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She shook urban India's conscience, if only for a short while, but Bhanwari Devi's fight for justice was a significant landmark in the fight for women's rights.
She shook urban India’s conscience, if only for a short while, but Bhanwari Devi’s fight for justice was a significant landmark in the fight for women’s rights.
Raped for daring to oppose a child marriage in rural Rajasthan, Bhanwari Devi refused to keep quiet in deference to the prevailing notions of “shame.” Her case made headlines precisely because it brought deeply embedded bias out into the open. A judge who refused to believe that an ‘upper caste’ man would rape a woman from a ‘lower caste’ – showed us that the judiciary was hardly the ‘unbiased observer’ that many believed it to be.
Shamefully, the case is not yet over, showing us how hard the fight is in India, for an ordinary woman – even one whose voice galvanised so many people. Nevertheless, it had an impact on many areas including the landmark Vishakha guidelines that lay down rules for dealing with sexual harassment at work.
Why we find her inspiring:
– Because she refused to accept that as the victim of rape, it was she who had to feel shame and cower
– Because she emboldened other such women to speak up
– Because the work of hundreds of saathins like her has made a dent in child marriage rates in Rajasthan, even if the progress is slow
– Because she has braved tremendous odds including social ostracism and poverty, and yet refuses to forego her principles
More reading:
A mighty heart
Bhanwari Devi and the Vishakha guidelines
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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