The year 2023 has dawned with the gift of a new beginning and a bundle of new hopes and opportunities. Here is Aura with all its freshness presenting a beautiful lineup of various topics for its enthusiastic readers. It brings forth glimpses of the past year, mostly pertaining to women’s achievements, grievances and vulnerabilities.

In this issue, our contributors have discussed the importance of family to mark The Global Family Day. Aura sheds light on the plight of war orphans which is a great matter of concern as these children are neglected and left alone to bear the agony. In addition, this issue comes with fascinating book reviews, interesting interviews, analytical accounts of women’s rights and much more.

Just when people all over the world started dealing with COVID-19 and its variants as part of life, the fear of an upsurge in cases with a new variant grips the world once again. Only a few weeks after lifting a very long lockdown in many of its cities, China has detected a more contagious sub-strains of the omicron variant. While more and more variants are making their way everywhere, Governments all over the world need to adopt an intelligent and empathetic approach while containing the virus. Protecting human rights and ensuring all kinds of health facilities should be the priority.

January is when we celebrate the Republic Day of India. While enjoying the pomp and grandeur of its celebrations one should not forget that on this day in 1950 the Constitution of India came into being with promises to ensure liberty, equality, fraternity and justice to the people of India. Today after 72 years it is heartbreaking to witness the denial of justice to Bilkis Bano, a rape victim who had witnessed the gruesome murder of her infant and several family members while her perpetrators are walking free. The Supreme Court has dismissed Bilkis Banu’s plea seeking a review of the judgement that allowed the Gujarat government to decide the remission of the 11 convicts.

Anticipating a new year where the government, the authorities and the people of India hold fast to the core values of our constitution, work for the realisation of its vision and goals and truly exhibit the spirit of “We, The People of India.”