Perspectives

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Health workers offer rural tele-counseling to contain COVID-19 myths

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With lack of access to authentic information, myths and fears proliferate. Health workers counsel communities over phone, addressing their anxieties about the disease and the returned migrants

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Farmer producer company bridges consumers and farmers during lockdown

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With no transportation, farmers had unsold produce and consumers had no vegetables. With special permission and a mobile app for placing orders, an innovative FPC has fulfilled both needs

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How COVID-19 would impact rural India and its economy

With no urban economic activities because of the lockdown, migrants who have returned to native villages and rural workers will feel the pinch in the coming months

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Minimizing the pain for rural India post COVID-19 pandemic

Understanding the sources that cause rural distress during the nationwide lockdown and post pandemic, there is a need for measures to minimize the rural citizens’ distress

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Urgent government intervention needed for migrants in transit

With the countrywide lockdown to arrest spread of COVID-19, migrant workers who started returning home from destination sites are caught in borders with scant amenities. Government needs to intervene to ensure safe passage

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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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Ageing with dignity – A dream worth pursuing

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Targeting the elderly, Aging with Dignity initiative brings them primary health care, restores their self-worth and self-respect, and helps them live their twilight years with dignity

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How some FPC balloons can become durable high flyers – IV

It is essential to keep the staff of FPCs motivated and introduce financial incentives and insurances to cater to their well-being, for the success and sustenance of FPCs

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How some FPC balloons can become durable high flyers – III

Understanding local markets, evolving strategies to develop longstanding engagement with customers, and adopting norms to maintain rapport with members would help FPCs create a sustainable business model

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How some FPC balloons can become durable high flyers – II

Members of farmer producer companies being of limited means and the avenues to raise capital being less, the companies can sustain by adopting preventive measures in their operation

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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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How some FPC balloons can become durable high flyers – I

The success of farmer producer companies floated across the country, would depend on the company’s relationship with its members and delivering on promises made during the launch

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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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Of cow urine and human waste: faith, folklore and science

While there is a surfeit of folklore on cow urine as a miracle material, the waste of other cattle and humans, which are also dependable resources, should be checked for efficacy

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Farmer producer companies: let a thousand balloons float

While farmer producer companies mushroom across the country because of government’s financial incentives, problems in input delivery and sale of produce persist, making their long-term sustenance difficult

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India needs poverty fighters to boost rural incomes

Ending endemic economic poverty in the central and eastern parts of rural India needs more numbers of trained foot soldiers to deal with the complex realities on the ground

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Adivasis in Rajasthan demand better local governance

Villagers, especially women, are questioning panchayat institutions being used as tools to push government agenda that do not necessarily align with their needs, and want better local governance

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Can a pointed pickaxe pierce a pearl?

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

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Can handlooms provide a viable rural livelihood?

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

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Only neglected India lives in the villages

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