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
Information helpline improves local governance in Nuh villages
An information center in Nuh district that lags in economic and social development has created awareness about government schemes and entitlements, and has empowered villagers to claim their rights
Reversing the indefensible culture of open defecation
Ending open defecation in India’s villages cannot be the sole responsibility of the government. The heads of rural households also need to made responsible to ensure that women have access to safe sanitation
Village youth in Western Ghats enrich sacred grove
A bunch of passionate young men are saving big trees uprooted in the Sahyadri Mountains by transplanting them at their village’s sacred grove. And that’s just one part of their conservation work
When the rural elite hijacks welfare schemes
Although there are multiple factors that interfere with the fair implementation of rural welfare programs, it is important to break the stranglehold of the rural elite and often co-opted local administration
Workers of closed tea gardens struggle to make a living
Tribal people in and around the shuttered tea gardens of north Bengal are living on the edge of destitution and are being forced to a life of hard labor and exploitation by local contractors to stave off starvation
Araku Valley takes baby steps to address maternal health
An initiative to reach healthcare services to pregnant women and new mothers in the underdeveloped Araku Valley has seen a measure of success in tribal communities ruled by superstition and regressive practices
Madhubani painters want better deal for their work
Despite global recognition, women painters of the Madhubani folk art form in Jitwarpur village have failed to escape the clutches of middlemen, who corner most of the profits. State initiatives could help stop the exploitation
Kerala village breaks new ground in sustainable living
What began as a community initiative to revive organic farming in the small village of Vengeri near Kozhikode has today expanded into a sustainable lifestyle that showcases how rural living can indeed be idyllic
Musahars denied healthcare because they are considered untouchables
The despicable practice of untouchability in Varanasi district is keeping the musahar community from accessing state healthcare facilities, and the situation is changing too slowly despite grassroots activism