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    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
    In India, care work is gendered, but also deeply shaped by caste. Yet, there is little evidence or data on how caste shapes the lives and labour of ASHA workers, women who form the backbone of India’s public healthcare system. After official data and RTI responses failed to give us answers, we decided to build our own evidence. Sarasvati Thuppadolla spent over two months speaking to 70 ASHA workers across six states, including 52 Dalit ASHA workers who participated in a micro-survey. “How could I expect someone to talk about caste and discrimination in our first conversation, that too over the phone? How do you even begin to compound these deeply painful experiences into a number considered ‘enough’?” Watch as Sarasvati reflects on the choices, challenges and questions that shaped the investigation. Read the behind-the-scenes piece at Substack/@,behanbox and explore the three-part Caste x ASHA series at behanbox.com.
    Caste and ASHA Work: Reporting Behind the Scenes

    As I See it

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    As I See it

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    ‘We Are In A Fight for Azaadi’: Notes From An ASHA Worker’s Diary

    'We Saw The Biases In The SIR Process But Were Too Overwhelmed To Do Anything About It'

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