South Asia | India | Business

Meet Captain Monica Khanna, who safely landed SpiceJet flight after engine fire

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Captain Monica Khanna’s quick-thinking saved the lives of around 185 passengers on board the SpiceJet flight that caught fire shortly after takeoff on Sunday. The Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight safely returned to Patna after cabin crew noticed sparks flying out of the left engine of the aircraft and alerted the pilots. Captain Monica Khanna – the pilot in-charge – acted calmly and took control of the situation. After consulting with First Officer Balpreet Singh Bhatia, she switched off the affected engine and landed the ‘overweight’ aircraft skillfully in Patna.
South Asia | India | Career

Between domestic chores and agricultural work, rural Indian women have no time for child-rearing

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Working in agriculture-related jobs brings financial freedom to Indian women, but it comes at a cost. Intense work leads to stress and compromises in care responsibilities towards children and also affects the women’s own health, according to recent research published by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). “Women’s work in agriculture seems to have a negative effect on household nutrition through two pathways: lack of adequate time for care work in peak agricultural seasons and seasonal energy with consequent losses in body weight,” the study notes. “Recognition of women
South Asia | India | Culture

‘Insult to all women’: Rabri Devi hits back at BJP leader who said she should ‘stay veiled’

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Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rabri Devi on Saturday hit back at Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party member Ashwini Kumar Choubeyover his comment that she should stay veiled. Earlier on Saturday, Choubey, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, had said, “What do I say about Rabri Devi? She is like my sister-in-law. It would be better if she remains in ghoonghat [veiled]”. “BJP’s slogan is ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ [the party’s campaign to educate the girl child] but such insult of daughters? It’s insulting towards all women,” ANI quoted Rabri Devi as
South Asia | India | Culture

Uttar Pradesh’s first woman qazi demands immediate ban on practice of triple talaq

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Supporting the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan’s move to demand a ban on triple talaq and dubbing it as ‘misinterpretation of ‘ayats’ (verses), Uttar Pradesh’s first woman qazi Hina Zaheer Naqvi on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to intervene into the matter and demanded an immediate ban on the practice. Naqvi said oral talaq has been widely misused, adding this puts a Muslim women’s life at risk as it is promoting more and more divorces. “I strongly oppose triple talaq. Even Quran, the central religious text of Islam, does not give any instructi
South Asia | India | Economy

Women account for only 8% of entrepreneurs: Delhi Economic Census

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Women account for only 8% of entrepreneurs in Delhi, while 91% of total establishments work under private proprietorship, according to the economic census of Delhi. The census report released by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday was conducted by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics in collaboration with the Central Statistics Office during February and June 2013. The last economic census of Delhi was released in 2005. The Sixth Economic Census includes all types of entrepreneurial activities in the field of agriculture (except crop production and plantation) as well
South Asia | India | Military

Indian armed forces to recruit women for all combat roles

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India will allow women to take up combat roles in all sections of its army, navy and air force, President Pranab Mukherjee said, signaling a radical move towards gender parity in one of the world's most male-dominated professions. Most countries employ women in various roles in their armed forces but only a handful, including Australia, Germany, Israel and the United States, have allowed them to take on fighting, or combat, roles. India, which has one of the largest armies in the world, has resisted such a move, citing concern over women's vulnerability if captured and over their physica
South Asia | India | Health

78% Mumbai women at risk of developing heart disease: Study

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Around 78% of women in Mumbai are at risk of heart disease because of increased belly fat, reveals a pan India study. The report also said that more than 60 per cent of urban India females in the age group of 30 to 45 years are at risk of being affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). With 89% of women at risk of CVDs in Mumbai falling in the overweight/obese category, the results of the study has revealed some alarming statistics. The Saffolalife study 2015 — conducted in 10 leading metro and non-metro cities of India — had 1,299 urban Indian females participation in the age group 3
South Asia | India | Economy

Chhattisgarh textbook blames working women for unemployment in India!

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Atrocious! In the day and age where women are walking with men shoulder to shoulder, a textbook blaming women for unemployment is terrible! According to the textbook, women have begun working which has led to a drop in employment leading many men to remain unemployed. The textbook also adds that since independence, the level of unemployment in the country has drastically increased as women have begun to step out of their houses and work. The passage, which appears in a 10th standard Hindi textbook is appalling and left the teachers fuming. It was a young 24-year olf teacher who identified t
South Asia | India | Law

Nearly all India’s Muslim women reject ‘triple talaq’, polygamy, survey finds

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More than 90 percent of Muslim women surveyed in India want the "triple talaq" divorce ritual and polygamy banned from family civil law in the country, a study by a women's rights organisation said on Friday. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) said its survey also showed that three quarters of interviewees wanted a ban on child marriage, indicating a need for reforms in the Muslim personal law which governs family-related issues in India. Activists say the current law discriminates against women and are calling for a well-defined Muslim law that criminalises polygamy, unilateral
South Asia | India | Law

Study: 89% Muslim women want government hand in codification of law

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Around 89% Muslim women feel that the government should intervene and help in codification of law and 86% want religious leaders to take responsibility of justice for them. This and many other findings have come out in a study conducted by Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), an organisation that looks to take up rights of Muslim women in particular and women in general. Among the other major findings is that an overwhelming percentage of women (95.5%) from the sample study have not heard about the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). Formed in 1985, AIMPLB is often considered t
South Asia | India | Military

40% suicide rate for women in India’s paramilitary forces

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The rate of suicide among the women in the paramilitary force is striking by itself, but more particularly when compared to the same with men. The reports says that there are 396.9 suicides per lakh for women while for men it is 11.2 per lakh. Women account for 40% of suicides in central paramilitary personnel, according to date from the National Crime Records Bureau and the Bureau of Police Research & Development, a leading newspaper reports. The central paramilitary personnel inlude the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Central Reserve Po
South Asia | India | Culture

Women committee calls for ban on triple talaq

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A committee on the status of women, set up by the UPA government in 2013, has recommended a ban on "oral, unilateral and triple talaq (divorce)" that allows Muslim men to divorce their wives over phone, on social networking sites and even over text messages. The 14-member committee, the biggest yet to be set up to study the condition of women, submitted its report this week to the ministry of women and child development. The ministry is now expected to discuss the recommendations and decide whether or not to accept them. Even if the ministry were to decide to accept the demand for a ban
South Asia | India | Corruption

Sushma, Smriti, Raje: BJP’s women are canny politicians and not weepy ‘abla naaris’

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By unhappy coincidence the four BJP politicians in a fix these days are all women. Vasundhara Raje Scindia is hunkered down while the Lalit Modi revelations come closer and closer to her doorstep. After denying she signed anything supporting Modi’s bid for UK residency, her allies are changing their tune. The signature might be hers but the contents of the statement might have been inserted later. Or as Barkha Dutt has tweeted that while she might have signed the affidavit it was only a “proposed witness statement”. This is sounding increasingly like Bill Clinton trying to finesse the
South Asia | India | Culture

Despite being a woman

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INDIA’s bachelor leader, Narendra Modi, struggles with the opposite sex. Last year he tried to be seen to revere his mother by rushing to her side after his big election victory. But then he failed to invite her to his grand inauguration. He has talked, admirably, about the need to respect women. But he defines “our mothers, daughters and sisters” by their relationships with men and as treasures to protect. It does not help his reputation that, until he was running for the prime ministership, he refused to acknowledge that he has an estranged wife, whom he was forced to marry as a teenag