• SIR

    • ‘We Saw The Biases In The SIR Process But Were Too Overwhelmed To Do Anything About It’

    A BLO from West Bengal talks about the confusion around the ever-changing rules of the SIR process, the relentless work pressure and voter anxiety that shaped their work for six long months

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    behanvox april 12

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    General Election 2024

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    The Biases And Blinkers Of Big Tech’s Language Models

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    A close look at law and gender

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    In India, care work is gendered, but also deeply shaped by caste. Yet, there is little evidence or data on how caste shapes the lives and labour of ASHA workers, women who form the backbone of India’s public healthcare system. After official data and RTI responses failed to give us answers, we decided to build our own evidence. Sarasvati Thuppadolla spent over two months speaking to 70 ASHA workers across six states, including 52 Dalit ASHA workers who participated in a micro-survey. “How could I expect someone to talk about caste and discrimination in our first conversation, that too over the phone? How do you even begin to compound these deeply painful experiences into a number considered ‘enough’?” Watch as Sarasvati reflects on the choices, challenges and questions that shaped the investigation. Read the behind-the-scenes piece at Substack/@,behanbox and explore the three-part Caste x ASHA series at behanbox.com.
    Caste and ASHA Work: Reporting Behind the Scenes
    How do caste, climate change, and neo-liberal labour markets shape workers' access to political voice and rights? And how do we build strength, hope and resistance in the face of such systems? Dr. Malini Ranganathan, Geographer & Associate Professor at American University, draws on archival research, decades of work, and her extensive fieldwork across Bihar, Bengal and Bengaluru to explain. “We don’t even have vocabulary yet for some of the extraordinarily heinous things that are happening right now. We definitely need urgent incremental change to save people's lives. But the work of changing larger power structures cannot be replaced by incremental changes… …What gives me hope in all this? It's difficult, but young people, activists and platforms like BehanBox are a source of inspiration. We need to continue creating such feminist spaces centered on justice.” ✂️ Snippet from our Feminist Election Newsroom webinar on labour migration, caste and circular climate vulnerability; watch the full conversation on Youtube.
    Climate Adaptation and India's labour migration – Dr. Malini Ranganathan breaks it down
    In the early 1900s, drought and famine drove Adi Dravida workers out of the Madras Presidency towards destinations such as British Malaya's rubber plantations and Bengaluru's factories. Thousands of Tamil women were forced to migrate to Malaya, where they remained bound to plantation labour for decades. With them, travelled Periyar and Phule's anti-caste ideas and songs of resistance and memory. These patterns of migration continue today as landless workers from states like Bihar – who are stuck in caste-driven tenant farming systems and affected by climate stresses – are pushed to migrate for dangerous and exploitative work in cities like Bangalore. Drawing on colonial-era archival material and over 150 interviews from across Bihar, Bengal, and Bengaluru, Dr. Malini Ranganathan traces caste-oppressed communities across these regions and follows their descendants into today's migration corridors. She explores contemporary experiences of migration, precarity, and labour under climate change, arguing that climate vulnerability follows workers as they move across generations, cities and borders. Finally, she also looks at resistance as it exists now, in unions, sit-ins, and protests that workers are mounting against these bondages under the newer pressure of climate change. Through this conversation we explore: → How did colonial-era drought migration set patterns that persist in labour markets today? → How do caste, climate change, and neo-liberal labour markets shape workers' access to political voice and rights? → And how do people build strength, hope and resistance in the face of such systems – historically and today. Watch the full BehanBox Feminist Election Newsroom conversation on caste, climate migration, and labour precarity in India. 🎙 SPEAKER → Dr. Malini Ranganathan, Geographer and Associate Professor, American University; author of Corruption Plots 🎙 MODERATOR → Anjali, Community Manager and Lead of Flagship Projects, BehanBox ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 06:32 Introduction to Dr. Malini Ranganathan’s presentation 14:44 Critical theory and Fieldwork 22:57 ‘Bihar ka dukh’ – agriculture, migration and caste in Bihar 41:22 Migrant labour and India’s colonial history 47:16 Resistance movements, past and present 50:55 SIR, migration and climate change 54:39 Conclusion 1:00:44 Q&A 📩 JOIN THE FEMINIST ELECTION NEWSROOM Be part of future conversations: https://forms.gle/zku6cXAj8QrfgPnH9 The Feminist Election Newsroom is BehanBox's initiative to build a collective feminist practice of democratic engagement – tracking, interrogating, and holding power accountable, during elections and beyond. 🔗 ABOUT BEHANBOX BehanBox is a feminist media organisation that interrogates gender and marginality in India to build an India without margins – where power, resources, and dignity belong to everyone. Website: behanbox.com Instagram: @behanbox LinkedIn: BehanBox #ClimateMigration #CasteAndClimate #LabourMigration #ClimateVulnerability #FeministElectionNewsroom #IndiaElections2026 #CircularMigration #MigrantLabour #CasteOppression #BehanBox #FeministMedia #ClimateJustice #EnvironmentalJustice
    Climate Vulnerability from Bihar to Bangalore: Caste, Labour Migration & Political Belonging

    As I See it

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    As I See it

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    'We Saw The Biases In The SIR Process But Were Too Overwhelmed To Do Anything About It'

    Why The SIR Is Like A Video Game, Where New Obstacles Come Up At Every Level

    Care Diaries: 'It Is An Odd Thing, To Be Both A Daughter And A Mother'