Rohith Vemula Case
The beginning of last week saw the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad that led to nationwide discussions, debates and protests.
Inspired by Vemula, there were different ways in which people tried to break free from the system. One of the notable ones was of Yashica Dutt, a twenty-nine year old woman, declared that she was “coming out as Dalit” and asked other Dalits to share their stories on Facebook and on Tumblr, with a message that said “it’s wrong to be quiet.”
Sabrimala Temple Case
The Bombay High Court on said it would wait for the Supreme Court to pass an order on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala before deciding on a similar application where a group of women is seeking entry into the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai.
Sex Work
The commercial sex industry in Mumbai, one of the biggest destinations in the country for trafficked women, is being driven out of traditional red-light areas due to police crackdowns and higher rents.
Pop Culture
Last week, also saw a whole new kind of support to Sunny Leone. While she was being subject to a highly misogynistic interview on CNN-IBN, she saw tremendous support online with the way she handled the interviewer. Sunny, we also think you are awesome!
Stories of Inspiration
An acid-attack survivor in India has been made a model for a fashion brand, drawing attention to the crime in the country with one of the highest rates of acid violence in the world.
Bengaluru will soon have its first woman garbage truck driver! She started as a waste picker and gradually worked her way up to this position.
India’s first radio taxi service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community, Wings Rainbow, was flagged off this week, on Wednesday. The initiative by Wings Travels and Humsafar Trust will have taxis chauffeured by LGBT community members, and is expected to start functioning in 2017.
Reported Rapes & Rape Case Updates
In the case of the sexual assault complaint filed by a 22-year-old student of IIT-Madras against a security guard on campus, director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said the institute was doing everything it could to co-operate with the ongoing police investigation. The guard has now been remanded in judicial custody.
A 25-year-old woman from a Muzaffarnagar village in western Uttar Pradesh, whose alleged gangrape in 2013 was recorded on video and circulated on WhatsApp last week, tried to commit suicide four times in the last seven days, her family members.
