New Delhi, July 27 -- "They have given us tea and biscuits, they will not harm us. Your father will also be ok," Sandhya Panaskar consoled her 11-year-old son last week. Being picked up by the police and seeing his father roughed up was new. So was sitting in the Worli Police Station in Mumbai on a school day. But attending a protest was not. And if his 43-year-old mother has her way, having been part of the protest against paper-leak allegations in India's medical entrance examinations would not be his last.

Panaskar is a freelancer who works with NGOs on women's rights and gender injustice. She says she taught her son early on about his rights as a citizen, and last week, she decided taking her son to the protests would be a good way t...