Here’s your wrap of news for the week gone by: Rajya Sabha passes bill to allow abortion upto 24 weeks on Tuesday. This move seeks to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, by increasing the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women. According to an article on the Hindustan Times, this category would include survivors of rape, victims of incest, women with disability, and minors.The bill also ensures that women get access to safe and legal abortion services on humanitarian grounds. The Madhya Pradesh High Court's order in a case of sexual assault -- asking the accused to get "rakhi" tied by the woman to get bail -- was scrapped by the Supreme Court today. The top court agreed with the petitioners that going ahead with the Madhya Pradesh HC’s order would be a “gross trivialization of the trauma suffered by the complainant”. The case was linked to the bail order Vikram Bagri, who was in jail in Ujjain on charges of sexually assaulting a neighbour, and had filed a bail petition in Indore in April 2020. The Supreme Court in fact also issues directions for gender sensitisation of lawyers and judges. Uttarakhand CM’s remark at a workshop in Dehradun sparked a controversy among people when he expressed that he was shocked to see a woman running an NGO wearing ripped jeans. He was concerned about the example that she was setting in society and said, “If this kind of woman goes out in the society to meet people and solve their problems, what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at home.” He expressed his distaste for children showing “bare knees”, and said that while the west is incorporating India’s culture of yoga and wearing covering clothes, “we run towards nudity”. Another minister, Ganesh Joshi, echoed these sentiments and added, “Women talk about all things they want to do in life, but the most important thing for them is to look after their family and children”. Three Brahmin men assaulted and killed a pregnant woman over use of a handpump in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri, says the victim’s husband Manoj Kashyam. Manoj and Shalu come from the Kahar community, which is included under the Other Backward Classes category. Kashyap called his wife's death a caste crime, however the police refused to categorise it as caste-based violence. The incident took place in October 2020, and Kashyap added that their family was the only one from the Kahar community in the village: "There are 200 families of Brahmins. They are more in number, so they are always domineering. They think that we should work in their house, fill water for them. They are also offended that ‘Manoj doesn’t work in our house.’ I also lived in a suppressed manner due to this.” The largest ever study conducted on the prevalence of violence against women by WHO and partners reveals that 1 in 3 women in the world experience violence. It said that 1 in 4 young women between the age of 15 to 24 will have experienced violence by a partner if they have been in a relationship, by the time they hit their mid-twenties. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that violence against women has been exacerbated during the pandemic, “but unlike COVID-19, violence against women cannot be stopped with a vaccine. We can only fight it with deep-rooted and sustained efforts – by governments, communities and individuals – to change harmful attitudes, improve access to opportunities and services for women and girls, and foster healthy and mutually respectful relationships.” ---------------------------------------------------------- Follow Feminism In India: Website: https://www.feminisminindia.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feminisminindia Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/feminisminindia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feminismini... Telegram: https://t.me/feminisminindia Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cjuLbv
