Changing the Lens: Making Visible the Invisible with Shrayana Bhattacharya

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the third episode, titled 'Changing the lens: Making visible the invisible,' we are in conversation with Shrayana Bhattacharya, an economist trained at Delhi University and the Harvard Kennedy School. Her book, "Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence," won the 2022 Times of India JK Paper AutHer Prize for best nonfiction author.An ILO report from 2018 shows that, on average, women in India spent 297 minutes per day on unpaid care work as opposed to 31 minutes by men. Several studies suggest that women workers are disproportionately represented in labour force surveys because of the nature of the work they perform, which is often home-based, subcontracted, or through sources of self-employment.Through this conversation with Shrayana, we explore questions around the invisibilisation of women's work, the importance of measuring it, pleasure, independence, and solidarity networks.