Gender and Sexuality

India’s Gender-Based Violence Crisis 2025: Facts must drive change

The fight against gender-based violence in India, now halfway through 2025, is marked by harrowing numbers, persistent systemic failures, and—unequivocally—the resilience of survivors. What stands out most about this...

One woman against a thousand superstitions, Birubala Rabha’s battle against the superstition of ‘Witch-Hunting’

Though this pioneering feminist activist breathed her last on May 13, 2024, her work with the Thakurvilla Mahila Samiti and Missiom Birubala has been recognized internationally and May 13 has been declared Anti-Superstition Day in Assam

Rape is aggression, domination, consent must be instant specific, not dictated by morality tests: Bombay High Court

In a landmark judgement delivered on May 6, Maksud Gaffur Sheikh v. State of Maharashtra, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC reaffirmed the legal sanctity of continuing and specific consent and rejected character assassination of survivors/victims in rape trials

Nainital on communal edge after 75-year-old Muslim man booked for alleged rape of minor girl

Communal tensions flare in Haldwani, Nainital after a 75-year-old Muslim man is booked for alleged rape of a minor, a BJP leader and right-wings’ ultimatum targeting Muslim-run businesses sparks communal tensions in the state, leading to attacks on shops, staff, and a mosque, while police inaction persists despite video evidence, and no FIR is filed against the perpetrators of the violence and assault

Beed to Delhi: Lawyer beaten in Maharashtra, judge threatened in Delhi—what the path for justice means for women practioners in today’s India

From a brutal assault in rural Maharashtra to death threats in a Delhi courtroom, the message is chillingly clear: women who uphold the law are not safe

Extremists assaulted Muslim woman; hijab stripped of in broad daylight in Bengaluru and Muzaffarnagar

Two shocking incidents of moral policing and harassment involving members of the Muslim community emerged this week. In Muzaffarnagar, a Muslim woman was assaulted and forcibly stripped of her hijab, while in Bengaluru, a young woman was harassed for being in an interfaith relationship with a Hindu man. Both incidents, captured on video, highlight a disturbing rise in intolerance and moral policing, particularly targeting interfaith relationships

When Courts Fail Survivors: How patriarchy shapes justice in sexual offence against women cases

The Supreme Court critiques multiple High Court judgments for perpetuating misogynistic notions and trivialising sexual violence and child trafficking through legally flawed and insensitive reasoning

Women in remote villages mobilise to check fast spread of alcoholism

Due to a combination of factors, there has been...

Surviving Communal Wrath: Women who have defied the silence, demanded accountability from the state

On Women’s Day 2025, March 8, we honour the survivors who became warriors - documenting atrocities, challenging power, and demanding justice in the face of unspeakable brutalities

IMSD condemns the assassination of the world’s first openly gay Imam

“No God, gods, goddesses, prophets or saints may be invoked to justify the killing and/or terrorising of fellow human beings”.

When marriage is tyranny: Justice Shakdher’s judgment reads down the marital rape exception as a constitutional imperative

In contrast to the verdict delivered by Justice Hari Shankar, his brother judge hearing the matter, Justice Shakhder’s judgement in the May 2022 case hearing the constitutional challenge to the exception to marital rape provision under Section 375, strikes it down as anti-constitutional. The matter will now go before the Supreme Court where the constitutional challenge lies pending for two years

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Allahabad HC grants bail in UAPA case over WhatsApp video; raises questions on overuse of stringent national security laws

Accused Savej, charged with ‘waging war’ and serious BNS offences for circulating a Pakistan-made video critical of PM Modi, released on bail; Court cites lack of criminal history, procedural lapses, and Article 21 right to speedy trial, raising concerns about misuse of stringent anti-terror provisions

Supreme Court grants six-week interim medical bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Mahesh Raut

Raut, in jail since 2018 under UAPA, secures interim relief for rheumatoid arthritis treatment; despite being granted regular bail by Bombay High Court in 2023, he remains in custody as the order has been under Supreme Court stay for two years

15-year-old Muslim teen died by suicide in Gujrat, alleged communal harassment

Saniya Ansari, a 15-year-old aspiring police officer from Ahmedabad, died by suicide after months of harassment over a house purchase, her death has sparked questions, exposing how Gujarat's Disturbed Areas Act is allegedly being misused to marginalise Muslim families

Anti-Dalit Crime: Dalit Family brutalised in Ghaziabad

A Dalit family in Masota village, Ghaziabad, was allegedly held hostage and beaten by dominant-caste men following a minor road altercation, FIR has been registered, at least six individuals have been detained so far

Supreme Court seeks states’ replies on pleas for stay of anti-conversion laws, to decide on interim stay after six weeks

CJP highlights UP’s 20-year minimum sentence and PMLA-style bail conditions, warn of “weaponisation” of laws against minorities and interfaith couples; Court directs nine States to respond within four weeks

Death in Assam’s Detention Regime: 56-year-old Bengali Muslim succumbs to cancer amid denial of release

The deceased, branded a “foreigner” despite decades-old family records, died of untreated cancer after authorities denied his release; his case adds to a grim record of deaths, rights violations, and ignored Supreme Court rebukes against Assam’s detention regime

Navratri: Communal demands mark pre-festival protest in Jabalpur

Right-wing outfits AHP–Rashtriya Bajrang Dal demands Muslim ban at Navratri garba in Jabalpur, citing ‘love jihad’, demand Aadhaar checks, warns administration of consequences if tensions escalate

ECI’s nationwide SIR plan: a ‘unified’ push, applied differentially across states

The Election Commission is stepping into a nationwide rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) with a unified goal — but state-level realities remain fractured, as Bengal revisits 2002 data, Assam ties voter rolls to citizenship, and Bihar faces Supreme Court scrutiny