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Avantika Mehta

Avantika Mehta

Evantika Mehta is a journalist based in New Delhi. She covers gender, law, human rights, crime in India. She studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and practiced law for six years before switching to journalism. She also writes fiction

Between them, India’s record-breaking ‘Nest Man’ Rakesh Khatri and the brothers behind Wildlife Rescue – featured in a Sundance documentary – have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of birds.

The team includes India’s first transgender man bodybuilder, a famous rights activist, a receptionist scarred by his past and a beautician who worked as a secret milkman for years to earn enough money for sex-reassignment therapy.

India abolished discrimination on the basis of caste in 1948, yet every day 10 Dalit, or untouchable, women and children are raped – and the problem is getting worse.

Munawar Faruqi spent 38 days behind bars earlier this year after a Hindu nationalist accused him of ‘intending’ to outrage religious sentiments. But the 28-year-old Muslim comedian is trying to see the funny side of it all.

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Sudden unexplained mortalities – together with a lack of health care, education and legal protection – are proving a dangerous mix in India’s rural areas. Those accused of witchcraft tend to meet a grisly end.

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