Women's Rights In India | Shakti Stories

Shakti is the divine female energy in Hinduism. It has become synonymous with strength in Hindi. Shakti Stories showcases the power of women in India, and highlights the cataclysmic challenges that they continue to face.

Through interviewing a wide spectrum of feminist activists, the author comprised an intersectional snapshot of the Indian feminist movement. She created this project with a focus on diversity and equality: telling the stories of a range of Indian women and their issues. The women she interviewed were passionate, fierce, funny, and inspiring. These feminists discussed their work at length with the author, and these conversations were the basis of the story-profiles on this website. Combining her Indian identity and feminist ideology, she hopes this project leaves you as awed, shaken and determined as it did her!

Timeline of the Indian Feminist Movement (post-Independence)

Anchor 1

Click the buttons to read more!

Hindu Marriage Act is passed, introducing divorce and separation laws into Hindu marriages

India's first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, is elected

The brutal gang rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey is a watershed moment in the campaign against sexual violence

Supreme Court outlaws "Triple Talaq", granting Muslim women divorce rights

Indian Independence,

women are granted voting rights, first female cabinet minister + governor are appointed

Dowry Prohibition Act outlaws all gifts (paid to the bridegroom's family) that are conditional to an engagement

The National Women's Commission, an organization meant to represent women's political issues, is established

Comprehensive legislature tackling sexual harassment is passed

Story-Profiles

Anchor 2

On Sexual Violence

Ranjana Kumari

Rape is a tool of patriarchy to terrorize, to instill fear, and to control women’s bodies.

Firebrand academic-activist Ranjana Kumari explores the Nirbhaya case, India's rape epidemic, the judicial crisis and the curious question of dowry.

Yogita Bhayana

Screen Shot 2018-12-16 at 5.36.40 PM.png

You can't change anything without power.

Yogita Bhayana, a grassroots activist who supports rape victims, discusses India's child rape crisis.

On Rural and Marginalized Women

Ketna Patel

Screen Shot 2018-12-27 at 6.16.37 PM.png

I found women in villages strong. There was a quiet wisdom to them which came from years of teamwork, the ability to compromise with people, the ability to empathize with people.

British-Indian pop artist Ketna Patel discusses her observations of gender in Indian villages, and shares her experience with arranged marriage.

Shibani Chaudhury

Screen Shot 2018-12-29 at 9.08.57 PM.png

What do you mean by a tribal woman? What do you mean by a Dalit woman? Which part of India are you speaking about? Generically, putting them into one big window is the first mistake that we tend to make.

Shibani Chaudhury, an activist working with the Society for Rural, Urban and Tribal Initiative, comments on the state of marginalized tribal and lower-caste women in India.

Nazia Erum

Screen Shot 2018-12-29 at 11.19.30 PM.pn

If you really care about Muslim women, you need to stop demonizing the entire community, because our children face the consequences.

The author of the groundbreaking book Mothering a Muslim reflects on the effects of politicized Islamophobia on Muslim women

On Law and Enforcement

On Women and Academia

Meeran Borwankar

Screen Shot 2018-12-29 at 9.24.03 PM.png

I have challenged this male domination of leadership and the messages which one constantly gets in India, that women can be good subordinates but not good leaders.

Urvashi Butalia

Screen Shot 2018-12-30 at 5.45.15 PM.png

I wanted to create a body of knowledge for women, written by women, for all women.

As the first female Indian Police Service officer in her state, with a police career spanning 36 years, Meeran Borwankar has unique insights into gender-based crimes and law enforcement.

The founder of the first Indian feminist publishing house shares her experience with feminist academia and remarks on the current political climate for women.

On the Media

Suhasini Raj

Screen Shot 2018-12-23 at 9.40.58 PM.png

It's going to take generations for men to believe that women are their equals, if not above them.

In a hard-hitting interview, New York Times journalist Suhasini Raj talks about the landmark rape cases she has exposed.

Shoma Chaudhury

What the media has done is to help take away the sense of shame from a victim and to relocate the shame on the perpetrator and create the space to speak up.

Investigative journalist and intellectual Shoma Chaudhury provides an alternative perspective on the #MeToo movement, and the role of the media in feminism.

SHAKTI STORIES

Voices from the Indian Feminist Movement