Background

Despite women constituting 48.8% of India’s population, they face several deep-rooted socioeconomic challenges. This becomes particularly salient in the case of women from underserved communities working in informal labor arrangements. Often we see women disproportionately impacted by a dearth of access to equitable education and employment, a lack of opportunities to avail of employment benefits such as maternity leave, health insurance and even basic grievance redressal. This is often compounded for women engaging in domestic labor, day-wage labor and blue-collar work more generally. 

A large part of this systemic issue can be attributed to inadequate education efforts for women from these communities — even when girls are sent to school, they’re rarely if ever given any instruction in the avenues of legal recourse available to them. Constructive instruction in constitutional safeguards, labor rights, and how to access subsidized or free legal aid could make a world of difference in these women's lives. Lean.in aims to address precisely this issue by raising awareness for extant protections, collating resources for subsidized or pro-bono legal aid, and delivering these to women exploited by informal labor arrangements in a concentrated effort to turn the tide.