Rural India is home of the original gig-economy worker. Enterprising villagers hop from tilling fields to tending shops, to door-to-door selling each day. Read the latest trends in micro-enterprises, rural start-ups and the shifting livelihoods of India’s villagers.
Livelihoods
Lambani embroidery makes a fashion statement
Modern clothing embellished with kasuthi kelsa (embroidery work) that is unique to the Lambani tribal community in Karnataka has helped local women keep the traditional craft alive and kicking
Naga clans script success in conserving biodiversity
Community-managed conservation practiced for over two decades by the Angami Naga tribe of Khonoma village near the state capital of Kohima has improved biodiversity and forest resources
Agripreneurs can revive smallholder agriculture
Encouraging community service providers to function as agripreneurs is an effective and proven way to improve the lives of smallholder farmers by increasing agricultural productivity
Debts drive breadbasket farmers to daily wage labor
With farm income failing to keep pace with their debts, a large number of small and marginal farmers in Punjab and Haryana have started supplementing household earnings through daily wage labor
Chamarkhani shoemakers persist through declining demand
Despite stiff competition, a group of traditional shoemakers living in a village near Patna have held on to their craft, creating Chamarkhani jutas, the once well-known handmade leather shoes
Assamese women thrive on value-added garden produce
By supplying value-added products made from fresh fruits and vegetables grown in their backyards, women in villages of Assam’s Nagaon district have become financially independent
Sinnar farmers breathe life back into irrigated farming
By collectively reviving a colonial-era irrigation system, farmers in 19 villages of Sinnar in Maharashtra have transformed a water-starved area into productive and prosperous farmlands
Can agriculture be profitable and sustainable?
While commercialization of agriculture has led to an increase in profits in South Asia – a region marred by poverty and child malnutrition – short-term benefits may hide long-term risks
Next-gen Kashmir farmers turn to water wisdom
A new generation of Kashmiri farmers are adapting to extreme weather events such as more frequent droughts by creating water harvesting infrastructure to irrigate their land