It’s one of the world’s most dynamic countries, a vast subcontinent with a rich millennial history. It’s an influential member of the G-20, and has one of the world’s most vibrant emerging economies. It’s the land of poets and peacemakers alike, a nation with a cultural heritage that is as colorful as it is mystical. But it can be a hard land for women.

In India, women can still find themselves a distant second to their male counterparts. Whether it’s because they experience a high rate of sexual or non-sexual violence; or because they are forced into marriage as children; or because they don’t survive the high rates of femicide – which the UN Population Fund says has claimed the lives of 50 million women in the last century – India remains a hard land for women.

This is the story of that India: a land of vast contradictions, where women often struggle to survive and thrive.