My Publications

  Abstract Over the last decades, the Indian government has adopted several strategies and programmes to encourage institutional childbirth and reduce maternal mortality. However, ensuring institutional delivery does not of itself ensure safe and dignified delivery and there are frequently episodes of violence during childbirth. Obstetric violence has long-term adverse effects on the health and well-being of women. The present study attempts to understand the nature of obstetric violence and the organisational contexts in which patterns of violent behaviours and actions emerge and are reproduced, contributing to obstetric violence. A database search for literature was conducted on PubMed and studies on women’s experience during childbirth in health facilities in India were selected, based on the inclusion criteria. The present review’s findings show that the most prevalent form of obstetric violence is verbal abuse followed by physical abuse and other dehumanising behaviour. Women ...

Imagine a child coming to her mother complaining about a person who has touched the child’s  private parts inappropriately; in response, the mother has to tell the child that the  attempt wasn’t  a sexual assault as the person hasn’t touched the child underneath his or her clothes. This may  sound pretty absurd, but this is what the recent Bombay High Court Judgment on Sexual Assault implies. On 19 th  January, in a very shocking and insensitive judgement, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, headed by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, ruled that there must be  “ skin-to-skin contact ’’  with sexual intent for an act to be deemed as sexual assault (Scroll Staff, 2021). Read More...

Amidst this global pandemic, which is affecting everyone's life, none is more important or urgent than the overall protection of children. Read More

Though the philosophy of caste hierarchy is quite contradictory to the basic beliefs of Islam which explicitly emphasizes equality and universal brotherhood, caste hierarchy exists among Muslims in India that can be divided into three broad category; the Ashraf (upper class), the Ajlaf (clean occupational caste), and the Arzal (unclean occupational caste or untouchable). Since the Muslims rule in India, the Ashraf category who constitute only 15% of the total Muslim population has maintained their hegemony enjoying the political, cultural, social and educational privilege. Whenever the question caste arises, the debate is turned to Babri Masjid, AMU, Triple Talaq, Urdu, Muslim communalism and so on.     Read More...

On 14th February, a program called “India, My Valentine” was organised by the JNUSU in the SSS1 auditorium of JNU, where various activists/artists and standup comedians came. The prime motive behind the celebration of this idea – “India, My valentine” as per the organiser was to fight against hatred with love across the country. However, this concept was highly criticised the way this idea tried to romanticise the resistance of Shaheen Bagh women and commodify the love. Moreover, this idea was initiated by those who are always forefront at criticising capitalism. Read More...

In the current era of globalization, education has become the major agent of social change which functions as a mechanism enhancing the process of social, economic, and cultural development of communities. It leads to individual freedom and empowerment, which yields significant societal development gains and makes an individual self-reliant. Therefore, gender equality in education is not just a women’s issue, it is a development issue. However, inequality persists between women and men with regard to education in general and for Muslim women in particular. According to 2011 Census data, 48.1% Muslim women are still illiterate.   Read More...  

The COVID-19 outbreak has thrown most countries into unprecedented and massive health and humanitarian crisis. And there is still a huge uncertainty around how long this crisis will last and what damage it would do to the economy, livelihoods of citizens and availability of basic healthcare to those who need it the most. The lockdown strategy of 21 days and now the extended 19 days has put a large chunk of the population in a vulnerable situation where they are barely surviving. At this time of crisis, when everyone is talking about solidarity across the groups to fight together to gear up and restore the health, economy and emotional well-being of the people, one particular section is left out as usual – i.e. ‘the children.’ Read More...