The women brewing change in India, one beer at a time

This photograph taken on February 20, 2025 shows Varsha Bhat, a brewer, tapping beer at a brewery near Whitefield in Bengaluru. [Photo, AFP]

As a fixture of India's burgeoning craft beer scene, Varsha Bhat is a rarity twice over: first as a woman who brews alcohol, and second as a woman who drinks it.

Bhat is staking a claim to a male-dominated industry in a country where social mores compel most women to stay teetotal.