Gender
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Lack of basic amenities adversely affect tribal women’s health
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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