Heena Sharma Blog

Hoping to protect women from sexual exploitation , Indian lawmakers are pushing a bill that amends the criminal code to harden legal and financial penalties for sex trafficking. The “Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill,” which passed the lower house of India’s parliament in July 2018 and may become law in 2019, seeks to make combat this lucrative, illicit trade. Not everyone thinks harsh deterrence will work. Days after it passed in the lower house of India’s Parliament in July, two United Nations experts said the bill leans too heavily on the criminal justice system. Without more of a “human-rights based and victim-centred approach,” the UN special rapporteurs on human trafficking and modern slavery warned, India “risks further harming already vulnerable individuals.” India’s sex trade According to the Indian government, 4,980 victims of sex trafficking were rescued in the country in 2016. Sex workers in India oppose th...

Lending his support to gender equality, actor Akshay Kumar said that strong women make stronger countries. Akshay along with a bevy of Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Vicky Kaushal, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Hema Malini, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt, gathered on Sunday night to attend the 3rd Lux Golden Rose Awards to extend their support to the United Nations' campaign # HeForShe . Talking on the subject, Akshay said: " When women are strong, families become strong and countries stronger . I am happy to be a part of a family which has many strong women like my mother, my wife, my sister and my mother-in-law." The campaign celebrates the contribution of women to society. Talking about the role of female actors in the industry, Shah Rukh said: "These women have contributed to making me a better human." Gen-next stars like Taapsee Pannu, Nushrat Bharucha, Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan K...

After public transportation, local markets, private tuitions or roads leading to school were regarded as most unsafe among young girls Current Affairs News : India’s richest girls and young women, aged 11 to 18, felt the least safe among all income groups in public spaces, according to a new report that explored safety perceptions among adolescent girls. Across urban (47%) and rural (40%) areas, young girls reported feeling more susceptible to molestation or abuse while using public transport, said the report, Wings 2018: World Of India’s Girls, released by Save The Children in India, an international non-governmental organisation. This finding was particularly true for girls from higher income groups (53%), belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) and general castes (45%), according to the study Girls from medium and small towns (51%) reported feeling more unsafe than those in large cities (44%), small villages (42%) and large villages (39%). “A possible reaso...