Becky Blab

I just saw the Mira Nair film ‘Salaam Bombay!’ Though it was made twenty years ago, it is still a poignant reminder of the challenges facing India.

For the Hindi speakers, this shows three clips from the film:

Some of the film’s proceeds went towards the founding of the Salaam Baalak Trust, which has since has helped [...]

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The Washington Post had an in-depth piece on Indian women’s status. It starts off discussing ‘eve-teasing’, i.e. harrassment, but then delves into the whole range of issues from dowry to sex-selective abortion:
For India’s middle-class urban women, the past decade has brought unprecedented opportunities to advance in a social order long dominated by men. But a [...]

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This is a heartening story from the front page, to do away with all the stories of sex-selection and missing girls in Rajasthan:
Benefactors wrote a new chapter in the history of the state infamous for female infanticides, when they saved the life of a seven-month-old baby girl. Yogita was brought back from the brink of [...]

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Dr Meera Patodia, a gynaecologist of the Meera Hospital in the city has been charged with conducting an abortion without the consent of the mother in connivance with her in-laws.
The victim Renu Khediya in her complaint to the Mahila police station (East) on May 5 2006 had charged her husband Bhupendra Singh and in-laws Rahuraj [...]

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I find this story about a murderous husband losing custody of his son quite bizarre in light of the other custody battle that has been in the media spotlight, that of the surrogate Japanese baby. The article opens:
A father is the natural guardian of his child, so goes the law. But, when a father is [...]

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