Village life pivots around women. And – at the same time – they are often pushed to sidelines, quietened, ignored. Here we look at how and why that happens, and champion those working to change it. We would also feature LGBTQ individuals and communities who are all too often overlooked in rural India.
Gender
Nursing the underserved to health in rural Rajasthan
As the world commemorates International Day of Nurses on 12 May, young women in Rajasthan have broken stereotypes, becoming nurses after marriage and motherhood, and transforming rural healthcare
Bengal women find viable livelihood in turkey
Overcoming hurdles and non-starter self-employment projects, members of women self-help groups persisted tenaciously and took to rearing turkeys, setting a successful livelihood trend
Ujjwala and waterwheels: reducing women’s drudgery
Regular supply of cooking gas and easier ways to bring drinking water home would significantly reduce the daily drudgery of women in rural areas
Santhal girls shatter social taboo playing football
Teenaged Santhal girls in West Bengal have taken to football despite facing community antagonism. They hope that the sport would deliver them from poor socioeconomic shackles
Village women up in arms against alcoholism
Women in rural Karnataka have banded together to demand a prohibition on liquor because they are the receiving end of alcoholism of men that leads invariably to domestic violence and financial hardship
Odisha women fight malnutrition with backyard gardens
Women in distressed and malnourished regions of Odisha are growing nutrition gardens to feed their families organic vegetables and legumes consistently through the year at no additional cost
Beedi rolling robs Murshidabad girls of their childhood
Young girls in rural Murshidabad are pushed by their parents to roll beedis, the poor man’s cigarette, at the cost of their schooling because being able to earn improves their marriage prospects
Maternity homes provide safe haven to tribal women
Pregnant women from tribal villages in Kandhamal that lack roads and mobile phone connectivity have found a safe shelter in intermediary maternity homes that prepare them for institutional delivery
Tribal women in Rajasthan assert citizen rights
Solidarity groups of tribal women in southern Rajasthan have started taking collective action to claim government entitlements such as food and rural employment