Every village in India that has a population of at least 300 people, is governed by a Panchayat, whose members are elected from among the villagers. These elected leaders oversee local affairs ranging from road construction and sanitation to education and maintaining civil records. The Panchayats are, so to speak,...
The children of a hamlet in Uttar Pradesh push each other so that they can bathe. The source of their bath is a little trickle from the only handpump in Tilakdih Thakur village. For the 50 residents of this hamlet, access to water is a hard and often failed task since two...
In a far-off village in Bihar’s Rupulia village, Amaris Sada will finally be able to get his cataract surgery done which had been pending for over a year and Dadiji (Grandmother) will finally be able to have one good meal with vegetables. All this is possible because they finally received their year...
A fire broke out at midnight in a hamlet in West Champaran district of Bihar unknown to its resident, burning three houses down to the ground, leaving its poor residents homeless and without any belongings. “We’ve lost everything in the fire; Rs. 10,000 worth cash and jewellery, 50 kgs of wheat, 1.5 quintals...
The village of Keswar Bigha, Bihar was happy when there were electrical poles installed in their village. They thought they will finally see electricity in their homes, and their children will study under an electrical light. However, much of it remained a dream when the electrical poles were left without...
A fire broke out in a sleepy hamlet of Dumari, Bihar in the middle of an April afternoon when a live electrical wire snapped, burning 250 makeshift houses down to the ground, leaving its poor residents homeless. “I’ve lost everything in the fire; there is no place to live and nothing to...
For thousands of people, mostly men, in rural Bihar, toddy is regarded as the poor man’s beer. Toddy, locally called Tadi, is considered as a natural juice,made from the sap of palm tree. It has been a favourite of villagers who throng toddy-makers in the evening to drink the mildly...
Ram Subhagram’s polio-stricken father withers in pain as he lies in the sub-health centre in Pranpur, Bihar hoping that a doctor comes to visit him soon and relieves him of the pain. But Ram knows that the wait is indefinite. While Health Ministry guidelines state that a sub-health centre is...
