What Afreen’s Story Says About Poor Healthcare Funding In India

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


When Women Have Cancer: Navigating Families, Society and Medicine

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


More Women, Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims Died During COVID-19 First Wave

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


How Fertility Preferences Are Killing Women In India

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


Blockades Are Putting Lives Of Women, Children At Risk In Manipur’s Relief Camps

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


Lack of Knowledge, Agency & Finances: Why Women With Cancer Suffer More

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 […]


Rape Survivors From Nomadic Tribes Get No State Support, Compensation Or Counselling

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


Ignorance and Apathy: Why One Indian Woman Dies of Cervical Cancer Every 7 mins

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 […]


Cost Of Maternal Healthcare Is Pushing Families Into Debt Trap In Maharashtra

Few women in impoverished packets of rural Maharashtra are aware of government welfare schemes or do not have the documents to access them


Why Homi, 15, Has No Option But Work At A Mine In Rajasthan, 7 Days A Week

Rural women have few work options in the state and poverty does not allow them to study either


Several Schemes, But Bastar’s Adivasi Women Still Remain Highly Anaemic

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


Malnutrition, Poor Rural Public Health Infrastructure Behind Infant and Maternal Deaths In Maharashtra

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 […]


Indian Women Have No Say In Their Own Healthcare. Here Is How That Can Be Changed

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,” […]


‘Untouchable’ After Birth, Uttarakhand’s New Mothers Are Left In Stressful Isolation

At a time when women urgently need rest, support and monitoring, ritual segregation can be dangerous


As LPG Prices Soar, Women Return To Toxic Traditional Stoves

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


Women Bear The Emotional Burden Of Kashmir’s Infertility Crisis

Aiman Bhat, 39, describes herself as hanth, a pejorative in Kashmiri for childless women. She is an accomplished young woman with a doctorate in humanities but […]


Why India Is Struggling With The Burden Of Teen Pregnancies

The pandemic may have undone decades of work in controlling teen pregnancies, shows a Behanbox analysis: at least 7% of all women aged 15-19 years began […]


Why Women Sugarcane Cutters Of Maharashtra Seek Needless Hysterectomies

Sugarcane cutting is relentless, backbreaking work, say the migrant women workers of Kothi village in Kaij taluka of Maharashtra’s Beed district. You have to hack at […]


A Menstrual Disorder Suffered By Billions of Women Is Still Dismissed Lightly

I always suspected there was something wrong with the way I experience my periods. There were many days that I would feel the onset of PMS […]


Why Climate Impact On Tea Yield Is Making Women Workers Sick

From skin inflammation and blurred vision to respiratory and digestive disorders, women workers in Darjeeling’s tea plantations are struggling with an array of health issues caused […]


Health Workers Can Be Critical In The Campaign Against Domestic Violence

“A pregnant woman has been hit in the stomach by her husband; she is bleeding. There are also marks of assault on her legs and hands. […]


Gujarat’s Rural Hospitals Become Support Centres For Domestic Violence Survivors

The excitement is palpable at the gathering of around 30 women, old and young, seated in a circle at the sub-district hospital in Patan district’s Radhanpura […]


Why India Needs A Targetted And Gendered Education-Job Policy for AIDS Orphans

Tinni* is all of 15 but she is weighed down by many anxieties about her future. She meticulously lists these in her diary: How will she […]


Mass Sterilisation Camps Violate Norms And Fail Women’s Health Needs In Chhattisgarh

On August 26th, 2021, Dr Jibnus Ekta performed tubectomies on 101 women in a span of seven hours between 8 PM and 3 AM, at a […]


Rising Caesarean Births Increase Inequity For Women Among Different Social Groups

Caesarean births are on the rise in  almost all Indian states, according to latest available data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). In the southern […]


Teen Pregnancies Drop In India, Urban Rural Divide Still High

Teen pregnancies declined in most states and UTs of the country but there continues to be a great divide between rural and urban India according to […]


Menstrual Interventions Vary Across Countries; Still A Long Way To Go

As India announced one of the harshest lockdowns in the world, among the many groups that remained invisible in the government policy announcements were menstruating persons. […]


Cost Of Sugar: Women Cane Cutters In Maharashtra

Neeta (name changed), a cane cutter in one of the many sugarcane farms in Beed district of central Maharashtra, was only in her early 30s when […]