1. BIG NEWS 🚨: India’s first helpline for deaf persons is on its way! The @MSJEGOI has confirmed they've assigned ‘14456’ as the dedicated FIVE-digit helpline for deaf persons. #HelplinesForAll How did an online petition get us here? 🧵👇 change.org/p/drvirendrakum13…

I have received a call from @priyankac19 and she has assured me that she is personally looking into this matter. Thank you so much, ma’am! This is what’s needed, we need action rather than just empty talks. @Dev_Fadnavis has also reached out and is taking the matter up.

PLEASE RT! I am disabled and I got married at the Registrars Office at Khar Mumbai on 16/10/23. The office was on the 2nd floor WITHOUT a lift. They wouldn’t come downstairs for the signatures and I had to be carried up two flights of stairs to get married.

As per news reports, the accused persons who were named in Dr. Sugirtha's suicide note have been arrested and further investigation is underway. edexlive.com/news/2023/oct/1… Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the other demands made in the petition -- of making the constitution of ICCs for probing sexual harassment complaints in medical colleges mandatory and colleges be asked to cease new admissions for failure to do so -- are paid heed to.

In medical colleges, the toxicity is passed down from one batch to another. It's become commonplace to the extent that many would call it a rite of passage, so that medical students are prepared for what awaits them in their careers as doctors. newindianexpress.com/states/… "People who’ve known her say she was struggling to keep in touch with them. Her immediate peers say she had been working 20 hours a day. The 27-year-old doctor at Sree Mookambikai Medical College in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, decided to end her life because her senior doctors continued the cycle of toxicity, of sexual harassment and mental abuse that’s commonplace in medical colleges," wrote Sugirtha's friends and acquaintances who've started the online petition for #JusticeForSugirtha.

Trigger Warning: Death By Suicide . . “I stepped into this college hoping I would get to learn under such a good institute. However, people started showing their colors… The torture continued to the level that I could not bear. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… I complained against them but it showed no result… I have lost my professional life, personal life, everything because they have declared that they will not let me learn anything," read the heart-rending suicide note of an Indian postgraduate medical student in 2019. "The suicide-mortality rate in India is higher than the worldwide average for health care professionals (HCP). The treatment gap for mental health care is alarming, more than 80% in India which has improved compared to a decade. Among the methods chosen by HCPs for dying by suicide, violent suicide methods are more common. Hanging is the most common means, followed by lethal injection and jumping from a building," reads the research.

📢 The fight for #SameSexMarriage 🏳️‍🌈 is not only about marriage per se. With the right to marry flow other rights such as the right to jointly adopt a child, to apply for a home loan together, and to add your partner as a nominee to your bank account. Change.org/ParentsAreParents Today, while the #SupremeCourt asserted that it can't create a legal framework for queer couples and asked a committee constituted by the Centre to look into various aspects concerning the rights of queer couples, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud observed that it is "wrong to assume that only heterosexual couples will be good parents," adding that the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) regulations that prohibit unmarried couples from adopting a child, are in violation of Article 15 of the Constitution. The five-judge bench, however, in a 3:2 verdict, ruled that non-heterosexual couples cannot be granted the right to jointly adopt a child, thus depriving same-sex couples of the right to adopt, once again. As pointed out in several news reports, no timelines have been set for the Centre to pass laws for the protection of the rights of queer couples. 💔 Meanwhile, thousands of people have, and continue to sign online petitions advocating for the rights of queer communities. This petition by @hiyer, started when India was reeling from the second wave of the Covid pandemic, asked CARA guidelines to "make it possible for unmarried persons of all genders and sexes, live in couples of all genders and sexes, and people who identify as sexual minorities or gender minorities to adopt children affected by Covid-19." "I rely on you to enable us as a nation to rise up from our age old unconscious and conscious biases against queer, live in and single people who wish to adopt children." Over 25,000 people have ✍️ signed this petition.

📢 "More than 99.9% of people of the country are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage," said the Bar Council of India in April this year. Change.org/NotMyBCI While India's 🇮🇳 #SupremeCourt pronounces its verdict on the issue of #SameSexMarriage and #MarriageEquality 🏳️‍🌈, it is worth re-looking at this online petition from April this year that talked about how a resolution passed by the Bar Council of India had demanded the Supreme Court "leave the issue of same-sex marriage to legislative process" and not adjudicate upon the said matter. "The resolution, inter alia, contains the following objectionable and irresponsible statements: 'Marriage has been typically accepted and categorised as a union of a biological man and woman' 'More than 99.9% of people of the country are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage' 'The Bar is the mouthpiece of the common man and therefore, this meeting is expressing their anxiety over this sensitive issue'," reads the online petition. The petition starter argued that there was no empirical data to support the statement that 99.9% people of the country were opposed to same-sex marriage, also, that the BCI is not an entirely elected body and does not represent the views of the entire legal community. "As far as the undersigned are aware, the BCI itself does not have a single woman or member of the LGBTQIA community and is gravely under-represented and skewed towards one section of the legal community," adds the petition. Over 10,000 people signed ✍️ this petition, echoing #NotMyBCI in response to what they felt was a "deplorable stand taken by a few lawyers at the BCI."