Although there are multiple factors that interfere with the fair implementation of rural welfare programs, it is important to break the stranglehold of the rural elite and often co-opted local administration
Tribal people in and around the shuttered tea gardens of north Bengal are living on the edge of destitution and are being forced to a life of hard labor and exploitation by local contractors to stave off starvation
An initiative to reach healthcare services to pregnant women and new mothers in the underdeveloped Araku Valley has seen a measure of success in tribal communities ruled by superstition and regressive practices
Despite global recognition, women painters of the Madhubani folk art form in Jitwarpur village have failed to escape the clutches of middlemen, who corner most of the profits. State initiatives could help stop the exploitation
What began as a community initiative to revive organic farming in the small village of Vengeri near Kozhikode has today expanded into a sustainable lifestyle that showcases how rural living can indeed be idyllic
The despicable practice of untouchability in Varanasi district is keeping the musahar community from accessing state healthcare facilities, and the situation is changing too slowly despite grassroots activism
It remains to be seen whether the digital world of today will become more hostile to women in villages than their physical reality, which is currently dominated by men who lord it over them
The Odanthurai village council in southern Tamil Nadu has shown how a Panchayati Raj institution can achieve holistic rural development with the help of wise leadership and community participation
Tired of being denied basic human rights and held to be untouchables, Musahars in some villages of Varanasi district are speaking up with help from community activists, but a decent livelihood is still far away
Faced with longer and hotter summers, many farmers in the Sundarbans have embraced organic farming with local crop varieties that are better adapted to a changing climate and fetch adequate returns as well
