In Jharkhand, some 228 families have spent the last three years clinging to their land, defying the Indian government, the World Bank and an international coal conglomerate. But the government’s decision to do away with mandatory consent in the Land Acquisition Act may spell the end of their struggle. ...
Agriculture communities across many villages depend on natural resources to support their farming. The sustenance of these resources is never the priority of the administration. Natural resources may soon be on the brink of extinction.Lachnauta Jumi is a water source situated near Domat village. This water is used for drinking,...
Video Volunteers has long recognised that there is a problem with the media coverage of Kashmir, and in response, we decided to bring our model of community video to Kashmir in September 2013, when we trained 11 Right to Information (RTI) activists as video reporters. The timing was fortuitous, because...
80% of the households of Jagdishpur village of Uttar Pradesh did not have access to toilets. Villagers had to defecate in open fields. Especially women had to wait until dark to go out. Villagers had encounters accidents with wild and poisonous animals. Community correspondent Shabnam filmed this issue and the...
The Prime Minister said he “saw people’s faith in democracy” in the voter queues in Kashmir last month, and the Defence Minister claimed that Pakistan was “unnerved by the 72 per cent voter turnout” in the state. There was unusually high voter turn out in the recently concluded Kashmir state...
“We won’t leave the forest, even if it meant that you kill us.”This is what the people belonging to an indigenous tribal community in Bhadal village of Badwani told outsiders as they entered their forest with axes and spades to whittle Sal trees. The entire village of Bhadal came together...
The possibility of an epidemic looms large over Anantnag, the second biggest district in Kashmir after Srinagar. After the floods, which hit the region in September earlier this year, the problems of sanitation and hygiene have become manifest. Fumigation of the busy areas in the city, especially the bus stand...
Auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), is the first person of contact for any health services in most of the rural areas. But in Badahindol village of Odisha, where only one health sub-center is accessible to 5 villages, the residents have been deprived of health facilities for the last 10 years. The...
