raped her and then poured a chemical cleaner on her genitalia in an attempt to remove any traces of his DNA. Police later discovered the child’s body in the trunk of a parked car, with scratch marks on her face and bloodied lips. The victim died of cardiac arrest, which the police report attributed to extreme physical distress and trauma. Based on forensic and DNA evidence, police arrested Yadav. CCTV footage and other circumstantial evidence were also used to establish his guilt. The car in which the victim’s body was found belonged to a neighbour. Police said Yadav had hidden the body there in an attempt to mislead investigators. The POCSO court convicted Yadav under multiple provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and sentenced him to death by hanging, terming the crime the ‘rarest of rare’. [CSA, POCSO, Gender-Based Violence, Violence Against Women and Girls, Chhattisgarh, Crime, India, News]

#DailyArticle: Despite large-scale programmes and the availability of the necessary technology to prevent maternal deaths, India's Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has not declined significantly. #MaternalHealth #WomensHealth #MMR #MaternalMortality https://lnkd.in/dSg37pDd

Honour killings like Geeta’s remain prevalent across the country. Many young couples who pursue relationships and marry outside their caste face the threat of honour-based violence. While honour killings represent an extreme manifestation of entrenched casteism, arranged marriages are often premised on similar ideas of caste supremacy and purity. Arranged marriages continue to find widespread acceptance in India because they facilitate endogamous unions. Through arranged marriages, families and communities can exert complete control over whom young people marry, helping ensure that marriages do not cross caste or religious boundaries. While many reasons, including easier assimilation of the bride into the groom’s family, more stable relationships, and better compatibility, are often cited in favour of arranged marriages, in reality, caste supremacy and casteism continue to underpin the practice. While primarily rooted in casteism and caste supremacy, endogamy also objectifies women and reinforces patriarchal notions of ‘honour’ and feminine respectability, stripping women of their autonomy and agency. In patriarchal societies, women are expected to defer their autonomy to their families and communities, often to male family members. A woman’s right to choose for herself, especially when it comes to marriage, is seen as a threat to patriarchal structures that seek to keep women under the control of men. Endogamy is not a neutral practice, and neither is arranged marriage. While individuals, particularly women, may enter arranged marriages due to a complex interplay of familial pressure, financial dependence, and lifelong conditioning, such marriages nonetheless perpetuate casteism and remain one of the most widely practised and socially accepted means of doing so. [Honour Killing, Caste-Based Violence, Casteism, Maharashtra, Geeta Govardhane, Caste, Patriarchy, Endogamy, Arranged Marriage] 

#DailyArticle: Did all these observations need to become a full-length non-fiction book? Careers have fallbacks, boundaries are important, women do more unpaid domestic labour, financial independence allows you agency; these are important things to talk about. But there’s hardly any novelty in these arguments. These themes and versions of them have been explored by feminist writers, bloggers, and online communities around the world for years now. #BookReview #TheGirlsAreNotFine https://lnkd.in/dDQ7QR-Z

Recognising that a woman raped by her husband is ‘undoubtedly a victim’, the Supreme Court considered whether a man can be prosecuted for raping his wife when statutory law does not recognise marital rape. A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, questioned whether a court could permit such a prosecution without first considering the validity of the marital rape exception itself. The court was hearing petitions challenging the exception, as well as an appeal against a Karnataka High Court verdict. 'Marriage cannot result in extinction of individual autonomy,' the bench noted. However, the Supreme Court’s own language must also be critiqued. Justice Bagchi observed that a 'person in a matrimony subjected to involuntary sexual intercourse is differently a victim'. Describing rape within marriage merely as ‘involuntary sexual intercourse’ or ‘non-consensual sex’ risks reinforcing the idea that spousal rape constitutes a distinct category of sexual violence, and, by implication, one that is somehow less harmful. While the language used may not have been intentional on the part of the Court, calling it out is not merely a pedantic preoccupation. The language we use, and, especially, the language used by our institutions, to describe sexual violence shapes how we understand violence and justice. To do away with the marital rape exception, we must first fully recognise marital rape as no different from sexual violence perpetrated by strangers. Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it is a travesty that, in 2026, victims of rape can be denied legal recourse to seek justice or put an end to the abuse they suffer simply because the perpetrator is their spouse. [Marital Rape, Supreme Court, Judiciary, Gender-Based Violence, Violence Against Women, Domestic Violence, Karnataka, Legal Exception, Law, Women's Rights, SA, GBV]

Jauhar is a historical fact, and given that it is no longer practised, we can leave it at that. What warrants discussion, however, is the romanticisation and glorification of jauhar — both in our films and in public discourse — and the impact such romanticisation has on victims of sexual violence today. In patriarchal societies, women are expected to conform to gendered notions of feminine respectability and are regarded as the keepers of familial and community ‘honour’. Sexual violence, on the other hand, has historically been — and continues to be — viewed as ‘shameful’, perceived as a threat to this honour. Victims of sexual assault routinely face stigma, ostracisation, and victim-blaming. The cultural narrative that sexual violence is ‘shameful’ and that victims have lost their ‘honour’ or ‘value’ remains deeply pervasive. Discourse that attaches ‘honour’ to dying rather than experiencing sexual assault, in turn, unwittingly reinforces this very narrative. ‘Padmaavat’ did not present jauhar simply as a historical fact or treat the subject with nuance. Nor did it merely depict jauhar; it glorified it, presenting it as an ‘honourable’ act and romanticising it in the process. Such romanticisation of jauhar, both in films like ‘Padmaavat’ and in popular discourse, reinforces the patriarchal idea that violence against women constitutes an attack on a family or community’s ‘honour’, and goes so far as to frame a woman’s victimisation as a moral failing for which she is responsible if she cannot prevent it. Historically, this ‘prevention’ could mean death; today, it can take the form of women being expected to police their own behaviour, clothing, mobility, and sexuality to avoid sexual violence. The current discourse surrounding ‘jauhar’ provides an opportunity to re-examine our understanding of sexual violence and to critically interrogate patriarchal notions of ‘honour’. [Jauhar, Padmaavat, Swara Bhasker, Hindutva, Main Vaapas Aaunga, Patriarchy, Misogyny, Gender-Based Violence, Violence Against Women]

#DailyArticle: Ecofeminism is often subjected to harsh criticism for drawing parallels between women’s subjugation and nature’s exploitation. Many feminist scholars have even dismissed this notion. However, the intersection is very real and very political. #Ecofeminism #GreenLiterature #HanKang #ElifShafak #Environment #Nature #ClimateChange https://lnkd.in/g8z4zw_3