Gender and Sexuality

Beyond mere Recognition: The Jane Kaushik judgment and the next frontier of transgender equality

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court acknowledged the dignity and rights of employment of transgender individuals, ordered monetary compensation for a transwoman teacher who had been terminated from her position, and ordered that a model Equal Opportunity Policy be made mandatory in all institutions, going further than the Constitution's promise of equality in private employment

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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‘Babri Masjid’ v/s Gita recital: In a cynical play of communal politics, pre-poll West Bengal sees active polarisation at both ends of the spectrum

Months ahead of polls, Bengal politics takes a communal plunge –minority and majority -- with electronic and print media playing up both events: the foundation laying ceremony of the “new Babri Masjid” and the “Gita Recital” at the Brigade Parade Ground, Kolkata

Maharashtra: Seven districts saw 14,526 child deaths in three years says Govt

In sharp contrast to other development parametres, these high infant mortality figures, reveal an institutional malaise that needs urgent addressing

Bettina Bäumer’s Inclusive Philosophy Is What We Need in Such Times

Her autobiography is a rare account of a woman’s journey in the deepest sense from Europe to India; from Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, to the Philosophy of Recognition or Pratyabhijñā, popularly called Kashmir Śaivism.

In India, Wealth Inequality among highest in the world, top 1% holds 40% wealth: Study

On the global stage, the top 0.001% own three times more than the poorest half of humanity combined, said the 2026 World Inequality Report

Hindu Nationalism’s sectarian nationalism and its concept of ‘duties and rights’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent undermining of rights through emphasising “duties” is both a majoritarian and feudal re-affirmation common to authoritarian states and societies

CJP Files complaint with NCM over escalating Hate Speeches during Hindu Sanatan Ekta Padyatra

The organisation documents a 10-day trail of exclusionary, fearmongering and openly inflammatory statements across four states, urging urgent intervention to prevent further communal polarisation

Pervasive fear, surveillance of media, spiral of anti-India sentiment in Kashmir: CCG

Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG) –a voluntary initiative set up in 2016--on its eleventh visit to Kashmir and Jammu, from October 28 to 31, 2025 and meetings with political actors, businessmen, teachers and other professionals apart from activists has released its report recently

Vande Mataram: How the recent discussions in Parliament around the national song initiated by the ruling regime stem from motives that are questionable

Retired Judge of the Madras High Court, K Chandru writes: the enforced debate in Parliament by the RSS-driven National Democratic Alliance (NDA) seeks to create a controversy over Vande Mataram raising concerns over the intentions of the present government; ‘A non-issue is being much importance and publicity’ he says