भुखमरी

भुखमरी

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

हमाल भाइयों का आंदोलन किस लिए?

हमाल भाइयों का आंदोलन किस लिए?

'आवाज दो हम एक है... 'हम हमारा अधिकार मांगते, नहीं किसी से भीख मांगते', 'हमाल एकता जिंदाबाद' - ऐसे घोषणा देते हुए सुमेरपुर, पाली, राजस्थान में हमालों का आंदोलन हुआ। १८ दिसंबर को अंतरराष्ट्रीय प्रवासी दिवस पर यह आंदोलन करके हमाल मजदूरों ने अपनी मांगे प्रशासन के सामने...

Yeh Bahut Mehenga Hai

"Why should I pay THAT MUCH when I can buy something exactly like it at _______ for half the price?!" (one may fill the blank with the name of any High Street shop)  More than a century ago, English artist and activist William Morris argued that "nothing should...

Friendly Spiders Of Agragamee

Imagine you have just woken up. You get up and open the door to step out, and the first thing you see is a spider hanging in front of your door, spreading its web. Thinking it might have gone, I took my first step to go out but the web stuck to my entire face. I...

Mautana: Dilemma Of A Dead Body

Mautana: Dilemma Of A Dead Body

Tribal culture is the primitive culture of prehistoric era. Today, tribal groups are settled on different Padas (pieces of land). Even though the distance between the tribal people living in valleys and cities is decreasing with the increasing transportation...

Who Is A Karyakarta?

Who Is A Karyakarta?

The word 'Karyakarta' literally means worker in English. I've been trying to understand it better. Who is a Karyakarta? Is it you and me? Is it a CEO of an organization? How often do we introduce ourselves as a Karyakarta? I have never had. In fact, I had always taken...

Working In Grassroots : Perspectives Versus Realities

Working In Grassroots : Perspectives Versus Realities

Shakshi with the girls and women she is working with My dream of bringing a change into the existing system of our society and to adding value to it in an impactful manner was taking shape when my journey as an India Fellow started with my host organization, KMVS...

Digital Mobility In Panna, Madhya Pradesh

Digital Mobility In Panna, Madhya Pradesh

Sajan Bai (on the left) glares as I (on the right) download WhatsApp on her phone The popularity of smart phones has radically changed the way people communicate and gain information. With a single device, one can browse a random question on Google, text a classmate...

You Feel disgusted? You leave!

You Feel disgusted? You leave!

A long line of women, carrying their babies in slings across their chests, balancing eggs and channa on their heads, is a common sight as we travel in our jeep at Swasthya Swaraj from our head office in Bhawanipatna to the villages. Children are always tied close to...

Dalsinghsarai: A Place Allowing Me To Challenge Myself

I was standing alongside a brown stray dog, both of us patiently waiting on one side of the railway track. A train was expected to pass and the tracks had been temporarily shut. Along with the dog and me, there were many more people waiting – a woman on a scooter with...

Who Bears The Brunt Of Borrowing Money?

Who Bears The Brunt Of Borrowing Money?

A gender lens to understand credit in rural India Microcredit = Lending to women in groups I remember making sense of microfinance using this simple equation the first time I read about the concept of lending to the poor. Somehow, it did make a lot of sense and it...

Lanji’s Quest For Education And A Better Life

Lanji’s Quest For Education And A Better Life

Based on a narration by Lanji Majhi We all have had some old person trying to put us in perspective by sharing stories of how they once used to walk to school, everyday with heavy books in their bags. Well, the story that has been narrated to me by Lanji, a...

Did Covid-19 ‘Other’ The ASHAs From Their Own?

Did Covid-19 ‘Other’ The ASHAs From Their Own?

ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) have been instrumental in managing the pandemic across the country. They carried out several responsibilities in the past year - identifying people showing symptoms of Corona, linking them to quarantine facilities or ensuring...

My Friend Azzli

My Friend Azzli

I opened the door of our Drop-in Centre and found a short-statured dusky woman, who had her pallu wound around her face, as if it were band-aid. And this kids, is how I met your…I mean, my best friend – Azzli*. In the beginning of the fellowship, new to the whole, “Ye...