Thrown out of their homes eight months ago in a demolition drive, the women of Jai Bhim Nagar are fighting for their right to housing. They are also reclaiming spaces to keep their cultural identity alive

In Pardhi bastis, suicide is so common that it is normalised by the community. Constant encounters with institutional violence, bias and poverty leave women with little hope for a better future

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

The crises faced by Kathputli Colony’s families, displaced by an interminable redevelopment project, point to the capital city’s struggle to provide affordable housing

Sexual and reproductive rights of women do feature in the election agenda of political parties but only those that do not defy established social norms

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

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

The recent death of a beauty worker with Urban Company has raised questions about the practices at aggregator platforms – the promise of flexibility and freedom comes bundled with exploitative and coercive work conditions

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 […]

In poll-bound Haryana, women’s political identity has been historically shaped by patriarchal, kinship, and gender norms. But their role in the protest movements of the last few years is making a difference

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

In the face of rising right-wing hostility in western Maharashtra, women academics are pushing back, asserting their right to freedom of speech

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

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

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

Women doctors, nurses, paramedics and administrative staff who work late shifts have always been vulnerable to violence because little thought is given to ensuring safe work spaces for them

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

With the state indifferent to their demands for better wages and their workload heavier by one more scheme, Anganwadi workers in Maharashtra are protesting again. But their resistance tactics have changed

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

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

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 […]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our investigation across eight villages showed just one project available under MGNREGS, forcing women to migrate as far as Odisha in search of work

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

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

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

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

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

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 acute anaemia crisis in the state is missing from the poll agenda of Chhattisgarh’s political parties

Since it attained statehood, women have made for only 4% of all candidates who have contested in Mizoram’s electoral history

Even the women who are leading pro-reservation rallies in Maharashtra are using the language of patriarchy

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

Ration cardholders in various parts of Maharashtra are complaining that they are being denied food grains even before cash transfers have been made to their bank accounts

After a 73-day protest, Haryana’s ASHA workers were able to negotiate for themselves a Rs 2,100 hike in their honorarium. But the union is determined to continue the movement for those working in other states too.

Despite the enervating humidity of the mid-October night in Mumbai, Bhimabai Zunjure, 40, is deftly working a mound of mango leaves into neat bunches. She sits on the bridge leading to the Dadar flower market, and looks up from her work to only sell the leaves which are in high demand for the ongoing Navratri rituals.

The frontline health workers have called for a 24-hour strike outside district offices and homes of political leaders

Since its first assembly election as a separate state in 2003, Chhattisgarh has seen a steady increase in the number of women contestants as well as the number of elected women representatives

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,” […]