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

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

Indian history is replete with biographical and regional details regarding spatial and sartorial separation of women from men

As a young PhD student just embarking on research, I was very certain that I wanted to contribute to the field of education economics. After completing […]

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

Of the millions of workers who worked in India’s factories in 2019-20, less than a fifth were women. This share has remained largely unchanged for over two decades

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

With limited support structures, India’s LGBTQIA+ community has to work harder to plan for ageing and infirmity

The job is too ‘dangerous’, ‘dirty’ for women, say male-dominated newsrooms

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

On December 13, 2022 the government of Maharashtra declared the establishment of a 13-member committee to ‘track’ inter-religious marriages. As per the resolution, this ‘interfaith marriage […]

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 […]

Transgender persons in India constantly negotiate their identities with the spaces they grow up in, live in, or move through in search of a home within and outside.

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 […]

“What is this Udyam Registration Certificate? Why do I need the certificate?” Kalpanaben*, who runs a saree business out of her house in Delhi, is bewildered. […]

In June 1885, a 21-year-old woman, calling herself ‘Hindu Lady’, wrote two letters to The Times of India attacking the ‘wicked institutions’ of infant marriage and […]

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 […]

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 […]

The murder last week of Chennai college student Sathya Priya by her stalker is at once horrific and familiar: a young woman is followed and harassed […]

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 […]

India’s law on sexual harassment at work has failed to account for the experiences of informal sector working women, most of who are from marginalised communities […]

The steady fall in India’s maternal mortality rate over the last two decades glosses over significant variations between states, districts and social groups, show data. Poverty, […]

India’s new laws on surrogacy, meant to prevent exploitative practices, still do not fully recognise the surrogate’s rights to full economic, medical, legal, and physical protection, […]

For two years now Shabana Khatoon has been living under a tarpaulin sheet near the Dhobi Ghat in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. For 20 years, this […]

The use of the archaic idea of feminine “modesty” in the interpretation of the penal laws on sexual violence is regressive because it undermines the violation […]

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 […]

With criminal networks, apathetic policing and patriarchal practices turning the impoverished Sundarbans delta region in West Bengal into a trafficking hub, it is now up to […]

India’s abortion law has evolved over 50 years to become seemingly progressive but it is still not rooted in the idea of reproductive justice, say historians […]

As August rains swept Delhi, more than 500 workers, mostly women, gathered around the Jantar Mantar monument to protest delayed wages, reduced workdays and digital glitches […]

After her undergraduate studies, Tara* decided to take an education loan to pursue a Master’s degree. In her loan application forms she named her mother as […]

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 […]

At the wedding of her baji (aunt), Tina was so awestruck by the dark red bridal suit that she was adamant she would wear one too. […]

Last week, the Supreme Court passed an interim order allowing an unmarried woman to abort a 24-week pregnancy. The court ordered the constitution of a Medical […]

‘Mobile Girls Koottam: Working Women Speak’, released in 2021, documents the real-life conversations between gender and labour rights scholar Madhumita Dutta,  radio podcaster Samyuktha PC and […]

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 […]

Police stations with help desks for women, especially those run by women, are more likely to register cases of gender-based violence, says a new study, ‘Policing […]

The apex court observed recently that a government employee cannot demand pay parity only on grounds of similarity in designation and quantum of work. The bench, […]

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 […]

The Calcutta High Court has ordered the Government of West Bengal to ensure adequate funds with the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) to disburse compensation to […]

Here are some critical data-points on crimes against women in Delhi for the year 2020 from the Crime in India report by National Crime Records Bureau. 997 […]

The rights of women from India’s marginalised communities are being disproportionately constrained and eroded in digital civic spaces, says a report by The Bachchao Project, a […]

Reema*, 32, has been married for about five years but the man she thought would be her life partner has turned out to be a stranger […]

In the evening hours of the last week of May, I was getting ready to attend a political meeting when my phone buzzed. It was Poorvaja*, […]

India has laws and support systems for both transgender persons and people with disabilities, but none for those who are both identities – trans persons with […]

The recent Supreme Court directives on guaranteeing sex workers dignity and constitutional freedoms still leaves some critical problem areas unaddressed and these can only be resolved […]

How do state borders create and sustain the binaries between ‘citizen’ and ‘foreigner’? What implication do these have on the lived experiences of the women who […]

The recent industrial fire at an electronic assembly unit of Cofe Impex Pvt Ltd in west Delhi’s Mundka village has exposed the social and economic precarity […]

The insistence on furnishing a digital identity proof, especially Aadhaar, at healthcare facilities not only limits women’s access to abortions, which is highly stigmatised in India, […]

NEW DELHI: On Monday, May 9, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation brought bulldozers and the police to Shaheen Bagh to remove “illegal encroachments”. Residents protested against […]

At 25, and into the fourth year of an abusive marriage, N*, discovered that she was eight weeks into an unwanted pregnancy. She approached a doctor […]

Jagadevi, a seasoned elected woman representative, is currently serving as a ward member of the Chittawadi gram panchayat in north-east Karnataka’s Bidar district. She has been […]

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 […]

Shahida Banu’s decision to run for the seat of a sarpanch of Kuraj panchayat in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan was met with great resistance from the […]

Lack of information on and access to hygienic practices adversely affects girls and women, especially from marginalized castes and tribes. Only 37% women across India reported […]

On the morning of April 20, Raheema Begum* watched as her family’s only source of livelihood, a cold drink kiosk, was reduced to rubble during the […]

Leela had been a binding assistant at the Kerala Books and Publications Society, a state-owned textbook publishing house, for 19 years when she was overlooked for […]

After a year-long campaign by a Dalit women’s union in Tamil Nadu, the multinational fast-fashion brand H&M and its Tamil Nadu-based supplier, Eastman Exports Global Clothing […]

[This article contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence, which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to use their discretion before […]

Every third married woman in India faces spousal violence but only one in 10 seeks any help, says a 2020 study published in the BMJ. Worse, […]

Last November, 0ver 100 guests got to sample the tribal cuisine of the Bhil tribe during the annual three-day conference of the Institute of Rural Management […]

Roll call is always traumatising for Veronica Tyagi, 19, a trans woman studying zoology at the Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab. Every time Tyagi responds […]

“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. […]

When they were 18, Nu, a non-binary person with physical and speech disabilities, recalls apologising often to their dates: “I’m sorry I walk with a crutch. […]

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 […]

It took nearly a year for Virginia* and her husband to bring home the four siblings they had asked to adopt. The children were aged between […]

A slew of initiatives, some dating back to nearly 50 years, have not succeeded in saving the children of Uttar Pradesh from acute malnourishment, shows an […]

Delhi’s anganwadi workers (AWW) and helpers (AWH), who ended their 38-day strike on March 9, will move court against the state government order terminating the services […]

Barely a month before her 12th grade board exams, Kavya Mukhija (now 23) had to take a week’s sick leave from school. She had contracted a […]

A sea of red flags rises up along Flagstaff Road in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area, just a few metres from the home of chief minister […]

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 […]

Two years into the pandemic, approximately more than two-thirds of Indian households surveyed across 14 states reported experiencing some kind of food insecurity, according to the  […]

Manipur is all set to elect its 12th state legislative assembly as it goes to polls in a 2 phase election, with the electorate voting on […]

[This article contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence, which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to use their discretion before […]

It is a wintery February morning and a dense fog has descended over Palia, a town 100 km from Lakhimpur town in northern Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur […]

Tej Kaur, a Dalit Sikh , has been cleaning and collecting cow dung for 30 years. Her walk is steady but the strain and struggle of working […]

Khushi, 18, was elated to get admission to her dream Delhi University college to study English literature. Then, the teen, who was diagnosed with a visual […]

Schemes that directly target Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have not received enough allocations in the Union Budget announced on February 1, says a […]

Women have emerged as the single largest category of persons disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The female labour force in January 2022 is 9.4% smaller than it […]

With the Delhi High Court currently considering petitions on criminialising marital rape in India, it is critical to look at the history, politics and ideology of […]

“Ye pitai khayi hui auratein hain (These are the women who’ve got beaten up).” That is how we are introduced to Nandaben Nayak, Navliben Nayak and […]

“Pinnottilla (won’t backtrack)”. That message in Malayalam on Bindu Ammini’s WhatsApp profile summarises her life so far. The 43-year-old Dalit activist and lecturer of law has […]

For over three weeks now, eight Muslim students of the Government Pre-University College (PUC) for Girls in Udupi, Karnataka, have been sitting outside their classrooms with […]

[Trigger Warning: This article contains some disturbing accounts of harassment and violence against women,which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts. We advise readers to […]

“You will suffer the same fate as Gauri Lankesh,”  Meena Kotwal, a Dalit woman journalist and founder of the media platform The Mooknayak ,was told over […]

For Khublata Regar (31), a Dalit woman, the decision to run for the office of the Sarpanch (president) in the Gram Panchayat elections in Potlan in […]

Indian women are exercising more agency as they participate more in decision making within their households, own and operate bank accounts and mobile phones, and own […]

Sujata Lilaka (21), a final year nursing student at YMT Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital in Kharghar in Panvel district of Maharashtra, collapsed on her way […]

A few weeks ago, Hera* and her toddler stared at the wall in awe. The light that gleamed through the broken glass pieces of the bangles […]

Around 400 metres off the Gujarat state highway near Vautha village, along the snake-like curves of the Sabarmati river, lie nearly a hundred acres of land […]

Nearly a decade ago, Smitha*, who lives with cerebral palsy,  underwent a surgery to remove fibroids from her uterus. The doctors, at the time, asked if […]

Usha Sahu, 45, a Mitanin trainer from Bemetara district in central Chhattisgarh was in for a  shock when she checked her bank account in October. The […]

Arpita Roy Sengupta was 22 years old when her parents, much against her wishes, arranged her marriage in 2007 with Alok*, a deaf person like her. […]

For Laxmi Bhil (23), the Bhil Adivasi Sarpanch (President), Kabra Village Council, Bhilwara District, Rajasthan, contesting elections was both taxing and rewarding. A nursing student, Laxmi […]