Institute of Social Studies Trust

“Ghar ka koi kona pasand nahi hai.”
What began as a simple question to young women in Kalyanpuri unfolded into conversations around safety, freedom, care, control, and the everyday negotiations they make for space — both physical and emotional.
This blog, written by Radhika Jagtap, Executive Manager, Programs, ISST, reflects on how young women navigate restrictions shaped by “log kya kahenge,” while continuing to dream, resist, negotiate, and build support systems for themselves and each other.
Their demands are simple yet powerful: choice, trust, dignity, safety, and the freedom to occupy space on their own terms.
Read the full blog through the link in our



women empowerment, gender justice, ngo india, research, safety, space

We at ISST wish you all a very happy International Labour Day!

These photographs, taken by the first batch of photography students at Yuva Saathi Centre as part of an assignment, capture informal work done by women around them. Through their lens, they captured the everyday labour that sustains homes, communities, and cities every single day, often without recognition, protection, or rest.

At ISST, our feminist research and engagement over the years have continually reminded us that labour is not only about productivity, but also about dignity, safety, care, joy, and the right to rest. Women in informal work carry the burden of paid labour alongside unpaid care work, while navigating unequal systems shaped by gender, caste, and class. Yet, they continue to build solidarities, nurture communities, and imagine better futures every day.

This Labour Day, we reaffirm the right to fair work, fair wages, social protection, and dignified working conditions for all workers, especially women in the informal economy whose work remains invisibilised despite being essential.

We continue to strive for fair work, and a fair system for all.

Photo credits to Amrita, Amit, Garima, Usha, Tanya, Pihu, Harsh and Aman





GenderJustice

labour rights, feminist joy, care work, invisible labour, dignity of labour, fair work, rest and recovery, women workers, informal work

We’re hiring 📣

ISST is hiring a Communications Professional to support and strengthen our digital presence and outreach. This role involves shaping how our research and field-based work is communicated to diverse audiences through thoughtful storytelling, platform-specific strategies, and engaging content.

If you are interested in working at the intersection of gender, labour, and development, and are keen to contribute to meaningful, research-driven communications, we encourage you to apply.

🔗 For the detailed Job Description and application form, please visit the link in our bio.



digital communications, social media strategy, storytelling, nonprofit communications, research dissemination, social impact careers

After over four decades of advancing research and action on women’s work, we are currently navigating a short-term funding gap — one that required us to draw on our reserve fund to sustain our teams and work.

This is not easy to share. But it is important. Institutions like ours work in the background — generating evidence, bringing voices from the ground, and creating spaces where conversations on women and their work can continue to make a difference. As we reflect on our journey, we recognise that solidarity is not only about sharing successes, but also about acknowledging challenges and learning from them to emerge stronger. We hold the values of independent feminist research close to our hearts and remain committed to continuing this work with the same dedication.

We are reaching out to our wider network to help us bridge this gap.
📌 Our goal: ₹50 lakhs by June 2026
📌 Every contribution, introduction, or share matters
Read our full note below!
We are grateful for your support that has brought us this far. Help us carry it ahead.

ngo non profit social impact changemakers donate share

ISST is pleased to conclude its research training workshop with the team at WaterAid India.

Over the course of this engagement, the workshop enabled rich discussions and shared learning at the intersection of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and women’s lives and livelihoods. The collaboration has been a valuable opportunity to strengthen research capacities while deepening our collective understanding of how WASH interventions can be more inclusive, responsive, and grounded in community experiences.

We are greatful to Dr Prachi Bansal for her contributions to the workshop.

We look forward to continued engagements that advance evidence-based and gender-responsive approaches within the development sector.

This International Women’s Day, we reflect on women’s work — both visible and invisible.

Across homes, communities, and workplaces, women’s labour powers economies and social life. Yet large parts of this work, especially care and informal labour, remain undervalued, undercounted, and unsupported.

For over four decades, the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST) has engaged deeply with questions of women’s labour, livelihoods, and care. From examining informal work and digitalisation to bringing attention to the unequal burden of care work, our research has sought to make women’s realities visible and influence more gender-just policies and systems.

But research like this only continues when communities of support stand behind it.
As we look ahead, we invite those who believe in strengthening evidence, dialogue, and action on women and work to support our journey. Your contributions help sustain independent research that keeps women’s voices and experiences at the centre.
If our work resonates with you, consider becoming part of the community that makes it possible.

Image Credits to Samarthan Mahila Sangathan, Gujarat.

A proud moment for us at ISST 🌍
We are delighted to share that ISST is now a member of the Global Alliance for Care.

Our work at ISST has consistently focused on strengthening research and evidence on women’s disproportionate responsibility for care work, with the aim of advancing care as a shared social responsibility and placing wellbeing at the centre of social and economic systems.

The Global Alliance for Care is the first global multi-stakeholder platform advancing care as a need, as work, and as a right, bringing together governments, civil society, trade unions, philanthropy, international organisations, and academia.

As a member of the Alliance, ISST will have the opportunity to play an active role by contributing research evidence, policy insights, and community-based perspectives to collective efforts on care, from local contexts to global platforms. We look forward to engaging with the alliance and contributing meaningfully to the global care agenda!

Research

Our colleague Sreerupa . recently spoke at the 7th Delhi Digital Conclave – Equal by Design, organised by Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, as part of the panel “The Personal is Political: Gender in Intimate Spaces”, bringing a gender lens to conversations on Digital Public Infrastructure and AI governance.

As India advances initiatives like the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and the Poshan Tracker, digital systems are increasingly embedded in intimate spaces—homes, caregiving relationships, and communities—where 3.5–4 million frontline women workers sustain both service delivery and the digital architectures behind them.

Drawing on ISST’s study, Digitalisation at the Frontlines: ASHA’s Experiences across Haryana, Rajasthan, Kerala and Meghalaya, she highlighted a key insight: digitalisation is not neutral—it reshapes care, labour, and power. Care work is increasingly datafied, unpaid digital labour is expanding, and “always-on” expectations are reshaping autonomy and accountability.

And yet, when designed with intention, digital tools can strengthen agency—improving information flows, enhancing coordination, and deepening community trust.

Equality by Design must go beyond device access. It requires:
✔ Recognition of care as work
✔ Fair distribution of digital labour
✔ Protection from surveillance and overwork
✔ Participatory design that centres frontline workers

Digital transformation must advance justice and dignity—not reproduce inequality at scale.

As the India AI Impact Summit 2026 draws to a close, we’re revisiting key insights from the Pre-Summit consultations jointly organised by the Institute of Social Studies Trust and the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute, conversations that brought together evaluators, practitioners, and gender experts to reflect on what it takes to build fair and accountable AI systems.

The speakers highlighted the need to move from principles to practice: co-designing AI with local community women, strengthening gender-disaggregated data systems, and embedding gender-transformative safeguards to identify bias, ensure accountability, and prevent harm.

Together, these discussions reflected on what a gender transformative framework for AI design would look like. The recommendations from the speakers and Chair were invaluable in co-creating this framework that would lead to a holistic AI and future of work paradigm, which is people-centric, ecological and culture-sensitive and aims towards creating solutions for the greater good at scale for a better world.