As a tribal woman, Nitu Chakhia has spent far too many years of her life struggling for survival in the urban jungle of Bhubaneshwar. Several years of working with her people has convinced her that communities coming together ensures change. Odisha is a state that takes serious interest in its...
Untouchability. You may think that this horrendous practice has disappeared in 21st century India, an India that is running towards socio-economic development; you may think that caste identities no longer govern people’s lives. Look around you, caste based discrimination carries on in the most insidious ways possible—in matrimonial ads; when...
The Village Council Head, Sobitra Nagesh, from Chhattisgarh proudly declares his village is Open-Defection Free on camera. And one would believe him. But a short walk around the village Bansajhal and conversations with the residents exposes the lie that Sobitra blatantly said on camera. The most important objective of the Swachh Bharat...
Community Correspondent Dasarathi Behera shares how he got a working hand pump for 60 families: Makdiasahi is a tiny village in Deogarh, Odisha. The community comprises of about sixty families, most of whom earned their living by braiding & selling ropes made from material sourced from the ample forests of...
The Right to Education Act guarantees children in government run or aided schools the access to potable water. However, according to the activist network of Nuapada district of Odisha, the children of the village school of Dotto hadn’t had any access to water in the school for almost a year....
We did it! We met our goal of making sure that 50% of our Community Correspondents, grassroots video journalists, are women. Over the last year some fantastic, stereotype defying, crazy, passionate, dramatic women have joined our network of 200+ Community Correspondents. One left her abusive husband; another takes her husband...
Community Correspondent Warles Surin recently took on a wealthy contractor who was cheating labourers from payments across the whole of Jaldega block in Jharkhand.Warles narrates the dramatic and harrowing details of what it took to bring justice and fair wages to at least a 100 people. Lack of awareness is...
