For women, tonsure is often a declaration of protest, autonomy and resistance to patriarchal beauty norms

This week in BehanVox: notes from a Bahujan social worker, a woman leader’s history from the 1940s, and more

In the 1940s, the left led a historic armed agrarian struggle against the tyranny of the oppressive feudal structures in the Nizam dominions in Telangana. Mallu […]

Social work in India is commonly associated with altruism, moral duty and ‘social upliftment’ but it often masks the unequal power structures within which it is practised.

This week in BehanVox: the Kerala Story 2 controversy, gig workers’ childcare needs, and more. Plus: we’re hiring!

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes. This week: how we see ‘data’ and ‘evidence’

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this instalment, researchers Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami talk about the AI Impact Summit, the Big Tech monopoly, and what regulations overlook

This week in BehanBox: budget concerns among SC and ST communities, a casteist boycott in Odisha, and more

This month in Postcards: Music that lives within us, hope in saturated tones, lessons from the intertidal and more.

Even as SC/ST allocations nominally rise in the Union Budget 2026-27, most funds remain non-targeted, underutilised, and inaccessible to the communities they claim to support

The imperilled Act made it easier for ordinary people to make claims on the State, to negotiate with local power structures, form friendships and networks on worksites

This week in BehanVox: the care work behind AI machines, Lakhpati didi promises, and more

Desire must always have a room to bloom, says this stirring Valentine’s day read, an excerpt from the book ‘Love, Sex and India: The Agents of Ishq Anthology’

Overall allocations towards women and girls and their utilisations do not seem to show any qualitative change

This week in BehanVox: the Epstein list grows, life after bail for Bhima Koregaon accused, and more

Cuts to the MGNREGA funds impact the most vulnerable – rural women in the informal work sector from mostly poor states

An ASHA worker from Assam talks about the pandemic years, support from family, and the trials of being a caregiver for her family and community

This week in BehanVox: inside India’s nuclear tech utopia, Savarna anxiety over UGC bill, and more

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes. This week: an excerpt on women’s unfree labour

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this installment, Dr. Misria Shaik Ali talks about India’s history of nuclear energy regulation, the realities of radioactive contamination, and the new SHANTI Act

This week in BehanVox: digital exiles, AR Rahman’s ‘communal’ remark, and more

This month in Postcards: remembering the mellifluous Nirmala Devi, how to slowmaxx romance, and poetry in times of violence

Gig workers are compelled to take on tasks even during severe pollution episodes, without hazard pay, adjusted shifts or protection gear

The jobs they were denied, the insults they learned to ignore, the fear that their children learned and resisted – an Irula family is still dealing with the aftermath of a terrible injustice

This week in BehanVox: an Irula family’s fight for justice, Gauri Lankesh’s murder accused wins Maharashtra civic polls, and more

She dreamt of becoming a nurse, but it would take decades for Mini to realise a version of her childhood dream – when she became an […]

In 2011, an Irula family, a highly vulnerable tribe in Tamil Nadu, was subject to rape and extreme violence by the police. Its efforts to find redressal have run into the wall of apathy and a judiciary that refuses to move

This week in BehanVox: AI misogyny, gig worker strike, MGNREGA’s repeal impacting women and Adivasi farmers, and more

The new framework rests on conditions that do not exist in most tribal regions, and this will lead to systematic exclusion—quiet, but deeply consequential

The dismantling of the rural livelihood scheme will impact legal guarantee of employment, fair wages and accessible work – all critical for women’s rights

Our last edition of Postscript! We reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes

A bucket list of stories that we will carry with us in 2026

As large infrastructure projects like the Coastal Road destroy livelihoods and homes in Mumbai bastis, affected women resist.

This week in BehanVox: Nitish Kumar’s boorish act, platform workers’ exposure to air pollution, 250 years of Jane Austen, and more

This month in Postcards: notes on time travelling to Indus Valley, the magic of used books, and more

Dipa Sinha, an economist, explains the perils of centralisation and funding constraints under the new VB-GRAMG Bill

This week in BehanVox: Bhopal’s women lead the 41-year-long campaign for justice, Donald Trump targets female journalists, and more

It is Bhopal’s women who have led the 41-year-long campaign for justice for the survivors of the gas tragedy, not for just clean water and medical care but also labour rights and corporate accountability

This week in BehanVox: a feminist internet, SC offers relief measures for booth level officers, and more

A digital rights activist talks about the history of the Indian internet, the possibility of feminist AI regulations, and how we can centre the right to pleasure

The industrial catastrophe did not end the morning after it killed and sickened thousands, it continues to destroy lives – through contamination and the physical and mental trauma passed across generations

This week in BehanVox: Assam passes Bill against polygamy, the barely functional Delhi Commission for Women, and more

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes

This month in Postcards: notes on Maharashtra’s Lok Kala, Shankar’s priceless children’s books, and more

This week in BehanVox: the strange world of technocapitalism, our Laadli wins, and more

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this installment, we interview academic Hemangini Gupta about the myths of meritocracy, flexibility, and innovation in technocapitalism

Also in this week’s BehanVox: the absence of Muslim women in Bihar’s politics, Delhi HC’s ruling on intercaste unions, and more

Parties in Bihar have been frugal in giving tickets to Muslim women. Is it the pressure of coalition politics, they ask

This week in BehanVox: Mexico’s president molested in public, Zohran Mamdani’s all-women transition team, and more

This week in BehanVox: India’s stunning win in the Women’s World Cup semi-final, a new cooperative taxi app, and more

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this installment, we interview economist Neetha N about how caste, patriarchy and capitalism devalue care work in India — and what the state must do

This week in BehanVox: Japan’s first woman prime minister, Ladki Bahin Yojana scam, and more

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter with all things behind the scenes.  Hello Behans, Last year, three Anganwadi workers from Maharashtra — Rohini Harale, Anjanabai, and Sageetha Jadhav […]

This week in BehanVox: victim blaming in the Bengal rape case, 20 years of the RTI Act, and more

This month in Postcards: a strangers’ choir, Jyoti Dogra’s transcendent theatre, losing and finding Ghalib, and more

This week in BehanVox: Karnataka’s menstrual leave policy, AI girlfriends, and more

The dispersed nature of their work, opaque AI supply chains and deficient policy have invisibilised millions of digital gig workers in India

This week in BehanVox: caste bias in OpenAI models, Manipuri weightlifter Mirabai Chanu’s silver streak, and more

This week in BehanVox: the anxiety of Kasarkod’s women fishers, Trump’s unproven claims on autism and tylenol, and more

A long campaign against an upcoming port project has disrupted the lives of Kasarkod’s women fishers, leaving them in a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty

Home is a fragile and tenuous idea for many Kashmiri women who live in vulnerable districts that can be shelled out of existence in seconds

This week in BehanVox: why women gig workers struggle to unionise, Delhi’s concerning sex ratio, gender pay gap, and more

This month in Postcards: notes about grieving, friendships new and old, hearty khichdi, and more

Gig workers are blending digital tools, community ties and the old spirit of unions to reimagine labour movements without gender and caste biases

Karnataka’s aggressive port expansion displaces fisher communities, destroys livelihoods, and endangers coastal ecosystems, sparking powerful resistance led by women

This week in BehanVox: the rise of feminist street theatre, Nepal’s anti-corruption protests, and more

Excerpt from the book: Walking Out, Speaking Up: Feminist Street Theatre In India

Women make up for a significant portion of the workforce in India’s four key US export sectors. From long-term wage cuts to increased debt burden, they will be most affected by the 50% tariffs

This week in BehanVox: the Adivasi women in Odisha reviving natural dyeing, the promise of a woman superhero franchise with ‘Lokah’, and more

In the platform economy, time is scarce, worker interactions are discouraged, and protests met with punishment. The idea of both union and unity are threatened

A slow and painstaking craft once linked the Adivasi communities of Odisha to their surrounding forests. It nearly died but now a group of young women are piecing it back together

This week in BehanVox: stories of women bringing water back to a Himalayan villages, an Urban Company workers’ strike in Bengaluru, and more

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes

This week in BehanVox: the histories of caste census in India, Karnataka’s historic gig worker legislation, and more

In Salga, a Himalayan village once crippled by water scarcity, women revived dying springs with spades and science. Yet, they remain excluded from land ownership and decision-making, revealing deep gender gaps in environmental governance

This month in Postcards: notes about finding community in neighbourhoods, ‘Tees’ and thinking about loved ones, and the courage to hope in a flailing democracy

The few voices that spoke of the flight of threatened Bengali-speaking workers out of cities mostly complained of the inconvenience it caused. No one rallied for us, say workers

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this installment, we interview scholar Trina Vithayathil about the histories of counting castes in India.

This week in BehanVox: a theatrical tribute to a trans actor in Chennai, sanitation workers’ protest, vote chori allegations, and more

In Chennai, a theatre festival paid a moving tribute to a beloved trans elder and stage stalwart, pushing boundaries and transforming the stage into a space of resistance and queer joy

An ASHA worker and facilitator tells BehanBox about the women frontline workers’ early challenges, gender and caste dynamics at play, and the art of building a movement

This week in BehanVox: how Arunachal’s women healers are saving plants from extinction, China’s crackdown on female erotica writers, and more

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes

Traditional Adi healing practices are based on the use of medicinal herbs but climate change is driving these plants to extinction. Here is how a few women healers are making a difference

There is hardly any Bihar village bordering Nepal which does not have a bahu from Nepal. The women are now worried that the ongoing SIR could impact their citizenship rights in India

This week in BehanVox: Haryana’s intrusive new IVF mandate, the sexist world of video gaming in China, and more

This month in Postcards: notes about Catan, scribbled-out games of FLAMES, crime and companionship in Sarah Paretsky’s world, and more

Mumbai’s historic red light district sits in a premium locality and the sex workers who live and work here have no documents to establish ownership of property

This week in BehanVox: a data-driven analysis of India’s One Stop Centres, mapping Delhi through the lens Dalit-Bahujan queer individuals, and more

One Stop Centres for victim-survivors of gender violence can use their own data to strengthen response services

This week in BehanVox: a natural farming initiative in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata rape case, India’s own manosphere, and more

Despite rising temperatures, India’s fragmented approach to heat financing leaves informal workers vulnerable and solutions stuck in reactive mode. We spoke to experts to understand the politics and possibilities of a streamlined framework

This week in BehanVox: stories of women agri entrepreneurs cultivating forest foods in Tamil Nadu, ‘rescue raids’ displace sex workers in Mumbai’s Kamathipura, and more

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes

As climate change alters agriculture and the lives of people, women like Saroja Kumar lead efforts to craft resilience solutions such as food forests

From Uttarakhand to Karnataka, forest officials are violently evicting forest dwelling communities, disregarding their rights to the forests and its resources. The crux of the problem lies in the way India governs its forests

This week in BehanVox: women in Kochi’s coastal villages contend with tidal flooding, UK parliament votes to decriminalise abortion, and more

This month in Postcards: notes on relishing phalse berries, recipes for sukat chutney and pulusu, Celine Song’s cinema, and more

In the flood-prone coastal villages of Kochi, as rising sea levels threaten homes and livelihoods, women are creating community-driven solutions to the climate emergency that the state is only beginning to acknowledge

A deep dive into government hostel schemes reveals a drop in numbers, falling funds, and missed opportunities to support women migrants