Improving the health and nutrition of a community often comes down to one thing – communication. Village Square champions those with the most effective megaphones, but also showcases new or quirky trends in food and healthy living.
Health & Wellbeing
Community establishes subcenter for better health care
Sharing a cramped space with the anganwadi, the health subcenter lacked facilities. Villagers joined hands and opened a subcenter in spacious premises, enabling maternal care and COVID-19 vaccination
Maternal and child health sidelined amidst COVID-19 emergencies
Rural women dependent on public health care system have not been able to access maternal health care services as hospitals’ focus is on overcoming the COVID-19 crisis
Decentralization to localization: the emerging community–PRI–government compact
As communities rose to fill the lacunae in rural public systems, it is time the potential of the social capital was recognized, and grassroots institutions strengthened for rural transformation
COVID-19 and rural India: Is no news good news?
With lack of requisite health infrastructure and testing facilities, besides testing hesitancy among villagers, there is no clear picture on the impact of the pandemic in rural India
Lack of facilities in villages hamper COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment
An inadequate rural healthcare system, a lack of awareness about the spread of coronavirus, combined with the difficulty in home isolation leads to increase in number of infections in Odisha
Villagers are on a do-or-die agitation against coal pollution
Villagers near Kulda mines have been fighting against coal pollution for over a decade. With no respite after representations and court cases they took to renewed protests in January
Technology enables villagers access health consultations remotely
e-Sanjeevani, a technological application, enables rural patients consult doctors via mobile phones. It has come in handy for remote COVID-19 consultations during the pandemic and the lockdown
Participatory theatre helps frontline workers cope with burn-out
Allowing the audience to change the way a play progresses has helped frontline workers acknowledge personal pandemic fears and learn the importance of peer learning and support
Volunteers enumerate patients in remote villages, deliver medicines
Where villagers lack access to health facilities, district administration and development organizations enlist volunteers to monitor patients’ health and deliver COVID-19 medicines at their doorstep