Girl Up RIHA

  “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights” -HILLARY CLINTON   Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) mean that you should be able to make your own decision s about your body and have all necessary information regarding it. You should have access to sexual and reproductive health services, you should have the right to choose who you want to marry and whether you want to have children or not and if yes, then how many and when . It also means that our lives should be free from all forms of sexual violence, including rape, female genital mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced abortion and forced sterilization. SRHR is a concept that Indians, and South Asians are largely ignorant and aloof about. The taboo around topics like sex and sexuality is the root cause for the many issues people, especially women, face daily. Reproductive health means a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of repr...

  Mental health is that aspect of our life which most of us tend to neglect. Mental health includes our psychological, emotional, behavioural and social well-being. It is a state of mind in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. In recent times people are focusing more towards their growth, they are being more productive and are building stairs to move progressively in this direction. It’s not wrong to say that everyone enjoys success and wishes to climb up the ladder through the norms of success that have been set within society however this success brings a lot of pressure on our minds- pressure of more productivity and to always stay on top of our game. What we fail to realize here is that more pressure on our mind-set brings more stress and negativity. Thoughts play a significant role in our mental activity. They also produce feelings...

  Looking at the anti-racism protests happening across the globe, I have a question for everyone out there, do we, as a society, really accept dark skinned people? As a citizen of India, my answer is NO. Each one of us has, at some point in time, made statements like 'You look tanned' or 'Her features are good but she is dark skinned'. For centuries, the prejudice against dark skin has been omnipresent in the society and has been engrained in the mind-sets of people.   Unilever unveiled Fair and Lovely which further added to the obsession with fair skin fir ages conditioning narratives on how fair skin was what is truly desirable. According to their website, Fair and Lovely is 'one of the most trusted brands for young women in India'. In 2019, the industry had a total revenue of around Rs 3,000 crore, according to the Indian Fairness Cream and Bleach Market Overview (2018 - 2023). Market Revenues were expected to reach Rs 5000 Crore by 2023.   These skin...

Assam is face to face with a massive flood while dealing with a pandemic but is the mainland media talking enough about it?  While we are focusing on the general news of other Indian states, at the same time, there has been little coverage in the national newspapers and news channels about yet another deadly bout of flooding in the north-eastern state of Assam. Assam barely receives attention both from the centre and mainland media when it comes to addressing their concerns. If a similar situation or disaster in this scale took place in any other state, the government and the media would have generally not wasted this much time to declare it as an emergency situation. What is happening right now in Assam? Assam floods, now more than ever, need our attention. Due to COVID-19, the burden on Assam is doubled. At present, 3,376 villages are underwater and 1,27,647.25 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam, according to ASDMA. But why are we not talking about this on a na...

MY BODY; NOT AN APOLOGY     “The women’s movement does not emphasize the “maleness” of women. The LGBTQ+ movement does not emphasize the “heterosexual-ness” of gay men and women. But the disability movement does very much emphasize the “ableness” of people with disabilities” — Parsons, 1999     Have you heard of ‘Disability Pride'? It won’t be incorrect to assume that many are unaware of this concept due to the lack of mainstream discourse surrounding it . So, before we extend our support , let’s understand what it is and how it came to be. What is Disability Pride?   People with disabilities are the largest and most diverse minority within the population representing all abilities, ages, races, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. Yet their entire existence is under-represented and brushed under a single carpet of 'being disabled'. In response to negative views of disability, and to promote human rights, disability pride e...

It is commonly believed that women are closer to nature as their bodies function in a biologically cyclic manner. Ecofeminism is a movement that emerged in the mid-1970s, alongside the Second-Wave Feminism and the Green Movement, that sees a connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of women. Ecofeminism is an amalgamation of the elements of both the feminist and the green movement. Ecofeminists argue that the issue of climate change must not be viewed in isolation from the oppression of women.    Climate change has manifested itself in the form of severe disasters such as droughts and floods and therefore has been recognized as a global concern. Women across the globe are highly dependent on natural resources for their livelihood. The extreme repercussions of climate change have made it immensely difficult for women to procure the natural resources that are needed for them to perform domestic chores. Wome...

Roxane Gay, from a personal perspective gave the best definition of what being an Ally is in one of her articles in which she notes:   " Marginalised people do not need saviours. They need people to stand up and take on the problems borne of oppression as their own without remove or distance. They need people to use common sense to figure out how to participate in getting social justice for everyone ."    We live in an individualistic and highly capitalist society that is built on the tenants of single community supremacy, whether we like it or not. It has been ingrained within us- the need to be first and to be the loudest when asking for something that we want but what no one really talks about is the fact that in order to be "first”, someone must be left behind which in almost all the cases are the minority community including people of colour or individuals with different identities. An individual belonging to these communities cannot easily cast awa...