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    Men dominate the cardamom trade that is worth crores but it is women’s labour and agricultural knowledge that holds up the industry

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    Women Sustain Andhra's Fish Trade But Are Absent From State Schemes

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    There are two stories about data centres. The first, told by companies and governments, promises abundance: jobs, foreign investment, a transformed society, and a ‘sovereign AI’. The second is an account of deficits and discrepancies: projects large enough to consume the resources of an entire city, coerced land grabs and false promises, and environmental clearances approved within days with no public consultation. Where does the truth lie? BehanBox travelled to two proposed hyperscale data centre sites, Tarluvada in Visakhapatnam and Balkum in Thane, to find out. India's environmental clearance system was built in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy to make industry answerable for what it does to people and places, and to give affected communities a say before harm is done. Today, those same safeguards are skipped, rushed or opaque. In this video, residents, former government officials and activists share how a process intended to ensure transparency and accountability has become the route by which companies like Adani, Google and Amazon take away lands, lives and futures. Featured in the video: - Pyla Kondamma: Resident of Tarluvada, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - Relli Ramakrishna: Resident of Tarluvada, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - E.A.S Sarma: Former IAS Officer and Secretary to Government of India - Deeksha Vanguru: Coalition for AI Regulation, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - Jatin Kothare and Gurashish Singh Bamra: Members of Wake Up Thanekar Movement and Residents of Balkum, Thane, Maharashtra Reported, edited and produced by: Anjali D Telugu translations and on-ground support: Bhaskar Basava This story has been produced as part of the Asian College of Journalism's Climate Change Media Hub Mentorship Program. ** Read our full explainer on how diluted laws and opaque processes power India’s AI data centre boom: https://behanbox.com/2026/07/26/distributing-land-like-candy-how-diluted-laws-opaque-processes-power-indias-ai-data-centre-boom/ *** Music by Yuzzy: https://bit.ly/2nUbGqD & USCO Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1dSHiUMLl4&list=RDL1dSHiUMLl4&start_radio=1 🔗 ABOUT BEHANBOX BehanBox is a feminist media organisation that interrogates gender and marginality in India. Website: behanbox.com Instagram: @behanbox LinkedIn: BehanBox #DataCentres #EnvironmentalClearance #EIA #Visakhapatnam #Thane #AIInfrastructure #Hyperscale #ClimateJustice #LandRights #BehanBox #BhopalGasTragedy #Consent #publicconsultation
    Clearing the Data | How India’s Environmental Laws are Failing Communities Facing Data Centres
    When skilled women Chikankaari workers are paid "a little bit more" by a boutique that's cut out the middleman, is that empowerment, or just a slightly less hard place in the same supply chain? Garima Agarwal argues that as long as the woman doing the embroidery has no say in pricing, no ownership over the product, and no one asking what happens to her care work while she's on the clock, the value chain hasn't really changed. Garima spent eight months in Kakori's back rooms documenting what the Chikankaari supply chain actually looks like for the women holding the needle. In this behind the scenes conversation with Pallavi Prasad, she traces how a craft historically done by male artisans in formal workshops became women's home-based piecework, and how that shift was never about tradition or suitability, but about who gets to decide what skilled labour is worth. She also dives into what policy gets wrong about female labour force participation, why education alone doesn't translate into opportunity, and what models like SEWA Lucknow’s point toward. Read the full story at behanbox.com #Chikankaari #WomensLabour #InformalEconomy #HandicraftIndustry #WomenAndWork #GenderAndWork #FeministMedia #BehanBox #LucknowCraft #WomenEmpowerment #InformalWork #LabourRights #CraftAndCaste #HomeBasedWork #MinimumWage
    The Business of 'Empowerment': Behind the Scenes of Lucknow's Chikankaari Industry
    Lucknow’s Rs 4,000 crore Chikankaari industry is routinely cited as a model of women's economic inclusion and ‘empowerment’. But the women doing this work tell a different story: of piece-rate labour below minimum wage, of mobility policed by izzat, and of an “empowerment” that provides income without control, agency, or the option to walk away. In this interview, Garima Agarwal, author of BehanBox's investigation into the Chikankaari industry of Uttar Pradesh, takes us behind the reporting. She draws on eight months of fieldwork across 15 households in Katra Bazaar, Kakori, to examine how the production chain is designed to keep women invisible, why feminisation of a craft almost always means its devaluation, and what genuine alternatives might look like. Read the full BehanBox investigation: https://behanbox.com/2026/03/13/handicrafts-as-empowerment-the-double-edged-reality-of-chikankaari/ GUEST: Garima Agarwal is a Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School. With a background in architecture and urban development, her work lies at the intersection of the future of work, cities, and equity. INTERVIEWER: Pallavi Prasad leads Strategy and Partnerships at BehanBox ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 02:50 Reporting during COVID 05:32 Women in the Chikankaari production cycle 13:40 On seeing as an architect 22:00 Financial agency, choice and women’s work 31:14 Feminisation of work and the vocabulary of choice 45:20 Policy: what does it get right and what’s missing? 52:55 On scaling and cooperative models 56:22 Challenging the status quo 🔗 ABOUT BEHANBOX BehanBox is a feminist media organisation that interrogates gender and marginality in India. Website: behanbox.com Instagram: @behanbox LinkedIn: BehanBox #Chikankaari #WomensLabour #InformalEconomy #HandicraftIndustry #WomenAndWork #GenderAndWork #FeministMedia #BehanBox #LucknowCraft #WomenEmpowerment #InformalWork #LabourRights #CraftAndCaste #HomeBasedWork #MinimumWage
    Lucknow's Chikankaari Market: How a Rs 4,000 Crore Industry Keeps Women Invisible

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