migration
West Bengal’s famous handloom industry in peril
The rich heritage of handloom of West Bengal is dying a rapid death due to factors linked to the lockdown, migration, competition from powerlooms and Government negligence.
The wheels are turning for migrant potters
Families of potters who have migrated from India’s countryside to Delhi with hopes of making it big are a disappointed lot, but there’s a ray of hope as people are rediscovering uses of earthenware
Kerala floods trigger more migration
With erratic and intensifying rainfall, Kerala is witnessing more deadly floods and landslides in recent years, leading to an exodus of people from vulnerable areas.
Pandemic pushes impoverished villagers into further debts
With income from marginal landholdings and rain-fed agriculture unable to sustain them, tribal communities migrate for work to clear loans. Pandemic has pushed them into perpetual debts.
Lack of local livelihoods forces men to migrate far
With no industrial jobs, and low wages in agriculture, men from Bhagabanpur in Maldah district migrate to faraway places like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, to make a living
Losing livelihood, landless families bear the lockdown brunt
Entrepreneurial villagers from landless tribal communities opted for alternate livelihoods. Despite easing of lockdown restrictions, the current challenges are pushing them back to poverty
Returned migrants: Despair and coping
Distance to host city, commitment of employer and livelihood opportunity at native village help returned workers decide on post-lockdown migration. Till then they cope with available resources
Rural youth turn software developers right after school
Rural youth with the right aptitude are trained and employed in a technology company in Tirunelveli. Local employment has prevented migration and improved the families’ economic status
Watermelons stem distress migration in Odisha’s hunger belt
Forced to migrate due to poverty and recurrent droughts, and with no better life in faraway brick kilns, farmers in western Odisha have turned to watermelon cultivation, reaping rich benefits
Landless Musahars continue their wait for development
Marginalized and landless, Musahars have become free from bonded labor, yet continue to suffer social discrimination and financial hardships, hoping for government schemes to deliver
Custom of child marriages must be fought on multiple fronts
There is no silver bullet to defeat the scourge of underage marriages. Rather, it is important to extend the scope of current interventions among adolescents and the communities they grow up in, which then need to be backed up by suitable government policies