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TEENAGE PREGNANCY: BIRTH AND BEYOND

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“I am not finding pregnancy much of a joy. I am afraid of childbirth, but I am afraid I can’t find a way of avoiding it.” Teenage is a crucial growth phase in the life of any individual fraught with physiological changes and often, psychological conflicts. In this condition, finding oneself to be a pregnant teenager can come down as shocking and even traumatizing for the individual, as-well-as, for her family and friends.  Teenage pregnancy is the occurrence of pregnancy in females under the age of twenty. Teenagers belong to the age group of thirteen to twenty, and while teenagers are not practically children, they aren’t adults either, and this phase of confusion puts them at a greater risk. As sexual development sets in, teenagers are hounded by curiosity to explore their bodies. Due to a lack of awareness regarding sex, they often engage in unsafe sex, eventually becoming teenage parents. Mostly such pregnancies are unplanned, and minors are not ready to bear the responsibiliti...
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TRANSGENDER RAPE: FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

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On Friday (February 2nd), a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India heard a petition for making laws pertaining to rape, sexual harassment, stalking, voyeurism, outraging the modesty etc. gender neutral. The plea filed by a SC lawyer Rishi Malhotra argued that the word “any man” used under these offences in Indian Penal Code be declared  ultra vires  the Constitution. A similar petition was also taken up in the Delhi High Court last year by Sanjiv Kumar, seeking the amendment of rape laws to be made gender-neutral through challenging the Constitutional validity of Sections 375 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code.  The Delhi High Court hearing  the case  in September 2017, sought the government’s response in this matter. The case will be coming up once again before the bench on 5th March 2018. The issue of gender-neutral rape laws received attention during the passage of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 which contained gen...
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HONOR KILLING: IZZAT KA SAWAL

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  Honour killing: Killing for protecting so-called “izzat.” “Hamare Ghar ki Izzat”, I think this phrase is sufficient to explain the root cause of this heinous crime. Honour killing is defined as killing for honor, a death that is awarded to the women or men by their own family members for marrying against their wishes or having a pre-marital relationship, marrying within the same gotra or marrying outside their caste. There are some others factors also that can lead to honor killing such as losing virginity before marriage and so on. The main reason contributing to this heinous crime is the mentality of people, that they are not ready to accept the fact their children can marry in accordance with their own choices be it in their own caste, religion or outside their caste or religion. Sometimes it is not just about the caste or religion, there are certain cases in which the family murder their own people just because they do not want that tag of love marriage. Their so-called “izza...
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CHILD MARRIAGE: THE UGLY REALITY OF 21ST CENTURY

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 " The discrimination against women begins from womb  and ends with tomb." In India, Marriage is considered as one of the most important social institutions through which society perpetuates as it is a means of establishing family relations. This social institution is expressed in many forms of rituals and ceremonies.  One such way is child marriage. Child marriage is considered as one of the burning and hot issues of Indian society. It is formal or informal union before age 18. It is a violation of  children’s human rights and a form of gender-based violence that leaves physical, psychological and emotional scars for life . It robs children of their childhood and  disrupts their education and drives vulnerability to violence, discrimination and abuse. One another form of practice of child marriage is that in which the parents of the would-be bride and groom arrange a future marriage. In this kind of marriage both, the girl and th...
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HUMAN TRAFFICKING: MODERN DAY SLAVERY

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  What freedom are we to find  when our restless minds are enslaved under the chains  of human trafficking? Across the world, millions of women and girls live in the long shadows of human trafficking. Whether ensnared by force, coercion, or deception, they live in limbo, in fear, in pain. Human trafficking is a global and domestic human rights issue that is characterized by economic exploitation. It is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring  or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.  People may be trafficked for various purposes, such as forced labor , sexual exploitation, criminal activity, and forced marriage. Sometimes sold by a family member or an acquaintance, sometimes lured by false promises of education and a "better" life — the reality is that these trafficked and exploited children are held in slave-like conditions without enough food, shelter or clothing, an...
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PROSTITUTION: THE RED LIGHT

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  Today, India is home to some of the major red-light districts, including Sonagachi in Kolkata, G.B. Road in New Delhi, and Kamathipura in Mumbai. Prostitution is providing sex in exchange for money. While human rights violations are common throughout India, they are particularly prevalent in the lives of people involved in prostitution and sex work. Discrimination against sex workers in India is as much an issue as the discrimination faced by other marginalized groups along lines of class, caste, race or religion. Sex work is not treated as work, but as a dirty and immoral lifestyle threatening to taint the “innocent” public. The result of this stigma is the denial of basic rights for both sex workers and their families: women cannot access good healthcare and are often subject to abuse, violence and exploitation by police and government officials, while their children face harassment in schools and the workplace.  A large factor in the ill treatment of sex workers is the na...
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - SEEN, HEARD, FELT, HIDDEN

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  “Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women.” Almost every home in India must be suffering from some kind of domestic violence where women either as a daughter, daughter-in-law, or as a wife are abused physically, mentally, verbally or economically.  Domestic violence is physical, sexual or psychological abuse directed towards one’s spouse, partner or other family member within the household. It occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate or harm the other. A woman who has been foundation stone of family and society in general who gives birth to life, nurtures life, shapes it, and strengthen it, who is transmitter of tradition and an instrument through which culture is preserved and transmitted from generation to generation, the g...
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