Reportage
Payments delayed for over a year, daily wage workers at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve go on an indefinite strike
Protesting against the failure of the state administration in providing their payments, the daily wage workers at Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit Tiger Reserve have now decided to go on an indefinite strike. Will the strike affect the counting of tigers for the census? Read on to know more.
Gaon Connection
Water chestnut is 10 times costlier than it was 35 years ago — but have the cultivators benefitted?
Farmers in the barren areas of Madhya Pradesh rely on cultivating singhara (water chestnut) in the local ponds. These farmers say that despite a ten-fold increase in its market price, their livelihoods have not improved. Read on to know more.
Sachin Tulsa Tripathi
Javed Sayyed’s handcrafted, GI-tagged Channapatna toys
Channapatna in Karnataka is also fondly called Gombegala Ooru, or a city of toys. Nearly 35% of Channapatna population is involved
directly or indirectly in the wooden toy industry. Javed Sayyed is one such craftsperson.
Pankaja Srinivasan
The year that was: 2021’s top 10 stories in Gaon Connection
The second wave, a massive vaccination drive, back to back extreme weather events, farmers’ protest and more… 2021 has been a year like none other and Gaon Connection worked hard to bring you stories from rural India, of those unheard and unseen.
Gaon Connection
Doctors’ protest: ‘Third wave will witness shortage of doctors if prompt action not taken’
Resident doctors in Delhi have been demanding an urgent conclusion of NEET PG counselling since the first week of December. They claim that there’s a nationwide shortage of doctors by almost 33 per cent because of a delay in admissions and due to this, the doctors are overworked. More details here.
Sarah Khan
Muzaffarpur factory blast: ‘Boiler was leaking for 6 months, we told factory authorities but nothing was done to fix it’
An explosion at a noodle-making factory in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur has resulted in the violent deaths of seven workers while at least seven others have sustained injuries. The workers allege callous attitude on the part of the factory authorities as they did not act on fixing a boiler which led to the blast. Details here.
Lovely Kumari
“Music is your constant companion till the end”: Chandralekha Tripathi (May 8, 1941 – December 26, 2021)
President’s National Award winner Chand Didi sings no more but her music legacy still resonates in Mussoorie where she has taught music for free to young students for over 38 years.
Gaon Connection
Ujjwala scheme fails to benefit rural women in Kashmir; opposition alleges scam
Economically weak rural residents in Jammu and Kashmir allege that either they have been asked to pay for the free LPG cylinder under the Ujjwala scheme, or have not received the cylinder at all. Their names however appear as beneficiaries. The opposition parties allege a scam is being orchestrated by the ‘gas mafia’.
Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Uttar Pradesh ranks lowest in NITI Aayog’s Health Index but tops its incremental ranking
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the top three best performing states in Niti Aayog’s Health Index prepared in consultation with the Union Health Ministry and the World Bank. Although Uttar Pradesh ranks lowest in the overall health performance, it has shown maximum improvement over the past year.
Gaon Connection
India records 156 new Omicron cases — highest daily number so far
In the wake of the outbreak caused by the Omicron variant of COVID19, many states have announced measures to impede its spread but the cases have still been on the rise. At present, there are 578 identified cases of Omicron variant in India. More details here.