solidarity

Building Solidarity amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 1
Condoms are distributed by sex workers who work with SANGRAM and VAMP to educate and empower their peers.
Building Solidarity amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 1

A gradual process of inclusion; engaging and understanding exclusion  In 1992, health and human rights NGO, SANGRAM, recognised the need…
By SANGRAM
December 1, 2015
Building Solidarity amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 1
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2
Condoms are distributed by sex workers who work with SANGRAM and VAMP to educate and empower their peers.
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2

This is the second part in a two-part series on SANGRAM’s work in Sangli. Read the first part here. Finding…
By SANGRAM
December 15, 2015
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2
In the Bonobo World, Female Camaraderie Prevails
In the Bonobo World, Female Camaraderie Prevails

Suddenly, three older, high-ranking female bonobos bolted up from below, a furious blur of black fur and swinging limbs and, together with the female in estrus, flew straight for the offending males. The males scattered. The females pursued them. Tree boughs bounced and cracked. Screams on all sides grew deafening.
By Curated Content
April 18, 2017
In the Bonobo World, Female Camaraderie Prevails
Short Film: Oruvannukku Oruththi? (A Man For a Woman?)
A still from the film 'Oruvannukku Oruththi'
Short Film: Oruvannukku Oruththi? (A Man For a Woman?)

Our sexuality is often in flux – being manoeuvred (sometimes in ways we cannot control) by the crashing waves of societal expectations, circumstances, and our own choices and experiences. But the world continues to uphold a fixed, rigid idea of sexuality, and continues to confine us within this idea, and therein lies the conflict.
By Curated Content
August 1, 2019
Short Film: Oruvannukku Oruththi? (A Man For a Woman?)
Review: What Sex Work Taught Feminism: Tales Of The Night Fairies
cover image: youtube
Review: What Sex Work Taught Feminism: Tales Of The Night Fairies

Tales delicately yet powerfully draws out the conflict between sex workers and feminism in India,at a time when a lot of feminists thought of prostitution through a SWERF lens[1].
By Moulshri Mohan
January 2, 2020
Review: What Sex Work Taught Feminism: Tales Of The Night Fairies
A Cafe Of Our Own?: The Politics Of Queer Spatiality In Urban India
A Cafe Of Our Own?: The Politics Of Queer Spatiality In Urban India

Queer cafés are not exempt from the fast changing landscape of Indian metropolitan areas and offer both inclusion as well as exclusion from the promise of a queer utopia.
By Swati Vijaya and Debanuj Dasgupta
January 2, 2020
A Cafe Of Our Own?: The Politics Of Queer Spatiality In Urban India
Brushstrokes: Closets
A part of the webcomic ‘Closets’
Brushstrokes: Closets

Robot Hugs, in their insightful comic, take on closets as inherently oppressive structures built to uphold what is acceptable and…
By Curated Content
July 1, 2020
Brushstrokes: Closets
Notes on seeing each other through
A photograph of the eye of a needle and many differently coloured threads passing through it, on a black background.
Notes on seeing each other through

…even if people have little in common, once they enter these spaces of solidarity, they are connected to a larger community. These spaces become wellsprings of an unspoken sense of safety and mutual support between individuals of communities that share a sense of having been othered.

By Soumya Jayanti
November 16, 2020
Notes on seeing each other through
Churails: The Revolution Within Us All
A poster of the mini-series Churails. Two women can be seen sitting in a line. The first woman has a gun in her hands and the woman above her has a flask and hockey stick.
Churails: The Revolution Within Us All

Their inimitable personalities showcase their varied conceptions of insaaf (justice), enriching and intensifying the plot and, at the same time, reaffirming their solidarity and strengthening their unity.

By Nupur Paliwal and Saloni Mishra
December 1, 2020
Churails: The Revolution Within Us All
Tomboy Femininity
A photograph of the author, Di Sands
Tomboy Femininity

When I finally came out to myself at age 16 and made it to a free queer youth space, I couldn’t wait to be accepted among folks who didn’t play by society’s heterosexist rules of masculine and feminine as polar opposites.
By Di Sands
December 1, 2020
Tomboy Femininity
Editorial: Femininities and Sexuality
A close-up photograph of a dandelion with dew. The dewdrops are differently coloured in the light.
Editorial: Femininities and Sexuality

Are certain forms of femininities denigrated more than others? Not just by misogynists but also by feminists? Is there a particular way of manifesting an ‘appropriate’ femininity, one that is just right, and is not ‘too girly’ or ‘too tomboyish’?

By TARSHI
December 15, 2020
Editorial: Femininities and Sexuality
Invisible Women
A poster of the film 'North Country'. On the poster: in the middle, Charlize Theron's face and shoulders. She is wearing a yellow bandana and a grey-beige t-shirt. She is looking at the camera, wide-eyed. Behind her is a crowd of men, a bit transparent. The lettering under her is in white, saying NORTH COUNTRY. Above her, the lettering says, 'ALL SHE WANTED WAS TO MAKE A LIVING, INSTEAD SHE MADE HISTORY' and underneath the title of the film are details about its cast and production.
Invisible Women

I recently watched North Country on Netflix, a movie based on a true story of a woman’s fight for equality at the workplace. It is based on the case, Jenson vs Eveleth Mines, in the United States in which Lois Jenson, fought for the right to work as a miner, and the right to work free of sexual harassment. She won the landmark 1984 lawsuit, which was the first class-action lawsuit on sexual harassment at the workplace in the United States and resulted in companies/organisations having to introduce sexual harassment policies at the workplace.
By ElsaMarie D'Silva
May 15, 2021
Invisible Women
Interview: Shruti Arora
A photograph of a woman’s face with a mural in the background. The woman has short black hair and a nose piercing. She is smiling.
Interview: Shruti Arora

There may already be another organisation in the community to share resources with but for community-led initiatives, a shared perspective on Safe, Inclusive, Sexuality-Affirming (SISA) spaces is also important. Sometimes when the shared perspective is not there, that becomes a challenge.
By Shikha Aleya
January 3, 2022
Interview: Shruti Arora
Editorial – Celebrating Sexuality
A colourful background with “100 % sexuality” written in blue with pink shadow around the text.
Editorial – Celebrating Sexuality

100 issues, 8 years! Thank you, dear readers and contributors! As we planned for this issue to put on our…
By TARSHI
March 15, 2022
Editorial – Celebrating Sexuality
Video – Tishani Doshi: Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (poetry/dance)
Photograph of Tishani Doshi in the middle of a dance performance. She is wearing a pink pantsuit and has long hair. She has her legs slightly bent in a wide stance, with her palms cupped, facing outward towards the camera lens and positioned near her pubic area. A spotlight is focussed on her.
Video – Tishani Doshi: Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (poetry/dance)

In the video section, watch Tishani Doshi perform one of her most haunting and popular poems ‘Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods’. Using the movements of/in body, music and language, it is a powerful expression of Tishani’s expansive vision of resistance, freedom and solidarity in the face of violence.
By Curated Content
May 3, 2022
Video – Tishani Doshi: Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (poetry/dance)
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