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Namita Bhandare

Namita Bhandare

Namita Bhandare writes on gender and other social issues and has 35-plus years of experience in journalism. She has edited books and features in a documentary on sexual violence. She tweets as @namitabhandare

Articles by Namita Bhandare

When falling in love becomes a radical act

In a country where 95% of marriages are still arranged by families in accordance with caste and faith, where murders committed in the name of family honour, and where even the inter-mingling of girls and boys is frowned upon, the simple act of falling in love can be a radical if not dangerous act. (HT Archive)

Published on Mar 14, 2026 11:18 pm IST

Mind The Gap: Women won’t go back

Time to power up

Published on Mar 08, 2026 05:14 pm IST

Mind The Gap: More than ‘just’ a housewife

Valuable work(Illustration courtesy: Dreamstime)

Published on Mar 02, 2026 08:00 am IST

Why a social media ban makes sense

Social media’s harms cut across ages. We are less connected, less able to focus, and our brains are turning into mush. But young people are far more susceptible to peer pressure, to be vulnerable to abuse by strangers, to be more open to addiction. (AFP)

Updated on Mar 01, 2026 06:47 am IST

Mind The Gap: The problem with rape judgments

chief justice

Updated on Feb 23, 2026 06:17 am IST

Mind The Gap: The hero we need: Merci Gisele

Penguin Books

Updated on Feb 16, 2026 04:20 pm IST

Parks and playgrounds must become inclusive

If a playground for children will not let a child, accompanied by her parents, feel the freedom of a swing, then who is that playground for? (HT Archive)

Published on Feb 14, 2026 10:47 pm IST

Mind The Gap: A deep and dark morality tale of our times

Epstein survivors hold photos of their younger selves in a video from World Without Exploitation published on November 16, 2025.

Published on Feb 09, 2026 08:00 am IST

Mind The Gap: Why Indians fear love marriages

Man-made rules: a panchayat in session(Representative picture)

Updated on Feb 02, 2026 03:25 pm IST

Corroding justice: Gaps in punishing acid violence

A 2011 report by Cornell University argues that the intention is not to kill but to make the person suffer for life — very often by some man furious that a woman has dared reject his advances. In Shaheen’s case, her lawyer Madiah Shahjar says, she was being propositioned by her married boss. (PTI)

Published on Jan 31, 2026 11:06 pm IST

Mind The Gap: A death in Manipur

On the brink, again(Altaf Qadri AP)

Updated on Jan 27, 2026 05:25 pm IST

Decriminalising adolescent relationships under POCSO

POCSO’s object is to protect minors from sexual abuse. But by defining everybody below 18 as a child incapable of consent, it has “trapped many adolescent couples in a legal paradox”. (HT Archive)

Published on Jan 18, 2026 12:08 am IST

India’s son preference endures, daughter aversion declines

11th child

Published on Jan 12, 2026 08:00 am IST

Grok is on a global undressing spree. Can India stop it?

Elon Musk chose to post this can’t-unsee-it photo. Scores of other women did not consent.

Updated on Jan 05, 2026 03:17 pm IST

Sexual violence and the unevenness of justice

As 2025 came to an end, a court in Ernakulam finally convicted six men of raping and abducting a woman actor in 2017, but found no evidence against the actor Dileep, who the woman says hatched the plan. (PTI)

Published on Jan 03, 2026 09:40 pm IST

Mind The Gap: The 2025 year-ender gender quiz

Instagram

Published on Dec 29, 2025 08:00 am IST

The good, the bad and the downright ugly: 2025 version

Crossing a line.(Sabrang)

Published on Dec 22, 2025 07:00 am IST

Ending the male monopoly in bar councils in India

There’s been a fair amount of media attention on the lack of representation in the higher judiciary. In the Supreme Court, only one judge out of 34 is a woman. (HT Archive)

Published on Dec 20, 2025 08:56 pm IST

Absolutely the best books by women in 2025

Credit: India Hamish Hamilton

Updated on Dec 16, 2025 04:00 pm IST

Bucking global trends, marriage in India endures. Here’s why

Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan on their wedding day, 1973

Published on Dec 08, 2025 07:00 am IST

In a world that normalises violence against women, digital violence is a threat

suicide

Published on Dec 01, 2025 07:00 am IST

When the internet allows weaponisation of intimacy

One in four female journalists and one in three women parliamentarians has reported online violence, according to UN Women

Published on Nov 29, 2025 06:19 pm IST

A woman advising other women about fertility choices? Oh the horror

Upasana Kamineni

Published on Nov 24, 2025 07:00 am IST

Mind The Gap: How women voters powered the NDA’s Bihar sweep

Bihar election

Published on Nov 17, 2025 07:00 am IST

Missing women in the assemblies, Parliament

Thanks to reservation, our panchayats have 33% elected women and, in states such as Bihar 50%, but in the Lok Sabha, it’s 14% and in state assemblies it’s an average of 9%. (HT Archive)

Published on Nov 15, 2025 09:58 pm IST

Mind The Gap: A week of pure good news

Harmanpreet Kaur (L) and Deepti Sharma after the dismissal of South African skipper Laura Wolvaardt

Published on Nov 10, 2025 07:00 am IST

Mind The Gap: How Jemimah Rodrigues found her groove

@jemimarodrigues(Instagram)

Published on Nov 03, 2025 07:00 am IST

Assault on Aussie cricketers: Accepting women’s equal right to space

India’s abysmal ranking on women’s safety in various surveys is hardly a secret: Ninth most dangerous by World Population Review’s 2024 Women Danger Index ; four out of 10 women feel unsafe in the 2025 National Annual Report and Index (NARI) on women’s safety. (HT Archive)

Published on Nov 01, 2025 09:58 pm IST

Mind The Gap: The keepers of memory

Cooking for my firefly

Published on Oct 20, 2025 07:00 am IST

Rape and victim-blaming cues from leaders, judges

This is not the first time Banerjee has jumped in with her own theories about individual rape cases. In 2012, “fabricated” was the word she used to describe the rape of the “Park Street victim”, as media called her. (ANI)

Published on Oct 18, 2025 09:56 pm IST

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