sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights

Editorial: Risk and Sexuality
On a black background, yellow tulips are blooming.

In our mid-month issue, we add context to our perceptions of and dealings with risk in our day-to-day lives. Collating and interpreting responses we received on a survey taken by small group of random individuals, Shikha Aleya looks at the transactions around risk foregrounded on the interplay of our location on the axes of gender and sexual identity, disability status, belief systems, and availability of support, amongst others.

By TARSHI
October 15, 2020
Editorial: Risk and Sexuality
Marriage as Risk
Two golden-coloured band rings atop a dictionary page zoomed in on the word ‘marriage’. Above that, the definition of the word ‘marrano’.

So, what are the risks in a marriage? Well, the first and the most obvious one is that you don’t know if the partner you’ve chosen or has been chosen for you will make you happy. In the Indian context, even if they do make you happy, the family might not be too thrilled about the match.

By Sadaf Vidha
October 5, 2020
Marriage as Risk
CATAMITE
On a pick background, a photograph of a drop of water splashing.

On the other hand, in Abhay’s newly discovered wonderland, everything seemed to be awfully right. Soon, he began receiving proposals for sex-dates. Initially such proposals shocked him; for it took him a few months to get used to the fact that sex with men was only a click away.

By Kaustav Bakshi
October 5, 2020
CATAMITE
Editorial: Law and Sexuality
A key hanging off blue thread draped around a branch

In our mid-month issue, Stuti Tripathi considers whether raising the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21years is indeed a one-stop solution to check early marriages. She brings to our attention the many factors, such as family pressure, inaccessible educational and financial resources, traditionally defined roles of women, and gender-based marginalisation that together lead to early marriages and argues that young people need rights not protection.

By TARSHI
September 15, 2020
Editorial: Law and Sexuality
Interview – Amba Salelkar
A photograph of disability rights advocate and activist Amba Salelkar

But not every issue of discrimination and conflict can go to a court.Say for example, affording privacy to a young adult with disability to understand their body and sexual responses, or enabling them to access accessible sex toys or assistive devices related to sexual pleasure.

By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2020
Interview – Amba Salelkar
Is POCSO Failing Adolescent Sexuality?

Age of consent deems sexual activity with persons below the set age as statutory rape, which POCSO has set at 18 years. However, the law in practice faces some unintended consequences, in relation to who it prosecutes and their ages.

By Mrinalini and Udita
September 1, 2020
Is POCSO Failing Adolescent Sexuality?
Video: Explained: Transgender Act and how it affects the community
A screenshot of the video. It shows trans rights activist Kanmani Ray on the right side and on the left, a green-board design with the typography: TRANSGENDER ACT EXPLAINED, CHEATSHEET

Trans rights activist Kanmani Ray succinctly lays down the concerns around the Act, points out how its language reinforces the gender binary and highlights the fact that while seeking to protect the rights of trans people, the Act in fact discriminates against them.

By Curated Content
September 1, 2020
Video: Explained: Transgender Act and how it affects the community
Brushstrokes: Decriminalisation of Abortion in India
A slide of the graphic recording of the webinar series by CREA and CommonHealth. On a white background are coloured illustrations to give the effect of spiral writing pads and notes. A hand is visible till the forearm holding a pen and writing ‘The Implications of MTP Amendment on Access Beyond COVID-19’. The pointers are typographically presented.

The graphic representations of a three-part webinar series organised by Common Health and CREA address these questions and attempt to build an understanding of the decriminalisation of abortion and how it could ensure access to safe, affordable, timely and rights-based services.

By Curated Content
September 1, 2020
Brushstrokes: Decriminalisation of Abortion in India
I May Have Called You Baby But It Doesn’t Mean I Want One!

Some nights I worry that if birth control for men is indeed released, clinical trials of which were suspended in 2016 as its side effects, incidentally the same as what women have been dealing with for ages, were just not worth it, it would be named Fuckboi.

By Anjali
August 14, 2020
I May Have Called You Baby But It Doesn’t Mean I Want One!
The Future Is TransFeminist: from imagination to action
An illustration of a woman’s face and torso, superimposed with markers of digital engagement. Behind her, two octopus arms and from under the torso, palms and leaves flowering.

Facebook. Google. Apple. Microsoft. Amazon. As the white male-dominated Big Five in Silicon Valley monopolise most platforms that guide online interactions almost everywhere outside China, any aspiration towards a feminist revolution has become capitalised.

By Curated Content
August 14, 2020
The Future Is TransFeminist: from imagination to action