Positive Stories
An obscure tribal village in central India where every child is a skateboarder and their parents are organic farmers
When the adivasi children of Janwaar in Panna district, MP took to skateboarding in 2016, little did they realise they were making way for other significant changes in their village which is now also known for organic farming.
Arun Singh
Towards COVID-free villages in Dantewada: Corona Jagrukta Dal, messages in Gondi and bus transport for vaccination
69 per cent of villages in Dantewada district have been declared COVID-free. The rest will be free of the coronavirus by June 15, declares the district administration. But, health experts term these announcements “gimmicks” and say several challenges remain.
Shivani Gupta
Five fisherwomen in Tamil Nadu set up Dolphin, a restaurant, and free their husbands of debt
In Poompuhar village, where women aren’t even allowed to sit with men in public, five of them break gender stereotypes and start their own restaurant, where their vatha kuzhambu and rava kesari wow their customers.
Eva Badola
Women ‘Poshan Champions’ tackle malnutrition while puncturing patriarchy
The female foot soldiers of a nutrition project in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, are finding autonomy, mobility and financial security while helping mothers raise healthy children
Syed Saad Ahmed
Addressing vaccine hesitancy in rural India, one jab at a time
The Uttar Pradesh government and its health workers are sparing no efforts to vaccinate the state’s rural and tribal population by holding free vaccination camps. Members of some Adivasi communities are slowly coming forward to take the vaccine. Gaon Connection reports from a vaccination camp in the tribal dominated area in Mirzapur.
Brijendra Dubey
Cancer survivor’s telemedicine centre links medics with villagers in remote areas
At 12 he was diagnosed with a type of bone cancer and his family struggled to get him treated. Now, at 27, Sandeep Kumar from Uttar Pradesh’s Sant Kabir Nagar runs ‘DigiSwasthya’ telemedicine centre that links up villagers with doctors to provide free medical consultation.
Pratyaksh Srivastava
Health official in UP’s Barabanki has been a glimmer of hope amidst tragedies of COVID19 pandemic
KK Gupta, a senior filaria inspector, has gone out of his way to help people in need. In the course of the COVID 19 pandemic, he has personally performed last rites of people, fed the poor and the hungry, and organised transportation for stranded migrant labourers.
Virendra Singh
Water hyacinth gets a makeover as yoga mats
From being a stubborn nuisance covering water bodies and resisting all efforts to uproot it, the water hyacinth has become a source of livelihood as a project repurposes the invasive plant into weaving yoga mats.
Divendra Singh
A dream flies from Jaipur to homes across India
Gaon Connection’s 45-day campaign called Hands of India, supported by Flipkart, the e-commerce company, presents stories of creators, sellers and customers. The aim of the series is to create empathy and a sense of pride for the people who help build India. Read the second of the series about Poonam Saini, who fulfilled her dream of being a businesswoman through Flipkart.
Subha J Rao
Moved by a migrant worker’s story in Gaon Connection, a 19-year-old student raises Rs 42,000
Anshika Jhamb came across the story of Suresh Kumar, an auto-rickshaw driver, who recently drove over 1,000 kilometres from Delhi to Bihar to escape the Delhi lockdown. She crowdfunded to help the migrant worker repay his debts and start afresh.