Unlike the rest of the world, women’s life expectancy fell by more years than men’s and that of marginalised communities fell more sharply in the first year of the pandemic. This skew, say, researchers can be traced to social inequalities

Pregnancy can exacerbate pre existing health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune conditions and cancer. But even women in vulnerable health are often pressured to conceive, especially if they have yet to deliver a son

The blockades mounted by community vigilantes in Manipur make it hard for critical relief material, especially medicines, to reach relief camps. It is the women and the children who suffer the most

Forests, water-bodies, flowers, tubers and bears have disappeared from the biodiversity rich villages of Koraput because of climate change. The women are trying to draft a map to understand the loss and plan ahead for conservation

Gender based violence, caste discrimination and forced labour practices are rife in Indian garment factories. In Tamil Nadu, Theivanai Maruthai, a young Dalit woman trade union leader is trying to change this

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center When I first met Amrita Singh at Gadge Maharaj Dharamshala, a subsidised hostel for cancer patients close to the […]

Stigmatised and doubted when they report sexual violence, women from NT DNT communities are never informed about the resources the state provides to rape survivors

A doctor and a once-NEET aspirant provides an insider perspective on what the ongoing exam crisis means for the healthcare system and especially for women aspirants who have to constantly deal with the pressure to start family life

Indian beauticians occupy a cultural niche in the beauty salons of Paris. This provides vulnerable migrant women an entry into a labour market that is otherwise inhospitable to them

Extreme heat during the days and the fear of harassment at night – homeless women face a relentless battle for survival and sleep

The delivery deadlines of fashion brands and suppliers make no allowance for women who are forced to work in peak summer with poor access to water, sanitation and healthcare

A single mother of two, this e-rickshaw driver in Tinsukia says life is a daily struggle to balance earnings and expense

The catchy title apart, the Lakhpati Didi initiative has not really been able to increase income generation among beneficiaries

Odisha’s scheme to increase workdays under MGNREGA has run into systemic challenges, resulting in poor uptake, especially of women workers

The only way to fob off matrimony and find independence is to ensure that you land a government job, say young women at a Rohtak campus

Aditi, a member of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India, has contested elections multiple times at both local and national levels but has never won. She says that winning was never the point

Women activists from all the parties that allied to forge the Maha Vikas Aghadi are campaigning with a never-before show of solidarity

Job insecurity, random transfers, non-payment of wages, and lack of benefits are hurting contractual teachers, of whom 55% are women

From women belonging to nomadic tribes to cane-cutters, small social and workers’ groups are presenting their charter of demands to politicians and parties contesting the ongoing elections

When politicians promise to pay for care work they are putting a value on unpaid labour but they also end up reinforcing social norms about ‘women’s work’

In 15 of the 86 constituencies where the general elections will be held tomorrow, more than 30% of voters are impacted by the Forest Rights Act. We look at how the loss of forests impacts the lives and livelihoods of Adivasi women

The taps and pipelines meant to carry water to the homes of hill-dwelling communities of the state have either not been installed or have no water supply. Women trudge miles and undertake risks to collect water

A fortnight before polling in Bastar, security forces killed 13 persons in what it called the biggest anti-Naxal operation since 2017. But at least two of those were Adivasi villagers, one of them a young deaf girl

Whether it is putting off an urgent surgery or making do with 250 gm of fish for her family of four once a month, Lakhya Hira Phukon, like most other poorly-paid ASHA workers, has to balance her domestic budget with extreme care

In a London beauty salon run by women from the subcontinent, links between caste, food and odour echo the arguments in the debate in India over a ‘pure vegetarian’ delivery fleet

Our investigation across eight villages showed just one project available under MGNREGS, forcing women to migrate as far as Odisha in search of work

At least 986 million Indians should be voting this year. But it is likely the final numbers will be many millions less. We explain why

They don’t helicopter into villages and vamoose. We speak to young women who are political newcomers on how they ensure constant interaction with people

Initiatives to make the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana more effective has not quite worked out the way it should, we find

These are stories of women whose lives and livelihoods remain ruptured months after they faced sectarian violence

In Delhi, evictions get you resettlement housing but in areas with little access to job, services or essential facilities. And it is the women who struggle the most with travel and livelihood options

The fact that they are resisting exploitation ruptures the popular political image of marginalised women, says political scientist Proma Raychaudhury

Few women in impoverished packets of rural Maharashtra are aware of government welfare schemes or do not have the documents to access them

An ambitious road project is likely to swallow many Adivasi homes in Aarey forest, already the site of many other development projects

Striking sanitation workers in Delhi’s Burari Hospital have accused private hiring companies of corrupt practices and sexual harassment

In the public discourse around the Mandir, the Muslim voice has been absent. Here is why the community has chosen numbness over articulation

Linking economic welfare schemes for women to their family size will further limit women’s participation in work and increase their vulnerabilities, argue experts

The relentless cycle of field and paperwork is affecting their mental health, leaving them prone to errors

Feminist solidarities come in all forms — legal petitions, street protests, Whatsapp conversations, vigils and signature campaigns – as the Bilkis case shows

Faced with termination and loss of salary, striking Anganwadi workers in the state are living in fear and anxiety

Protests to protect one of India’s largest forested corridors has been ongoing for over the past one decade

The bright red slash of kumkum across her forehead has become a mark of feminist solidarity

There is state pressure to dissuade frontline health workers from fighting for political office even though they are still hired as ‘honorary volunteers’

Sangi Duhlian is constantly browsing her phone for updates on the Gaza war on social media. She is anxious and triggered by the war in the […]

India has approximately 5.2 million domestic workers according to government data. However, the National Domestic Workers’ Movement (NDWM) estimates the total number in India from anywhere […]

Anganwadi workers says their role has gone from deliverers of schemes to being data collectors for the government

A unique sports event gives women from poor homes the chance to defy gender norms and find sisterhood in play

Data breaches not only violate digital boundaries, but also have real-world consequences that disproportionately affect women and marginalised groups, says Radhika Roy of the Internet Freedom Foundation

Two in five women fielded by major parties won in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana elections

In the south, Telangana has one of the lowest shares of female MLAs, doing worse than its sibling state Andhra Pradesh

In the last two decades of their rivalry in Rajasthan, only around 10% of the candidates picked by the BJP and Congress have been women

Rural women have few work options in the state and poverty does not allow them to study either

On World Toilet Day, here are the stories of two women who struggle to keep sanitation complexes in the slums of Mumbai clean and safe

Students say that university authorities remain apathetic to repeated instances of sexual harassment and complaints panels are neither unbiased nor effective

The acute anaemia crisis in the state is missing from the poll agenda of Chhattisgarh’s political parties

Since it attained statehood, women have made for only 4% of all candidates who have contested in Mizoram’s electoral history

Even the women who are leading pro-reservation rallies in Maharashtra are using the language of patriarchy

After a 73-day protest, Haryana’s ASHA workers were able to negotiate for themselves a Rs 2100 hike in their honorarium. This surpasses what is paid by Kerala, the state that pays ASHA workers the highest amount. But the Haryana ASHA workers union is determined to continue the movement for those working in other states too.

Despite the enervating humidity of the mid-October night in Mumbai, Bhimabai Zunjure, 40, is deftly working a mound of mango leaves into neat bunches. She sits on the bridge leading to the Dadar flower market, and looks up from her work to only sell the leaves which are in high demand for the ongoing Navratri rituals.

The frontline health workers have called for a 24-hour strike outside district offices and homes of political leaders

Since its first assembly election as a separate state in 2003, Chhattisgarh has seen a steady increase in the number of women contestants as well as the number of elected women representatives

Culture is a powerful medium to collectivise and empower the working class, says the veteran union leader

Key Highlights Firms with a larger number of total employees had a higher proportion of female workers  For every 1 percent additional workers firms hire, the […]

In January 2021, when Jayasre Kathiravel, a 20-year old employee of a garment factory in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district was sexually assaulted and murdered by the […]

In the bastis of east Mumbai, trade union leader Sangeeta Kamble is an ally and friend of the

Parlours are small pockets of rebellion and assertion where girls and young women find solidarity in small towns and villages

When entire fields and homes are flattened by elephant movement, it is the women, as primary caregivers, who deal with acute anxiety and deprivation

Resources are sparse at this refugee camp in Silchar but women from Manipur who have sheltered here with their families do not want to return home yet

Karnataka’s Factories Act amendments raise concerns about worker welfare, women’s rights, and need for international standard compliance

In July, a woman rag picker died as her foot caught in a waste truck during a desperate scramble to find valuable scrap. Her story reveals the highly hazardous conditions in which waste pickers work for a pittance

‘Modern’ institutions like schools, colleges, hospitals, media and the district and state administrations have played a big role in shaping the gender dynamics among Adivasis

The number of women commuters has doubled but with no funds, public bus networks are stretched, leading to overcrowding and disrupted schedules

What are the peculiarities of sleep and rest in the life of a female street vendor who works in a market that opens before dawn? Can alternate ideas of urban planning help reimagine her life, ease her anxieties? We return to Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar for answers

Frequent cyclones and erratic floods are increasing saltwater contamination, leading to health hazards and distressing living conditions

Violent evictions from streets, abuse and brutality are routine for street vendors. A law to protect their rights suffers from flawed implementation

In this, the third in the series ‘Placing Work, Mapping Places’, we explore the many reasons why Raghubir Nagar’s women hawkers associate leisure with the safety of places of worship

Government policies oblivious to gender and caste inequities leave women livestock farmers from lowered communities without economic safety nets.

Except one, none of the PoSH-mandated Local Committees in the capital are doing what they should – create conditions that encourage women workers from the informal sector to speak up against sexual violence

There is little conversation around violence against women and other marginalised groups on the internet

Many athletes are not even aware of what constitutes sexual harassment and those who complain meet with apathy from government sports bodies, says Jagmati Sangwan, activist and former athlete

A craft brought by the missionaries changed the lives of Dalit women in multiple ways before it became the domain of a dominant caste

In this, the second in the series ‘Placing Work, Mapping Places’, we detail the struggles of Raghubir Nagar’s pheriwalis in dealing with street and State violence. We ask them to reimagine their workspaces as safer, gender-friendly and more productive.

After recording some improvement in recent years, the growth in female labour force participation rate in India now seems to be stagnating. Among the women who work, the share of those who are self-employed has been increasing in recent years, even as their average earnings, already low, have dwindled further.

As a young PhD student just embarking on research, I was very certain that I wanted to contribute to the field of education economics. After completing […]

In India’s cheapest second-hand clothes market, women have to reclaim public spaces to assert their right to livelihood constantly

Of the millions of workers who worked in India’s factories in 2019-20, less than a fifth were women. This share has remained largely unchanged for over two decades

A 51.7% rise in the price of LPG refills between January 2021 and July 2022 has forced women from low-incomes homes to minimise the use of gas stoves

There are rising tensions between the aspirations of thousands of workers and the work structure of the gig economy

The job is too ‘dangerous’, ‘dirty’ for women, say male-dominated newsrooms

The livelihood crisis created by scorching summers, failed monsoons and frequent droughts in the arid Rayalaseema region of southwestern Andhra Pradesh has left women from poor […]

“What is this Udyam Registration Certificate? Why do I need the certificate?” Kalpanaben*, who runs a saree business out of her house in Delhi, is bewildered. […]

The murder last week of Chennai college student Sathya Priya by her stalker is at once horrific and familiar: a young woman is followed and harassed […]

Forced to depend on their family for support and care because of social norms and ineffective government policies, elderly women with disabilities are highly vulnerable to […]

In 2021, a qualitative study was carried out on women’s career progression, access to healthcare and grievance redressal mechanisms across the textile and apparel industry. It […]

India’s law on sexual harassment at work has failed to account for the experiences of informal sector working women, most of who are from marginalised communities […]

Nafeesa Bibi* (36) was 16 when she left her home in a Bangladesh village and swam across the Ichhamati river into Bongaon in the North 24 […]

With criminal networks, apathetic policing and patriarchal practices turning the impoverished Sundarbans delta region in West Bengal into a trafficking hub, it is now up to […]

As August rains swept Delhi, more than 500 workers, mostly women, gathered around the Jantar Mantar monument to protest delayed wages, reduced workdays and digital glitches […]

‘Mobile Girls Koottam: Working Women Speak’, released in 2021, documents the real-life conversations between gender and labour rights scholar Madhumita Dutta,  radio podcaster Samyuktha PC and […]

Sugarcane cutting is relentless, backbreaking work, say the migrant women workers of Kothi village in Kaij taluka of Maharashtra’s Beed district. You have to hack at […]