A parliamentary panel in its report tabled on Monday has recommended allowing LGBTQ community members to adopt a child, apart from asserting the need for a uniform and comprehensive legislation on adoption which is more transparent, accountable, verifiable, less bureaucratic and applicable to all

It is unfortunate that a measure of confusion has set in about the precise nature and ramifications regarding the immolation - whether self, sati, or otherwise of the 55-yearold Charan Shah on the funeral pyre of her husband at Satpura in Uttar Pradesh on November 11.

The self-immolation by Charan Shah on the funeral pyre of her husband in a remote hamlet in Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh has elicited a spate of articles dealing with the practice of Sati. Of these, a number of articles by Ms.

It was in Deorala village in Rajasthan on September 3, 1987 that the last incident of sati was reported. Then an 18-year-old Roop Kanwar had committed sati by jumping into the funeral pyre of her 23-year-old Rajput husband, Maal Singh.

The magnitude of reproductive and sexual health problems in South Asia is daunting. However, an enabling policy environment provides an opportunity to address unmet needs. Neglected reproductive health problems can be effectively addressed through a life-cycle approach.

As with Bhanwari Devi, gross injustice was committed in the Roop Kanwar sati case, when yet another session court in Rajasthan, acquitted all 32 of the accused in October last year.

While a couple, and more specifically women must have access to knowledge and services to regulate fertility, this right is distinctly different from the objectives of the policies of population control.

A crucial contributing factor to the Western development of the women's movement in the west has been what has sometimes been termed as the "sexual revolution" of the post-war period, i.e. acceptance of pre-marital sex and change of sex partners as a fairly normal part of life.