Education gives Paromita hope for a better future

Resuming studies has given hope to 13-year-old Paromita Mondal that she can ensure a better future for her family (Photo by Prahlad Naskar)

The story of Paromita Mondal, a teenage girl living in rural Bengal, is testimony to the fact that the efforts of government and development organizations to retain girls in school have slowly started bearing results

Debts drive breadbasket farmers to daily wage labor

Faced with insufficient farm income and mounting debts, Nahar Singh, a marginal farmer of Kharodi in Haryana, works often as a daily wage worker (Photo by Prasanna Mohanty)

With farm income failing to keep pace with their debts, a large number of small and marginal farmers in Punjab and Haryana have started supplementing household earnings through daily wage labor

Chamarkhani shoemakers persist through declining demand

Traditional shoemakers continue to make Chamarkhani juta to cater to the small clientele (Photo Mohd Imran Khan)

Despite stiff competition, a group of traditional shoemakers living in a village near Patna have held on to their craft, creating Chamarkhani jutas, the once well-known handmade leather shoes

Assamese women thrive on value-added garden produce

Devanga Saikia in center, guiding Utpola Bora and her husband Binanda Saikia in making pickles in their residence in Nagaon (Photo by Abdul Gani)

By supplying value-added products made from fresh fruits and vegetables grown in their backyards, women in villages of Assam’s Nagaon district have become financially independent

Sinnar farmers breathe life back into irrigated farming

Villager elders inspecting a diversion-based irrigation system in Sinnar (Photo by Yuva Mitra)

By collectively reviving a colonial-era irrigation system, farmers in 19 villages of Sinnar in Maharashtra have transformed a water-starved area into productive and prosperous farmlands

Community school shines beacon of hope in Surguja hills

The Grandeur School in the mining hills of Surguja, built through community support, enables the education of Adivasi and Dalit children (Photo by Goldy M George)

Thwarted livelihood opportunities after giving up their land to mining companies hasn’t stopped a disadvantaged community in the remote Surguja hiils of Chhattisgarh to run a school for tribal and Dalit children

Solar pumps brighten lives of Kutch’s salt farmers

Replacing diesel pumps with solar pumps to lift brine has reduced the production cost of Agariya saltpan farmers (Photo by SEWA)

Agariyas, the traditional saltpan workers in the Little Rann of Kutch, have switched from diesel to ecofriendly solar-powered pumps to lift brine that have boosted their earnings from saved costs

Chhattisgarh makes headway on tribal rights

Forest dwellers from the core area of Udanti tiger reserve taking their cattle for grazing (Photo by Asha Verma)

Chhattisgarh has taken encouraging steps to recognize and implement rights of forest communities but more effort is required needed at the village level to boost livelihood opportunities for indigenous people

Doll makers of Bengal face bleak prospects

The orders for Natungram’s wooden dolls this Durga Puja season have been a fraction of previous festival orders (Photo by Gurvinder Singh)

The wooden doll makers of Natungram in Burdwan district have traditionally done good business during Durga Puja, but this festive season has brought little cheer to them due to reduced orders

GI tag boosts demand for Waigaon’s turmeric

Vivek Ghumade plans to increase his turmeric acreage, as the GI tag of Waigaon turmeric is expected to increase demand (Photo by Hiren Kumar Bose)

Farmers of Waigaon in Maharashtra have received a GI tag for organically grown turmeric that is rich in curcumin, known for its multiple health benefits. The cultivators hope to cash in on the increase in demand

Soligas in tiger reserve win battle over forest rights

Some Soligas like Nanjamma are worried since authorities are considering relocation even after her tribe was granted forest rights (Photo by Amoolya Rajappa)

After the jungles they inhabit were declared a wildlife sanctuary, the Soliga tribe in southern Karnataka has made history by winning a legal battle over their traditional rights to forestland and produce

Mobile labs in rural Odisha promote science-based solutions

Villagers learnt about hygiene from coordinator Gouri Shankar after seeing invisible grime through a microscope (Photo by Rakhi Ghosh)

With a science-based approach learnt from mobile science labs through the audiovisual medium, tribes in Odisha have adapted simple measures that have helped in reducing their health problems

Bhimshankar village makes the most of nature’s trail

Villagers of Yelavali display some of the forest produce, as part of conservation tourism (Photo by Subhash Dolas)

Residents of Yelavali village inside Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra have made a collective decision to promote responsible ecotourism that is providing them with a sustainable livelihood