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
Millets travel from tribal farms to dinner tables
The indigenous Dongria Kondh community in Odisha is helping to restore the popularity of native varieties of millets that can grow in droughty weather conditions, even as millet products gain traction among affluent consumers for their many health benefits
Tie and dye add color to women’s lives in Nosariya
Learning the traditional art of coloring fabrics is enabling many women in rural Bikaner to add an additional source of household income in an area where patriarchy makes it difficult for them to step out of their villages
For some more blades of grass
Instead of raising a hue and cry to protect cows, more immediate action is required to make fodder available to the large cattle population in the country by controlling the menace of unwanted shrubs and weeds in India’s pastures and forests
Marathwada farmers face bleak sowing season
Although the Maharashtra government has announced a loan waiver, deeply indebted farmers of Marathwada still do not know how they will get the money to buy farm inputs this sowing season ahead of the monsoon
Competition encourages watershed management to drought-proof Maharashtra villages
As part of the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup 2017, over 1,300 villages in drought-prone areas of Maharashtra are creating water-harvesting structures to overcome chronic water scarcity, particularly during the hot season
Water control is the strongest anti-poverty measure
Once we realize that one size does not fit all, it will be easier for the government and civil society organizations to tailor strategies to manage water in the different agro-climatic regions of the country that truly benefits the rural poor
Indigenous art forms of Santhal Pargana are in need of revival
The last few practitioners of Chador Badoni, a form of puppetry, and Jadu Patiya, a form of painting and story telling, say their art forms may soon be lost to modern times unless there is a serious attempt to revive them
After the drought, Kerala to chase monsoon to catch rain where it falls
After the century’s worst drought, people in Kerala are now getting ready to harvest rain in their backyard wells, temple ponds and lush forests. Citizens, voluntary groups and the state government are ready with a set of measures. It just needs to rain.
Farmers in coastal Tamil Nadu battle drought with smart farming
Farmers of Vedaranayam in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu are surviving the current drought by growing diverse crops that suit their soil, despite the failure of the rains and not getting water from the Cauvery River for many years