Organization: Swasthya Swaraj SocietyPlace: Kalahandi, OdishaType of Terrain:...
Pulling The Maheshwari Threads Together
As I walk through the narrow lanes of Maheshwar, a symphony of sounds fills...
समुदायों को स्वावलम्बी बनाती प्लास्टिक बुनाई
मैं इस साल मई में खमीर आया जो कि कच्छ के कारीगरों के साथ काम करने वाली एक...
Chronicles From The First Month In Bhuj
There's a well-known quote by Thomas Hardy, "Happiness is an occasional...
From Dacoity To Prosperity In Karauli, Rajasthan
Ever heard of Phoolan Devi, the famous daaku (bandit) from the Chambal region?...
Who Are The Baigas?
My India Fellow journey got more purposeful when I reached Chhattisgarh after...
Learnings From A Craft Mela In Kutch
Experiential Learning is something that we have all heard of. Same is the case...
A Bus Journey From Source To Destination
In the area where I work, families often migrate seasonally for labor. They...
A Day At The Community Radio Station
A local resident with a radio set As an India Fellow, I began my journey to becoming a socially conscious leader by working with and for people. As a part of the fellowship, each fellow works with an organization towards a social issue for 1.5 years. I’m working...
Reality Of A Person Living With Multiple Chronic Diseases
It was a rather gloomy day when I had a chance to meet Lakhuna Das*. I was documenting stories and journeys of persons with drug-resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB). Lakhuna Das's journey caught my attention. Mukesh Yadav, my colleague at Innovators in Health had already...
Bail Pola: A Gratitude Festival For Bulls
India is known all over the world for its rich collection of different cultures. People belonging to different religions, regions, caste and sect celebrate various festivals across the country. The uniqueness of Indian festivals is that it revolves around Lord’s...
Gavari, The Goddess Who Comes To Earth
As per Hindu mythology, when Sati married Lord Shiva, her father, Daksha was furious. Lord Shiva was a nomad and connected with the earth in unconventional ways. This was enough for Sati’s father to believe that he was not suitable as his son-in-law. Despite...
A 6KM Long Trek For Water And Why Every Drop Counts
I can never forget Anupama’s (India Fellow alum) line, “Try and understand the pain point of the community.” It has been 11 months now that I am working with Project Koshika in the district of Panna in the Bundelkhand region. And it would be unfair to speak about...
A Heart-Wrenching Tale Of A 13-Year Old Mother In Rural India
It was 11:30 PM when I received a call from Reema’s* mother-in-law. They belong to one of the villages in Panna, Madhya Pradesh where Project Koshika runs a health intervention. Reema complained of severe stomach ache, nausea and fever. I pulled out my notes to see...
Rolling With The Punches: Thinking About Labour And Leisure With Bihar’s Beedi Makers
"Butru humni ki business ke baare mein likh rahel [This young woman is writing about our business]," Meera Devi* calls out to the woman who's just walked up to the gathering of women sitting in the gaanch (sandy grove) outside the Kali Mandir in the village of...
Why 50 kgs On A Weighing Scale Comes As A Surprise To Me
Malnutrition as a term never occurred in my conversations before I started working with Project Koshika in Panna, Madhya Pradesh.It has become a reoccurring word in my dictionary now. Koshika runs a maternal and infant health intervention in 10 remote villages of...
A Closer Look Of Majholi, Panna : My First Rural Immersion
Rural immersions make for an important part of the fellowship journey. I remember during induction, we were divided into teams of five and were asked to go to villages in and around Udaipur, everyday for three days. On Day 1 the instructions provided to us were, "Do...
My Definition Of Empowerment : The Inspiring Story Of Meenakshi Tai
A couple of months back, we had such an online session* on Empowerment by Sushma Iyengar, founder of Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, Gujarat. I was excited about it, one because it was by such an inspiring leader and two, because of the topic. The term, empowerment, is...
Mera Ghar Kahan Hai? Asks A Domestic Violence Warrior
The world in front of her eyes came crumbling down with the news of her wedding being fixed. She ran to her grandpa with millions of questions in her eyes and shouted at him. But, grandpa did not utter a word. His silence was enough to tell that her fate had been...
The Rituals Of (Dis)possession
Goddess Kishori's temple in Khamri, where the ritual of bandhej takes place Kashi* starts to speak, however from a distance, because bandhej forbids her to stay in close proximity with women. She is one of the many women in the Bundelkhand region, to go through the...
Doing “Dirty Work”: The Midwives Of Rural Bihar Come Clean
Cleanliness is also a big facet of the work of midwives. An essential component to understanding their responsibilities is caste. This is a representational image. “Who will I teach? They all tell me, ‘Who will do this hellish work? It is dirty and I feel...
The Decaying Roots Of Tradition
After coming to Odisha, I was invited for a wedding for the first time in a tribal village. I decided to go for it. Outside Kerala, I have only seen north Indian weddings, that too only in movies. This was going to be a completely different experience. The venue was...