Can promises on gender equality made in Australia help a 16-year-old Indian cigarette maker with no toilet?

The Melbourne declaration aims to direct funding and power to those most overlooked and affected by injustice. But for many its promise is a distant one I first spoke to Shazia Khanum for a report I was writing on adolescent girls in informal jobs. The 16-year-old’s fingers moved swiftly as she talked, rolling bidis – tobacco in tendu leaves tied with string. She told me she rolls about 300 to 500 thin cigarettes daily, earning a little more than £1 on a good day (roughly 250 rupees for 1,000...

By Cheena Kapoor in Melbourne