Shalu Nigam

  Excerpt from my book  Dowry is a Serious Economic Violence: Rethinking Dowry Law in India   (2023) Amazon Centuries ago, when Karl Marx wrote exhaustively about the callous exploitation of workers by the capitalist class, he may not have imagined how in South Asia, women as brides  would be treated as commodities, pitilessly exploited, and violently murdered in their own  homes by their abusive husbands for extorting wealth. As the ruthless oppression of the toiling masses could not be prevented by laws or policies, the merciless torture and murder of women could not be regulated despite establishing a legal mechanism in place. Over the decades, predatory capitalism has irrevocably acquired an altered form, and the free-market approach has devised a new mechanism of manipulation (Faber D, 2018). Similarly, the viciousness of the neoliberal forces, clubbed with patriarchy, feudalism, conservatism, rampant materialism, and excessive consumption propelled by extensive consumerism, is ag

  She is a girl; she has a right to survive with dignity Shalu Nigam  21 June 2022 She is not a commodity to be traded  Hope that the moment you downgraded her could be faded  She is not an object of your desire She has dreams of her own to aspire She is not a burden to be discarded  She is a human to be accepted  She is not a property to be owned  She could imagine a world of her own She is not a source of your free labor Respect her rights and her worth, she is stronger Because she is a girl, a woman  She needs no permission Her body her life and her future belong to her Don't bring in your stereotypes, traditions or your repressive culture  Your world is brutal and discriminatory  But she dreams of a world that rests on equality Where everyone has a right to survive with dignity

  How Malimath Committee Denied Women their Rights? Section 498A IPC is inserted in the Indian Penal Code in 1983 and provides to protect women from cruelty in their matrimonial homes. The Malimath Committee Report (2003), twenty years after the enactment of Section 498A noted, “In less tolerant impulsive woman may lodge an FIR even on a trivial act. The result is that the husband and his family may be immediately arrested and there may be a suspension or loss of job. The offence alleged being non-bailable, innocent persons languish in custody. There may be a claim for maintenance adding fuel to the fire if the husband cannot pay. She may change her mind and get into the mood to forget and forgive. The husband may realize the mistakes committed and come forward to turn a new leaf for a loving and cordial relationship. The woman may like to seek reconciliation. But this may not be possible due to the legal obstacles. Even if she wishes to make amends by withdrawing the complaint, she ca

Yes, I Am a Woman….. By Shalu Nigam 28 July, 2014 Countercurrents.org https://www.countercurrents.org/nigam280714.htm On the occasion of this Independence Day, I continue to fight for my independence as a common woman, as a citizen of this free nation and more importantly as a human being… Yes, I am a woman and I am proud of myself. I am strong and I am growing stronger by each passing moment. I am an independent, fearless, free thinking woman making choices at every step reaffirming my pride, contesting for my dignity and in the process shaping and writing my own destiny…. I am the one with vision you see carrying bricks on construction sites... I am a woman toiling in an agriculture field awaiting for the crop of my imagination to be harvested... I am a worker working in a textile organization weaving my hopes in the garments I knit… I am a student with dreams in my eyes, cycling or running after buses… I am a scientist inventing and imagining, an architect, shaping and cementing the