For me, life is sacred. I'm thankful that I am able to see and walk, that my...
गुमनाम बिरहोर समुदाय
हम किताबों में, कहानियों में, कुछ जगह घूम कर या लोगों से सुन कर आदिवासी समाज...
The Struggles Of Sheep Shearing In Gujarat
Winter is here and it comes with warm sweaters, shawls and rajais. Sheep wool,...
Gandhi Jayanti At Gram Swaraj Sangh
Early in the morning, all the residents of Gram Swaraj Sangh (GSS) campus and...
When Charity And Kindness Meet Complexity
This particular incident unfolded on a Sunday around 10 am, when the sun...
Chhath Puja In Bihar: A Celebration Of Four Days
What is Chhath Puja? Chhath Puja is an yearly four daylong celebration. It is...
Suman Meravi: Mudghusri’s Self Made Woman
Here is the story of Suman Meravi, a young woman from a Mudghusri village of...
Rise Of Fever Clinics During Monsoon
Monsoons in India bring the greenery and calmness back into town. I love to...
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...
Is Our Education System Irrelevant To The Tribal Children?
In my second week at Swasthya Swaraj, I traveled with two of our team members to Taramundi, a beautiful hamlet in rural Odisha. Our team working on education in the region, had been receiving complaints that the classes are not regular here. We weren’t able to reach...
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...
Dream A Little Dream Of Me…
Trigger Warning: Mentions rape, suicide. 'Didi vo thodi pagal hai, usko samjhao kuch.' Asmina's* mother alleges her daughter to be 'out of her mind'. The 15-year-old bright girl rolls her eyes in return. She smirks at me, her smile though lights up her face,...
‘Sweep’ Under The Rug Much? How We Ignore The Reality Of Who Cleans India
Rehabilitated manual scavenger, Maya Sangeliya, 45, looks on inside her house. Photo: Anindito Mukherjee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images I was brought up with the belief that cleanliness is next to godliness. I can’t recall if anyone ever used that phrase...
What A Kilometre Long Road In South Delhi Tells You About Social Structures
Recently, I relocated to Delhi. I was fortunate enough to have friends who were already staying in a locality called Alaknanda in south Delhi and accordingly, I moved in with them. As I was settling in, it took me just a walk down the road in front of the house to...
Mandav Utsav 2021 : What People Had To Say
This article is a critical appraisal of what I saw and heard when I visited Mandav for their yearly festival. All views shared are my observations from the conversations I had with the locals of Mandav,
“झरने सी मेरी पहचान”
वेग हूँ, मैं झरना हूँ, गति पे सवार हूँ|रुकती नहीं मैं वादियों में न रुकी कभी चट्टानों में|न रुक सकी पैमानों में, न रुक पायी देवालयों में|मैं बस झरती हूँ, हर बाधा से कुछ और छनती हूँ|देखा सभी जो प्रत्यक्ष है, जहाँ तहां न रमती हूँ|तुम्हे शायद बस मेरा आना सुनाई दे,पर उसकी...
The Fading Smiles of ODISHA : Laws and Ignorance
While walking through various routes in Odisha, whether it be rural or urban pathways, one would truly see the gaps in development. The disparity between the development index, as compared to other states, is huge. However, there is one common thing that exists here...
What Does Consent And Privacy Mean To Those Who Bathe In The Open
About research ethics and its upkeep – ever elusive!
Family Planning And Contraceptives In Rural Rajasthan
After having a long discussion on the different types of contraceptive measures and advantages of having a small family, Sita* didn’t look satisfied. She turned to me and said, “Everything is on us. From taking care of the house, growing children inside us, raising...
Failures : What You Learn When Things Don’t Go Your Way On Field
Third part of a 3-part series on learning from failures
Will The Women Artisans Please Stand Up?
How the weaving value chain has managed to define roles for men and women in the process, where the later are more often than not, subjugated.