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Shooter Tejaswini is now world champ
New Delhi, August 9, 2010 -- Rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant won the gold in the
50 metre rifle prone event at the World Championships currently being
held at Munich on Sunday.The 30-year-old from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, thus became the first Indian
woman to win a gold in a shooting event, and indeed one of the very few
Indian women to bag a gold in any international sporting contest.Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and trap shooter Manavjit Singh are the
only other shooters to have bagged golds in the same competition - at
Zagreb, Croatia in 2006.
Sawant, whose score equalled the world record in her event, was,
however, given a tough fight by Poland's Ewa Nowakowska, with both of
them finally tying at 597/600, but Sawant was declared winner on the
basis of more 'inner 10s'.
Source: Yahoo! India News |
Rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant won the gold |
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Saina defends women's singles title at Indonesia Open
New Delhi, June 28, 2010: The defending champion Saina Nehwal retained the women' s
single title after trashed her Japanese rival Sayaka Sato at the 2010
Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Sunday. With her newly-added victory, Saina has collected a hat-trick victories
at the international badminton tournaments three weeks in a row. Prior
to Indonesia Open she had claimed India Open and Singapore Open. Saina was
rewarded with a prize money worth 18,750 U.S.dollars while Sayaka Sato received 9,500.
Empowering Women in through Better Healthcare
Pilani, April 28, 2010 (IANS) Health service providers, like primary health centres, should be more patient friendly and there is need to increase access to public healthcare, said a senior health official here Friday at a global conference. 'We need to make service providers (primary health
centres) more patient friendly and increase access to public healthcare,' said P. Padmanabhan, adviser on public health
administration in the health ministry, in his inaugural speech.
The three-day conference 'Empowering Women in Developing Countries through Better Healthcare and
Nutrition' began in Pilani Thursday. Delegates from 18 countries, including India, are participating in the
conference, which aims to identify the obstacles to providing healthcare to women and formulate strategies for improving the health and nutrition of women and children.
The conference is being organised by the Women Studies and Societal Development Unit,
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, jointly with the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries and is supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). |
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Shuttler Saina Nehwal in top-5 of world rankings
New Delhi, March 18, 2010 (PTI): Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal touched a new high
today as she zoomed into the top-five of the world rankings at a career-best
fifth spot following her stupendous show in the All England Badminton Championships earlier this month.
Saina, whose previous best on the chart was the sixth spot she attained last
year, surprised one and all by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the
semifinals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships.Saina lost to Tine Rasmussen of the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the event.Riding on her fantastic show, the Indian gained a couple of spots in the latest
list with 58516.7646 points in her kitty. Chinese shuttlers dominate the top half of the women's rankings with Yihan Wang
leading the pack followed by Wang Lin, Xin Wang and Jiang Yanjiao respectively. |
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Saina Nehwal |
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Female population in Asia-Pacific lowest in India
New Delhi, March 10, 2010 (PTI) India has the lowest percentage of female population in
the Asia-Pacific region ranking lower than Pakistan, Maldives and Bangladesh
despite having the highest sex ratio at birth compared to these countries, a new
study shows. According to the report 'Power, Voice and Rights' by the UNDP, while India had
48.2 per cent female population at birth, Pakistan had 48.5, Bangladesh had 48.8
and Japan 51.1 per cent. The sex ratio at birth in India was 1.08. The comparative figure was 1.05 for
Pakistan, 1.04 for Bangladesh and 1.05 for Nepal.
India also has 42.7 million women who were missing in the year 2007 and the mean
age at marriage is 20 for women and 25 for men. Pakistan has just 6.1 million women missing and Bangladesh 3.2 million.
India's infant mortality rate has declined from 83 per 1,000 live births in 1990
to 57 per 1,000 in 2006.
Tourism Ministry for code of conduct to protect women and children
NEW DELHI, December 30, 2009: The Union Tourism Ministry has launched an initiative on ‘Safe and
Honourable Tourism’ which would essentially promote the cause of protecting women and children from the negative aspects of tourism.
This is a step towards evolving a ‘code of conduct’ for all tourism service providers and protecting the culture, values and heritage to
ensure long-term sustainable and responsible tourism in India. It has been decided that sensitisation programmes and awareness campaigns would be launched
immediately across the country and an action plan would be drawn up so as to have the code of conduct in place within six months.
Lata Mangeshkar conferred with Officer de la Ligion d'Honneur
Mumbai, Dec.3 (ANI): Legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar was conferred
with the Officer de la Ligion d'Honneur (Officer of the Legion of honour) medal,
the highest French decoration, at a glittering function here on Wednesday.The medal, created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is awarded for exemplary
service in military or civilian life. The award can be conferred on a French
national or a foreigner for outstanding contributions in their field of work.
Mangeshkar was conferred with the award for her incredible contribution to
Indian music.
Educating women will help control population growth: Kalam
Bangalore , August 29, 2009 : Educating women will help control population growth: Kalam
The former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Saturday said that educating women
would help the country in controlling its population growth. Fielding queries from students of Mount Carmel College here, the former
President said population was found to be “manageable” in the States where
literacy among women was higher than the rest of the country. Dr. Kalam counted Kerala, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu among the States with high
literacy rate among women and said the growth of population in these States was
also under control. “In the States where women are educated, population is found
to be less,” he said in reply to Romila, a student, who wanted to know how the
country’s population can be controlled without hurting the religious sentiments
of the people.
Just 45 women as HC judges, not one in SC
MUMBAI, August 3, 2009: The Supreme Court and various high courts regularly hear petitions lamenting that a particular section of society is inadequately represented in service or in education. Ironically, one field in
which women are grossly under-represented in India is the higher judiciary itself — of 617 high court judges in the country, only 45 are women. And currently, there isn’t a single woman judge in the Supreme Court.
The strongest contingent of women judges in India is in the Bombay High Court, which has seven of them on the bench (roughly a tenth of the total number of judges).In contrast, six of the country’s 21 high courts — Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttarakhand — have no women judges at all. The Supreme Court itself has seen only three women justices in the 59 years since it was set up. The last woman judge in the Supreme Court, Ruma Pal, retired in 2006.
Source: The Times of India
India brides had 'virginity test'
Bhopal, July 14, 2009: India's National Commission for Women wants Madhya Pradesh state to
explain why hundreds of would-be brides reportedly underwent virginity tests.All the women who took part in a state-run mass wedding last month were forced to take the test, witnesses say. Several of the women later complained that they had found the exercise shameful and humiliating.
Officals deny virginity tests took place. They said the tests had been to ensure the women were not pregnant.
In India, a bride's virginity is highly prized and pre-marital sex is frowned upon.
According to reports, young women who had signed up for the mass marriage ceremony in the city of Shahdol, 600km (373 miles) from the state capital, Bhopal, were told about the test when they reached the venue. Such a shameful act where girls had to reportedly undergo
tests to prove their chastity to avail the government's financial aid were sinful
Source: BBC NEWS |
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Saina Nehwal wins Indonesian Open
Monday, 22 June 2009: Saina Nehwal also became the first Indian to win a Super series tournament.
Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has won the Indonesian Open badminton title with a victory over the higher-ranked Chinese player Lin Wang in Jakarta.Nehwal also became the first Indian to win a Super series tournament with her 12-21, 21-18, 21-9 victory in a match which lasted 49 minutes.
The world number 8 player came in from behind to defeat Wang, ranked number 3. India's badminton authorities have hailed her victory and announced a reward of 200,000 rupees ($4133). "It is a big moment in Indian badminton. We are proud of her
achievement", India's badminton association chief, VK Verma, said.
The 19-year-old shuttler from the northern state of Haryana, was the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarter-finals at the Olympics. Nehwal is also the first Indian to win the
World Junior Badminton Championships. |
Saina Nehwal also became the first Indian to win a Super series tournament. |
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Shadowed by fear
VARANASI, June 19, 2009: The US has placed India on the watch-list of countries in a report released
recently on global trafficking, saying India is a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Unfortunately Varanasi is also a resource area and transit point for human trafficking," said Ajit Singh of Guria, a non-governmental
organisation, which had rescued 49 trafficked minor girls from the brothels of Varanasi in the past. "About 60 cases against 170 brothel keepers and traffickers are being fought by Guria," he informed. "Our first effort, after mobilising civil society on their own issues, is to sensitise people on the issue of continued exploitation of women and children in flesh trade, sex tourism and trafficking of new girls into the red light area of
Varanasi. According to him, the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, by virtue of being close to Nepal and Bangladesh, are vulnerable to the problems due to huge migration of people from these places. "Laws like Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), Bonded Labour Abolition Act, the Child Labour Act and the Juvenile Justice Act are ineffectually enforced," he said.
A report on trafficking in women and children in India, documented by the National Human Rights
Commission with the help of UNIFEM and Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi, also suggests that there is
little awareness of the ramifications of trafficking as a transnational organised crime. The income generated by trafficking is comparable to the money generated through trafficking in arms and drugs. Laws do not
adequately target traffickers, pimps, and brothel keepers or provide adequate punishments. It is also
unfortunate that the infrastructure for rescue and rehabilitation is grossly inadequate. Both the law and administrative policies have not addressed these issues adequately and with imagination.
According to the report, the study clearly brings out the existing tendency to criminalise the victim and see things from the narrow perspective of crime. Even the trafficked women and girls, who are rescued from brothels, are charged with soliciting and arrested, prosecuted and eventually convicted. It is disturbing to note that out of almost 14,000 persons arrested every year under
ITPA, approximately 90 per cent are women, despite the fact that the majority of exploiters and abusers, including traffickers are men.
Source: The Times of India
15th Lok Sabha has highest number of women MPs
Delhi, May 19, 2009 (IANS) : A record 59 women MPs have been elected to the new Lok
Sabha - the highest since independence, and 17 of them are less than 40 years.
According to PRS Legislative Research, an organisation that aims to strengthen
legislative debate, among the 59 women MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha, a majority -
23 - are from the Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 13 women
members.
Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of 13 women MPs to represent the most
populous state. It is followed by West Bengal with seven.In the 15th Lok Sabha the number of MPs in the age group of 25-40 years has gone
up drastically.
Fifteen percent of 543 MPs in the new lower house of the parliament are in this
age group while in the 14th Lok Sabha the figure was only 6.3 percent, according
to PRS Legislative Research. In all, 556 women had contested the 2009 general elections, of which 59 were elected.
The lowest percentage of women representations was in the sixth Lok Sabha
(1977-80) when there were only 3.8 percent women MPs. The first Lok Sabha (1952-57) had 4.4 percent women MPs. In the 13th Lok Sabha
(1999-2004), the figure was 9.2 percent, the research group said. The research group said that women representatives in the age group of 40 to 60
has gone down. Now, less than 57 percent of women fall in this category as
compared to over 73 percent in 2004. But this time, women over 60 make a 13.80 percent, while it was a mere 9.8
percent in the 14th Lok Sabha.
Women bag first three positions in civil services exam
New Delhi, May 5, 2009: It was woman power all the way in the civil services (main) examination 2008, as they took the top three ranks in one of the toughest competitive exams in the country, officials said Monday.
Shubhra Saxena, a graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, and Sharandeep Kaur
Brar, post-graduate from Panjab University, were ranked first and second in the civil services (main) examination 2008, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced here. Another woman, Kiran Kaushal was ranked third. Among the male candidates, physically challenged Varinder Kumar Sharma was ranked first and overall bagged the fourth position. - IANS
FICCI CONGRATULATES 25 OF INDIA'S MOST POWERFUL WOMEN
NEW DELHI, Apr 29, 2009: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) Ladies Organisation (FLO) honoured 25 women, including ICICI Bank's
Chanda Kochhar, in recognition of their creativity, entrepreneurship,
professionalism, public service and social work. Prominent awardees included
film actress Sharmila Tagore, banker Chanda Kochhar and Naina Lal Kidwai, and
Sulajja Firodia Motwani of Kinetic Engineering. The organisation also gave away the FLO Annual Awards for 2008-09 to two
distinguished women, FICCI said in a statement. - (PTI)
Project to fight cervical cancer
KOLKATA, April 22, 2009: Cervical cancer claims lives of around 300,000 women worldwide every year. Around a fourth of these patients are from India. According to WHO estimates, around 130,000 new cases are reported in India every year, of which, some 8,000 are from West Bengal alone. Now, a partnership between Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute
(CNCI) and QIAGEN could prevent many cervical cancer deaths. QIAGEN, a leading sample and assay organization, has entered into a partnership with CNCI to screen women for cervical cancer.
"Some 80% of patients detected with gynaecological cancers at Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute alone suffer from cervical cancer. The magnitude could be much more if women across the state are properly
screened. The partnership with QAIGEN can create awareness and its prevention and treatment," said Dr Jaydip
Biswas, director of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute. Though the disease is curable if detected on time, it is often detected at an advanced stage in 80% of patients, primarily due to lack of
awareness. "This project is part of QIAGEN's move to shoulder corporate responsibility. It will involve community education, free screening for about 50,000 women, treatment and proper follow up.
Unicef report highlights violence against women in state
JAIPUR, March 13, 2009: More than 40% girls in Rajasthan marry below the age of 18
at least in 13 districts, including Jaipur. Among married women more than 45% suffers from all kinds of physical, mental and sexual abuse and violence. Such shocking facts have been highlighted by Unicef, Rajasthan from the national and district level family health survey in a bid to create awareness on violence against women in the state.
The District Level Health Services (DLHS) survey also reveals that child marriages are most prevalent in districts like Ajmer, Jaipur,
Tonk, Karauli, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer Nagaur Bhilwara, Baran and Bundi.
"It can be inferred from the findings that more than 40% girls in the state do not complete their education or do not get any. They also do not have any means of livelihood and thus are easy prey to maternal mortality and domestic violence," says Unicef, Rajasthan chief,
Samuel. Unicef, Rajasthan, in association with the state government, has been working on a plan to discourage and stop child marriages. |
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78,000 Indian women die in pregnancy, childbirth annually
New Delhi, January 15, 2009 (IANS); As many as 78,000 women die each year in India from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to a UNICEF report released here on Thursday. This implies that on an average every seven minutes, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, reports the Unicef State of the World's Children 2009.
The report also highlights that in India, more than two-thirds of all maternal deaths occur in a few states - Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam.
"We know what needs to be done to save the lives of the 78,000 women who die in India each year. In
addition, about one million neonatal deaths occur here annually," Unicef India representative Karin Hulshof said while releasing the report at the India Habitat Centre.
Govt to declare National Girl Child day on January 24, 2009
NEW DELHI, January 06, 2008 (PTI): The government would declare January 24 as the national girl child day with a focus on targeting the scourges of female
foeticide, domestic violence and malnutrition. The girl child day to be announced by Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhry on January 19 was cleared by the Cabinet recently.
Along with the declaration, the ministry would also launch a sustained campaign to create awareness about female
foeticide, domestic violence and malnutrition in women and children. The campaign against female foeticide would also include TV spots, advertisements and school lessons propagating gender equality, the
official said. In the area of domestic violence, the focus would be on providing enough funds to states and ensuring that all states appoint the requisite protection officers. "We are also planning to provide funds for implementation of the
Domestic Violence Act as part of the budget," she said. Apart from this, the government would award anganwadi workers, women who have shown courage and talented children.
Eighty films in fourth International Women film festival
NEW DELHI, December 15, 2008: A total of around 80 feature and short films from over 40 countries are to be screened at the 4th India International Women Film Festival which has commenced in Delhi.
The eight-day festival which concludes on 21 December will relate to women empowerment, where women are being
showcased not just as objects of visual pleasure but behind the camera.
The Festival was inaugurated by renowned Kuchipudi dancer and social activist Shalu Jindal in the presence of Sevgi Boz who is the Cultural Attache in the Turkish Embassy, Amit Dev of Time Broadband Services
Limited, and Sandeep Marwah of the Asian Academy of Film and Television which is an associate partner of the Festival. |
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Women offer mass prayer to lord Ganesha in Pune
Pune, September 4, 2008 (ANI): On the second day of the ten-day long Ganesh Chaturthi
festival, that marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha (श्री
गणेश), hundreds of women devotees
gathered here to pray together. Dressed in traditional attire, they performed the ”Maha Arti” or the main prayer early in the morning.
The women sat on the road in front of the Dagdusheth temple and offered mass prayers, a tradition that is decades old.
The festival is very popular in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka. Lord Ganesha, the lord of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is
worshipped by Hindus at the beginning of every auspicious occasion. (ANI) |
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Hindu priest shortage spurs women to take up profession
July 11, 2008: Amid the noise and bustle of downtown Chicago, the groom rode a white horse,
shaking to Indian drumbeats in procession to the Palmer House Hilton hotel.
Inside, the bride and groom took seats under thered mandap, or wedding canopy,
and the priest began chanting in a high, melodic voice. For some, the chants heard at the service last month sounded like a break from
Hindu custom. Priests are traditionally men, but the presiding priest at this
wedding was Shashi Tandon, a respected female elder in the Hindu community and the groom's grandmother.
Since emigrating from New Delhi in 1982, Tandon has presided over countless
religious ceremonies for Hindu families in Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and
elsewhere, filling a void that has emerged because of a shortage of Hindu
priests. As more Hindu men enter more lucrative, secular professions, Tandon and a handful of Hindu women in America have begun
performing priestly duties as a way of passing their faith to the next
generation. There is nothing in Hindu scripture that bars women from becoming priests, also known as pandits.
Source: Chicago Tribune
NGO Works to Change Lives of India's 'Untouchables'
July 03, 2008: In India, half a million women work as scavengers removing human waste from the streets with only bowls and brooms. Born into the lowest caste in society, these women face discrimination, but one non-governmental organization is helping them to create better lives while solving the problem of poor sanitation.
With the help of Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organization, one of India's largest NGOs, women no longer do this work. Sulabh retrains the women so they can find other work doing embroidery or making noodles and pickles.
A lack of infrastructure forces many people, particularly in rural areas, to defecate in public. This continues the need for women to clean up. But Pathak has developed affordable and environmentally friendly toilets, distributing more than a million of them across India and freeing many women from scavenging.
Source: VOA News
India baby girl deaths 'increase'
June 21,2008: There is a cultural preference for male children in India.
The number of girls born and surviving in India has hit an all time low compared to boys, ActionAid says.
A report by the UK charity says increasing numbers of female foetuses were being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die.
In one site in the Punjab state, there are just 300 girls to every 1,000 boys among higher caste families, it says.
ActionAid says India faces a "bleak" future if it does not end its practice of cultural preference for boys.
ActionAid teamed up with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to produce the
Disappearing Daughters report. More than 6,000 households in sites across five states in north-western India were interviewed and statistical comparisons were made with national census date. Under "normal"
circumstances, there should be about 950 girls for every 1,000 boys, the charity said. But it said that in three of the five sites, that number was below 800. Source: BBC
Women's Self-help Groups Shore Up Farm Communities
Mumbai, June 12, 2008: A Mumbai-based trust is helping out a sizeable number of farm families
through women's self-help groups (SHGs).The SHGs, being funded by the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, have instilled
confidence in thousands of poor farm families by forging a tie-up with Big
Bazar, one of India's biggest retail outlets for supply of homemade products.
Supriya Sule, a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra who was instrumental in getting
the order from Big Bazar, told IANS, 'This is a movement on the lines of what
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus did in Bangladesh.' The SHGs train small women's groups known as 'bachat gats', which have 10 or 11
members doing business financed out of household savings. The cottage industry
products made by these groups comprise papads, pickles, spices and other savouries besides hair oils and soaps.
There are close to 250,000 bachat gats in Maharashtra with a total of 2.5
million women under it supplying homemade products to hundreds of grocery shops
and department stores in the state. They are doing their bit in the rural parts
of a state where over 3,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the last three years.
Says Supriya Sule, 'On an average, a bachat gat with 10 to 15 women is able to
earn Rs.8,000-9,000 a month. We provide a platform and the women are
enterprising enough to run it themselves.' Under the new tie-up, the bachat gats of quake-prone Latur district will be
supplying jaggery and soybean products to Big Bazar.
Women in her group say Mohite has hardly studied till Class 4 but is now adept
at keeping accounts. She has applied for a loan from the Bank of Baroda and does
organic farming too. The most challenging part of the bachat gats is marketing their own products. It
is here that SHGs play a vital role. - IANS
Indian-origin mathematician honoured
SYDNEY, May 28, 2008 (IANS): Nalini Joshi, an Australian of Indian origin, has become only the third woman in mathematics to be elected to the prestigious Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS), founded in 1954 by Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London.
Joshi, head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, was made a fellow of AAS in recognition of her life-long achievements in the field of mathematics. Her mathematical research has helped to describe delicate and precise transitions that occur in many
non- linear models of the real world. For example, how a bar of metal that is heated to very high temperatures
becomes magnetic, or how solitary waves in deep oceans move far away from their central crests, or how herds of bisons may change from being clumped together in bands to being spread out over a landscape of grassy plains. Born in Myanmar to Indian origin grandparents hailing from Gujarat and Punjab, Joshi migrated to
Australia in 1971 immediately after the White Australia Policy ended.
Indian-born woman to get Asian Woman Achievement Award
LONDON, May 20, 2008: An Indian-born woman is among the chosen few to be selected for the 2008 Asian Women of Achievement award.
Asha Khemka, the principal of the West Nottinghamshire College, will join a wealth of inspiring and extraordinary women, including, DJ
Neev, the voice of Kiss Radio and Pally Pagliuca entrepreneur and founder of Benito Brow Bar in this year's shortlist of awardees.
This year's awards will be presented this evening at the London Hilton Park Lane.
Married off at 15 in a remote village in India, Asha came to Britain as a shy mother with three children and no knowledge of English. Today, she is the principal and chief executive of one of the largest colleges in England, serving 20,000 students and has launched a charity to help the most disadvantaged in society. But it isn't Asian youngsters she thinks need help - but the indigenous white population. That's why Asha has launched Inspire
and Achieve Foundation, designed to help the most disadvantaged in society.
New Marriage law for Muslim women in India
New Delhi, March 17, 2008: The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board has released the "Shariat Nikahnama" that they claim would give equal rights to both Muslim men and women. If the board has its way, a Muslim woman would be entitled to seek divorce if her husband was found having illicit relationship with another woman. The board has also rejected any divorce done through SMS, e-mail, phone as video conferencing, besides rejecting divorce done on provocation. A Muslim woman can seek divorce if she is forced by her husband to indulge in unnatural sex. She can also seek divorce if her husband contracts AIDS.
"We have framed the new nikahnama strictly in accordance with the tenets of Islam, which clearly prohibit any kind of harassment or oppression of a married woman by her husband," said AIMWPLB president Shaista Amber. Shaista Amber added that at the shariat also entitles a woman to take separation even when the husband refuses to grant a divorce.
"Besides extra-marital relationship, these include absence of physical relationship between the husband and wife for more than a year, abandonment of the wife for more than four years, failure of the husband to look after the wife and family or any kind of ill-treatment or torture," said the model
nikahnama. The new nikahnama has 17-point guidelines for marriage under the Shariat for bride and groom, while eight points on the divorce process.
Source: The Economic Times
Crime against women on trains rising
NEW DELHI, March 6, 2008: Despite various measures to check crime in running trains by the Indian railways under Mr Lalu Prasad, women passengers continue to be the most vulnerable lots. This was admitted by the minister of state for railways, Mr R
Velu, in the Lok Sabha last week. Replying to a question by Mr Subhash Maharia and Mr K C Singh “Baba” on the incidents of women facing harassment in trains, Mr Velu said, “There is a marginal increase in the number of incidents of harassment of women passengers during the year 2007 compared with the previous year 2006”.
According to the figures given by the minister there had been 174 incidents of harassment of women
passengers in running trains in 2006 against 199 in 2007. While incidents of looting and rail accidents registered a decline, the graph on crime against women passengers showed a steady increase. The minister pointed to difficulties in crime prevention measures. He said maintenance of law and order was a state subject and the
Government Railway Police (GRP) under its control could only take up registration and detection of crime under IPC “as such, the ministry of railways has to depend largely on them (state police and GRP) for control of crime in railways”. Mr Velu informed the House that the railways was “supplementing the efforts of the state police and GRP in controlling crime by deploying RPF (Railway Protection Force) staff to escort trains for the security of
passengers”. He referred to the eight-point action plan for the security of women passengers currently in place in all railways. These measures include deployment of women TTEs and RPF in ‘vulnerable suburban sections’,
RPF drive against males traveling in ladies compartments, providing for GRP mobile pickets in mail and express trains near ladies compartments during night journeys and placing ladies and general coaches nearer to the
guard’s brake van in trains “so that in the hour of need, the train guard can immediately extend help to lady passengers”. Source: Statesman News Service
Indian
Government to pay families cash to protect girls
NEW DELHI , Mar 3, 2008 (Reuters) - The government is offering to pay poor
families nearly $3,000 to bring up their girl children, and discourage the
widespread practice of aborting the female foetus which has led to a skewed
gender balance in parts of the country. Many families prefer boys, as future breadwinners, to girls, on whom dowries
have to be spent to find husbands.
According to a study published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, about
10 million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years
-- after illegal sex determination tests. The government hopes a cash incentive will change that.
"We will pay the money in stages and monitor how they are brought up," Women and
Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury told a news conference.
The government will pay 15,500 rupees ($385) to poor families in phases, with a
lump sum of 100,000 rupees when the girl reaches the age of 18, provided she
meets criteria including education, immunisation and nutrition, and she is not
married. "We will start the project shortly," Chowdhury said, adding that it would be
rolled out in seven states where girls face the most acute discrimination.
"We think this will force the families to look upon the girl as an asset rather
than a liability and will certainly help us save the girl child."
India has already implemented a number of schemes for women to encourage the
social and economic empowerment of women, but Chowdhury said she was confident
that the new cash-driven policy would work better. Source: Reuters
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