BehanVox: All Platitudes, No Heat Protections

This week in BehanVox: an investigation on casteism in ASHA work, Pope’s encyclical on AI, and more


‘ASHA Workers Have No Choice But To Work In The Heat’

Punam Amol Ahire in Mumbai talks about tracking illnesses, pregnancies, and diseases while managing domestic work and dealing with bureaucratic hurdles


BehanVox: Census And Cockroaches

This week in BehanVox: pay hike for Kerala ASHA workers, heat wave grips the country, and more


Postcards #15: Gold And Gardenia

This month in Postcards: the sweet Mallika, books and bees, charnel houses, and more


‘The Intention Is Questionable, The Means Do Not Inspire Trust’: GN Devy On Census 2027

The long-delayed exercise is not inclusive, transparent, or accountable. The government has undermined the promise and possibilities of a Census, says the scholar


BehanVox: Trouble On The Horizon

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


‘The Algorithm Is Paying Women To Uphold Patriarchy’

In BehanBox Talkies, we explore ideas through the lens of scholars. In this instalment, Devina Sarwatay talks about Indian tradwives, pastel patriarchy, and the saffronisation that threatens digital citizenship


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


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

Dharmishtha Chauhan from Gujarat opens up about the casteism embedded in her work, the mental toll of harassment and discrimination, and why ASHA workers must be aware of their constitutional rights


BehanVox: What Cash Transfers For Women Can (And Can’t) Do

This week in BehanVox: protests and detentions of Noida workers, Vijay’s stardom in Tamil Nadu, and more


Postscript #13: Doing Democracy, The Feminist Way

In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes. This week: inside our Feminist Election Newsroom


Why TN’s Cash Transfer For Carework Should Be A Small Step To A Big Change

The KMUT scheme reaches 1.31 crore women with a monthly cash transfer as a partial recompense for unpaid carework. How does it transform their lives?


BehanVox: The Logical Discrepancy Of SIR

This week in BehanVox: the delimitation push, love in the time of caste, and more


Postcards #14: Playlists And Photo Albums

This month in Postcards: Asha Bhonsle serenades, Hans Zimmer soars, and more


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

The bills are a “smoke screen” that give the government discretionary powers to change the nature of our electoral democracy, says Maansi Verma, founder of Maadhyam


Love That Must Bloom Under Debility, Duress

‘Mhow’ by Kailash Wankhede talks of the radical possibilities of solidarity and consciousness in intercaste unions


BehanVox: Life Of An Internet Discourse

This week in BehanVox: feminist analysis of Keralam and Assam’s manifestos, women’s reservation bill re-enters the Parliament, and more


When Fluency Arrives From the ‘Wrong’ Room

A kitchen carries labour, repetition, time, and care but it can also carry thought. Public culture shouldn’t find it this hard to let a woman sound completely at home in her own mind


BehanVox: Poll Season Is Upon Us

This week in BehanVox: an interview with Kenyan data workers, SIR-led gender skew, and more. Plus: come join our FEN!


BehanBox Talkies: ‘Data Work Under Big Tech Is A Form Of Modern Slavery’

Activists Joan Kinyua and Michael Geoffrey Asia about mental health and PTSD, unionising challenges in Kenya, and the racial logic that sustains the modern tech economy


BehanVox: Marching Towards Erasure

This week in BehanVox: resistance against the new Trans Bill, notes from an ASHA worker in Kashmir, and more


‘I Do This As A Sadaqa-e-Jariyah (Continuous Charity)’: An ASHA Worker’s Story From Kashmir

Shaheena Bano talks about navigating political uncertainties, curbs on mobility, public apathy, and a health department that does not dignify her work


In Andhra’s Shrimp Factories, Tariff Threats Have Left Women Workers Acutely Vulnerable

In Bhimavaram, a massive hub for shrimp exports, the continuing uncertainty over US trade tariffs has left a devastating impact on the lives of women workers


BehanVox: A Story of Coming Out Ft. New Trans Bill

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter that brings you top stories, gender news from the world, and our team’s reading recommendations. Hello Behans! The conflict in West Asia […]


Postcards #13: The Untold Stories Of Women’s History Month

This month in Postcards: from Delhi to Chennai, women leaders talk about solidarity, friendship, and struggles that deserve to be documented


BehanVox: No Fuel, Long Queues, But ‘All Is Well’

This week in BehanVox: inside the chikankaari industry, asylum for Iranian women’s football, and more


Handicrafts as ‘Empowerment’: The Double-Edged Reality of Chikankaari

Chikankaari has provided income to millions of women, but it systematically avoids changing the things that actually constitute empowerment: control over production and bargaining power


For Women, A Shaved Head Is Often A Mark Of Protest, Both Political And Personal

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


BehanVox: All Eyes On West Asia

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


‘We Feared Nothing, We Focussed On Protecting The People And The Movement’

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 […]


When Field Workers Only Remain In The Field: The Unfairness Of A Bahujan Social Worker’s Place

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.


BehanVox: The View Beyond The AI Summit

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


Postscript #12: Counting Absences and Presence

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’


‘We Need To Remove The Halo Around AI And The Myth Of Ungovernability’

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


BehanVox: The AI Summit That Could Have Been

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


Postcards #12: The Many Hues of Love

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


While SC/ST Budget Allocations Rise Marginally, Caste Realities Remains Unaddressed

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


When Work Became A Right: The Social Life of MGNREGA

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


BehanVox: Love, Actually

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


‘Society Fills Us With Fear, But Love Is A Kind Of Crazy Courage’

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’


Budget 2026: Women and Marginalised Groups Have Been Shortchanged Again

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


BehanVox: Sabka Saath, Kiska Vikaas?

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


Labour In Budget 2026-27: Focus Shifts From Rural Women To Urban Men

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


‘The Money Is Little But The Respect ASHA Workers Get Makes Me Happy’

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


BehanVox: Budget 2026 | What Will India Bet On?

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


Postscript #11: ASHA Work And The Moral Language Of ‘Seva’

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


‘SHANTI for who?’ Nuclear Energy, Climate Change and Marginality in India

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


BehanVox: To Be A Gig Worker In Delhi’s Toxic Air

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


Postcards #11: People’s Movements And Hunger Strikes For Palestine

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


Choking At Work: How Delhi’s Air Is Harming Women Gig Workers

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


Beyond The Courts: Taunts, Trauma and the Weight of Waiting for this Irular Family

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


BehanVox: The 10-Minute Delivery Promise, Undone

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


‘I Hope The World Sees More Of What We, ASHA Workers, Are Doing, And What We Can Do’

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 […]


Why An Irula Family In Tamil Nadu Had To Wait 14 Years For Justice

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


BehanVox: Fighting For The Right To Decent Work

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


For Adivasis, MGNREGA’s Undoing Will Have Devastating Consequences

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


How MGNREGA’s Repeal Will Hit Women Farmers Harder

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


Postscript #10: Our Year In Recap

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


BehanBox Wishlist 2025: The Stories That Could Have Been

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


‘In This Land of Buildings and Bulldozers, We Create Our Own Place’, Say Women of Demolished Bastis

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


BehanVox: The Death Of The World’s Largest Employment Guarantee Programme

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


Postcards #10: Sisterhoods And Broken Hearts

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


‘The GRAMG Bill Codifies The Stealthy Ways In Which NREGA Was Being Undermined’

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


BehanVox: Crime, Punishment, And Power Of Kerala Actor Assault Case

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


‘We Will Keep Up The Fight So There Will Be No More Bhopals’

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


BehanVox: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy Lives On

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


In The Age Of AI, The Promise Of A Feminist Internet

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


Bhopal Gas Tragedy: The Disaster Lives On In The Women Of Bhopal 41 Years Later

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


BehanVox: Who Benefits From India’s New Labour Codes?

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


Postscript: 41 Years On, Why Bhopal Matters

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


Postcards #9: From Protest Parties To Riotous Angry Women

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


BehanVox: A Marginal Rise In Bihar’s Women MLAs

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


‘Women Are Literally And Figuratively On The Outskirts Of The Startup Economy’

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


BehanVox: Delhi’s Annual Ritual Of Lethal Winter Smog

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


Few Muslim Women Candidates In Bihar Where Women Are A Strong Electoral Force

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


BehanVox: A Tectonic Shift In Women’s Sports

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


BehanVox: The Invisibility Of Care Work

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


‘We Are Conditioned To Believe Care Work Is Innate To Women’

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


BehanVox: In Bihar, It’s Raining Cash Schemes For Women

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


Postscript: Learning To Care About ‘Care’ As India’s Future Of Work

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 […]


BehanVox: Keeping Bonbibi Alive

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


Postcards #8: From Marathi Cinema To A Vigil For Palestine

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


BehanVox: The Grey World Of Data Workers

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


Living In A Ghost World, These Data Workers Make the Internet Possible

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


BehanVox: How Madhya Pradesh Women Are Uprooting An Invasive Species

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


BehanVox: What Homes Means To Women, From Kashmir to Karnataka

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


Homes Marked ‘X’, Honnavar’s Women Fishers Live In A State Of Constant Dread

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


In the Line of Fire: How Women in Kashmir Navigate War, Memory and Survival

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


BehanVox: What Explains Karnataka’s Rush For Port Projects?

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


Postcards #7: From Faiz’s Love Poems to ‘The Thursday Murder Club’

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


Platform Work Unions Are Fighting Gender And Caste Bias, Clearing New Paths To Resistance

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


How Karnataka’s Aggressive Port Push Is Jeopardising Lands, Livelihoods Of Fishers

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


BehanVox: Yes, Trump’s Tariffs Hurt Women More Than Others

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


Om Swaha: The Play That Birthed Feminist Street Theatre In India

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


Why Trump’s Tariffs Are A Feminist Issue

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


BehanVox: Unionising In The Age of Digital Work

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


Why Unions Find It Hard To Forge Worker Solidarity In Platform Companies

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