How And Why To Empower? A Struggle Within!

I miss my mom’s made chicken sandwiches. THAT never happened in last 8 years of staying away from parents. So this fellowship is certainly doing strange things to me. And while my mother has concerns like why her elder daughter isn’t getting brown bread, I have...

Social Audit : Aam Admi Ka Haq

An official inspection of an organization’s accounts, typically by an independent body is called financial audit, which is very well known to most of us. If you have ever been a part of an audit, then most probably you would understand the position of an accountant...

Witches In The Family

A woman who gives birth to a child, takes care of family, can also be a witch. Yes, you heard me right. It’s shocking, but it is the bitter truth of some parts of this country. Witch branding has very strong roots in villages. Research has recognised 12 states where...

Amir

Preconceived notions, something which is really detrimental for us. Whatever society, social media, newspapers feed us we generally tend to believe that even without checking the facts. We all have set of beliefs which we carry around us, our bubble of reality. And...

Being A Good Interviewer

It is said that to become a good radio interviewer there is no substitute for experience. I got a good understanding of this at very beginning of my fellowship journey with Mann Deshi Tarang (A Community Radio Station in Maharashtra). I was astonished by the...

A Tale Of Two Anganwadis 

It was 6:30 a.m. when the alarm went off. He woke up and rolled out of his bed. A soft moan managed to escape his pursed lips as he glanced outside the window. Grey clouds still covered the morning sky; it had been days since he'd seen the sun. The past week had been...

Day Out with Delhi Commission for Women

Meera Devi expressing her issues to the DCW The day started with the scream within me that I was getting late for field work. Around 10am, I reached Gender Resource Centre (GRC), Narela from where Child Survival India (CSI) NGO office works. I found a van inside the...

Where Ignorance Is Not Bliss

The fat cow covered the entire space which had to be crossed to reach Anu Devi’s house. The little gap which was there between the trees and the cow was full of ‘gobar’. Since the cow was clearly not in the mood to move an inch, I somehow had to jump over the piles of...

Where The Farmers Call The Shots

“Producer’s Companies are the future of farmers in India” exclaimed Saurabh, my colleague, who had been witnessing their meetings for the past 2 years. A Producers Company is a corporate having one or all of the following as their objective: Production, harvesting,...

First Lessons From An SHG In Madhya Pradesh

On 1st August, I started working as a fellow in Samarthan Centre for Development Support, Madhya Pradesh. I had never been to this place before. Before leaving, our co-ordinator had said that we would not find any rain in MP. But I thought that I was very lucky to see...

A Better Life With Arthashastra

Since 1993, Chaitanya, an institution that promotes self-help group federations of women and facilitates financial inclusion in rural Maharashtra, has been involved in imparting knowledge on financial discipline to women from rural Maharashtra. Chaitanya believes that...

Freedom From Congestion : The Impact Of Housing Finance

He dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade. Prakash, 34, is a diminutive young man who regrets leaving school.  Nevertheless, having worked his way up, he is now a skilled worker building concrete structures. Although he was satisfied with his...

System Repercussion

One fine afternoon, I was sitting in a school premise with the Principal and was discussing about how to get efficient teachers in school and in Disha project.  DISHA is an alternate learning program currently running in two schools in Naujheel, Mathura where our...

Chewang Norphel : The Ice Man

A major breakthrough in the pursuit of water was achieved by Chewang Norphel. Born in 1936 to Tibetan parents, Norphel hails from Skarra village, 2.5 kms away from Leh in Ladakh. All 100 families of his village have traditionally been subsistence farmers, cultivating...