Rural women place Sujini embroidery on global map

सुजिनी कशीदाकारी, एक पारंपरिक शिल्प, एक ओर सरफुद्दीनपुर की गुडिया देवी जैसी महिलाओं को आर्थिक रूप से स्वतंत्र होने में मदद कर रही है, वहीं ग्रामीण अर्थव्यवस्था को भी मजबूती प्रदान कर रही है (छायाकार- मोहम्मद इमरान खान)

Craftswomen of Bihar have tailored Sujini, a traditional embroidery once practiced for internal use, to suit modern needs, lending it an international appeal

Can a pointed pickaxe pierce a pearl?

Bringing scattered and disenfranchised groups of people in rural India into the national mainstream is a difficult task (Photo by Mike Cross)

There are formidable challenges in delivering welfare services to scattered and disenfranchised groups of people in rural India, and the government machinery is ill-equipped to deal with it

Gond children learn to conserve forests

A walk through the forest organized by elders of Jharna Ghughari kindled in children, an interest about forest biodiversity and the need for forest conservation (Photo by Saurabh Singh)

With their forests degrading for a variety of reasons, Gond elders are rekindling interest about forest biodiversity among the younger generation, and are inspiring villagers to protect the forests

Kachchh pastoralists struggle as grasslands shrink in Gujarat

Sheep spread out on a barren stretch that was once a field of cumin (Photo by Namita Waikar)

Pastoralists from Kachchh walk great distances in search of grazing lands for their sheep in Gujarat, even as pastures disappear or become inaccessible, and climate patterns get ever more erratic

Sinnar farmers switch to multi-cropping for resilient earnings

Farmers like Sanjay Valiba Shinde of Sonari village grow multiple crops in their farms in a single season, thus increasing soil health, productivity and returns (Photo by Hiren Kumar Bose)

Growing a variety of crops in different portions of a field, farmers in Nashik district have improved soil health and productivity, reduced diseases and seed-to-sale time, and boosted revenue

Himachal apples give way to pomegranates

In Himachal Pradesh, farmers like Padamdev have shifted from growing apples to pomegranates, as changes in climate have been affecting their apple production (Photo by Athar Parvaiz)

Changes in climatic conditions have led to Himachal farmers growing pomegranates, as many find that apple cultivation, other than high-density varieties, is no longer economically viable

Can handlooms provide a viable rural livelihood?

A Mising woman in Assam weaving a gamcha on her handloom (Photo by Abdul Hamid)

There are reasons not to give up entirely on the rural handloom sector, and we can learn from northeast India on how artisanal weaving can still be an attractive livelihood option

Child cabinets bring students at work back to school

Subhasmita, in addition to convincing parents to send their children to school regularly, helps her classmates and younger children improve their learning (Photo by Rakhi Ghosh)

Poverty forces villagers in Kendrapara district to pull children out of school to work and add to household income. Awareness and counseling are now sensitizing parents to let children continue their education

Clams provide lucrative livelihood to coastal women

Clam processing has become a livelihood for hundreds of women in coastal Kozhikode, giving them the opportunity to work within their village (Photo by Chithra Ajith)

With increasing popularity of clam meat, an abundant resource in coastal Kozhikode, units processing these mollusks enable women to make a sustainable living without leaving their village

Farmers revert to traditional bio-fences for multiple benefits

Thorny cactus plants and wild trees help farmers like Muthu Murugan have a protective fence around their farms and derive multiple uses out of them (Photo courtesy Muthu Murugan)

Trees and thorny cacti that served as fences protecting crops from cattle, as wind breakers conserving soil moisture, besides providing fertilizer and fodder, are making a comeback in Tamil Nadu

Mental health patients see better days in Jharkhand

Mental health patients in Jharkhand now receive treatment and counselling, besides community support, to get back to normal (Photo by Gurvinder Singh)

Misconceptions about mental health lead to mistreatment of afflicted tribal people in Jharkhand. Awareness initiatives, community support and treatment are now improving their lives

Restored wastelands would improve livestock economy

Interspersed among agricultural fields and houses, the wastelands that supplied fodder for villagers’ livestock have been losing vegetation, affecting the rural economy (Photo by Shashank Deora)

Degraded wastelands have led to a fodder shortage in underdeveloped Barwani district. Involving communities to restore the wastelands will enable them to rear more livestock, thus improving incomes

Lack of skilled professionals hamstring underdeveloped regions

Teachers and health workers find it difficult to work in the underdeveloped areas of the country (Photo by Animesh Hazra)

The severely underdeveloped central and eastern hilly tribal belt in India is poorly served by skilled grassroots professionals such as teachers and paramedics, a problem that has no easy solutions

Chemistry Nobel Prize has a rural Odisha connection

Women in Maligaon carrying out maintenance work at the village’s solar panels. Four such groups have been created to take care of the regular maintenance and upkeep of the powerhouse (Photograph by Ashutosh Bhat)

People of Maligaon village in Odisha are for the first time using lithium ferro-phosphate batteries invented by Nobel laureate John Goodenough to store power from their solar mini-grid

Palmyrah tappers move from climbing trees to casting nets

In Tharuvaikulam village, middle-aged men like Anthony Duraiswamy and Anthoniyar Pitchai switched from palmyrah-based livelihood to sustainable fishing (Photo by Jency Samuel)

After a drought and a ban on toddy tapping, palmyrah climbers of a coastal village have taken to the sea, practicing sustainable fishing to conserve marine life and earn a livelihood

Shyok Valley farmers lack access to market

The Shyok River enables farmers to grow two crops a year, but they lack facilities to market their produce (Photo by Gouri Agtey Athale)

Despite growing apricots and apples, farmers in Shyok Valley in northern Ladakh are unable to turn a profit because lack of connectivity makes it difficult to sell their produce

Archaic customs hold community back from development

Archaic customs such as restrictions on women wearing a blouse and eating food cooked by others has led to Thottinayakar community lagging in development (Photo by G. Rajasekaran)

With rigid traditions and customs such as not eating food cooked by other communities, the Thottinayakar community in Tamil Nadu is lagging in social, educational and economic development

Rural BPO centers in Bihar open new doors for girls

In Alawalpur, Bihar’s first digital village, young girls like Chandni Kumari are able to be locally employed while pursuing a part-time undergraduate course (Photo by Mohd Imran Khan)

Business process outsourcing companies in rural Bihar are providing local job opportunities for educated, computer-literate girls in their village, empowering them socially and financially

Only neglected India lives in the villages

The rural idyll envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi has become hard to find in most villages in India (Photo by Jency Samuel)

On Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, a look at rural India shows that we have fallen much behind his ideal of self-reliant village republics, in part because of changed aspirations of modern times