Swapna Majumdar, Author at Women's eNews

India's Rape Furor Catalyzes New Alliances

By Swapna Majumdar ● Uncategorized ● January 12, 2013

Veterans of women's safety activism say they have never, in decades of work, seen their society mobilize like this to confront the dangers and hostilities that women face. “It means violence against women is no longer just a woman's issue.”

Cash Prizes Fuel India's Sterilization Overdrive

By Swapna Majumdar ● Uncategorized ● December 4, 2012

Spurred by cash incentives, state workers in the state of Rajasthan offer prizes to women to undergo tubal ligation in mass sterilization drives. Critics call it a coercive process that restricts women's right to know their contraceptive choices.

Indian Maternal Health Program Blasted by Critics

By Swapna Majumdar ● Uncategorized ● October 22, 2012

A requirement that participants have no more than two living children excludes numerous women in high-fertility regions in India who could most benefit from the $80 outlay.

India's Maternal Deaths Tied to Teen Moms' Anemia

By Swapna Majumdar ● Health & Science ● March 18, 2011

A huge portion of Indian female teens from impoverished families are getting married off and giving birth while malnourished, helping to explain why India has the highest number of maternal deaths in the world. A few here find a way to beat the odds.

Maternity Care Improves in Indian Trouble Spots

By Swapna Majumdar ● Health & Science ● December 25, 2010

In one of the worst areas of maternal care in the world, a health advocacy is teaching Indian women the three big factors in maternal deaths and how to assert political and community pressure to avoid them.

Indian Widows Swell Temple-Filled Town

By Swapna Majumdar ● Crime & Law ● December 1, 2010

The Indian temple town of Vrindavan continues to attract widows facing the traditional ostracism of village life. Many say they prefer to live on less than $1 a day than to go back to the families who cast them out.

Burma's Poll Called ‘Yes Vote' for Junta Rapes

By Swapna Majumdar ● Crime & Law ● November 11, 2010

Last week's election victory by the junta-backed party in Burma is a setback for Charm Tong's work against military rape in the country, also known as Myanmar. Tong says that like her idol Aung San Suu Kyi, she will keep working.

India's Ailing MDG Tied to 18th Century Cure

By Swapna Majumdar ● Health & Science ● September 17, 2010

Wendy Graham, a champion of Millennium Development Goal No. 5, says the starkest measure of the gap between rich and poor countries is that of women dying in childbirth. And the solution is as simple as cleaner birthing practices.

India's Red-Light Children Steer Clear of Traffic

By Swapna Majumdar ● Crime & Law ● July 23, 2010

In one of India's booming red-light districts a child-welfare group is helping the children of sex workers find a way out. In five years the group has helped place 388 children in formal schools and kept 80 percent of them on track.

For Better Sanitation, India Targets Rural Women

By Swapna Majumdar ● Crime & Law ● March 19, 2010

“No toilet, no bride.” That's the message of a sanitation campaign in one Indian state that has targeted women and appears to be spurring a big rush in toilet installations. The government hopes to achieve sanitation for all by 2012.

Swapna Majumdar

Swapna Majumdar's Latest Articles