Surta Bairwa (33), the former Dalit Sarpanch of  Srirampura Panchayat in Rajasthan’s Tonk district had enough of the centuries old dominance of the upper caste Gurjars. […]

For Varsha Eknath Gaikwad (45), Dharavi in Mumbai is much more than a constituency. She calls it home. The 4 time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) […]

Fawzia Koofi (45), the Member of Parliament from Afghanistan, has survived several assassination attempts by the Taliban. “The Taliban dislike women holding such powerful positions in […]

Fawzia Koofi (45), the Member of Parliament from Afghanistan, has survived several assassination attempts by the Taliban. “The Taliban dislike women holding such powerful positions in […]

Sri Lanka is all set to elect its ninth Parliament on 5 August 2020. According to officials, 7,452 candidates, 70 parties and 313 independent groups are […]

“My bhabhi is pregnant but has no place to deliver. We are scared of catching Covid. We’re still facing the (basic) challenges. The biggest challenge for […]

Only 810 girl children are born per 1000 boys in urban Uttarakhand. In rural areas, the state recorded a comparably higher sex ratio at birth (female […]

Policy decisions for forest diversion during the COVID19 lockdown  which potentially dilute the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA) and undermine the decision-making authority of the Gram […]

Policy decisions for forest diversion during the COVID19 lockdown which potentially dilute the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA) and undermine the decision-making authority of the Gram […]

For over a month now, over 600 women garment workers have been sitting in protest against the illegal layoffs in the factory premises of the  ECC […]

Anna Kujur (53) is a fearless Adivasi leader from the Sundergarh district of Odisha. Sundergarh is a predominantly tribal district in north-west Odisha where over half […]

Women’s political participation remains abysmally low in the Lok Sabha- the directly elected House of the Parliament as well as state legislative assemblies. The current Lok […]

Socio-cultural values and norms have traditionally excluded women from participation in community decision making fora and denied them equal inheritance and property rights, both under formal […]

Socio-cultural values and norms have traditionally excluded women from participation in community decision making fora and denied them equal inheritance and property rights, both under formal […]

” We are unable to sell Mahul flowers in the market due to the lockdown. Lockdown has taken our  livelihood away”, said Baijanti Kalo of Bamandagarh […]

Our 16-state survey found that in Kerala, ASHAs, women health workers at the frontlines of India’s resistance to Covid-19, feel empowered and respected. Yet, their demands […]

Minara Begum, 33, has reached breaking point. “If the government of Assam does not release my salary today, my kids will starve,” said the mother of […]

असम की रहने वालीं 33 साल की मीनारा बेगम चार बच्चों की मां हैं. उनका सबसे छोटा बेटा दो साल का है. वह रोते हुए कहती […]

Without them, It would be impossible to track, test and monitor Covid-19 patients across India’s villages and cities. But over a million women health workers must […]

रात के 9 बज रहे हैं. दिनभर की भाग-दौड़ के बाद अब लक्ष्मी सिंह खाने बैठी ही थीं कि सरपंच ने उन्हें बुला लिया.कई दिनों से […]

The duration of lockdown has proven difficult for everyone, but it has been more challenging for those who belong to the marginalized sections of the society, […]

Satyavathi (48) has borne the brunt of disasters before and knows the heavy toll it takes on the lives and livelihoods of families. On 3 May […]

Every morning, Kamla Bai ( 30) makes a round of the hamlets in the Saklal Panchayat in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Her mission is to bust […]

Thousands of families of intra-state migrants are stranded on the margins of Guntur’s world-renowned chilli farms, scrambling to live on a meagre supply of grains and […]

Delhi Vidhan Sabha, the elected body of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has a dismal representation of women. Only 9% of the elected MLAs in […]

Seventy years ago, on 26th January 1950, India’s constitution came into force. The constituent assembly which started its debates on 9th December 1946, took 2 years […]

‘Jamia ki ladkiyon ne raasta dikhaya hai, toh Jamia ki ladkiyon ko Inqualab Zindabad’ [ Jamia’s women have shown us the way, so revolutionary greetings to […]

India is seeing a massive countrywide resistance against discriminatory citizenship measures and women are leading it. Women across states have been resisting on the streets, inside […]

Debsmita Chaudhury (24) has no regrets. On the contrary, she is quite proud of herself for using the most important platform of her life to stage […]

Tazeen Junaid (18) believes she has a duty to keep the resistance against the discriminatory and exclusionary citizenship laws alive in Aligarh Muslim University.  On 15th […]

Saima Khan (33) is heartbroken and angry.  “ I cannot explain in words my pain when I am asked as a Muslim to prove my citizenship […]

For Bitiya Murmu (40), a Santhal Adivasi woman leader in Jharkhand, personal has become political. For the last ten years, she has been fighting a long […]

Women’s political representation in Jharkhand has seen a constant upward surge since the state came into existence in 2000. The proportion of women Members of Legislative […]

In Haryana, a state with a skewed sex ratio (913 girls to 1000 boys, an improvement from 830 girls in 2011), there is one gender indicator […]

Telangana, the newest state in Southern India, finally has women ministers in the state’s council of ministers for the first time in its history. In a […]

P Krishnaveni remembers the night of 13 June, 2011, clear as day. Barely 200 m from her home of 15 years, in front of a local […]

Goddeti Madhavi (26), the first time Member of Parliament (MP) from Araku in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) knows the trust that her constituents […]

Sharmila Devi (39), the youngest dalit sarpanch of Thirumanvayal panchayat in southern Tamil Nadu’s Sivagangai district, has pulled off what none of her upper-caste, male predecessors […]

What is it like to do a full-time job without a salary? Especially if you are a dalit or an adivasi woman and your daily earnings […]

It wasn’t personal ambition that drove K Muthukanni to stand for election as panchayat president from Madhavakurichi in Mannur block of southern Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. […]

Even by normal standards of violence in Tamil Nadu’s panchayat politics, the events of March 29, 2001, were troubling. Menaka, 35, the feisty dalit president of […]

Salma (50), the deputy secretary of the women’s wing of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), is among the few women to have made the transition from rural […]

Ashubi Khan, 51, is distraught. A decade of trailblazing work done by this tall, soft-spoken sarpanch (village chief) and her team of seven illiterate women–and three literate […]

Madhavi Goddeti may be a first time Member of Parliament (MP) in the newly elected Lok Sabha but she is no stranger to politics. The 26 […]

Married against her wishes at 11 to her dead sister’s husband, Sidhamallamma Kanchappa gave birth to her first child at home when she was 12. It […]

Nestled in a sylvan valley in northwestern Tamil Nadu and surrounded by forests, the village council, or panchayat, of Sittilinghi struggled to bring to state attention […]

Mazharkodi Dhanasekar has a radiant smile and is keen to talk about her achievements, which, as it emerges, are considerable: Building 650 toilets and making her […]

As a first-time member of the legislative assembly (MLA) in Bihar, Jyothi Devi, 46, did well over her five-year term: She had 10 bridges—some of which were demanded […]

Thirty five years ago, Bhagirathi Devi was a sweeper in the block development office in Narkatiyaganj, a town in Bihar’s West Champaran district. Today, she is a third-term […]