Lack of facilities in villages hamper COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment

Lack of facilities delays testing patients, thus hampering the start of treatment (Photo courtesy Sarat Chandra Bhoi)

An inadequate rural healthcare system, a lack of awareness about the spread of coronavirus, combined with the difficulty in home isolation leads to increase in number of infections in Odisha

Villagers are on a do-or-die agitation against coal pollution

Residents of villages near Kulda opencast mines protesting against coal pollution caused by the mines (Photo by Sarita Barpanda and Naresh Meher)

Villagers near Kulda mines have been fighting against coal pollution for over a decade. With no respite after representations and court cases they took to renewed protests in January

Technology enables villagers access health consultations remotely

Healthcare professionals, seen here in a training program, have been able to offer tele-medicine consultations to villagers through e-Sanjeevani platform (Photo by Rakesh Kumar Sahoo)

e-Sanjeevani, a technological application, enables rural patients consult doctors via mobile phones. It has come in handy for remote COVID-19 consultations during the pandemic and the lockdown

Participatory theatre helps frontline workers cope with burn-out

Forum theatre, performed for rural frontline workers, where audience got to change the play’s progress, helped them acknowledge fears and find ways to cope (Photo courtesy Seva Mandir)

Allowing the audience to change the way a play progresses has helped frontline workers acknowledge personal pandemic fears and learn the importance of peer learning and support

Why villagers are against a proposed marina

Government’s proposal to develop a marina has met with opposition from local villagers, who fear loss of livelihood (Photo by W. Spandana)

Government proposes to develop a marina of international standards to promote tourism. Residents of coastal villages oppose it, fearing an impact on their livelihood and the ecology

Volunteers enumerate patients in remote villages, deliver medicines

Reaching out to infected villagers was a challenge, since there was no established infrastructure (Photo courtesy TRIF)

Where villagers lack access to health facilities, district administration and development organizations enlist volunteers to monitor patients’ health and deliver COVID-19 medicines at their doorstep

Solar energy enables medical service during power cuts

Chandanpur CHC’s solar-powered labor room has helped head nurse Khyanaprabha Das and staff deliver babies during power cuts (Photo by Rakhi Ghosh)

With sustainable solar power, community health center is able to treat patients uninterruptedly, provide emergency care, bring down diesel expenditure for generators, and serve as a model

Lack of local livelihoods forces men to migrate far

Men migrate from Maldah to far off places for work. Rehna Bibi’s husband, working at Chamoli during the glacier burst disaster, has not missing (Photo by Parth M.N.)

With no industrial jobs, and low wages in agriculture, men from Bhagabanpur in Maldah district migrate to faraway places like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, to make a living

COVID-19 assistance helps villagers find a footing

Odisha government’s COVID-19 financial assistance has helped women entrepreneurs like Bhabasmita Sahu regain their livelihood (Photo by Abhijit Mohanty

Odisha Livelihood Mission’s financial support has enabled many vulnerable rural families, especially women entrepreneurs, to recover from the economic shock of the pandemic-induced lockdown

Gond youth keep their cultural traditions alive

Singing Rela songs and dancing to the beat of small hand-held mandri drums is part of Gond community’s culture (Photo by Purusottam Thakur)

Songs to mark celebrations and appeal to gods, accompanied by rhythmic drum beats and dancing, are part of Adivasi culture. Cultural melas help the youth continue their tradition

A Tribute to Prem Kumar Verma

Photo Credits-Megh Pyne Abhiyan

A village hero Prem Verma fought against flood for his fellow villagers in his entire life, could not rescue himself from Covid 19 and left for  his heavenly abode. Prem Verma Secretary of a nonprofit organization Samta Khagaria (Bihar) was associated with the villagers of flood affected areas in his district. He ran programs for… Continue reading A Tribute to Prem Kumar Verma

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Farmer runs people’s academy to share knowledge

Having gainfully converted his unproductive land, Mochada Pawara runs a center for experiential learning, to share his insights about farming (Photo courtesy BAIF)

A Pawara tribe farmer, who transformed his unproductive land and started conservation of landraces, serves as a resource person at field trainings despite lacking formal education

Community restores grasslands, makes village drought-resilient

Community-conserved grasslands in Lamkani have solved their water problems, prevented soil erosion and enhanced livelihood (Photo by Dhananjay Newadkar)

Lamkani, a village 40 km from Dhule in Maharashtra, was known for its grasslands and for being fodder-rich in the pre-independence era. The situation changed after the drought in the 1970s. The lush green village became completely barren after enduring drought again in the 1990s. Lamkani could no longer provide employment to its people nor… Continue reading Community restores grasslands, makes village drought-resilient

Trained tribal youth educate community about coronavirus

Youth with a passion for community development were trained to educate tribal communities about COVID-19 (Photo by Abhijit Mohanty)

To prevent pandemic alienation of tribes, select local tribal youth were equipped with accurate information, so that they could demystify coronavirus myths among their community

Community ensures forest protection and sustainable management

Van panchayats are community institutions that manage their forests in a sustainable manner (Photo courtesy Puran Singh Rawal)

Van panchayats, which are local forest management institutions with elected representatives, ensure protection of forests by reviving and conserving water sources and by adopting fire prevention measures

Where are the women in water governance?

The gender gap leaves women out of water governance though they are equal contributors to water-related activities (Photo by Gyan Shahane, Unsplash)

When I started my master’s course in water science and policy, I had scant knowledge of the water sector. I was yet to become familiar with the challenges in equitable distribution, besides the different social, legal and institutional aspects of water. But, throughout the course, the social aspect of water was one thing that grabbed… Continue reading Where are the women in water governance?