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...
Amplifying Community Voices: Inclusive Radio Programming
In this digital age, media plays a vital role in shaping our society. Ensuring...
Water: From Scarcity To Abundance
"Come, come, sit under the tree. Yes, it's scorching hot anyways. Shall I make...
Working With Minimum Resources, With Those Who Have Nothing
Picture by Mahir Bhatt, a 2017 fellow Trigger Warning: This is a case of suicide, as narrated by Sister Rani, a senior nurse at Swasthya Swaraj in Kalahandi, Odisha There was a sudden hustle in the clinic, almost a sort of panic as a tribal woman was brought carried...
Of Windmills And Women
“I ask you to leave your home, the clothes you wear, the family you love, and all that surrounds you because tomorrow, I will build a mall on the above the stacked pyres of your identity. You can’t fathom it. You won’t. Why must I? Why must your development come at...
Of Partition, Earthquake And Community Festivals: How Kharad Artisans Double Up As Storytellers
“You are looking at a handmade, natural-dyed Kharad painstakingly made by my son Samat and I,” says Tejsibhai Dhana Marwada, letting the coarse, flat-woven rug slowly drop to the floor revealing a design in intense colors of black, white and dark brown. “But most of...
‘Postnatal Care’ In Rural, Tribal Villages Of Southern Rajasthan
Ramila* is a 22 year old woman who lives in Hathiya Talai, a village in Gogunda block of Udaipur, Rajasthan. Ramila had high fever on the third day after her delivery. Her baby died on the second day. “There was no breast milk and the baby would just not open her...
![Of Clay And Mirrors [A Visual Story]](https://indiafellow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Banner-scaled-1.jpg)
Of Clay And Mirrors [A Visual Story]
When Argaben begins pinching and shaping the clay dough, she's not doing so to put on a show. Yet, when she breathes life into the otherwise lifeless lump of clay, shaping different patterns and designs, we all watch in awe. The freehand work from memory. The fluidity...
Ghost Towns Of Banswara, Rajasthan
Migration for work is etched into the identity of several districts that fall within the perimeter of Southern Rajasthan's tribal belt. Hundreds of private buses ply each day, carrying thousands across borders to cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Mumbai. A range of...
What It Means To Work With A Community
We were in Sillet, an isolated village that has no electricity, no telecom signal and no water. We had heard that the people from this village had a problem with us - Swasthya Swaraj. It had something to do with a small facility that we were trying to set up in the...
Sorry Harry, But It’s Time We Talk About The Potters Of Khavda
In the Harry Potter universe, magic is the heart and soul of the wizarding culture. It sets the wizards and the witches apart from their Muggle neighbours. While Ismailbhai Kumbhar, may pass off as a Muggle, in this context, he doesn't need an Albus Dumbledore or a...
On Gender And Local Governance
As someone who chose to immerse herself into a fellowship program, straight after attending an all-women’s college, the transition to truly accepting the fact that “Change is slow” is still underway. While attending meetings, trainings and interacting with Local...
What Motivates Us?
Not everyone decides to work with organisations that attend to particularly vulnerable tribal groups in highly inaccessible areas, but for those who do, what drives them? What is their sense of purpose? Of meaning in work? Working with Swasthya Swaraj at Kalahandi,...
“Jo Mila Wo Kha Lega Hum”
There is only one SBI branch in Kashipur, and just to get into it, one needs to wait for an hour. Once you get in, it might take an hour or more to get the work done. Wednesdays are worse due to the weekly market. People travel from 5-25 km away to come to the market,...
Why Mansukhbhai Is “Not Okay” With Being Bela’s Last Hand Block Printer
Mansukh Pitambar Khatri looks painfully scrawny and impossibly gnarled, as he bends over a long table spread with a beige cloth. He certainly looks suited to his trade, as he continues to work, oblivious to the heat, using astonishing muscle memory while printing a...
Empowering The Hinterlands During A Worldwide Pandemic
As a part of my field visits to various Panchayats around Kutch, I got to understand the way local administration chose to deal with the pandemic. This process helped me to build knowledge about the steps taken to control the spread of pandemic at the policy level, in...
How The Khatris Are Bringing Josh To Rogan
Mohmad Hanif Arab Khatri comfortably seats himself on the floor. Stretched out before him is a piece of blue cloth, pinned on either side to the legs of a low-length table. Reaching for his dibbi, he pulls out a stylus and a blob of a thick brownish gelatinous...