Jeera Devi was born in 1994. Nearly two decades ago, when the health system was not proficient, and there was a lack of awareness, particularly in the rural areas. She was born in conditions which are not feasible for delivery. There was no midwife to assist her ailing mother, and women from the other houses came forward. With no birth preparedness, Jeera Devi was bor... Read More
50-year-old, Malku Ram is a member of Village Development Committee (VDC) at Jabla Village in Bagicha Block of Jashpur District in Chhattisgarh. Jabla is a village with 116 households. It is about 12 kms away from the block head quarter. The entire population of the village belongs to tribal community. The village does not have basic infrastructure facilities like roa... Read More
Mr. Kumaran works as a bus driver in Konnathady Gram Panchayat and lives in Munnar with his family. It was an ordinary day on 7th January, his daughter Nandana was watching her favourite cartoon show along with her younger brother. The entire family was relaxing and sitting together in the living room. As the children were hungry, her mother went to the... Read More
CARE India with financial support from AXA has been implementing Where the Rain Falls (WtRF) project since 2010-11. While the first phase was dedicated to research, the second phase is devoted to Community Based Adaptation (CBA), under which the project aims to increase the resilience of 3000 tribal women and their households, in 40 villages of the Jashpur district of... Read More
In 2008, Sagera Firoz Tarbi got married at the age of 16. She and her husband had two children (a girl and a boy). During the fifth year of their marriage, she got pregnant and delivered a baby girl. This time her husband was expecting a baby boy. Due to the birth of a girl, her husband started living with another woman without giving her talaq. Sagera decided to c... Read More
The day started off as a routine one for me. Along with a volunteer and our associate Mr. Rajendran, I reached Devikulam Grama Panchayat. I travelled through bumpy roads enjoying the scenic beauty of Munnar to reach my destination. As part of our damaged well validation exercise, we visited Mr. Sabu’s house. He and his family welcomed us with a warm smile, offered b... Read More
We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, he cared.- Mary Kay Ash I recalled these famous lines that I read a long time back when I first met 22-year-old Sohan Lal Bairwa on my recent field vis... Read More
Movements like #MeToo, #YoTambién, #BalanceTonPorc, #NiUnaMenos and others have sparked widespread debate; violence and harassment against women is being exposed in more sectors, and the violence endured by women who are often less visible is gaining more attention; there’s one debate taking place that fewer people know so much ... Read More
During the recent floods in Kerala, the state witnessed hundreds of fishermen reaching out to the remotest of areas where flood victims were stuck, utilising their own resources. Over the years, disaster sites across India have seen neighbours, communities and the grassroot NGOs present locally as the first responders with immediate support while the government machin... Read More
Kerala rains are what people typically aspire to see. In ‘God’s own country,’ it is one time of the year when the greenery explodes, mountains are lush with spices and waterfalls are heavy. This year, however, was different. In the month of August, when most of India was busy celebrating the freedom it won from the British rule on the 72nd Independence Day, n... Read More
The recent floods in Kerala were the worst in living memory. In fact, so distant was the last such event, that people never believed that floods and landslides could be so devastating. Unlike many parts of India, houses are not clustered in one location, but built on hewn out hillsides as a single dwelling, providing households with private spaces and sometimes space ... Read More
Onurina Ikikoyi cannot recall the exact date she delivered her tenth and last-born child. However, she remembers the joy she felt after giving birth to the only girl-child in the family. Celebrations went for a week, she recalls, as her relatives and friends delighted in yet another precious addition to the family. For Onurina, having many children meant a guarantee ... Read More
