What is good governance? How well can a person or a community access help or push for a needed change? How often are they heard? Village Square shines a light on the people and schemes making the biggest impact or providing the most unique solutions.
Governance
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Shyok Valley farmers lack access to market
Despite growing apricots and apples, farmers in Shyok Valley in northern Ladakh are unable to turn a profit because lack of connectivity makes it difficult to sell their produce
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Archaic customs hold community back from development
With rigid traditions and customs such as not eating food cooked by other communities, the Thottinayakar community in Tamil Nadu is lagging in social, educational and economic development
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Rural BPO centers in Bihar open new doors for girls
Business process outsourcing companies in rural Bihar are providing local job opportunities for educated, computer-literate girls in their village, empowering them socially and financially
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Only neglected India lives in the villages
On Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, a look at rural India shows that we have fallen much behind his ideal of self-reliant village republics, in part because of changed aspirations of modern times
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Kashmiri farmers struggle to sell bumper fruit harvest
Despite a good harvest of apples and pears, farmers in Kashmir are finding it difficult to sell their produce due to restrictions imposed by the authorities on transportation and communication facilities
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Odiya tribes shed tradition to space out childbirths
Odisha’s tribal women, suffering the adverse health effects of childbirths in quick succession combined with strenuous agricultural and household work, are breaking community norms to use contraceptives
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Native Amrit Mahal cattle need better conservation
There is an urgent need for better conservation of Amrit Mahal, a draughty, native breed of Karnataka that can toil and endure for long hours at a stretch, but have been dwindling in numbers
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Better awareness improves maternal and child health
Awareness meetings that equip women with knowledge on health and nutrition during pregnancy and after childbirth is helping to tackle malnutrition in rural Singhbhum in Jharkhand
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Digital tech in curriculum enriches participatory learning
By enabling teachers design applications and help students create artifacts, best practices in use of technological tools can facilitate contextualized learning and its application