Rural India is home of the original gig-economy worker. Enterprising villagers hop from tilling fields to tending shops, to door-to-door selling each day. Read the latest trends in micro-enterprises, rural start-ups and the shifting livelihoods of India’s villagers.
Livelihoods
Kashmir’s farmers switch from growing apples to exotic greens
Fruit cultivation is a mainstay of Kashmir’s economy, but many farmers are clearing orchards and shifting to integrated farming to grow exotic vegetables.
Youngsters ditch restaurants, boost roadside stalls in Matheran
Young tourists on shoestring budgets skip restaurants and eat at roadside stalls or buy fresh fruits and berries sold by people living in the valley below Matheran.
Turning fallow land fertile, Chhattisgarh women reap rich harvest
Women of Biladi grow fruits and vegetables on land they had collectively leased from panchayat to earn a decent living in a region that was historically arid.
Dying Siali craft keeps Mankidia tribe on the edge
The tribe was displaced from the Similipal forest when it became a national park, which reduced access to the Siali creeper they weave into ropes and baskets.
Solan mushroom farmers make it big with fungi
A mushroom revolution took place in Himachal Pradesh about 30 years ago as farmers looked for high returns from a limited space. The result is mind-blowing.
Why migrant labourers keep flocking to Kashmir
Undeterred by threats to their security, hundreds of migrant labourers from different states flock to Kashmir every spring to earn their livelihood.
New print on the block
You know about Rajasthan’s Sanganeri and Bagru block prints, admire their imperfections and perhaps have a wardrobe full of them. But have you seen Jhag – the newest print in the collections of some of the reputed Indian handloom brands?
Mizoram farmers caught in ‘rat trap’
Ahead of a new bamboo flowering cycle, rats are attacking fields in Mizoram, destroying crops in several acres as farmers and officials struggle to contain the problem.
‘Dignity is closely linked to economic condition’
About 95 percent of the workforce in India is engaged in the informal sector, and we cannot leave them outside of our imagination, says Subhash Bhatnagar of Nirmana, an organisation that seeks to empower unorganised sector workers.