Being a woman in India discusses the context of women working at night in India.

Interestingly, the way the issue of night shifts for women is currently approached illustrates how women’s rights are often handled: “the system� bans or “the system� allows. Clearly, prohibition of night work for women is discriminatory in a number of ways

Abuse from loved ones, whose words bruise more than any beating, is the curse of every hijda, says Revathi. Outside of the home, in that precarious time when a young man knows he is a hijda, but is yet to make contact with the community, he is a receptacle for every man’s frustration, every woman’s derision.

Sonia Faleiro profiles the life of Revathi, a former sex worker and now a sexual minorities rights activist, who’s just compiled and edited a book where she unflinchingly offers examples of brutality towards hijdas, carried out and condoned by society. [Also published in Tehelka]