children

Making Space for Queerness in the Lives of Children
pile of story books
Making Space for Queerness in the Lives of Children

Queerness is a free-flowing identity that embraces anyone, including young children, who step off the assigned binary path.
By Riya Parikh
June 18, 2024
Making Space for Queerness in the Lives of Children
The Motherhood Dilemma
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The Motherhood Dilemma

The idealisation of motherhood is crucial to our culture; it is important that the mother is self-sacrificing. This sacrificial instinct isn’t limited to women’s behaviour. It goes on to encompass the entirety of her corporeality and the way she performs it.
By Vinky Mittal
March 17, 2023
The Motherhood Dilemma
The Birds and the Bees: On Play and Sexuality
A screengrab from the Hindi movie Padosan showing a man holding a pillow.
The Birds and the Bees: On Play and Sexuality

How would we see the world really, if we were open to the idea that it is not purpose but play that drives us to seek companionship, be it an orchid seeking a pollinator or a human seeking another?
By Shweta Krishnan
December 1, 2021
The Birds and the Bees: On Play and Sexuality
A ‘girly’ feminist
Two dandelion flowers in a glass vase on a pink background.
A ‘girly’ feminist

Desiring motherhood meant veering into a more ‘girly’ territory, a notion that I had simultaneously been fighting and trying to embrace since childhood. I had understood that to be a feminist I had to be independent, be wary of men, dislike families and relationships.

By Anubha Sarkar
December 1, 2020
A ‘girly’ feminist
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व

इस बात के अनेकों कारण हो सकते हैं कि महिलाएँ बच्चे क्यों नहीं चाहती हैं, ठीक वैसे ही जैसे इस बात के अनेकों कारण है कि वे बच्चे क्यों चाहती हैं। बच्चे होने के कारणों को सामान्य करार दिया जाना जबकि बच्चे ना होने की इच्छा को ‘सामान्य से अलग’ माना जाना, शर्मिंदा किया जाना और संदिग्ध की तरह करार दिया जाना, सभी के लिए नारीत्व का ‘एक ही अर्थ’ बनाने वाले है।
By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 17, 2016
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood

I love children and have at various times in my life flirted with the idea of adoption. But I have known since I was a child that I did not want to birth children. I have never been vague or ambivalent about this decision. I have been consistently clear and concise that this is not my calling.
By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 3, 2016
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
Brushstrokes: Married Young
A boy looking in a room through a creaked door. There, a girl is breastfeeding a baby.
Brushstrokes: Married Young

In the Chinese province of Yunnan, ‘early marriage’ is a common phenomenon. Dearth of employment opportunities compels parents to marry off their children before leaving for work in bigger cities. The cultural trend favours early marriage, so there is no social stigma attached to it.

By Curated Content
May 1, 2016
Brushstrokes: Married Young
Meet The Woman Behind The Children’s Book ‘My Chacha Is Gay’
Cover of the comic "My chacha is gay". Shows the drawing of an older man with a moustache standing with his nephew
Meet The Woman Behind The Children’s Book ‘My Chacha Is Gay’

In this series, Special Features, we will be featuring people who have done groundbreaking work in the field of Gender,…
By Curated Content
January 18, 2016
Meet The Woman Behind The Children’s Book ‘My Chacha Is Gay’
Brushstrokes: Everyday Lives
A toy figurine of Mickey Mouse. Hands and knees of the child kneeling around it to play with it are visible in the background.
Brushstrokes: Everyday Lives

[slideshow_deploy id=’7634′] In 2006, Indian-born artist and photographer Sunil Gupta created a series of photographs of the daily lives of…
By Curated Content
December 1, 2015
Brushstrokes: Everyday Lives
Bridging the Gap: Ideas for a More Inclusive Sexuality Education Programme
A male child dressed in a yellow shirt leaning against a red brick wall
Bridging the Gap: Ideas for a More Inclusive Sexuality Education Programme

A 22-year-old autistic young man with low intellectual functioning I work with, recently got into trouble with the police because…
By Ankita Khanna
April 1, 2015
Bridging the Gap: Ideas for a More Inclusive Sexuality Education Programme