behanvox april 12
  • BehanVox

    • BehanVox: Trouble On The Horizon

    This week in BehanVox: the idea of citizenship online, Assam's push for the Uniform Civil Code, and more

    Recent Stories

    BehanVox: Chaos And Coalitions

    This week in BehanVox: a democratic experiment, radical feminist ideas in Telugu magazines, and more

    Published Over 100 Years Ago, Telugu Women’s Magazines Held Radical Feminist Views

    They argued against unpaid carework, rules of wifely conduct, and the tyranny of faith

    Inside The Radical Promise Of Social Audits Under MGNREGA

    The jan sunwai, an experiment in participatory democracy, was premised on the idea that ordinary citizens, especially the rural poor, can and must hold the state accountable

    BehanVox: Poll Predictions and Prejudice

    This week in BehanVox: killer heatwaves across the country, an ASHA worker talks about caste discrimination, and more

    Stories

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    Land, Identity, and Access: The Structural Barriers Facing Women Farmers

    ‘My Work As An ASHA Facilitator Was Questioned Because Of My Caste, Disability'

    Precarity, Pain, Protest: In West Bengal, Muslim Women’s Citizenship And Identity Are On Trial

    Stories

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    behanbox talkies digital citizens

    ‘The Algorithm Is Paying Women To Uphold Patriarchy’

    behanvox april 12

    BehanVox: Chaos And Coalitions

    Published Over 100 Years Ago, Telugu Women’s Magazines Held Radical Feminist Views

    Podcast

    podcast-2

    Kaam Ki Baat
    podcast-2

    Untold Stories from Women
    General Election 2024
    General Election 2024

    Special Series

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    Interviews

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    behanbox talkies digital citizens

    ‘The Algorithm Is Paying Women To Uphold Patriarchy’

    ‘My Work As An ASHA Facilitator Was Questioned Because Of My Caste, Disability'

    ‘No Process, No Consultation, No Scrutiny’: The Perils Of Linking Delimitation With Women’s Reservation

    Gender Files

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    A close look at law and gender

    Gender Files

    A close look at law and gender

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    ‘With UCC, The State Has Become A Father Figure That Sanctions Who We Love’

    Understanding ‘Rape On Promise Of Marriage’: The Reliance On Caste, Gender Stereotypes

    Why Society Needs To Reimagine Care Work, Support We Cannot Do Without

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    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
    The Bhopal Gas Tragedy began on 2nd December 1984 with a toxic gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant, killing thousands and maiming many more. But it did not end at dawn on December 3rd.  For the women who live in the neighbourhoods surrounding the abandoned Union Carbide factory, the gas never left their consciousness. And while the factory may stand abandoned today, the chemicals continue to seep into the soil and groundwater. And not a single person has been convicted for a crime that has spanned generations.   Therefore, remembering Bhopal is a political act. To remember Bhopal is to refuse the lie that this violence belongs to the past. In this podcast, ⁠Tulika Bansal (an independent researcher)⁠ and ⁠Rachna Dhingra (an activist working with survivors for 20+ years) take us through what it means to live with – and collectively remember – the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, four decades on.  At ⁠BehanBox⁠, we are committed to keeping the Bhopal story alive as a living political reality. This podcast is part of our two-week-long campaign, where we bring you stories, interviews, songs of resistance, and reporting that centre the voices of Bhopal’s women campaigners. Read our reporting on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy: https://behanbox.com/2025/12/02/bhopal-gas-tragedy-the-disaster-lives-on-in-the-women-of-bhopal-41-years-later/ -- Song sung by Meera More, as part of the ⁠⁠Remember Bhopal Museum⁠⁠ -- Thumbnail and illustrations by ⁠⁠Urvi Sawant -- ⁠⁠Hosted by ⁠⁠Anjali⁠⁠ -- Edited by Vijay Chawla Follow us and subscribe for more (it's free!): https://www.behanbox.substack.com
    Bhopal Gas Tragedy: 41 Years on, Women Continue to Fight | BehanBox
    Kheria Sabar form a subgroup among the Sabar people, who live in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. India’s 2011 census estimates its population at 1.8 lakh in West Bengal. They were a nomadic, forest-dwelling and forest-dependent people, where the women would engage in foraging, and the men, hunting. The 1871 Criminal Tribes Act and the 1952 Habitual Offenders Act had penalised and stigmatised Sabar people for nearly a century. The nationalisation of forests in India threatened to evict them from their native forest habitats. At the very least, it restricted their ability to forage for wild food in the absence of paperwork proving entitlement. This film is about food, yes—but not the kind that comes neatly packaged. It’s about food as inheritance, food as memory, food as resistance. It’s about the slow erasure of indigenous diets by climate change, deforestation, and policy neglect. This video features voices from the Kheria Sabar community and those working to keep their knowledge alive. 🎥 Produced with support from Earth Journalism Network Follow us: Website: https://behanbox.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehanBox Instagram: https://instagram.com/behanbox LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/linkedin-behanbox
    How Sabar Women Are Surviving a Climate-Changed World

    As I See it

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    As I See it

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    social audits MGNREGA

    Inside The Radical Promise Of Social Audits Under MGNREGA

    lifeofpujaadebate

    When Fluency Arrives From the ‘Wrong’ Room

    Global Feminist Movement Must Engage Critically With And Centre Caste