Author: Albertina Almeida

Popular Essays

‘Work From Home’ equals Opportunity to Exploit Labour?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

The pandemic seems to have accelerated a pre-existing trend  of work from home, that seems to have gained very good press. What we broadly know is that ‘Work From Home’ involves working at home instead of at the physical premises of the office, and teleconnectivity to be able to work. And when one looks at it this way, one would think that working from home is something beneficial, and it was even heralded by some workers initially after work from home was started when partial lockdowns were in operation. But as the glamour  wears thin, it is now increasingly obvious that while COVID19 situations could demand staying at home and consequently working from home, working from home can only be a temporary measure, or else it will stifle the working class. (more…)

Popular Essays

Due Process and the Rule of Law is not Enough

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

The case of M. J. Akbar v Priya Ramani has brought the two issues of lack of due process and rule of law in sharp focus. The judgement in the defamation case by Ravindra Kumar Pandey, the AC Metropolitan Magistrate 01, Rouse Avenue District Courts, Delhi, has highlighted the circumstances under which those who are sexually harassed by persons in power cannot access justice by putting the due process in motion. It can be due to lack of appropriate legislation that provides victims easy access to justice, or it can be due to social factors such as the stigmatization of those who come forward to complain. (more…)

Popular Essays, Uncategorized

Love in the time of love-laws

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

The potential of love to disrupt the status quo, in the interests of justice, is something that the courts of law, at the trial court level, need to explore, if we are to envision and bring into being an equitable world. This is all the more necessary in times, when laws are being enacted to retain the status quo, which affects the dispensation of justice. It is necessary to take stock of how love is being weaponised to maintain a stereotyping status quo, and to leverage the law and the Constitution to make sure that love becomes a medium to disrupt the conservative and unjust status quo. (more…)

Popular Essays

How India Sees Goa: Reflections in the 60th Year of Goa’s Annexation to India

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

Although Goa is politically part of Indian territory, the way the rest of India views Goa and its people, says something about the Indian gaze of Goa. I thought it is important to begin by putting down elements of what the Indian gaze looks like, in a bid to understand the sub-text – something that is sub-consciously internalized by people in other parts of India, perhaps based on how the Indian Corporate State has treated and is treating Goa. (more…)

Popular Essays

So what is this thing called Choice?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

One is often non-plussed by the way the word ‘choice’ is used, be it by Hindu nationalists, by corporate fundamentalists, casteists and sexists. Whether it be in the rhetoric of the anti-farmer laws, or in the ‘Love-Jihad’ law, or Goa’s relationship with the Union of India and the citizenship of Goans in India, the term choice is used in completely different frames. (more…)

Interventions, Webinars

Albertina Almeida: “Homogenisation: Assumptions and Consequences”

Albertina Almeida was one of two speakers at this session organised on 7th December, 2020, on “Homogenisation: Assumptions and Consequences,” which was part of the 16 days of Activism Programme of the Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation.

Albertina Almeida takes the mask off the uniform laws, such as some of Goa’s Family Laws and India’s Criminal laws, to show how uniformity of laws has no value per se in and of itself and is a project that glosses over inequalities based on gender and other axis of discrimination.

Errata: Albertina Almeida would like to clarify here that there is a mistake at the start of her talk (which is corrected at the end of the programme). While speaking of the amount of property that can be willed away by parents under the Goan law, she mentions one-third. The correct amount is one half.

Albertina Almeida

Popular Essays

Remembering Dadu Mandrekar

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

I met Dadu Mandrekar sometime in the late 80s. It was shortly before Dadu along with a group of Dalits converted to Buddhism. I also remember that, although invited for the conversion ceremony by Dalits to Buddhism, I did not go for it. It stemmed from my limited knowledge then. I thought this is yet one more religion, and, if they are abandoning one religion only to join another, I am not going to be endorsing such an endeavor. I was of course pulled up by Dadu in his characteristic way, and that began a decades-long association that had a lasting impact on me. (more…)