Not only have I not had any word regarding the status of the application, but I have tried on numerous occasions to contact someone, anyone, with no success. I actually thought I might be a silly, over-reacting American when I decided a month ago, “Hey, let’s try to see if we can find out about the application.” Even though I knew there was still time left, I had a faint fear that the deadline would come and go without a word. And it has.

We attempted calling numbers from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website, no answer. Going to the local office for foreigners, “We can’t help until 90 days are up.”

I’m slightly afraid as I write this post that I should be censoring myself. But the Indian government does takes pride in offering freedom of speech. After all, independence happened from the British because people were able to openly criticize.  So as I blog, I will enjoy this right as any Indian or PIO. I know that my application is still accurate, my spouse is Indian and as such I deserve PIO status.

I’ve been told to be patient, that these things take time. I was patient, for the 90 days. Now, not so much. Sorry, I’ve reached my limit!

It seems it might take less time for those applying from abroad. Even my husband is now stating (after the fact) that he had a feeling it would be tougher to do “inside”. But, being residents here, we were following the rules that we were supposed to apply here.

See this forum thread about someone who’s PIO application took 17 months to process from Delhi! One bonus of this experience: connecting with other expats in India…

Note: I have revised this post after realizing my misinterpretation of the procedures. They’re not quite so straightforward.

of cars, thoughts and rats.

Continuous comparison,

city life of crowds and competition

no space to hear yourself think

others breathing down your neck

the heat grit smoke dust

choking all life around.

The seat of government and diplomacy,

madness and no mercy.

To thrive: a miraculous task;

most just barely survive.

The dream and drive of making it big,

the unbeatable will to stay alive.

Against all odds the craze continues

rewarding few

crippling many.

Delhi, do you have any idea

of where you’re leading the country?

You are an unsettled head

in an aching body.

You are trying too hard to keep up,

to prove yourself to the world,

and leaving too much behind.

Delhi, in my belly, on my mind:

are you aware of what you’re doing?

Via Feministing.

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 Singh, Manohar Kaur and sister-in-law Anita of dowry harassment under Sections 498A and 406 of IPC for cruelty and dowry harassment. She said her in-laws took her to hospital surreptitiously and charged the doctor with conniving with her in-laws in carrying out the inhuman act.

In my own city of Jaipur, a case of forced abortion. I wonder how the procedure could have been performed though, without the patient being aware. I can hardly imagine what that would have been like. The article doesn’t mention it, but it must have been a case of sex-selective abortion (i.e. female foeticide). Rajasthan is notorious for women’s limited reproductive rights, and still has a very high rate of population growth.

The BBC has an in-depth piece on sex-selective abortion, and gender bias in India, with a short video clip from the film that shows tonight at 7:30pm.

What would you do if your husband’s family did not want you to have daughters – and insisted you took steps to make sure it did not happen?

Would you walk out or would you stay on and take a chance?

What if the bias against girls is reflected across society? Would that mean you could not make it on your own?

Vaijanti is an Indian woman who says she faces this dilemma.

Vaijanti has taken her husband to court, saying he and his family insisted that she have an abortion because a scan showed she was expecting a girl.

Having already had one daughter, she says the pressure to abort the second child was intense.

So Vaijanti moved out of the marital home and now lives apart from her husband – with her two girls.

As Vaijanti had never travelled beyond Agra, director Nupur Basu took her on a whistle-stop tour of India.

‘Grave situation’

We wanted to make this film after a leading development expert, Kevin Watkins, suggested India had a curiously ambivalent role in the globalisation debate.

Its booming economy is cause for hope, and the government is clearly concerned about both gender and economic inequality.

But if huge swathes of the populace do not share the increasing wealth, the whole Indian model of development may be called into question.

When asked if it was a genuine case of a miscarriage, Mehta said, “Believe what you will.” The court had said that medical reports had not ruled out a normal life with medical aid for the baby when born. However, one of the paediatricians consulted had indicated that there could be intra-uterine death of the foetus or other complications.

Unless the GOI decides to investigate or press charges, I guess the issue is over.

A father is the natural guardian of his child, so goes the law. But, when a father is accused of murdering his wife over dowry, can he still have the same legal right to claim custody of the child?

If that’s so, I fail to understand the legal logic behind the problem of the Japanese father having custody over his newborn daughter…  Apparently the delay is because of  the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, in which a single father cannot adopt a girl child.

The baby girl at a hospital in Jaipur. (TOI Photo)

Addressing a 250-strong India session at the International AIDS Conference here on Thursday, he strongly campaigned for the changing the law which makes homosexuality illegal. “Section 377 of IPC, which criminalizes men who have sex with men, must go,” he said, at the risk of inviting a political reaction back home.

I wonder if it would have made it more difficult for him if he’d actually been in India, making the statement? Regardless, it was plastered on the front page so it’s not as if it’s been hushed up.

Gay activists are understandably encouraged, and

are now planning to strengthen their campaign as they feel “a favourable wind is blowing in their direction”.

A TOI editorial notes though that

The home ministry, which is responsible for implementation of the IPC, is against the removal of Section 377 since it is under this section that prosecution of child abusers and other sexual offenders is carried out. The solution may be to amend, not repeal, the law.

All right already, then just fix it so homosexuality isn’t a crime!

I am Natasha
she said with pride
I am what I am
A fact I wont hide
the world
of the androgynous
my paradise
dance my divinity
a metaphor of humility
with god as my guide
like a breath of fresh air
into human hearts
I slide
man woman the androgyne
a widening divide
article 377
the scourge of our existence
I take in my stride
Thank you
Dr A Ramadoss
Your Kindness
Your Sincerity
Your Vision
at the Indian Aids Conference
with which
you replied
Politics of Purity
God by your side
Our Right to Freedom
of our Sexuality
as the Third Path of Peace
that has been denied

From Firoze at hijdaeunuchblog.

Although India has become the favored destination for those who are looking for surrogate mothers for their yet to be born babies as more and more Indian women are prepared to go through surrogacy, the laws have not kept up adequately to cope up.  Of course it is another matter that the reason that India’s laws being so lax and medical expenses being affordable and wombs being so readily available that has contributed to India’s rise as the favored destination for surrogate pregnancies.

Laws in India are paradoxical because they seldom seem to be in sync with society. On hand we have laws which society has not fully accepted like the laws banning child marriage which are flouted with impunity on occasions like akshya tritiya. Look at the data:  According to UNICEF, 82 percent of girls in Rajasthan, where the practice is particularly widespread, are married by 18; 15 percent of girls in rural areas across the country are married before 13; and 52 percent of girls have their first pregnancy between 15 and 19.

On the other hand, in matters of adoption, succession, divorce and many others including surrogacy society has moved far ahead but laws have not.

Ironic, isn’t it? I’ve posted before that Renuka Chowdhury is aware of the legal incongruencies regarding surrogacy and is working to change the law.

I’m also reminded of a recent case seen in court of a couple requesting to abort a fetus with a terminal heart condition. Because of the laws in place against sex-selective abortion, the couple is unable to abort their (male) fetus.

In India, abortion is illegal. However, it is permitted under law only in special circumstances, including when the woman is raped, when the child suffers from severe disability and failure of contraceptive devices.

“There are special circumstances provided under law when a woman can go in for an abortion – like when a doctor says that having a child would prove a risk to the life of the woman, cause her grave mental or physical injury or that the child may be born with severe disabilities,” added Bedi.

“It’s the need of the hour that we should legalise abortion as otherwise this will invite illegal means, which is more dangerous for our society,” said noted lawyer Pinki Anand.

Via Sify.

Still, Indians get upset every time they hear reports – often overblown – of Westerners’ stealing their age-old wisdom through the mechanism of copyright law. The fears may be exaggerated, but they are widespread and reflect India’s mixed experience with globalization.

Western pharmaceutical companies make billions on drugs that are often first discovered in developing countries. But herbal remedies like bitter gourd or turmeric, which are known to be effective against everything from diabetes to piles, earn nothing for the country whose sages first isolated their virtues. The Indian government estimates that worldwide, 2,000 patents are issued a year based on traditional Indian medicines.

Drugs and hatha yoga have the same aim: to help us lead healthier lives. India has given the world yoga for free. No wonder so many in the country feel that the world should return the favor by making lifesaving drugs available at reduced prices, or at least letting Indian companies make cheap generics. If the lotus position belongs to all mankind, so should the formula for Gleevec, the leukemia drug over whose patent a Swiss pharmaceuticals company is suing the Indian government.

It’s not just Indians that get upset–I also find it unfair that other people would be profitting off of knowledge which may not ‘belong’ to Indians alone, but at least was created here.

There’s more at stake than just the money. There is also the perception that the world trading system is unfair, that the deck is stacked against developing countries. If the copying of Western drugs is illegal, so should be the patenting of yoga. It is also intellectual piracy, stood on its head.