South Asia

India is trying to reduce maternal mortality without engaging with a key contributor: suicide

by Disha Shetty

Co-published with Scroll and Health Policy Watch

India has made enormous strides in reducing maternal mortality. But that success has exposed a largely unaddressed phenomenon: high rates of suicides around the time of childbirth.

The hidden toll of heat waves on women in South Asia

by Disha Shetty

Co-published with Scroll

Reporter’s Notebook: Women’s invisibility in climate stories erase their narratives. The result is bad policy

by Disha Shetty

Peru has its first female president — but feminists aren’t celebrating

by Simeon Tegel

How abortion restrictions compare, state-by-state

by Erica Hensley Jessica Washington

New World Bank Gender Equality Study shows only 14 countries offer full legal protection for women

by Xanthe Scharff

Reporter’s Notebook: War in Ukraine is driving up domestic violence. Experts say the worst is yet to come.

by Jessie Williams

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‘The Pain Was Unbearable’: Thousands of Women Subjected to Banned ‘Virginity Tests’

The notorious two-finger virginity test was outlawed in Pakistan last year, but an investigation by The Fuller Project and VICE World News showed that doctors are still subjecting rape survivors to the test with impunity.

by Suddaf Chaudry

This story was published in partnership with VICE World News and The Fuller Project.

The loneliest lactation consultant in the world

Pakistan has 50 million women of childbearing age and only one globally certified person to help them feed their newborns.

by Hina Husain

Co-published with Foreign Policy

Mysterious deaths of mother, daughter lay bare neglect of rural healthcare in India

The deaths of a village elder and her daughter during India’s second COVID-19 wave raise important questions about lapses in the Indian government’s pandemic response.

by Puja Changoiwala

Co-published with The Wire

In the Sundarban, climate change has an unlikely effect — on child sex-trafficking

Child trafficking is on the rise in one of the most climate vulnerable places on earth—revealing blind spots in climate policy, experts tell contributor Ritwika Mitra.

by Ritwika Mitra

Co-published with The Wire

India is building a women-only social safety net

Political parties across India have promised a host of new social programs exclusively for women. Is it politics or progress?

by Mahima Jain

This story was co-published with Foreign Policy.

In rural India, stricken by pandemic, necessity of invention fills in for the state: Reporter’s Notebook

Decades of neglecting rural health infrastructure took its toll and by May 7, the infections and deaths in India were being reported from its villages, a “worrying” trend considering the acute shortage of healthcare providers…

by Puja Changoiwala

India’s investments in early warning systems have unintended benefits for women

Men in fishing communities were mostly expected to reap the benefits after India started investing in early weather warning systems a decade ago. But government data suggests that women got an unforeseen an economic boost…

by Disha Shetty

Co-published with The Wire.

Early puberty cases have surged during covid, doctors say

Doctors, parents and studies are reporting a rise in such cases, with some children getting their periods as young as 8.

by Puja Changoiwala

Co-published with The Washington Post

Reporter’s Notebook: Indoor air in India can be just as bad as the country’s toxic smog. Was I wrong to be surprised?

India’s polluted skylines regularly make international news. But it’s only now coming to light that air quality inside homes, which mainly affects women in the kitchen, can be just as bad.

by Disha Shetty

“Neither a widow nor a wife”: India’s abandoned brides

Fraudster husbands in India get married and make promises to take their new wives abroad. But once they receive a dowry, they leave the brides behind. Abused and defrauded, these women are trying to put…

by Safina Nabi

Co-published with Scroll

Qatar’s World Cup Legacy Is Stranded Worker Widows

As the most controversial World Cup in recent memory draws to a close, thousands of widows across South Asia are left picking up the pieces of their shattered lives.

by Maher Sattar, Bhadra Sharma

Co-published with Foreign Policy

South Asia

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