Gender

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Women ensure regular access to drinking water

With the dug well drying up in summer, women who lost time in fetching water and hence wage work, got a bore well drilled to fulfill their water needs

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Village Organizations pave way for women’s empowerment

Women who came together for better livelihood, have become socially empowered that they use their collective power to resolve community issues and ensure gender justice

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Adolescent girls progress towards complete empowerment

Repressive norms pushed adolescent girls to poor health and early marriage. Bringing them together into groups has helped them improve their health, stop child marriage and learn vocational skills

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Women use mobile phones to maintain land records

Over half a million women, trained to access and maintain their land records through mobile phones, have learned to complete documentation, so that they are registered as owners

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Women dairy farmers ensure safe delivery of milk during lockdown

Adopting safety measures during coronavirus scare, women dairy farmers ensure supply of milk to consumers, while protecting the livelihood and economic interests of its member farmers

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Women paralegals help settle disputes at community level

Members of self-help groups, trained in legal aspects, ensure that villagers, especially women, get their entitled rights without resorting to money and time-consuming legal route

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Life skills education prevents child marriages among Odiya tribes

Life skills education empowers tribal girls with knowledge, self-awareness and decision making capacities, helping them rise above social customs and pressures. It has resulted in decline of child marriages

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Lack of basic amenities adversely affect tribal women’s health

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Limited livelihood options forcing tribal men to migrate, women bear household responsibilities. Fetching water and firewood, besides farm work being arduous in the hilly terrains, women endure health challenges

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Regressive cultural practices lead to skewed sex ratio

Preference for boys disturbs expectant mothers during the very fertility rituals that are meant to bless them, affecting their psyche, besides resulting in low sex ratio and inferior status of women

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Archaic customs hold community back from development

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

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Rural BPO centers in Bihar open new doors for girls

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

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Odiya tribes shed tradition to space out childbirths

Odisha’s tribal women, suffering the adverse health effects of childbirths in quick succession combined with strenuous agricultural and household work, are breaking community norms to use contraceptives

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Better awareness improves maternal and child health

Awareness meetings that equip women with knowledge on health and nutrition during pregnancy and after childbirth is helping to tackle malnutrition in rural Singhbhum in Jharkhand

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Bhunjia women need better care after childbirth

Women of Odisha’s forest-dwelling tribes face a greater health risk because of their preference for childbirth at home. Counseling by health workers is now slowly helping new mothers get better postnatal care

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Community bathrooms help women bathe in privacy

For most women in Bengal’s villages, a bath is a hurried dip in ponds while fully clothed to avoid the unwelcome male gaze. Community bathrooms enable them bathe in private and maintain better hygiene

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Bengal’s weavers revive muslin, spin success

The revival of muslin, a fine cotton cloth famous for centuries, has infused financial stability into the lives of traditional spinners and weavers of West Bengal who were struggling for survival earlier

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Cooking in iron kadhais combats anemia in Jharkhand

A women's collective movement of cooking in iron kadhais (woks) that helps in reducing the incidence of anemia in rural women is gathering pace in many parts of Jharkhand

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Why Dongria Kondh women prefer childbirth at home

Lack of easy access to government healthcare in Kalyansinghpur, in addition to cultural and dietary differences in hospitals, is forcing Dongria Kondh women in remote villages to opt out of institutional delivery

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Village girls shed fear and shame about menstruation

Through a health initiative that demystifies menstruation by using games and stories, schoolgirls in rural Jharkhand are learning about menstrual health and the importance of nutrition

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Rearing goats empower women in rural Bihar

From just grazing goats, women in rural Muzaffarpur have taken to rearing them and attending to their feed and health needs, empowering themselves with increased incomes in the process