From Self-Identification to Medicalisation: A Troubling Direction for Transgender Recognition in India
On 13 March 2026, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 (the Bill) was introduced in the Indian Parliament by the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment. It...
From “Invisible Help” to Constitutional Workers: The Supreme Court’s Call for Domestic Workers’ Rights in India
The care economy in India depends fundamentally on domestic workers, yet their labour remains largely invisible in law and policy. Estimates suggest India has over 50 million domestic workers, the...
Punitive Use of Preventive Powers in India
On 24th September 2025, four people were killed in police firing after protests for statehood in Ladakh turned violent. On the heels of this unfortunate incident, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk...
Reproductive Agency is not a Courtesy, It’s a Right of a Woman with Intellectual Disabilities in India
Almost a decade after the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“RPWD”) Act, 2016, women with intellectual disabilities (WID) continue to have their reproductive rights miscast as matters of protection rather...
When Presumption of Guilt Meets Indefinite Detention: India’s Anti-Terror Law Dilemma
Can a constitutional democracy legitimise exceptional liberty burdens by declaration? India’s Supreme Court recently grappled with this question in a landmark ruling that exposes fault lines between counter-terrorism imperatives and...
Timidly Groundbreaking: The Indian Supreme Court’s Judgement on the Right to Menstrual Health
“We wish to communicate to every girl child who might have become a victim of absenteeism because her body was perceived as a burden, that the fault is not hers.”...
Between recognition and protection: gig workers and the incomplete promise of India’s labour reforms
On 1st January, 2026, lakhs of gig workers across India staged a nationwide strike. Weeks earlier, in November, the Government had introduced four major labour reforms: the Code on Wages,...
Rights In Crisis – Rethinking Cash Transfers, Care Work, and Justice
https://soundcloud.com/oxhrh/rights-in-crisis-rethinking/s-UEC1xf1c3ce?si=8cb08830c9fe4377994f095e90b23df2&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing ‘Rights in Crisis’, is a new RightsUp series from the Oxford Human Rights Hub in collaboration with the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. The series will feature topics...
The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 & International Human Rights Law
On 5th December 2025, a Member of the Indian Parliament (Lower House) introduced the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 (‘the Bill’). The Bill aims to introduce pivotal changes in the...
Rights in Text, Oppression in Practice: The Faultline of Minority Protection in India
India’s constitutional framework formally guarantees equality and minority protection. Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality before the law, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on religious grounds, and Articles 25–30 protect...
Algorithmic Welfare Exclusion and the Right to Food in India: Lessons from Samagra Vedika
Bismillah Bee is a 67-year-old widow living in an urban slum in Telangana, India. An algorithm denied her family subsidised food grains. The reason: the system confused her late husband,...
The Indian Supreme Court’s Shifting Approach: Go to High Court
During the drafting of Indian Constitution, the father of the Indian Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, categorically said that Article 32 is the sole and heart of the Indian Constitution. It...
