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

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 […]

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

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

Parlours are small pockets of rebellion and assertion where girls and young women find solidarity in small towns and villages

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

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

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

Medical education has remained largely binary, focusing on male/female bodies, heterosexuality and Cis-gendered lives. There are nascent efforts now to make medical education – and the […]

Government policies oblivious to gender and caste inequities leave women livestock farmers from lowered communities without economic safety nets.

Theatre can be a powerful, joyful medium for the trans gender community to make its voice heard

A trainer who works with marginalised youth groups believes that Dalit women in intercaste relationships do not get the respect they deserve

A range of issues – state apathy, knotty conditions, local hostility – hobble the programme

Godna, the fine art of tattoo painting, is practised by Dalit Dusadh women. Its approach, raw material, and themes are nothing like the more popular Mithila artwork

There is little conversation around violence against women and other marginalised groups on the internet

The bulldozers arrived with no notice, women allege, leaving them stranded without shelter or belongings

Data debunks false claims about ‘missing women’, the real problem lies elsewhere

The country is partitioned. India is independent. Crowds of people are pouring in from East Pakistan—from Jessore, Khulna, Barisal, Faridpur, via Kushtia and the border at […]

The Jaharveer festival is an important event in the life of Mathura’s Valmikis, marking their distinct culture and identity

A craft brought by the missionaries changed the lives of Dalit women in multiple ways before it became the domain of a dominant caste

In this, the second in the series ‘Placing Work, Mapping Places’, we detail the struggles of Raghubir Nagar’s pheriwalis in dealing with street and State violence. We ask them to reimagine their workspaces as safer, gender-friendly and more productive.

Hyderabad has had a 150-year-long history of women writing prose in Urdu, a longer one of poetry and other oral and creative expressions. But we know […]

Historian Uma Chakravarti on Pandita Ramabai’s radical photographs of conjugality and its discontents.

Currently, India’s legal structure shows little respect for care work of any kind

Intersectionality has long been ignored in India’s mainstream feminist movement as a critical issue

In India’s cheapest second-hand clothes market, women have to reclaim public spaces to assert their right to livelihood constantly

A 51.7% rise in the price of LPG refills between January 2021 and July 2022 has forced women from low-incomes homes to minimise the use of gas stoves

There are rising tensions between the aspirations of thousands of workers and the work structure of the gig economy

Despite clear guidelines, insurance companies in India exclude those with intellectual and developmental disabilities from coverage

Trigger Warning: This piece contains mentions of sexual violence which may be triggering for readers. On October 31, 2022 the Supreme Court of India once again […]

The livelihood crisis created by scorching summers, failed monsoons and frequent droughts in the arid Rayalaseema region of southwestern Andhra Pradesh has left women from poor […]

On October 13, the Supreme Court of India passed its judgement on the hijab ban in educational institutions imposed by the Karnataka Government. The two-judge bench […]

Forced to depend on their family for support and care because of social norms and ineffective government policies, elderly women with disabilities are highly vulnerable to […]

The sex ratio of the National Capital Territory of Delhi has been consistently skewed over three decades, shows a BehanBox analysis. The reason for this lies […]

Nafeesa Bibi* (36) was 16 when she left her home in a Bangladesh village and swam across the Ichhamati river into Bongaon in the North 24 […]

With no attention paid to their sanitation needs, India’s nomadic communities are forced to either defecate in the open or struggle for access to unsafe and […]

“You are talking about money for ration. Forget hundreds of rupees for food, we don’t have Rs 10 to give to the toilet attendant for our […]