Field Stories

These stories bring out the real-life narratives, moments, and experiences, highlighting the stories and voices of the communities our fellows work with

भुखमरी

भुखमरी

भुखमरी शब्द से आम तौर पे हम समझते हैं भूख के कारण लोगों का तड़पना या उनको खाना...

Reaching Rural Rajasthan And Attending Gavari, A Local Festival

Reaching Rural Rajasthan And Attending Gavari, A Local Festival

View as a pillion rider From Kerala To Rajasthan Via Karnataka My story started from a small village in Kozhikode, Kerala. I finished my schooling and graduation from there but I always had a feeling that it wasn’t enough for me. To expand my horizon and to challenge...

A Day At The Community Radio Station

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Why 50 kgs On A Weighing Scale Comes As A Surprise To Me

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

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

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

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

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...