Health & Nutrition
Women in rural Uttar Pradesh declare war on skin infections
Through the community village clinics they have established, women collectives in parts of rural Uttar Pradesh have started campaigning successfully against fungal infections that affect the quality of their lives
Adivasis in Odisha suffer the most due to malnutrition
Malnourished tribal communities in Odisha have not benefitted from decades-old government schemes aimed at improving health outcomes, mainly due to patchy and apathetic implementation
Pad women of Assam start menstrual hygiene movement
Young women have brought about a change in the mindset of rural men and women in Assam about menstrual hygiene and steered the women towards better hygiene with reusable cloth pads
Community radio creates waves of change in Karnataka villages
Run primarily by women, the Sarathi Jhalak radio station has brought administrators, experts and villagers on the same platform, giving rural communities a voice
Gujarat’s cleanliness success exists only in numbers
Although Gujarat was declared open defecation free in October 2017 based on the number of toilets constructed as part of the Swachh Bharat mission, the ground reality is different in the rural areas of the state
Landless Musahars continue their wait for development
Marginalized and landless, Musahars have become free from bonded labor, yet continue to suffer social discrimination and financial hardships, hoping for government schemes to deliver
Kanas villagers make water safe through simple interventions
Water from ponds and tube wells made safe for consumption through simple and easy to maintain solutions have reduced water-borne diseases in coastal Odisha and has enabled village women to utilize the saved time more productively
Winter farming technologies boost incomes in cold desert
With the farming season limited to just four months in Ladakh, villagers have turned to innovative, low-cost technologies to grow vegetables in winter that improves diets and boosts incomes, but smallholder farmers need post-harvest support
Santhal tribes revive tradition for safe drinking water
By reverting to the traditional practice of keeping water pots in a garsadi, a raised platform, villagers in Jharkhand have successfully prevented contamination of drinking water, improving health in households
Cooking imposes heavy burden on rural women
The simple act of cooking takes on a difficult dimension due to lack of easy access to fuel and water, forcing women in rural India to walk long distances to get them, increasing drudgery and leading to health hazards that call for immediate action
Forest food ensures nutritional security of Odisha’s tribes
Access to naturally grown forest produce would go a long way in protecting tribal communities in Odisha from the worst impacts of climate change and supply them with all that they need for sustenance
Widowed by silicosis, women of Odisha village await justice
Young men, who joined a pyrophillite grinding factory dreaming of a better future, succumbed to silicosis, leaving families struggling for survival and justice
How distressed rural migrants shelter in cities
Flood and drought often drive the rural poor to cities. Those who are landless often stay on. Risking lives under the open sky, they hope a city’s many work opportunities will help them survive somehow
Children do not smile in Dhanbad villages
High fluoride content in groundwater is crippling entire generations in several Dhanbad villages, which are full of unsmiling children ashamed of showing stained teeth, an early stage of the debilitating disease
Women-centric interventions needed for flood-ravaged Sundarbans islands
After men migrate for work, women of Mousuni Island in the Sundarbans in West Bengal have to struggle for survival, losing land to floods and erosion, and livelihoods to salinity ingress
Community radios in Odisha help improve gender parity
Broadcasting programs on gender inequality and against stigmas suffered by women in Odisha, community radio stations have effected a positive change in rural communities where girls are still the ignored population
Women in Pakur use education to achieve development goals
With a strong belief that education would lead the community to achieve sustainable development goals, a night school in Ilami panchayat in Jharkhand educates and empowers women
Jharkhand kitchen gardens add nutrition to food basket
Kitchen gardens tended by women in Gumla district boost rural diets by providing a rich variety of local cereals, pulses and vegetables, cut expenditure on purchases while improving their nutritional status
Women of Lalganj mobilize community to bring doctors to their doorsteps
Increased healthcare expenses and lack of access to hospitals prompt a women’s collective in eastern Uttar Pradesh to run a biweekly village clinic on family subscriptions
Medicinal herbs can form a base for rural enterprises
There is a potentially large livelihoods and enterprise potential in the medicinal herbs sector, which is sadly neglected by grassroots development professionals and ignored by the government despite an acute shortage of modern healthcare services in rural India