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

It was an incentive to promote social integration and support intercaste couples who often deal with familial and social opposition. Now the Centre has put a stop to the the scheme

Our cities were once forests, home to indigenous communities. In 2006, the Forest Rights Act was passed to undo the historic injustices against Adivasi communities but in cities, complex legalities get in the way of their fight for their homes

As beneficiaries become data points on the dashboard, Anganwadi workers in Tamil Nadu grapple with an overload of digital labor, being data collectors building a state’s health repository, and being subjects of surveillance

This week in BehanVox: A photo story of natural farming practices of Bhil women, spaceflight packed with celebrity women, celluloid battle over ‘Phule’, and more

This month in Postcards: A home-cooked meal during field reporting, the joy of public baths, cat companions, freedom found in cycles and scooters, and more

This week in BehanVox: ASHA workers’ protest an attendance app, Allahabad High Court’s sustained misogyny, and histories of India’s women jazz pioneers

Mahua liquor is a traditional brew for many tribal communities. While Madhya Pradesh encourages its production and sale by Scheduled Tribes, the crackdown against NT-DNT communities under the excise act is exceptionally harsh

In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the municipal commissioner has introduced a mandatory digital attendance system through a private app. ASHA workers, who are not considered government employees, are also forced to mark attendance thrice a day

This week in BehanVox: a conversation on Dalit History Month, UK’s decision to screen ‘Adolescence’ in schools, and stories of female construction workers struggling to access maternity schemes.

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Last month, the government released a factsheet of the key findings from the Time Use Survey conducted in 2024. The survey, with crucial data on how women spend their days is also sensitive to errors

This week in BehanVox: life on Powai’s footpaths, ASHA workers’ ongoing strike, and the politics of hope.

This month in Postcards: a feminist march, cookbook for one, and women’s labour powering papal decision making.

Since 1959, multiple bills have been introduced to provide legal protection for domestic workers, but all of them have failed. Lack of political will and conflict of interest erode the rights of the most marginalised women in India

For five years now, Arya Pujari, a trans woman, has been relentlessly pursuing her dream of joining the police. Her struggle ties in with the transgender community’s demand for reservations in government jobs

Despite 30 years of local resistance, the government has pushed through the approvals for India’s largest port. Behind it lie systemic efforts to dismantle special protection given to an eco-fragile area

In popular culture, Delhi often remains a cliche. You rarely see its informal women workers except as footnotes. We have compiled here a list of films, books and art works where their unseen lives are recorded with veracity and compassion

Pensions and access to healthcare schemes could have benefitted thousands of widows who settle in Vrindavan but isolation, apathy and red tape get in the way

We asked women who we report on and are inspired by to tell us what or who gives them hope, or what they would like to see change in 2025. These are their stories.

Team BehanBox parses through the news and noise of 2024 to find tales of caution, care, and hope.

Vocalist and trainer Shilpa Mudbi talks about art, artist, and appropriation of Dalit music and culture

Studies have shown that criminalisation of child marriage and the excessive use of force to prevent have not been effective solutions to the problem. Questions around poverty, education and the adolescent agency also need to be addressed

On August 19, the Kerala government released a redacted version of the Hema Committee report which exposed the structural violence that exists in the Malayalam film […]

A creative initiative using literature and visual arts hopes to educate and sensitise medical students and practitioners about gender-affirmative care

Does the entrenched notion of masculine solidarity in the military create room for misogynistic behaviour? In view of a recent case, we look at how these attitudes impact the effective application of sexual harassment laws

The findings in the latest labour force survey indicate that the rising aspirations of educated rural women are not matched by opportunities in non-agricultural work

Fueled by public demands for quick justice, and pushed through hastily with no effort at addressing systemic issues, these laws cannot bring real change, say experts

Opacity surrounded the outcomes of the BJP-led NDA government’s flagship scheme for girl children. Data on sex ratio and education do not show significant changes

A trans girl in Guwahati battled hostility and harassment in her early school years but found strength in her parents’ unwavering support, love and care. Recently expelled from school for posting a bikini photo, her parents are pushing back

Long distances to medical facilities, shortage of women doctors and frustrating bureaucratic hurdles discourage women workers in the garment sector from accessing the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme

For decades, women film workers in the Kerala film industry have been dealing with exploitative work conditions, inequalities and sexual harassment. What shook up the complacent club run by powerful men is a band of tenacious women

With no clarity on trans women beneficiaries, and the many hurdles to establishing gender identity, the Ladki Bahin scheme is becoming exclusionary

Tamil Nadu boasts fantastic gender indicators but some subjects still remain a taboo, which shows that deep-set social attitudes take longer to change

Two of Delhi’s biggest government hospitals are right in Afreen’s backyard. But her struggle to access healthcare for her husband when he had a stroke underlines why the government needs to spend more on health

A polythene bag clasped over their head is all the protection many domestic workers and women vendors have against heavy coastal monsoons

When women are diagnosed with cancer, a common concern is this — how will they cope with the needs of both care and caregiving? They also have to face the possibility of neglect and abandonment

 In 2017, a 15-year-old Adivasi student in Odisha’s Cuttack district was raped by a group of men wearing police uniforms as she was returning from the […]

Jaat panchayats that routinely impose brutal and humiliating punishments on women for defying caste norms should have been a thing of the past. But they continue to operate with impunity, say activists

Rs 4 to feather a dozen shuttlecocks, Rs 35 to stitch a football, Rs 62 to tack together six panels of a rugby ball – that is what home-based women workers are paid to keep the booming sports good industry of the city in business.

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

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

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

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 […]

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

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

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

The taps and pipelines meant to carry water to the homes of hill-dwelling communities of the state have either not been installed or have no water supply. Women trudge miles and undertake risks to collect water

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

The numbers do not tell the complete story of violence against women and this means that the measures based on existing evidence are inadequate too

The improvements in parameters related to the girl child cannot be solely attributed to the scheme’s implementation

In a London beauty salon run by women from the subcontinent, links between caste, food and odour echo the arguments in the debate in India over a ‘pure vegetarian’ delivery fleet

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

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

In Delhi, evictions get you resettlement housing but in areas with little access to job, services or essential facilities. And it is the women who struggle the most with travel and livelihood options

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

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

Feminist solidarities come in all forms — legal petitions, street protests, Whatsapp conversations, vigils and signature campaigns – as the Bilkis case shows

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’

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 […]

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

With sex education centred around reproductive biology and not consent or pleasure, young girls in small towns rely on their peers, family and the internet

There are growing instances of criminalisation of women workers protesting for better work conditions and wages. After ASHA, Anganwadi and Mid-Day Meal workers, this is happening to the communications workers at Dial 112 in Uttar Pradesh

The Sijimali mining project could end up destroying a fragile ecosystem and an entire way of life, say Adivasi women and they are determined to protect them

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