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
Missing foot soldiers in the war on poverty
Unless the government improves the anemic delivery structure of rural health and education, the neglected and overworked frontline workers will not be able to fight underdevelopment adequately
Community bathrooms help women bathe in privacy
For most women in Bengal’s villages, a bath is a hurried dip in ponds while fully clothed to avoid the unwelcome male gaze. Community bathrooms enable them bathe in private and maintain better hygiene
More attention needed on community mobilizers
Rural development programs often take community mobilization for granted, and those who dedicate themselves to this difficult task are ignored or neglected. This needs to change
Recurrent floods traumatize people in rural Kerala
Even as Kerala reels under yet another flood due to extreme rainfall, people in the tiny village of Upputhode in the Western Ghats are still traumatized from the loss they suffered in last year’s deluge
Coastal communities in Tamil Nadu prepare for disasters
Fishing communities living on the Bay of Bengal coast in Tamil Nadu, who are vulnerable to extreme weather events, are being trained by the Tamil Nadu government to prepare for disasters
Community farming in Goa stops land conversion
Many villagers in Goa have banded together to revive rice cultivation through collective mechanized sowing and transplanting. The success in several villages has now become a catalyst for others
Battling social fault lines in rural water supply
The laudable aim of supplying piped water to all rural homes will have to tackle the existing power equations that deeply divide our society, and are tilted in favor of the elite in villages
Water availability and quality in rural water supply
The aim of delivering clean water to rural homes has to address the twin challenges of sufficient local availability of this depleting resource and ensuring basic quality standards
Maize loses sheen for Bihar’s farmers
Seemanchal farmers, who switched from wheat and jute to water-friendly maize, are earning less despite high demand and good yield, and look to the government to intervene