• 20 years of ASHAs

    • On Census Duty, Mumbai’s ASHA Workers Battle Peak Heat, Dread Monsoon Mayhem

    Armed with nothing more than government issue caps to protect them in record heatwave conditions, frontline health workers in Mumbai are struggling with the additional load of Census work

    Recent Stories

    ‘Coerced Sterilisations Impacting Dipping Tribal Population’: Alu Kurumba Women Of Nilgiris

    Women said they are not counselled about their reproductive rights or alternative contraceptive methods, which contravenes government policy on rights and choice-based family planning

    BehanVox: All Platitudes, No Heat Protections

    This week in BehanVox: an investigation on casteism in ASHA work, Pope's encyclical on AI, and more

    Postscript #14: The Importance of Doing Micro Data Collection

    In Postscript, we reflect on the editorial choices we make and abandon. Plus all things behind the scenes. This week: anecdotes at scale

    How Caste Networks Influence ASHA Hiring, Obstructing Dalit Applicants

    SC ASHAs from rural Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh reveal how dominant caste networks obstruct the appointment of ASHA workers from marginalised communities, denying them opportunities to earn and lead

    Stories

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    ASHA interview Punam Mumbai

    ‘ASHA Workers Have No Choice But To Work In The Heat’

    20 Years On, Dalit ASHA Workers Are Fighting A Lone Battle Against Caste

    behanvox april 12

    BehanVox: Census And Cockroaches

    Stories

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    A Women Farmers Collective Is Hosting Change in Himalayan Villages

    forced tubectomies nilgiris

    ‘Coerced Sterilisations Impacting Dipping Tribal Population’: Alu Kurumba Women Of Nilgiris

    behanvox april 12

    BehanVox: All Platitudes, No Heat Protections

    Podcast

    podcast-2

    Kaam Ki Baat
    podcast-2

    Untold Stories from Women
    General Election 2024
    General Election 2024

    Special Series

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    Interviews

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    ASHA interview Punam Mumbai

    ‘ASHA Workers Have No Choice But To Work In The Heat’

    GN Devy census

    ‘The Intention Is Questionable, The Means Do Not Inspire Trust’: GN Devy On Census 2027

    behanbox talkies digital citizens

    ‘The Algorithm Is Paying Women To Uphold Patriarchy’

    Gender Files

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    A close look at law and gender

    Gender Files

    A close look at law and gender

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    ‘With UCC, The State Has Become A Father Figure That Sanctions Who We Love’

    Understanding ‘Rape On Promise Of Marriage’: The Reliance On Caste, Gender Stereotypes

    Why Society Needs To Reimagine Care Work, Support We Cannot Do Without

    Videos

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    Who do India’s direct cash transfer schemes for women actually reach and who do they leave out? In this conversation, we examine the politics of cash transfers to women in the context of unpaid care labour and the April 2026 State Assembly election results in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. Cash transfer schemes for women have become central to electoral politics across India – from West Bengal’s Lakshmir Bhandar to Assam's Orunodoi to Tamil Nadu’s Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam (KMUT) to Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin Yojana. Public debate frames these schemes as electoral strategy or fiscal burden. We ask a different question: what does it mean when governments promise cash to women at home, while the women delivering welfare – ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, sanitation workers and mid-day meal cooks – continue to work for honorariums stuck at decade-old rates? We also ask: → Who falls outside the eligibility criteria these schemes set? → How do cash transfers interact with rising household debt and inflation? → What would a rights-based approach to welfare that holds across election cycles look like? Watch the full BehanBox Feminist Election Newsroom conversation on cash transfers, welfare, electoral politics and state responsibility for India's care economy. 🎙 MODERATOR → Bhanupriya Rao, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, BehanBox 🎙 SPEAKERS → Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran, Professor of Law & Social Justice, King's College London → Dr. Varna Sri Raman, Development Economist → Aishwarya Govindarajan, Journalist ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 05:18 Unpaid care labour and women’s experiences 14:41 Cash transfers in Tamil Nadu 26:26 Fiscal burdens and cash transfers across India 31:35 Q&A: Frequency of cash transfers 34:50 Q&A: Valuing unpaid care labour 39:00 Q&A: Fiscal burden, care infrastructure, and rights 44:56 Q&A: Cash transfers and state elections 52:05 Closing 📩 JOIN THE FEMINIST ELECTION NEWSROOM Be part of future conversations: https://forms.gle/AmfeYC6GKPTpLkBx7 The Feminist Election Newsroom is BehanBox's initiative to build a collective feminist practice of democratic engagement – tracking, interrogating, and holding power accountable, during elections and beyond. 🔗 ABOUT BEHANBOX BehanBox is a feminist media organisation that interrogates gender and marginality in India to build an India without margins – where power, resources, and dignity belong to everyone. Website: behanbox.com Instagram: @behanvox LinkedIn: BehanBox #CashTransfers #WomenInIndia #FeministElectionNewsroom #UnpaidCareWork #IndiaElections2026 #LakshmirBhandar #KMUT #Orunodoi #CareEconomy #BehanBox #FeministMedia #WelfarePolitics #ASHA #AnganwadiWorkers
    Direct Cash Transfers to Women in India: Politics, Welfare & 2026 Elections
    The Bhopal Gas Tragedy began on 2nd December 1984 with a toxic gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant, killing thousands and maiming many more. But it did not end at dawn on December 3rd.  For the women who live in the neighbourhoods surrounding the abandoned Union Carbide factory, the gas never left their consciousness. And while the factory may stand abandoned today, the chemicals continue to seep into the soil and groundwater. And not a single person has been convicted for a crime that has spanned generations.   Therefore, remembering Bhopal is a political act. To remember Bhopal is to refuse the lie that this violence belongs to the past. In this podcast, ⁠Tulika Bansal (an independent researcher)⁠ and ⁠Rachna Dhingra (an activist working with survivors for 20+ years) take us through what it means to live with – and collectively remember – the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, four decades on.  At ⁠BehanBox⁠, we are committed to keeping the Bhopal story alive as a living political reality. This podcast is part of our two-week-long campaign, where we bring you stories, interviews, songs of resistance, and reporting that centre the voices of Bhopal’s women campaigners. Read our reporting on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy: https://behanbox.com/2025/12/02/bhopal-gas-tragedy-the-disaster-lives-on-in-the-women-of-bhopal-41-years-later/ -- Song sung by Meera More, as part of the ⁠⁠Remember Bhopal Museum⁠⁠ -- Thumbnail and illustrations by ⁠⁠Urvi Sawant -- ⁠⁠Hosted by ⁠⁠Anjali⁠⁠ -- Edited by Vijay Chawla Follow us and subscribe for more (it's free!): https://www.behanbox.substack.com
    Bhopal Gas Tragedy: 41 Years on, Women Continue to Fight | BehanBox
    Kheria Sabar form a subgroup among the Sabar people, who live in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. India’s 2011 census estimates its population at 1.8 lakh in West Bengal. They were a nomadic, forest-dwelling and forest-dependent people, where the women would engage in foraging, and the men, hunting. The 1871 Criminal Tribes Act and the 1952 Habitual Offenders Act had penalised and stigmatised Sabar people for nearly a century. The nationalisation of forests in India threatened to evict them from their native forest habitats. At the very least, it restricted their ability to forage for wild food in the absence of paperwork proving entitlement. This film is about food, yes—but not the kind that comes neatly packaged. It’s about food as inheritance, food as memory, food as resistance. It’s about the slow erasure of indigenous diets by climate change, deforestation, and policy neglect. This video features voices from the Kheria Sabar community and those working to keep their knowledge alive. 🎥 Produced with support from Earth Journalism Network Follow us: Website: https://behanbox.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehanBox Instagram: https://instagram.com/behanbox LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/linkedin-behanbox
    How Sabar Women Are Surviving a Climate-Changed World

    As I See it

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    As I See it

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    social audits MGNREGA

    Inside The Radical Promise Of Social Audits Under MGNREGA

    lifeofpujaadebate

    When Fluency Arrives From the ‘Wrong’ Room

    Global Feminist Movement Must Engage Critically With And Centre Caste