Advertise on podcast: Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy's Podcast

This episode reflects on the Legally Hers podcast miniseries and brings together the key insights from our conversations with our guest, including feminist scholars, a Member of Parliament, and a filmmaker. In this episode, we revisit key threads from all our conversations and connect the main themes. We return to the questions that guided us at the start and share how our perspectives on them have evolved. We explore questions such as: What is the female gaze? How is it expressed, represented, and understood in the world around us? And what does it truly mean to centre someone’s lived experience within law, policy, and systems of justice? At the heart of this episode is a central feminist idea: to truly understand someone’s lived reality, we must move beyond what society thinks women need and instead listen deeply to what women themselves say they need. Feminism, then, becomes a fight for equal value, dignity, and recognition, one that requires solidarities among women from all walks of life. We also discuss Prathiksha’s dream for the world and reflect on what solidarity could mean for womanhood in the future. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/episode-7-reflections/ Credits: Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #Podcast #FemaleGaze #FeministConversations #WomenStories #Documentary #GenderAndSociety

What does it really mean to see women’s lives through the female gaze? In the final guest episode of our miniseries, we speak with filmmaker Paromita Vohra about representation, women’s lived realities, and the many forms of labour that often go unseen, are stigmatised, or are judged morally. Drawing from her documentary, The Working Girls, this episode examines women’s experiences in all their complexity, including their labour, joy, exhaustion, survival, and everyday lives, while exploring what it means to truly centre women’s perspectives in storytelling, society, and the law. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/episode-6-roll-sound-lights-camera-female-gaze/ Credits: Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #Podcast #FemaleGaze #FeministConversations #WomenStories #Documentary #GenderAndSociety

This episode, marking International Workers’ Day, honours the often-overlooked contributions of women’s labour through a conversation with Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran. It traces the complex and often turbulent journey of women’s work, from its historical invisibility to its partial and uneven recognition today. Through a feminist lens, the episode examines how law functions not merely as text on paper, but as a force that interacts with, and sometimes deepens, economic, social, and political inequalities, shaping the lived realities of women’s labour. The discussion centres on Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran’s project, Laws of Social Reproduction, grounded in the Global South context of India. It explores female reproductive labour in its many forms, from unpaid domestic work within households to labour performed outside marriage and for the market, including sex work, erotic dancing, surrogacy, egg donation, and paid domestic work. By locating these forms of labour along a market–marriage continuum, the project shows how law both renders much of this work invisible and regulates each sector differently through criminal, licensing, contract, family, and tort law, exposing deep inequalities in recognition, protection, and rights. The episode places special emphasis on care work, the often unrecognised backbone of the Indian economy. It examines everything from the unpaid domestic labour of homemakers to the essential contributions of Anganwadi and ASHA workers in education and healthcare, asking what it would truly mean to recognise and value this labour as foundational to development. At the same time, it looks to the past to understand how different forms of women’s labour have been controlled, marginalised, or erased through criminalisation, restrictive policies, and systemic neglect. In doing so, it shows how these forms of labour continue to exist under constant scrutiny and threat, raising urgent questions about recognition, rights, and dignity. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/female-gaze-law-labour-and-the-economy/ Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #LegallyHers #FeministCommons #WomenAndLaw #IndianConstitution #Podcast

In Episode 4 of ‘Legally Hers’, host Prathiksha Ullal converses with Dr. T. Sumathy, Member of Parliament from the South Chennai constituency. Together, they step into the Parliament of India, where law and representation converge, and where the female gaze comes sharply into focus. This episode reimagines political representation as a birthright. It examines why women’s presence in governance is not optional, but essential, and explores what it truly means to build genuine emotional connections with constituents. In doing so, it shows how a politics rooted in empathy can reshape representation in India. Listeners are also introduced to Vanapechi- Dr. Sumathy’s powerful alter ego, an indigenous guardian deity through whom she raises critical questions about gender and society. From the Land of Karisal, the birthplace of her poetry, to the halls of Parliament, this episode traces a journey across landscapes that are both deeply personal and profoundly political. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/poetry-politics-and-the-female-gaze/ Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #LegallyHers #FeministCommons #WomenAndLaw #IndianConstitution #Podcast

In today’s episode of Legally Hers, Prathiksha Ullal, in conversation with Dr. Kalpana Kannabiran, turns to the Constitution of India to ask: what might a feminist rendition of the Constitution truly look like? And what does it mean for women to reclaim it through collective ownership? Together, they explore how this idea comes alive in protest, memory, and collective expression, while questioning whether numerical representation alone can ensure genuine democratic participation across intersectional identities. The episode also reflects on the distinct language through which women speak, express, and protest, often rooted in lived experience, emotion, and collective memory, and contrasts it with the traditionally dominant, male-centric language of proof, documentation, and bureaucratic precepts. Tune in for a powerful conversation on law, gender, and reimagining the constitution of India as a space for feminist engagement. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/female-gaze-indian-constitution-and-politics-of-electoral-representation/ Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #LegallyHers #FeministCommons #WomenAndLaw #IndianConstitution #Podcast

From Victorian morality to the enduring shadows of the “white man’s burden,” the latest episode of the ‘Legally Hers’ Podcast examines how histories of control persist in laws governing women’s lives. In this episode, Prathiksha Ullal is in conversation with Dr. Shrimoyee Ghosh, Assistant Professor at Azim Premji University. Together, they trace the origins of law, unpacking the colonial and patriarchal gaze that shaped legal systems in the past and continues to shape legal systems today. Through a feminist lens, this discussion brings into focus the lived realities of sex workers, tawaifs, child brides, and Hindu widows whose lives remain deeply impacted by these legal frameworks but whose voices are not taken into account while drafting them. This is a conversation that challenges us to confront the continuities between past and present and to ask: whose voices does the law still exclude? For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/history-law-and-the-female-gaze/ Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri #LegallyHers #PodcastRelease #LawAndGender #FeministPerspectives #DecolonisingLaw

Legally Hers is a podcast miniseries that explores the law not as an abstract concept, but as something that deeply impacts women’s everyday realities. In our introductory episode, we unpack the complex relationship between women and the law, examine how legislation has historically been crafted without the female gaze, and ask a bold question: What would the law look like if it were designed around women’s lived experiences? This is a conversation about justice, representation, discrimination and the power of perspective and integration of women’s lived experiences in lawmaking. For further readings, please visit Vidhi's website: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/podcasts/legally-hers/introduction-to-the-female-gaze-in-law-making/ Host: Prathiksha Ullal Content Consultant: Gayathri N. Edited, mixed and mastered by : Ankit Thakur Intro and Outro Music: Artlist Thumbnail Art by : Kunal Agnihotri

Artificial Intelligence has moved from research labs into every corner of our lives—shaping economies, transforming warfare, and raising profound questions about what it means to be human. For some, AI promises extraordinary leaps in productivity, creativity, and problem-solving. For others, it evokes fears of surveillance, disinformation, and geopolitical arms races. But beyond the hype, what actually counts as “intelligence” in these machines? Are today’s Large Language Models truly thinking, or are they just sophisticated mimics of human communication? Professor Robert C. Berwick of MIT joins Dr. Arghya Sengupta on the latest episode of Justify. Together, they step back from the daily headlines to ask: ➤ What is intelligence? ➤ How should we understand AI in relation to human cognition? ➤ And what futures—utopian or dystopian—might emerge as states and societies navigate this frontier in the international arena? #podcast #artificialintelligence #ai #legalpodcast

From the battlefront to the courtroom, the fight for gender equality in the Indian Army has been as much about shifting mindsets as changing policy. In 1992, women joined the Army through the Women Special Entry Scheme — short service tenures, no pathway to a Permanent Commission. Nearly three decades later, the Supreme Court in Babita Puniya marked a constitutional breakthrough, holding that physiological features and stereotypes about motherhood have no place in determining a woman’s entitlement to serve. But the battle didn’t end there... Dr. Arghya Sengupta is joined by Sr. Advocate Meenakshi Arora, who represented the petitioners in Nitisha, to explore the constitutional, institutional, and human dimensions of this struggle. Tune in 🎧 #genderequality #indianairforce #indianarmy #operationsindoor #womenempowerment #policyexplained #podcast

International law is often seen as an elite, inaccessible career path—limited to foreign policy professionals or top diplomats. But with globalization, transnational disputes, climate negotiations, and international arbitration gaining ground, the field is far more accessible than imagined. To help us demystify what it takes to build a career in this field, Dr. Arghya Sengupta is joined by Dr. Rukmini Das, an academic with a focus on international commercial and investment arbitration. Her career path is a model for young Indian lawyers navigating both academia and practice in global legal spaces. Together, we ask: What are the academic and professional pathways into international law? What skills, networks, and mindsets help? And how can we develop stronger pipelines from Indian law schools to international legal institutions? #legalcareer #lawstudents #internationallaw #careersuccess #academia

While the Nuremberg trials echo widely in our collective pasts, much fewer remember its lesser-known twin, the Tokyo Trials. Even fewer still recall the lone voice of dissent that emerged from them: Justice Radhabinod Pal. His judgment at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was radical, scathing, and - depending on who you ask - either deeply principled or dangerously flawed. In post-war Japan, he’s a hero. In the West, his legal reasoning has been picked apart for decades. And yet, Pal’s dissent continues to echo—raising urgent questions about how we write the history of justice, who gets to decide what counts as a war crime, and whether international law has ever really escaped its colonial roots. Joining us this episode is Partha Chatterjee - acclaimed anthropologist, historian of the empire, and author of ‘I Am the People’ - to explore what Pal’s dissent tells us about the global South’s search for sovereignty in a world shaped by imperial legality. #Justify #Podcast #LegalPodcast #Imperialism #Law #LawStudents #colonialresistance

The battlefield is no longer shaped by the contours of its geography, but by data, algorithms and drones. But as India races to modernise its defence ecosystem, how prepared is it to navigate the strategic, ethical, and diplomatic challenges that AI brings? In the seventh episode of Justify season five, Dr. Arghya Sengupta is joined by Dr. Arun Sukumar, a leading voice on international cyber governance and the politics of emerging technologies. This episode explores the tension between India’s ethical caution and technological ambition. What does sovereignty mean in the age of algorithmic warfare? Is precision deterrence a smarter way to fight, or just a cleaner way to escalate? Tune in to find out. #AI #operationsindoor #tech #aiinnovation #policy #techpolicy

In the 20th century, borders were built with barbed wire and brick walls. In the 21st, they’re drawn in code. In the sixth episode of #justify season five, Dr. Arghya Sengupta is joined by Dr. Neha Mishra to explore how states are reasserting greater control over digital infrastructure and data flows. ➤ Can traditional legal frameworks keep up with the realities of digital trade, surveillance, and data governance? ➤ When does data protection become censorship? ➤ Is “digital colonialism” a myth or a mounting geopolitical reality? 🎧 Tune in as we unpack the legal architecture, and contradictions, of the international digital landscape. #DigitalSovereignty #DataGovernance #InternationalLaw #Cyberlaw #JustifyPodcast #DataColonialism

The global trading system is in flux, institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO), once the cornerstone of a rules based trade law regime, are now in a state of paralysis. Can India leverage its expertise to lead in reforming global trade governance, or will it continue to remain a follower? And what of the future of the global trade regime? Join Dr. Arghya Sengupta, in conversation with Mr. James Nedumpura, Head of the Centre for Trade and Investment Law, established by the Government of India under the Ministry of Commerce, to answer these pertinent questions.

Since its first nuclear test in 1974, India has walked a fine line — committed to disarmament, yet outside the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In this episode, Dr. Arghya Sengupta and Ambassador Rakesh Sood unpack India’s nuclear doctrine, its “no first use” policy, and the complex geopolitics of deterrence, disarmament, and legitimacy. Can a country outside the global non-proliferation regime shape its rules? #NuclearPolicy #IndiaForeignPolicy #Disarmament #Geopolitics #Podcast