Breaking the Silence: 5 Years after Nirbhaya

Watch here: Five years ago a country wept when a young Delhi girl battled for and lost her life after being brutally gang raped in the heart of the city. The Nirbhaya Act strengthening punishment for sexual predators and expanding the definition of abuse was the outcome of that anger and grief. Today, women -…

Triple Talaq and Marital Rape: Politics and Patriarchy Trump Gender Justice

A week is a long time in politics. If there were ever any doubt about this, the government’s contradictory positions on gender justice over the span of seven days between August 22 and August 29 have laid them to rest. On August 22, women all over India celebrated the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring triple talaq illegal…

My Name is Honour

Watch my documentary: My Name is Honour Not far off the highway, less than 100 kilometers from the nation’s capital, the districts of Western Uttar Pradesh seem to have become synonymous with violence based on caste, religion or gender. The constitutional guarantee of a fundamental right to life is challenged every day by notions of honor. But what is this notion…

The Anatomy of a Protest

Freedom, enshrined in the constitution of India and safety for India's women from sexual assault at home or outside. The brutal gang-rape and eventual death of a 23-year-old girl on her way from a movie in the evening on Sunday evening in December triggered an awakening that took many by surprise. Perhaps the simplest explanation…

Weapons Of War: The Women Of Bastar

Weapons of War is my news documentary on women who have become collateral damage of a bloody conflict between Maoist insurgents and the state. Weapons of war exposes the ugly reality of brutal sexual abuse that Bastar's impoverished tribal women are subjected to, and the constant intimidation of those who try to bring them justice.…

My views on Trump- comments to Reuters

Reuters in Delhi interviewed me as part of a piece they were writing on what women in Asia think of the US Election Campaign, and specificall on Trump and his comments on groping women. The interview appears as a brief comment here

New Hospitals and equipment, but no doctors.

In Chhattisgarh’s Sukma town, a brand new 100-bed hospital stands as a proof of the healthcare crisis in conflict-ridden Bastar region. The new building was made operational two months ago, but marred by acute shortage of doctors, even the most basic facilities are unavailable. The hospital has one X-ray machine but no radiologist. There’s no CT Scan,…

Doctors Chat on Phone, Baby Falls From Delivery Table into Dustbin.

I am still reeling from the implausibly stunning fact of a baby slipping out of a womb into a dustbin. Finding the words to write this was not easy. But it is important for Soni Baghel’s story to be public, so that the Maharani College in Jagdalpur- in whose care almost all of Bastar’s tribals…

How Breastfeeding Women Are Abused In Bastar – And Other Horror Stories

"Without emotion, as though she were talking about the weather, Manju (name changed) tells us how she and six other women in her village (Kunna in Bastar’s Sukma district) were subjected to “inspection” by a police party that came through their hamlet chasing a group of Naxals. Fearing harassment, torture, arrest or death, each time forces approach,…

Monk Ki Baat In Haryana Assembly: Sexist And Misogynist?

In Haryana, a controversy brewed over the Assembly's invitation to Jain monk Tarun Sagar to give an address. While much of the outrage over his speech is around him doing so in the nude, his comments were even more controversial - on the fact that religion and politics have the relationship of a husband and…