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MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

The inception of this project began in the Spring of 2022 after completing Revolutionary Feminism: Theory and Practice, a public and free course taught through The People’s Forum in NYC. Our final project was to create a resource that documented our learnings. My group and I created a zine for essential care workers. I left the course feeling inspired to learn more and expand the movement and community we were building in New York. I traveled to India after to celebrate my cousins’ weddings in Dehradun and Dharamshala, two beautiful and popular hill stations, and also luckily, my familial hometowns.

I had been feeling a push away from New York, and a pull towards India but until that specific trip, it hadn’t solidified. I returned from that trip re-energized and ready for a change. I changed jobs, and planned my project idea until I left for India on a one-way ticket in February of 2023. I spent 6 months traveling around India, meeting economists, scholars, activists, entrepreneurs, and reading a lot of feminist scholarship. Once I solidified an idea based on their advice, I created a formal concept note to circulate, began my research, and the rest was truly the divine timing of perfect alignments. I have deep gratitude.

This project is grounded in Marxist feminist philosophy which expands labor relations to reproductive labor. Traditionally, this work is perceived as natural “feminine” duties encouraging a biological destiny for women in which love– rather than wages or money– is meant to serve as its own reward. This project sees housework as more than just housework. It is the servicing of waged workers emotionally, physically, and sexually. The labor of “love” includes but is not limited to pregnancy, childcare, daily cooking and cleaning, emotional support, and sex. Economically, the labor of “love” is the production and reproduction of labor power and human capital, or a person’s capacity to work. Silvia Federici, author of Wages Against Housework, writes that this perspective “is the only revolutionary perspective from a feminist viewpoint and ultimately for the entire working class.”

In January of 2024, the Kickstarter Campaign launched to raise funds for the production budget. With the generous contributions of 51 different backers, and a few private donors, the campaign successfully raised nearly USD $10K. All of the funding went into the production of the project, including the artists, film production, printing, NGO partners, individual participants, and the community launch event.

Since the completion and launch in April 2024, thanks to all the support and admiration, the project has continued on…and hopefully will continue to grow and be shared around the world.

SCHOLARSHIP THAT INFORMED THE PROJECT

Armstrong, Elisabeth. Gender and neoliberalism: The All India Democratic Women’s Association and its strategies of resistance. New Delhi, India: LeftWord, 2021.

Bhattacharya, Shrayana. Desperately seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and the search for intimacy and Independence. India: HarperCollins Publishers India, 2022.

Federici, Silvia. Wages Against Housework, 1975.

Federici, Silvia. Patriarchy of the Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism. PM Press, 2021.

Gotby, Alva. They Call It Love: The Politics of Emotional Life. Verso Books, 2024.

Samantroy, Ellina, and Subhalakshmi Nandi. Gender, Unpaid Work and Care in India. Taylor & Francis, 2022.

Special Thank you to Dr. Sona Mitra at IWWAGE

Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) aims to build on existing research and generate new evidence to inform and facilitate the agenda of women’s economic empowerment.

Special Thank you to Falma Chauhan at AIDWA Himachal Pradesh

The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) is an independent left oriented women's organization committed to achieving democracy, equality and women's emancipation.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

AASHNA SINGH Concept and Production @aashnaaashna

Aashna Singh is a producer and curator, currently pursuing a Masters in Gender and Sexuality studies in the division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago. After completing her undergraduate degree from Barnard College in 2019 in Economics, she worked for the city of New York, a legal non-profit organization, a luxury fashion brand, and then eventually traveled to India to pursue a passion project on womens’ unwaged reproductive labor which resulted in Mai Ni Meriye.

FARHEEN FATIMA Book Design and Photography @farheenay

Farheen Fatima (b. 1994, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana) is an artist based in Chandigarh. She graduated with a Masters in History of Art from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, and is the recipient of The Toto Photography Award, 2022. Her exhibitions include ‘Past & Present’, Pinakothek der Moderne Museum, Munich, Germany (2023); ‘Vantage Point Sharjah 10’, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2022); Fresh Legs 2021, Inselgalerie Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); Urban, PH21 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (2020); Architecture In Detail, Alliance Française, Chandigarh (2020);8th All India Women Artists Contemporary Art Exhibition, Museum Of Fine Arts, Panjab University, Chandigarh (2019). Fatima’s commissions include Apple, VSCO and Getty Images. Her photographs have been published in Vogue India, Verve India, Grazia India, The Bengaluru Review to name a few. She has also co-authored a poetry book, Private Maps published by Human/Kind Press, Wilmington, United States.

More recently, she exhibited at Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa (2024) and the Chennai Photo Biennale (2024-2025).

ABHINAV SHARMA Documentary Short Film @_abhi.7s

Abhinav Sharma (b. 1992) is a photographer who studied Computer engineering, and documentary Photography. He has been photographing since 2015. He works as a photographer and videographer both solo and in collaboration with other artists. His practice reflects his interest in Experimental, Documentary photography and working with analogue printmaking using some early techniques of making photographic prints. Stray Bird a hand made photo book which was part of a group Exhibition at India Habitat Center (Delhi) in 2018 ; LookIn (2018-2022); Skin (2017); and SomeWhereInBetween (2016-2023) are some of his other projects.His other ongoing projects are Look around, People by the water.

Other Artists featured in the project

ASHITA THAKUR Comic Strip @ashita_thakur

HAZEL TOMLINSON ‘I don’t know if I want to be a mother’ @hazel_olivia

ABOUT THE NGO PARTNERS

Jagori Rural Charitable Trust

Jagori Rural Charitable Trust (“Jagori Grameen”), A Non-Governmental Organization is located in Rakkar, a village in the foothills of the Himalayas near Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.

Mahila Sahityakar Sansthan Kangra

A local political organization committed to empowering rural women in the region.