• Women and Work

    • How A Shiny New Capital City Left Landless Women Workers Jobless, Indebted

    Amaravati, being built as the capital of Andhra Pradesh, sits on rich agricultural lands that famously employed workers across the region. Now, farm workers, especially women have few work options unless they can travel long distances

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    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
    TVK ended 60 years of Dravidian party dominance in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections – built on the ground-up labour of women political workers. In this conversation, we examine what that labour actually looked like: the social media mobilisation, the fan club networks, the booth-level work, and the misogyny women faced throughout. Tamil Nadu 2026 marked a decisive shift in how election campaigns are run. TVK's strategy moved heavily through digital channels and fan networks rather than the door-to-door machinery that has historically decided state elections. For many young women, this opened new routes into political participation: content creation, online coordination, digital outreach. For others, it added a new layer on top of the booth-level mobilisation they have always been responsible for. We ask: → How did women shape and sustain TVK's 2026 election strategy? → What did the everyday labour of digital campaigning look like on the ground? → How was misogyny mobilised to target women campaigners, and how did they respond? → What does TVK's historic win mean for women's political participation going forward? Watch the full BehanBox Feminist Election Newsroom conversation on Tamil Nadu Assembly elections 2026, women in politics, digital campaigning and gendered experiences of elections 🎙 MODERATOR → Tara Krishnaswamy, Independent Political Analyst 🎙 SPEAKERS → Ashweetha, Member of TVK and Social Worker → Sriram K, Social Media Spokesperson, Tamil Nadu Congress ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 04:43 Introduction to Tamil Nadu 2026 Elections and Gender 21:00 Speaker Introductions and Opening Statements 26:37 Party Structures and Opposition Politics 38:46 Digital Campaigning and Visibility Politics 52:19 Misogyny and Gendered Experiences 01:08:15 Q&A 01:28:37 Closing 📩 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. 🔗 ABOUT INDIAN SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY Indian School of Democracy is a non-partisan organization that conducts programs for aspiring, grassroots political leaders, to nurture them into principled leaders working towards sarvodaya. Website: behanbox.com Instagram: @behanbox LinkedIn: BehanBox #TamilNaduElections2026 #TVK #WomenInPolitics #FeministElectionNewsroom #TamilNaduPolitics #DigitalCampaigning #IndiaElections2026 #DravidianPolitics #BehanBox #FeministMedia #WomenCampaigners #GenderedPolitics #TamilNadu #IndianPolitics #ElectionStrategy
    TVK's Historic Win in Tamil Nadu 2026: Women, Digital Campaigning & Gendered Politics
    Who do India’s direct cash transfer schemes for women actually reach and who do they leave out? In this conversation, we examine the politics of cash transfers to women in the context of unpaid care labour and the April 2026 State Assembly election results in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. Cash transfer schemes for women have become central to electoral politics across India – from West Bengal’s Lakshmir Bhandar to Assam's Orunodoi to Tamil Nadu’s Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam (KMUT) to Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin Yojana. Public debate frames these schemes as electoral strategy or fiscal burden. We ask a different question: what does it mean when governments promise cash to women at home, while the women delivering welfare – ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, sanitation workers and mid-day meal cooks – continue to work for honorariums stuck at decade-old rates? We also ask: → Who falls outside the eligibility criteria these schemes set? → How do cash transfers interact with rising household debt and inflation? → What would a rights-based approach to welfare that holds across election cycles look like? Watch the full BehanBox Feminist Election Newsroom conversation on cash transfers, welfare, electoral politics and state responsibility for India's care economy. 🎙 MODERATOR → Bhanupriya Rao, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, BehanBox 🎙 SPEAKERS → Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran, Professor of Law & Social Justice, King's College London → Dr. Varna Sri Raman, Development Economist → Aishwarya Govindarajan, Journalist ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 05:18 Unpaid care labour and women’s experiences 14:41 Cash transfers in Tamil Nadu 26:26 Fiscal burdens and cash transfers across India 31:35 Q&A: Frequency of cash transfers 34:50 Q&A: Valuing unpaid care labour 39:00 Q&A: Fiscal burden, care infrastructure, and rights 44:56 Q&A: Cash transfers and state elections 52:05 Closing 📩 JOIN THE FEMINIST ELECTION NEWSROOM Be part of future conversations: https://forms.gle/AmfeYC6GKPTpLkBx7 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: @behanvox LinkedIn: BehanBox #CashTransfers #WomenInIndia #FeministElectionNewsroom #UnpaidCareWork #IndiaElections2026 #LakshmirBhandar #KMUT #Orunodoi #CareEconomy #BehanBox #FeministMedia #WelfarePolitics #ASHA #AnganwadiWorkers
    Direct Cash Transfers to Women in India: Politics, Welfare & 2026 Elections

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