Tag: Adolescent Health

This illustration is a combination of a photograph and text extracted from the accompanying article. The photograph shows a scene from a media conference held at the Press Club Kolkata on December 3, 2024 to disseminate the findings of a survey of the one stop crisis centres running in the four states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The survey was conducted by the Women Gaining Ground consortium. The author and two other speakers Chitrita Bandpadhyay and Jhuma Sen can be seen sitting behind a table and addressing the audience. Behind the speakers, a flex banner mounted on the wall, reads “Sruti Disability Rights Centre invites you to sharing of survey report of one stop crisis centres from four states”. The event date and venue are mentioned below this text. The logos of Women Gaining Ground and Sruti Disability Rights Centre are placed at the lower right corner of the flex. The text extract says: “There are two major concerns that came forth from the survey. First, not a single OSCC addresses the concerns of women with disabilities. The buildings are not barrier-free, and no support persons like sign language interpreters or trauma-informed psychologists have been recruited. The staff of the centres seem completely unaware of the needs of women with disabilities. None of the centres is connected to the National Tele Mental Health Programme of India.” Photograph courtesy Sruti Disability Rights Centre

Insight Dec '24

Crisis in crisis intervention centres for women?

By Shampa Sengupta

How equipped are the government-run one stop crisis centres for women to carry out crisis intervention? Shampa Sengupta shares insight from a recent survey of the centres in four states...

This image is a sketch of Arvey Malhotra’s face drawn by Rimu Panda and posted on Instagram along with a line that says “Sweet soul, we are all sorry.” In the sketch, a youthful Arvey is looking at the reader, gently smiling and holding up his hands to show nails painted in different patterns and colours. Arvey was a jewellery and nail paint artist. He is wearing a red ring on the ring finger on his left hand. He has a thick mop of hair and is bearded. He is wearing a light brown pullover jacket. The artist has drawn a small white halo above Arvey’s head to the left side of the image. The sketch has a pleasing background of hues of pink, yellow and orange. The image has been slightly edited by the author of the article Mihir Seth

Insight, Vartanama Mar '24

The paradoxical need for queer death

By Mihir Seth

Death by suicide among queer youth should galvanize action to address the global mental health crisis, argues Mihir Seth

This illustration is a combination of a photograph and text extracted from the accompanying article. The photograph shows a set of six colourful drawings made by children living in one of the trauma response centres for conflict-affected children and youth run by Matai Society in the Bishnupur district of Manipur. The centres are run in association with various relief camps. The drawings display a diversity of imaginations of their creators – a house and a tree beside it, a lust tree with heart signs and a child on a swing hanging from the tree, abstract representation of flowers, hearts, fish, and gift boxes, and even a ship sailing on a blue sea under a blue sky with the sun shining bright. The drawings have been created with pencil colours, crayons, and sketch pens on chart papers. The accompanying text says: “The conflict has lasted beyond four months now. During these excruciating days, many local clubs, youth groups, and NGOs have been running relief camps to host the masses that have become homeless. Most of the displaced hail from the hill-valley buffer area. Despite the goodwill and support from various government and non-government agencies and donors, these camps are struggling to make ends meet because of the sheer numbers of people affected. So many have lost their homes, many others their close ones.” Photo courtesy Matai Society

Insight, Manipur Relief Sep '23

Hope amid loss, pain and anxiety in Manipur

By Matai Society

Matai Society reports on the situation in and around the Bishnupur district of Manipur months into the communal conflict in the state and lists the urgent relief requirements

This is a graphic that stylistically presents a small extract from the accompanying poem in bright colours and patterns that may be reminiscent of youthfulness. The extract says: “Invisible minorities in every land, many will try to dress like the rest, to be like the rest, as if there’s no difference between them and us. Inscrutably deprive others to save themselves.” Graphic artwork credit: Pawan Dhall

Poetry Mar '23

A few will be different

By Rajib Chakrabarti

Rajib Chakrabarti on adolescence and queerness

This is a panel of two daytime photographs placed one above the other. Both photographs are long shots of the lane near the author’s childhood home in Palm Avenue, Kolkata where the cricket match described in the article was played. Both photographs show about 50 feet of a narrow lane lined by two or three-storied houses on both sides, interspersed with small trees and shrubs. Many houses have iron grills and gates on the ground floor. The lane is quite evenly paved, and is just broad enough for two cars to pass side by side. Several cars are parked half on the road, half on the pavement, which exists on only one side of the road. There is little gap between the houses on the lane, which gives a sense of congestion and everything being boxed in. The photographs have been taken from the turning point at either end of the lane. Photo credits: Pawan Dhall

Vartanama Dec '22

When badminton outplaced cricket

By Pawan Dhall

The author recalls winning a cricket match to secure space for playing badminton near his childhood home in Kolkata

This rectangular graphic contains text that says: “In effect, the proposed amendment has divided adult Indian women into two categories for whom the chasm of choice, autonomy, and education widens everyday. Women in the first section are financially empowered and can marry at any age according to their wish. Coming from rich households, they can access several opportunities and some degree of financial independence. Women in the second section have little to no access to education, especially secondary education, as they belong to poorer households. These factors make women in this section statistically more likely to have a child marriage. But if they marry before 21, the marriage will not be legally recognised as per the proposed amendment.” The text is presented against a background that has patterns and colours symbolic of wedding decoration, clothes and festivities (primarily different shades of oranges and reds). The background design is borrowed from the MS Power Point software.

Insight, Policy Matters Dec '21

Can increasing women’s marriageable age alone enhance their life options?

By Sankalpita Mullick, Sudhasri Yadavalli

Sankalpita Mullick and Sudhasri Yadavalli analyse the controversial Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021

Policy Matters, Vartanama Nov '21

Trans inclusion in schools: A step forward and several backwards

By Debjyoti Ghosh

Debjyoti Ghosh on the politics around withdrawing the draft NCERT manual on transgender children’s inclusion in schools

Quote: The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 fails to recognize that families are often sites of violence for transgender minors. Asha’s guardians, namely her maternal aunt and uncle, were the perpetrators of violence in her case. To vest the exercise of the right to self-identified gender in the hands of parents or guardians ends up truncating the right to chosen gender identity for transgender minors.

Insight, Policy Matters Aug '20

Which way home for transgender minors?

By Namrata

Namrata on policy and legal failures to address the concerns of transgender minors in need of crisis shelter – with inputs from Madhuja Nandi and Pawan Dhall

The photograph shows the main entrance to the campus of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal. This institute is not only one of the key government hospital cum medical colleges in Manipur, its psychiatry department is also considered to be one of the few queer-friendly options in the state in terms of mental health services. The photograph is a day-time picture and it shows the imposing entrance stand out against a cloudy sky. The entrance consists of a central column with a pagoda like rooftop, with an arch on either side of the column sloping down to the ground. There are iron gates on either side of the column through which vehicles can be seen moving in and out. The background consists of a building under construction and several trees inside the RIMS campus. Photo credit: Bonita Pebam

Commentary, VCR Diary Jun '19

Queer lives matter!

By Sadam Hanjabam

Sadam Hanjabam on the unaddressed mental health needs of queer youth in Manipur

The photograph shows a series of posters developed by students of Vidyasagar School of Social Work, Kolkata as part of a child sexual abuse awareness generation workshop organized by RAHI Foundation in 2015. There are three posters pasted on a wall next to each other with messages related to child sexual abuse in English and Bengali. One of them says, “Stop child sexual abuse” with imprints of human hands all around the text – both text and imprints are in red colour. Another poster adjacent to the first shows a large and beautifully drawn illustration of the face of a girl child with her eyes closed and a hand placed on her mouth to stop her from speaking. The text below the illustration, when translated from Bengali into English, implies that the elders say children should keep quiet about sexual abuse, or else the ‘abusers’ will scold them. The third poster shows the illustration of a small girl child with her hands spread out, and the hand of a grown up, much larger in size than the child, next to her. The entire illustration is enclosed inside a square box. The text above and below the box says in capital letters “Stop child sexual abuse”. This poster too has imprints of the human hand in red colour spread around the box. The names of RAHI Foundation and Vidyasagar School of Social Work are mentioned on the edges of the posters. Photo courtesy: RAHI Foundation

QA - Child Sexual Abuse Feb '19

When the law protects but justice heals

By RAHI Foundation

A purely legal response to incest and child sexual abuse can be inadequate says RAHI Foundation

Quote: On the question of recovery – yes, it’s absolutely possible to recover from the effect of incest and child sexual abuse. The effects of abuse can be damaging but they don’t have to be permanent. Recovery begins with the survivor acknowledging that they were abused, that their life is affected by what happened, and deciding to do something about it.

QA - Child Sexual Abuse Dec '18

On recovering from effects of incest and child sexual abuse

By RAHI Foundation

RAHI Foundation continues to answer your queries on incest and child sexual abuse

QA - Child Sexual Abuse Oct '18

Opening up to facts about incest and child sexual abuse

By RAHI Foundation

RAHI Foundation on prevention, age and sexuality nuances of incest / child sexual abuse

This visual is a collection of six photographs that show different scenes from the symposium ‘Queering Mental Health’ organized at Seva Kendra Calcutta Training Centre on August 4, 2018 as ‘Varta’ webzine’s fifth birthday event. The photographs are placed in a grid. Clockwise from top left: Varta literature on display at the symposium; panellists Sudha Jha and Kaushik Gupta; audience interaction during the symposium – a young woman asks a question as other participants look on; panellists Dr. Madhurima Ghosh, Shilpi Banerjee, Shampa Sengupta and Mohit Ranadip; panellists Dr. Chilka, Dr. L. Ramakrishnan, Rituparna Borah and Sayan Bhattacharya; and ‘Varta’ birthday cake – a heart shaped cake with red gleaming icing all over, a “Happy Birthday” plastic prop placed on the top surface, and Varta’s name and a smiley drawn out in yellow icing just below the prop. The photograph of the cake takes up maximum space in the grid, with other equal sized photographs placed above it and to its right. Photo credits: Jia Mata (first two and the last photograph) and Kaushik Gupta (remaining photographs).

Happenings, Insight Aug '18

Symposium on queering mental health

By Jia Mata

Jia Mata was at 'Varta’s' 5th birthday event focussed on queer perspectives on mental health

Vartanama Jun '18

For your well-being!

By Pawan Dhall

Varta’s online locator for queer friendly health and legal aid service providers is formally launched!

In this photograph, a midday event is taking place on the pavement outside Kamala Girls’ High School in South Kolkata on March 19, 2018 to protest the incidents in the school and the West Bengal Education Minister’s comments on the matter. A street play is in progress. The main actor dressed in a ‘kurta’, pair of jeans, slippers and a ‘dupatta’ can be seen holding a tambourine in their hands and addressing the audience. About a dozen people, standing around at some distance from the actor, are watching. To the right of the photograph, facing the actor, are two individuals holding a placard in part Bengali, part English: “Samakami aami, bhalobasha aami. Shame Education Minister!” (So what if I’m homosexual, my love has meaning. Shame Education Minister!). Behind the placard holders is the school building and a part of the closed school gate can also be seen. The name of the school is written on an arched board above the gate. In the forefront, the photograph shows someone holding a mobile phone and recording a video of the play. Large trees, school buses, people sitting on platforms under the trees, and a building adjacent to the school make up the background. Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Insight May '18

To school, with fear . . . of confessions!

By Jia Mata, Sudha Jha, Nikita Kabra

Jia Mata, Nikita Kabra and Sudha Jha report on the recent homophobic violation of child rights in the Kamala Girls' High School incident involving the school's headmistress and the West...

This main photograph shows a collage of copies of the ‘AIDS Sex Knowledge’ or ‘ASK’ column published for young people by Kolkata-based social communication NGO Thoughtshop Foundation in 1996. The interactive column was published in the ‘Voices’ youth supplement of ‘The Statesman’ every third Thursday. Four editions of the column from February to April 1996 dealt with queer issues with inputs from Counsel Club, one of India’s earliest queer support groups. The photograph shows snippets of the column from these four editions – reader questions, myths and realities pointers, and reader comments on gender and sexuality. The full column name is displayed prominently – ‘AIDS Sex Knowledge for Young People’ with the tag line “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know, will you?” The ‘Voices’ masthead is also prominently visible. Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Commentary, From the Archives Jul '17

Memories in media outings (part 3)

By Pawan Dhall

In 'Kolkata’s Queer Movement: A Recollection of Media Outings – Mid-1984 to Mid-2013' Pawan Dhall remembers his personal queer-story over the years

Tagged Under: Adolescent Health

Crisis in crisis intervention centres for women?

The paradoxical need for queer death

Hope amid loss, pain and anxiety in Manipur

A few will be different

When badminton outplaced cricket

Can increasing women’s marriageable age alone enhance their life options?

Trans inclusion in schools: A step forward and several backwards

Which way home for transgender minors?

Queer lives matter!

When the law protects but justice heals

On recovering from effects of incest and child sexual abuse

Opening up to facts about incest and child sexual abuse

Symposium on queering mental health

For your well-being!

To school, with fear . . . of confessions!

Memories in media outings (part 3)

Queer Friendly Resources

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