Here’s how broadening of the vocabulary will improve equality.

Now that the dust is settling on social media polemic and disassembling of the election results, let’s take a look where certain issues close to the core wellbeing of women — especially sexual violence — stand in the wake of a second term of the BJP-led Narendra Modi government. When the second wave of the […]

On many a cold, bitter day, the memory of the horrified look on a former male colleague’s face when I casually informed him that my then 2-year-old son loved watching ‘ChuChuTV’ is a constant source of mirth to me. “Uh…what TV?” “ChuChuTV.” “That doesn’t sound legitimate.” Not only is it legitimate, but with nearly 20 […]

There is such a thing as an institutionalised, internal bias. Take a headline from 2016 when Katie Ledecky set a world record in the women’s 800-metre freestyle. The Bryan-College Station Eagle’s report of the event, in which Michael Phelps won the silver, set off a social media tsunami. A woman’s achievement is not significant because […]

I’m an atheist, but for the sake of the people who have faith in a divine power, I like to think that if there’s a Lord Ayyappa somewhere, he’s steering the makeshift boats rescuing people out of a watery grave in Kerala, where ordinary men and women have taken on the extraordinary task of delivering […]

With the General Elections coming up in 2019, we are beginning an impactful series of columns on Women and the Vote. Women are an integral part of the voting demographic, but are often underrepresented and neglected when it comes to the political landscape of this country. While we do have powerful women leaders in our […]

I was around 27 or 28, the age at which I was pretty clueless about which direction my love life was taking, when one day, during a casual discussion at work about forming meaningful, adult relationships, a junior colleague piped up: “but you’re fat”, attempting to take the sting out of the repugnant comment with […]

Kanika Mishra says, “So, I think discouragement is the main reason which holds women back from pitching their work.” Continuing the conversation from “Why We Need More Women in Editorial Cartooning” Rituparna Chatterjee spoke to Kanika Mishra, the maker of popular woman cartoon character ‘Karnika Kahen’ to know more about her struggle to establish herself as a cartoonist and why […]

Earlier this month, cartoonist Kshitij Bajpai got a shoutout on Twitter from a very important person. Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged an illustration Bajpai had made of him after attending an election rally in Mangaluru, Karnataka. “Lovely gesture Kshitij. Thank you. You are an extremely talented artist,” Modi said. For any artist, high praise from […]

There’s a common factor binding characters in popular fiction celebrating male friendships – a loyalty that offsets the moments of moral conflict and amplifies the generosity of spirit. I always found it odd that women characters are not accorded the same respect in similar spaces. It’s male victimhood at its prime to feel domesticated by […]