'The pandemic had a significant impact on child trafficking.' 'With economic hardships, traffickers exploited the situation to target desperate parents and children.'
The government on Friday ruled out convening a special session of Parliament to discuss stricter punishment for sexual offences saying the issue would be taken up after receipt of the Justice Verma Committee report.
With the Union Cabinet recommending to the President to issue an ordinance to deal with crime against women effectively, former Indian Police Service officer and activist Kiran Bedi on Saturday said that the government needed to give a holistic response to the society on Justice Verma Committee's recommendations.
The next few days will demonstrate whether the decision to appoint the Justice Verma committee was yet another political gimmick or whether there are some leaders left in government who are interested in making a difference, notes Seema Mustafa.
According to a United Nation Women report, most of these 34 countries were developing nations including Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Laos, Mali, Senegal, Tajikistan and Botswana.
'Why potentially anybody, not only Muslims and Dalits, can be subjected to custodial death?'
The ordinance on sexual violence against women has evoked a mixed response with main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party welcoming it but Communist Party of India-Marxist and several women's groups opposed it, attacking the government for doing "injustice" to the Justice Verma Committee recommendations.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram addressed the media in New Delhi on Monday on the anti-rape ordinance promulgated by the government, and said they hope the stringent provisions will be a deterrent.
Against the backdrop of thousands of suggestions being made to the Justice Verma committee on crime against women, activist Aruna Roy on Monday pitched for the involvement of citizens in framing laws.
Welcoming the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee on reforms in anti-rape laws, activist Kiran Bedi on Thursday said these suggestions were revolutionary and can trigger an uprising if implemented.
The government will soon send the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee, which has prescribed comprehensive changes in criminal laws, to a Parliamentary panel for consideration.
Criticising the Central government's move not to consider marital rape as a crime, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Barkha Shukla on Thursday said that the former was compromising on the right and independence of women.
The revised anti-rape law, which is expected to be stringent and facilitate speedier justice, is unlikely to be named after the Delhi gang-rape victim as suggested by some quarters.
Amid demands by the opposition for convening of a special session of Parliament to pass stringent laws on crime against women, government on Monday said the decision could be taken after Justice Verma committee, set up for the purpose, submits its recommendations.
The Union Cabinet will have a special meeting on Friday evening to discuss the Justice Verma Committee report, which has recommended a series of measures to make crime against women laws more stringent.
Decriminalisation of gay sex by repealing section 377 of IPC, bringing more women officers in police force and "zero tolerance" towards crimes against women are some of the promises made by Aam Aadmi Party which on Thursday unveiled its Mumbai-centric "sankalp patra".
A notification in this regard has been issued by the government.
Far-reaching procedural and institutional reform, and not the death penalty, is needed to tackle the endemic problem of violence against women in India, stated human rights organisation Amnesty International India, after a New Delhi court sentenced to death four men in the December 16 gang-rape case.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Friday hailed as exemplary the death sentence awarded to four convicts in the Delhi gangrape case, saying the victim and her family have got justice.
She was 86 and passed away on Friday night at her residence in Noida.
Tensions continue to rise at IIT Indore over apology letters and quality of food.
'The vehicles have evolved, the mindset hasn't. And it won't, not until boys are reformed to understand, imbibe and espouse the importance of consent,' says Veenu Sandhu.
'I see liberal men shocked at the flood of #MeToo on their timelines, men who rail against these terrible things, but who haven't had the slightest idea how many of their friends and family have suffered under their noses, nor how much,' says Mitali Saran.
The first woman chief justice of a state in India Leila Seth talks about her career and how she went on to fight male bias and discrimination.
Here are edited excerpts from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Kanimozhi's speech during which she pushed for sending the bill to a Select Committee, arguing that further examination was required to decide whether the age for punitive action should be reduced to 16 years from the current level of 18 years.
'I think that has alarmed them because they probably think that it is their voice in there! The idea is to go into the mind of the rapist.' Dibang, co-producer of India's Daughter, defends the documentary in this exclusive interview to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
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