Shakinaur Khatun was a happy woman till five years back, living in Malda, West Bengal. She lived with her husband and two young children in her household. But things changed when she slowly lost her eyesight due to an unknown illness. Her husband and in-laws abandoned Shakinaur and the two...
One of the most applauded, publicised and actually needed social welfare programs is the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Gramin). This program is targeted toward the villages of our country that house around three-fourth of India’s population. It aims to provide comprehensive sanitation coverage such as toilets and rid our villages from...
The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) intends to help farmers who are economically weak to take credit at lesser rates to buy seeds, fertilizers and other important things needed for irrigation and farming. But what happens when a hopeful farmer is scammed by the very bank official who appeared as a...
It has been a long, long haul for Ranjana, and she is quieted by exhaustion and apprehension in equal parts. This is the second hospital she has been admitted to that day and both have treated her with superb disdain, making her wait for hours together, refusing to give her...
For the women of a remote village in Jharkhand, a walk into the nearby forests is still the only way they can answer nature’s call. Because the much-promised bathrooms to be constructed for every village in India has still eluded them. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched in 2014 with much...
Geeta, a 17-year-old girl, struggled to breathe as her father Kailash, strangulated her. Her grandmother, Mem, struggled to free Geeta from Kailash’s grip, but hate was stronger than love, and Geeta died. ” I saw it happen in front of me. Her body was thrown in the dump yard by...
Shankar Pradhan, 12, attended classes under a thatched roof, in the sweltering heat and rains of Chhattisgarh. Just like 100 other children, he was a student of the only government primary school in the Badwar village, which lay unfinished since three years. “They started the construction four years ago but...
A little child turns the village tap in hope of water, but all he says he looks up and says, “There is no water.” The tap had run dry 10 years ago, in the village of Saraipallai, Chhattisgarh but the administration had paid little heed to fix the dysfunctional water...
