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

What was it like for an Indian woman in the early 20th century to travel for pleasure? In this essay excerpted from Zubaan’s new book, Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women, early Bengali feminist Begum Rokeya offers insights

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 […]

She is an Adivasi leader, an activist, a farmer, a migrant labourer and an eager student. But the only descriptor the police have for her is ‘Maoist’

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

This story is supported by the Pulitzer CenterThe flow of patients is incessant at the outpatient departments of the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI). The tertiary […]

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

Elderly women who fear this will be their last vote, women from minority communities keen to back democratic norms – missing from the electoral list these women feel deprived of their right to vote in what was a historic election

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

An offline registration process and better outreach could help, say labour rights activists

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

Carrying the burden of an eight-year-old debt, 50-year-old Karuna Kale from Madhya Pradesh’s Barwaha almost broke down while talking about the financial condition of her household

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

The small business run by the Paswan family survives through relentless work. Even after 30 years of this, the only way to make ends meet and save some money is by limiting expenses to necessities

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’

A cinema outing, books, dreams of personal space – every joy, big and small, has to be put off, says a young social activist, in the face of inflation

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

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

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

It will not curb child marriage but may complicate registrations, say experts

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

Students have reported frequent incidents of queerphobia and misogyny in universities. We look at why redressal mechanisms remain ineffective

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

In a wide-ranging interview on the controversial Uniform Civil Code swiftly pushed through by the Uttarakhand government, feminist legal scholar Surbhi Karwa explains how the law has weaponised the language of women’s rights without actually advancing them

The lack of clarity on exclusion of schemes in previous years, arbitrary increases in scheme allocations, and mismatch in scheme performance and corresponding allocations are concerns

Schemes aimed at women did not get the big push they needed, we find

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

In rural Maharashtra, landless Dalit families often struggle to find space to cremate their dead. Pramila Zombade wants that to change

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

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’

Now 40% of the trainees at the Guru Premnath Akhada are women dreaming of making it to the Olympics, mostly from small-town India

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

In conversation with playwright Jyoti Dogra, whose new play Maas discusses patriarchy, capitalism and our bodies

The annual Mahaparinirvan Din means many things for the women who throng the annual event in Mumbai to mark Dr.Ambedkar’s life and work

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

Women’s Urdu was pungent, it drew from the world around, and it makes for great theatre

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

It is difficult for young Adivasis to leave home and head for neighbouring towns or far metros to join universities. For the women, these challenges are multiplied by fear of the city and social biases

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

Intensification of mining activity has upset the tribal groups for whom the Surjagarh Hill, forest and water bodies are sacred

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

Procedural issues around self-identification mean that the real numbers are rarely reflected in official data, show studies

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

The Madhya Pradesh government is going all out to woo women with special schemes. But how do the women see this outreach, we ask

Most trans men and transmasculine individuals in India end up seeking private medical care because of multiple hurdles to government schemes, says a study

Sunita Sahebrao Dandekar (28), a Dalit woman from Kharvad village in Hingoli district in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra had to be rushed to Dr. Shankarrao […]

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

Up to 80% women complain that buses drive past them and they have to frequently deal with snide remarks about freeloading

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 […]

Are segregated parks for women the solution to a city’s heavily male-dominated leisure spaces? Even as urban planners and feminists argue, we take a walk in Old Delhi’s historical zenana parks to find some answers

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

Guwahati: One evening, my partner and I were comparing notes after work. “I had to explain the prognosis of a female patient to her next-door neighbour,” […]

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

Every time they ask for the concessional tickets for women on state buses, trans women are asked to furnish gender and identity proof

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

Poverty, injustice and insecurity have added to the vulnerability of the women affected by the communal violence in Haryana

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

Only 20% of students attend primary schools in Bihar’s Araria and Katihar districts, revealing a grim post-pandemic state of government schools.

A student just an exam away from finishing her Masters, a dental doctor on the verge of a career, and a school warden held hostage – the violence in Manipur has left them all rudderless. We speak to them in Delhi as they seek to rebuild their lives

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

The violence in Manipur has displaced thousands of people who are now staying in refugee camps. A tribal women’s collective from the north east is spearheading relief operations out of Delhi

The debate around the UCC goes back to colonial times. Here is an explainer of how the idea has evolved over time

The Telangana High Court recently struck down the state’s Eunuch’s Act which criminalised the entire transgender community. We explain why it was outdated and violative of citizen rights

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

A heritage walk looks at the capital city’s historic and contemporary spaces through the queer lens, revealing some less known insights

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

Digital illustrator Ritika Gupta talks about the significance of the digital medium for neurodivergent artists and why community networks for disabled artists must thrive

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