Reportage
Bharat bandh: Why are the trade unions, farmers’ bodies protesting?
Increasing minimum wage and monthly pension of workers is part of the 13-point charter of demands, which the trade unions say has been ignored by the government. The latter has warned them of “consequences” if they go on a proposed 24-hour nationwide strike
Gaon Connection
“While most of the calls are rescue calls, we haven’t rescued any woman since June”
181 – women’s helpline number in Uttar Pradesh — languishes in absence of work. The staff has not been given salaries, rescue vans are standing idle
Neetu Singh
They left home in search of work, came back with silicosis
Every year, tribals from Madhya Pradesh move to Gujarat in search of a livelihood. But they are returning with silicosis, a disease of the lungs caused by continuous exposure to dust, silica, cement and fine glass particles inhaled while working in places such as stone-crushing or cement units
Gaon Connection
Stuck between the coal mines and a mountain of mud: Story of an unfortunate village
Chilkatad village in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district is at a crossroad. Because of coal mines, the pollution is high. Villagers don’t get clean drinking water, the air is toxic, people are falling sick
Mithilesh Dhar Dubey
Dhanbad, Bokaro, Singrauli … the coal mines are mining miseries for people living close to them
Coal mines produce fly ash in large quantity, making people living in these coal belts sick. Sadly, these people have been suffering from the ill-effects of coal mining for many generations
Mithilesh Dhar Dubey
The Rihand dam quenches the thirst of 20 lakh people, but these people are drinking toxic water
On Oct 6 last year, the dyke of a fly ash pond at a power plant of the NTPC in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh breached, causing spillage in several acres of land. People living here are still suffering
Mithilesh Dhar Dubey
Ghost villages: Will the departed ever return to their hills?
As per the report issued in September 2019 by the Rural Development and Migration Commission in Uttarakhand, in the last decade, a total of 3.83 lakh people from 3,946 gram panchayats have never returned after migrating in search of a livelihood
Divendra Singh
Gripped by climate change … lives of villagers in Sundarbans remain tragic
The poor in the Sundarbans bore the brunt of a cyclonic storm that flattened their mud houses and destroyed the standing crops. They have been dealing with climate change for long now
Aparna Venkatachalam
Villagers start getting free paan and chai-pakora as gram panchayat elections near
The panchayat elections would be announced any time this year for more than 58,000 gram panchayats across Uttar Pradesh. The gram pradhans have swung into action
Ranvijay Singh
In Uttar Pradesh, sugarcane rate has increased by a mere Rs 20 per quintal in six years
Since 1999, the BJP has been in power for a total six years in Uttar Pradesh and during these years, the price for sugarcane has increased by a mere Rs 20