Ear To The Ground

In the congested Varanasi colony of Bajardiha, home to over  one lakh silk weavers, despondency and desolation have descended over the colony. Muhammad Suleiman takes us to his dark cave-like warehouse, switches on a light bulb and shows us his rickety looms on which 12 weavers can weave a silk sari. He gazes reminiscently at the idle wooden, hand-driven weaving machine that helped him and the weavers earn a living not so long back.  Log in for the full study  https://www.academia.edu/3384746/GLOBALISATION_PUSHES_VARANASI_WEAVERS_TO_HUNGER_and_DEATH https://www.scribd.com/document/8947031/Report-on-Weaver-of-Varanasi-India

Jalangi lies 50 Km east of Behrampore, the district headquarters of Murshidabad of West Bengal. Predominantly inhabited by Muslims and Dalits, the area was earmarked for East Pakistan, before the British colonial rulers changed the partition plan at the last minute, in 1947. Today, Jalangi is a resettlement town on the banks of River Padma. Changing of the river course and massive erosion of its embankments has resulted in the original Jalangi town now being completely submerged in water. The bulk of the surrounding cultivated lands had turned into sand beds, homes have been devastated and livelihoods and livestock, destroyed. Published in Asian Human Rights Commission website, YDin, a Finnish magazine, Infochange and Yuva Samvad. Log in for the full study h ttps://www.academia.edu/3384770/MURSHIDABADs_STARVING_MASSES

Rajasthan, India's largest state is home to many of the country's very rich as well as a large section of the abject poor. Livelihoods range from industrial activity, trade and commerce to agrarian activity which would include agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry. The exploitation of natural resources like minerals is also a reasonably large-scale activity. While a lot has been researched and written about conventional livelihoods in Rajasthan and their impact on the populace; the activity of mining minerals and ores, and the impact this is having on the fragile ecosystems of the desert state, its social frameworks, and the tenuous economic balance in the state's mining belts is less prolific. Log in for the full study https://www.academia.edu/2559970/Mining_in_Rajasthan-A_Study_of_Patterns_and_Paradigms Mentioned about the study at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Illegal-mining-threatens-Sariska-/articleshow/6732997.cms  

Initiatives is a compilation of two studies. The first study is on Palamau (Jharkhand), where 'Pani Chetna Manch' successfully implemented an alternative to mega-dams through a participatory process. Published as a story 'Micro Alternative to Dams' in Economic Times on 13th September 1995.  The second is on Sharam Niketan of Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh) where the innovative experiment in education was conducted to empower the tribal community in the context of their life situation.  Stories on Sharam Niketan has been published in Pioneer & Deccan Herald The story on Shram Niketan carried by Humanscape has been placed in  https://jumpshare.com/v/scf0rQZxY56Ul2BMzmPA

The booklet documents the synergistic leadership between Social Action for Human Resources Development (SOHARD)- Rajasthan and Friedrich- Ebert- Stiftung and other stakeholders in the 'Women in Local Self Governance' project in Neemrana of Alwar district in Rajasthan. Read the study on SOHARD at https://jumpshare.com/v/HvnJxhDEM1IqCi6K8nPX

The North Eastern State of Mizoram is the theatre where a war for supremacy between two species is being fought out. Plagued by a massive rodent menace, with swarms of rats descending upon city and village of Mizoram alike like a scourge periodically, the humans fight to gain an upper hand in this struggle for survival. This story is about a unique campaign led by 81-year old C. Rokhuma to free the state from the rodent menace. Log in for the full story at https://jumpshare.com/v/Nw3SPadh7IAKUjbbpxgF

The Shram Niketan non-formal education model in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol district simultaneously engenders cultural relevance and market orientation in 15 tribal-student communities. Log in at https://jumpshare.com/v/scf0rQZxY56Ul2BMzmPA Published in Pioneer, Deccan Herald, Humanscape & Chalk Times

Lal Kuan, a village near the Badarpur-Mehrauli Road in Delhi has become a death zone. Silicosis has massacred around 3,000 people in Lalkuan since 1992. The deadly disease killed workers who were exposed to the dangers of stone cutting. Others also succumbed to this disease Published in Sahara Time & Grassroots Read it on https://jumpshare.com/v/lAiYw55V2R8kuEFFKIkZ

This booklet documents the endeavour of Mahila Shiksha Kalyam Evam Prashikshan Parishad (MSKPP), an NGO working in the Masturi block of Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh behind the launching of the Sakhi Bank. MSKPP through self-help groups has been motivating, organising, and enabling women with inherent leadership qualities to empower themselves socially, economically and politically. Please read the report at https://www.academia.e du/3511743/SAKHI_BANK_THE_SILENT_REVOLUTION_OF_WOMEN

Women face trafficking, migration, unemployment, deforestation etc. Coverage of women issues in the newspapers published from Jharkhand is quite dismal. The transformation of the agrarian economy to mining economy degrades women’s economic, social and cultural status. Hence non-existent social evils like wife battering, alcoholism, indebtedness, physical and sexual abuse, prostitution, polygamy and desertion are common in the mining region of Jharkhand.  The media monitoring study sponsored by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) tries to look at the content pertinent to women issues especially trafficking of tribal women in mining in the print media to see what goes in and what is left out….. Log in for the full study at: https://www.academia.edu/3371485/DO_MEDIA_HAVE_A_SPACE_FOR_WOMEN_TRAFFICKED_IN_MINING_IN_JHARKHAND https://jumpshare.com/v/Ed3xisBOXQFKpxGaYo9z