Bangalore Widows Find Camaraderie, Friendship in the Face of Isolation—The New Humanitarian

by Abhishek Shah | Sep 21, 2020 | Essays & Commentaries, Portfolio

For five mornings each week, the elderly women who visit the Rangoli Women’s Center say they feel like they belong somewhere. This is an unusual feeling for many of them. In most of India, older women are practically invisible. In large families, they take on...

Domestic violence burns survivors get a fighting chance at a hospital in Indore—BBC World Service

by Abhishek Shah | Sep 21, 2020 | Narratives & Features, Portfolio

In India there have been many well-documented cases of women who were deliberately burned by their husbands as part of dowry demands. The law has been changed to give women more protection during the first seven years of marriage. But women are still being burned. Now...

Supporting India’s ‘forgotten’ women—DW WorldLink

by Abhishek Shah | Sep 21, 2020 | Narratives & Features, Portfolio

In patriarchal societies like India, women who survive their husbands are often neglected later in life. In Bangalore, a slum community center is hoping to improve the lives of these widows by providing a space where they can come to do yoga, crafts and make friends....

‘They Are My Sisters’: Diary of a Land Rights Activist in Rural India—The New Humanitarian

by Abhishek Shah | Sep 21, 2020 | Essays & Commentaries, Portfolio

Kamala Damor, or Sister Kamala, works with women and girls in rural Gujarat to help them access their right to property and inheritance. She tells her story to Chhavi Sachdev. “On Mondays, I leave home at 9 a.m. so I can be in Meghraj town by 10, when the land...

UNICEF’s Good News About Child Marriage Isn’t Quite As Good As It Sounds—NPR Goats and Soda

by Abhishek Shah | Sep 21, 2020 | Essays & Commentaries, Portfolio

A report released this month by UNICEF has been cause for celebration in India, the country with the highest number of child marriages in South Asia each year. According to the newly released data, the annual number of child marriages in the country has dropped by...