Gender

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Jaisalsar in Bikaner banishes child marriage from its homes

The villages in the desert of Rajasthan are notorious for child brides but groups of girls are now banding together to defy and upturn a long held tradition to assure a new and better future for themselves

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Interventions to stop child marriages raise hopes in Odisha

The practice of underage marriage is acute in the tribal-dominated southern and southwestern parts of Odisha, but interventions on the ground are planting the seeds of change among adolescent girls and their parents

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Breaking the norm of child marriage an uphill task in Uttar Pradesh

A detailed baseline study conducted in seven districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh shows that underage marriages are still widely prevalent, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and this practice holds back girls from realizing their full potential

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Palghar tribal village says no to child marriages

Despite a long-held tradition of marrying off girls once they reach 15 years of age, a tribal village in the underdeveloped area of Maharashtra has stopped the ill-advised practice of child marriage for the past two years

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Vadu women emerge as agents of change as health recorders

The regular recording to health-related data through computer tablets is helping in designing and implementing food, nutrition and healthcare interventions on the ground in several areas of Pune district

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Women continue to bear the burden of contraception

A trend analysis of the latest National Family Health Survey shows that women are compelled to be responsible for keeping family sizes small even as contraceptive prevalence rate declines in many states in India

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Women forced to bathe in the open in Odisha villages

A village-level analysis of availability of bathrooms in Odisha shows that not enough attention is paid to the clear and urgent need for secluded bathing spaces for women in rural areas

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Rural men must realize women need secluded bathing spaces

Women taking a bath in the open is a common enough sight in the countryside, which needs to change. For that to happen, it is important to change the mindset of men and their insensitivity towards the issue

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Tablet girls of Jharkhand storm digital bastion

Trained and equipped by the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, bookkeepers of women’s self-help groups in villages are using computer tablets to maintain loan records

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Opportunity cost of personal hygiene too high for rural women

Women in India’s villages still have to pay a high cost in terms of mental and physical pain and financial loss because they are often compelled to neglect personal hygiene by bathing hurriedly in the open

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Women are still considered beasts of burden in rural India

Women carrying enormous head loads remain a common sight in large swathes of the country, indicative of our gender insensitivity and skewed priorities

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Godda women rise up to leave imprint on local politics

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The victory of Poonam Devi of Tarkhutta village in Jharkhand in local government body elections is a story of how collective resolve of village women successfully challenged patriarchal structures and corrupt governance practices

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Campaign by tribal women groups brings down alcoholism in Attappadi

When women living around Attappadi Reserve Forest found that no development was possible due to chronic alcoholism among the tribal men, they banded together to rid the area of the menace and start a labor bank for employment

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Drummer girls of Bengal step up with a new beat

Despite long neglect, the dhak might be getting a new lease of life as women have stormed a male bastion and have taken up playing Bengal’s traditional big drum

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Rural women in Samastipur welcome liquor ban in Bihar

Supported wholeheartedly by women in Samastipur district, the prohibition of alcohol in Bihar has freed up resources that can now be leveraged to bring about significant social transformation

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Women standing united can power sustainable social change

Women’s collectives can go a long way in sustainably changing socio-economic conditions of villages for the better, often going far beyond planned interventions by state or civil society actors

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A tale of two women and a watershed

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Two unlearned women in a remote area of Bihar have broken gender stereotypes to emerge as community leaders and manage the construction of a watershed that now benefits 12 villages

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Currency tsunami hits Kerala fisher village

The poor women of Anju Thengue island village in Kerala have been caught unprepared by the ban on banknotes that has seen prices crash and a near total collapse of the fish market

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Women are leading the sanitation campaign in Bihar villages

Although Bihar has been a laggard in implementing the Swachh Bharat program, there is heartening progress in places such as Rohtas, Sitamarhi and Khagaria, where women are driving the change for health and sanitation

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Women in Guphu show power of collective action

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Collective action has enabled many women in Khunti in Jharkhand to rise out of poverty, providing them with new opportunities and ensuring greater choice in their lives