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 2,100 hike in their honorarium. But the 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 […]

Police stations with help desks for women, especially those run by women, are more likely to register cases of gender-based violence, says a new study, ‘Policing […]

The Calcutta High Court has ordered the Government of West Bengal to ensure adequate funds with the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) to disburse compensation to […]

Here are some critical data-points on crimes against women in Delhi for the year 2020 from the Crime in India report by National Crime Records Bureau. 997 […]

Inclusive financial networks such as credit cooperatives are more effective than traditional financial institutions in relieving the financial distress of women whose lives and livelihoods are […]

The rights of women from India’s marginalised communities are being disproportionately constrained and eroded in digital civic spaces, says a report by The Bachchao Project, a […]

Reema*, 32, has been married for about five years but the man she thought would be her life partner has turned out to be a stranger […]

The recent Supreme Court directives on guaranteeing sex workers dignity and constitutional freedoms still leaves some critical problem areas unaddressed and these can only be resolved […]

How do state borders create and sustain the binaries between ‘citizen’ and ‘foreigner’? What implication do these have on the lived experiences of the women who […]

The recent industrial fire at an electronic assembly unit of Cofe Impex Pvt Ltd in west Delhi’s Mundka village has exposed the social and economic precarity […]

Jagadevi, a seasoned elected woman representative, is currently serving as a ward member of the Chittawadi gram panchayat in north-east Karnataka’s Bidar district. She has been […]

From skin inflammation and blurred vision to respiratory and digestive disorders, women workers in Darjeeling’s tea plantations are struggling with an array of health issues caused […]

Leela had been a binding assistant at the Kerala Books and Publications Society, a state-owned textbook publishing house, for 19 years when she was overlooked for […]

After a year-long campaign by a Dalit women’s union in Tamil Nadu, the multinational fast-fashion brand H&M and its Tamil Nadu-based supplier, Eastman Exports Global Clothing […]

[This article contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence, which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to use their discretion before […]

Every third married woman in India faces spousal violence but only one in 10 seeks any help, says a 2020 study published in the BMJ. Worse, […]

In Gujarat, ASHA workers are being trained to detect and address domestic violence in rural communities. Through early detection and referrals to support systems, these women are crucial in providing support for survivors of abuse.

The excitement is palpable at the gathering of around 30 women, old and young, seated in a circle at the sub-district hospital in Patan district’s Radhanpura […]

It took nearly a year for Virginia* and her husband to bring home the four siblings they had asked to adopt. The children were aged between […]

Delhi’s anganwadi workers (AWW) and helpers (AWH), who ended their 38-day strike on March 9, will move court against the state government order terminating the services […]

A sea of red flags rises up along Flagstaff Road in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area, just a few metres from the home of chief minister […]

Manipur is all set to elect its 12th state legislative assembly as it goes to polls in a 2 phase election, with the electorate voting on […]

[This article contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence, which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to use their discretion before […]

It is a wintery February morning and a dense fog has descended over Palia, a town 100 km from Lakhimpur town in northern Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur […]

For Khublata Regar (31), a Dalit woman, the decision to run for the office of the Sarpanch (president) in the Gram Panchayat elections in Potlan in […]

The Mitanins that BehanBox spoke to have either received no or partial payments since January 2020. Worse, in districts where the women received some money, the state has been recovering part of the compensation paid to them.

For Laxmi Bhil (23), the Bhil Adivasi Sarpanch (President), Kabra Village Council, Bhilwara District, Rajasthan, contesting elections was both taxing and rewarding. A nursing student, Laxmi […]

Geeta Ben Gamit, 42, is a busy woman. The Sarpanch ( village council head) of Bhatpur in Tapi district in South Gujarat was finishing signing papers […]

For Lokamma (30), a Dalit woman leader,  who won her seat in Hokarna Panchayat in Bidar district, in the Gram Panchayat elections in December 2020 in […]

[Trigger Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual and  physical violence,which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to use their discretion […]

Mangla Hira Ji Thakre (45) and her family are sprawled around the television for their post-dinner ritual of watching a hit soap opera. “Arey, this hero […]

Farah Zaidi, a social activist from  Kulgam district in North Kashmir was trolled online by men after her interview was published online where she talked about  […]

On May 14, 2021, while encouraging farmers to take up organic farming as he released the 8th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri- Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), […]

Shaikh Tabinda received a message from her friend, on the night of 4 July, which read that she had been ‘sold’ in an online ‘auction’ on […]

Lassu Ben, 38, is an outspoken and resolute woman but even she sometimes hesitates to trade with the men at the local farm market. ‘Bahas mat […]

ASHA workers in Kashmir have been instrumental in countering misinformation and addressing vaccine hesitancy. But chronic delays in honorariums have forced many into debt and financial instability.

As Karnataka begins to ease state-wide restrictions imposed since May 10, 2021 to control the spread of COVID-19 virus, industries have been allowed to function with […]

Fewer women will now occupy seats in the newly elected Vidhan Sabha (state legislative assembly) in Assam in 2021. Six women were elected in the recently […]

‘I will win Bengal on one leg and in the future, will get victory in Delhi on two legs’, thundered Mamata Banerjee, the current chief minister […]

For M Radha (53), the transgender contestant and her team of fellow trans campaigners, election season meant spending  hours in campaigning  door to door, distributing pamphlets […]

S. Rathinam (39) had escaped death by a whisker that afternoon.  On February 13, 2021, she, along with hundreds of others, had to run for their […]

Kerala’s first Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) was a woman.Rosamma Punnoose, 44 years-old when Kerala elected its first post-Independence legislative assembly in 1957, was elected from […]

“This is just the beginning; there is much to do and fight for”, said Kavita Arya (31), Dalit Pradhan ( village council head) of Rauliyana Gram […]

On 24 October, 2020, 1300 women garment workers of  Euro Clothing Company– 2 (ECC-2) of a unit of Gokaldas Exports in Srirangapatna, in Mandya district of […]

“I have been rolling beedis since I was fifteen. Our whole community is dependent on the profession. Our employers underpay us, our pension never arrives without […]

Uttarakhand is home to the fierce ‘Chipko Movement.’ Led by the bold and spirited women in the 1960s, the movement was one of the many significant […]

“These capitalists will ruin us,” thundered Charanjeet Kaur, a thirty nine year old farmer with a medium landholding of 12 acres (4 hectares) from Wara Bhaika […]

“Tum gareeb ho, tum rehne do. Waise bhi tum jhoota case likha rahi ho toh case nahi likha jayega” (You are poor, so you shouldn’t pursue […]

Neeta (name changed), a cane cutter in one of the many sugarcane farms in Beed district of central Maharashtra, was only in her early 30s when […]

On 27 September 2020,  three Farm Bills became law after receiving presidential assent. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill […]

Badami Bai (32), had a problem on her hands, just a week before the Panchayat (India’s directly elected village councils) elections in India’s western state of […]