18: The World in the Time of Corona Part 4: India

This episode takes us to India as we chat to Swarnima Bhattacharya, the founder of TheaCare, a platform that brings women’s health and women’s bodies to the fore by creating awareness, and fostering healthy conversations.

Swarnima sheds light on how India and its people are navigating the coronavirus. She explains how the class divide has affected citizens in lockdown, and how peer-support networks in poorer communities have been activated. She goes on to describe how the pandemic has highlighted the faultlines of gender based violence, power and sexualization in India. She also shares incredible stories of young women who are using their digital skills to spread awareness through TikTok and other apps.

This episode is brought to you by Bear Radio. Big thanks to RØDE for the sponsored equipment and to our friends and family for their enthusiasm to share their stories. Please support Swarnima and the incredible work she is doing by visiting https://thea.care and thea.care on Instagram.

Please share your own stories, both fun and not, to [e-mail] and while you’re at it, a donation of any sort would be much appreciated, the link is PayPal.me/bearradio - all donors will receive a loving shoutout in the next episode.