Over the years, your support has made Women’s Web the leading resource for women in India. Now, it is our turn to ask, how can we make this even more useful for you? Please take our short 5 minute questionnaire – your feedback is important to us!
A new study shows how even as female genital mutilation (FGM) is being made illegal across the world, the Indian government has done little to stop it.
Even as female genital mutilation is being made illegal in countries across the world, the Indian government has done little to stop the practice. In a press conference today, Shashi Tharoor along with other activists, released a report with definitive proof of FGM being prevalent in India.
It is 2018 and in India still allows the practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) to carry on. FGM is the practice carried out by certain religious communities, such as the Dawoodi Bohra community in India, which involves the process of removing the external genitalia of girls andRepo young women, either completely or partially. There is no medical reason or benefit behind this custom and it is an excruciatingly painful one, something that scars women for the rest of their lives. Though FGM has been banned in several countries, Indian government seems to be oblivious towards the practice.
In order to urge the government to pass a law and ban this custom, a group of women from the Dawoodi Bohra community had started a petition on Change.org. So far, it has amassed over one lakh signatures.
Along with this, the community called We Speak Out (Twitter handle: @SpeakOutOnFGM) arranged for a Press Conference at 12 pm today where the National Research on FGM/C in India was released to mark the International Day for Zero Tolerance for FGM. Indian MP Shashi Tharoor released the first study with proof of FGM/C in India – ‘The Clitoral Hood a Contested Site: Khafd or Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in India’. According to the Speak Out On FGM group, this new qualitative study is the largest field research study of its kind undertaken nationally in India. Nearly 100 survivors of FGM have spoken out for the first time as part of this study.
Other than Mr. Tharoor, some of the members of the panel discussion were Masooma Ranalvi, one of the leading advocates against FGM, Durga Nandini, Director, Communications for Change.org, and Journalist Harinder Baweja.
In the discussion, several points came up. Some of those were as follows:
Hence, there is a huge responsibility in the shoulders of our government to start a large scale survey, to study these cases, to carry on an investigations that provide the records that is needed to end this barbaric practice once and for all.
You can sign the Change.org petition here and I strongly urge you to sign it.
Top image via Pexels
Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
He said that he needed sometime to himself. I waited for him as any other woman would have done, and I gave him his space, I didn't want to be the clingy one.
Trigger Warning: This deals with mental trauma and depression, and may be triggering for survivors.
I am someone who believes in honesty and trust, I trust people easily and I think most of the times this habit of mine turns into bane.
This is a story of how a matrimonial website service turned into a nightmare for me, already traumatized by the two relationships I’ve had. It’s a story for every woman who lives her life on the principles of honesty and trust.
And when she enters the bedroom, she sees her husband's towel lying on the bed, his underwear thrown about in their bathroom. She rolls her eyes, sighs and picks it up to put in the laundry bag.
Vasudha, age 28 – is an excellent dancer, writer, podcaster and a mandala artist. She is talented young woman, a go getter and wouldn’t bat an eyelid if she had to try anything new. She would go head on with it. Everyone knew Vasudha as this cheerful and pretty young lady.
Except when marriage changed everything she knew. Since she was always outdoors, whether for office or for travelling for her dance shows, Vasudha didn’t know how to cook well.
Going by her in-laws definition of cooking – she had to know how to cook any dishes they mentioned. Till then Vasudha didn’t know that learning to cook was similar to getting an educational qualification. As soon as she entered the household after her engagement, nobody was interested what she excelled at, everybody wanted to know – what dishes she knew how to cook.