Zubaan

Is a cultural and literary programme in India's Northeast since 2016. It aims to foster conversations among writers, artists, and journalists from the region and other parts of India. The programme has explored various topics such as women's memories, queer nationalism, migration, and statehood movements. The programme transitioned to digital platforms. The objectives include strengthening networks, promoting cross-cultural exchange, publishing books by Northeast Indian writers, supporting young writers and researchers through funding and workshops, responding to on-ground developments, and encouraging diverse forms of knowledge production. Specific grants were introduced to support journalists documenting the pandemic's impact and women's collectives engaged in relief work. The initiative also includes a programme called Through Her Lens, which aims to document the memories of women and gender minorities in the region through various mediums, including photography.

Led by Zubaan and funded by the Ford Foundation. It aims to explore how women navigate paid economic work in the context of unpaid and undervalued labour, considering their social identities such as caste, class, region, ethnicity, and sexuality. The project supports participatory research by women and LGBTQIA researchers, partnering with women leaders, community researchers, and grassroots activists/organizations. The research focuses on informal sectors including construction, sanitation, domestic work, sex work, agriculture, grassroots volunteering, and may extend to sectors like hospitality, private education, media, and tourism. The project aims to produce documentation and audio-visual reports to disseminate information within communities, support local organisations, and facilitate mobilization. It aligns with Zubaan's commitment to amplifying diverse perspectives and contributions from local researchers and grassroots women's collectives.

The Cultures of Peace: Festival of the Northeast is a collaborative project between Zubaan and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung/Heinrich Boell Foundation. It focuses on the Northeastern region of India and aims to diversify mainstream conversations and knowledge production about the region. The project has built an archive of video interviews and podcasts with women, queer, non-binary, and trans individuals involved in activism, arts, music, and literature. The festival creates spaces for dialogue and highlights present-day concerns while addressing the region's relationship with the rest of India. The project aims to connect cultures and people through literature, art, photography, food, and dance, expanding the context in which the Northeast is discussed beyond conflict. Future plans include exploring feminist institution-building and documenting the histories and challenges faced by feminist organisations in the region.

Poster Women is a project that visually maps the women's movement in India through the posters produced by the movement. The aim is to create a historical record of the movement and its campaigns using visual images. The project collects and documents posters from the movement, organising them thematically and providing detailed annotations. However, some details for certain posters are missing due to the lack of source information or the unavailability of individuals associated with the groups that produced them. The project encourages visitors to the site to contribute information about the posters or the groups/individuals involved to help complete the archive and enhance the understanding of the movement's richness.

The Sexual Violence and Impunity (SVI) project by Zubaan aims to study the history and current prevalence of mass sexual violence in South Asia. Zubaan, a feminist publishing house based in New Delhi, recognizes the importance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing among women in South Asia. Through this project, it aims to learn from each other's experiences and knowledge, foster dialogue, and address the challenging and significant issue of sexual violence in the region. The project emphasizes the need for a collective and comparative approach to promote peace and understanding.