'A rape survivor from Unnao was battling for life on Thursday after five men, including two of the accused who are out on bail, allegedly set her on fire while she was on her way to court, police said. All five men have been arrested. The woman who was raped in December last year received 60-70% burn injuries and is being treated in a government hospital in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh director general of police O.P. Singh said...'
'A 25-year-old Muslim youth was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district allegedly over his relationship with a Hindu girl. Three people have been arrested in the incident, police confirmed on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Abdul Baari, a native of Hathinaraj village. The incident occurred on November 29 at night in Maraucha village under Baskhari Police Station limits when Abdul Baari was on the way to meet the girl. He was surrounded by a few unidentified assailants and beaten to death, police confirmed...'
'A 26-year-old veterinary doctor went missing on November 27 near Hyderabad. A day later, her charred body was found at the underpass of a National Highway in Chatanpally village. The victim was gang-raped and subsequently murdered and burnt by four. The accused, Mohammed Pasha, Naveen, Keshavulu and Shiva, were identified by the police after scanning CCTV footage installed near a toll plaza where the victim had parked her two-wheeler... The names of the four accused were revealed hours before the police held a press conference.
'Tamil actor and former AIADMK MLA Radha Ravi joined the BJP on Saturday. Radha Ravi, who also heads Kollywood’s Dubbing Artistes Union, met with the national ruling party’s Working President JP Nadda. The actor-politician is a well-known party-hopper from Tamil Nadu, having switched between the AIADMK and the DMK multiple times... In 2018, Radha Ravi was accused of sexual harassment by women from the industry, brought to light by singer Chinmayi during the #MeToo movement.
'The assault on Dalit gender equality activist Bindu Ammini, by a fervent Ayyappa devotee, reveals the fragility of the Hindu nationalist male ego and a deals a chink to the Hindutva armour... Like other nativist and anti-pluralist projects, Hindutva is premised upon the restoration of a primeval order that involves the dominance of man over woman, father over son, savarna over avarna, avarna over Dalit, fair skin over dark, state over subjects, religion over law, priest over devotee, teacher over student.
'Last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that women of menstrual age could enter the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala despite a proscription against this, the Kerala government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided to prove its social crusader credentials by backing women who wanted to exercise their constitutional rights to visit the shrine... But all it took for the Left government to forget about constitutional rights was one election.
'...The woman went missing late on Wednesday after a few truck drivers had offered to help her get a punctured tyre repaired near the Shamshabad toll plaza. The woman’s sister had called the police to file a complaint on Wednesday night. She said that despite her calling the police, officials had not searched areas near the toll plaza for her sister, whose body was found on Thursday, The New Indian Express reported.
'A day after the Rajya Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, community representatives held a press conference at the Indian Women’s Press Corps to highlight their issues with the Bill, reiterating that it only serves to push the community further to the margins and reduce trans people to “mere bodies”...'
'A woman activist, who is part of a team headed for Sabarimala to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Shrine, was allegedly attacked by a member of a Hindu outfit here on Tuesday. Bindu Ammini, who created history by visiting Sabarimala temple last year following the apex court order, was part of the team led by gender rights activist Trupti Desai. Ammini was attacked by a member of a Hindu outfit using pepper or chilli spray outside the police commissionerate...'
'The new version of the Transgender Rights Bill is undeniably an improvement over its predecessors. It has a comparatively expansive definition of the term ‘transgender’, and has done away with problematic provisions requiring a screening process and criminalising begging. Nevertheless, the new Bill leaves much to be desired – it presents a misplaced understanding of ‘gender’ and limited equalising potential. For starters, the Bill takes gender to be concrete and determinable.
