India's gender empowerment enigma

The troubling resistance to criminalising marital rape neatly encapsulates the concerns of a violently patriarchal society

The passage of another Women’s Day highlighted a curious but little noted paradox in the one-and-a-half terms of the Narendra Modi regime. The needle on gender inequality has scarcely moved in this period. If anything it’s regressed. Yet, in terms of active policy, beyond the relabelling of earlier schemes, his government has done more for women’s welfare than predecessor regimes.

Even without the aid of a detailed government listing, it is possible to recall interventions that were progressive in intent if flawed in implementation. For instance, Maneka Gandhi, women and child development minister in Mr Modi’s first government, mandated longer maternity