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The adivasi voice
In the frequent debates on government and civil society response to Maoist violence in central India where Operation Green Hunt has been launched, the views of the adivasi communities themselves are missing. A recent people’s hearing in New Delhi on the impact of land acquisition and resource grab on adivasis allowed their voices to be heard More... Eat less, work moreThe entire burden of working, earning and providing food security to the family seems to be on women in urban slums. And yet the nutritional status of women is abysmal. The fourth in our series on food security of the urban poor More... Destroyed by ‘development’The onslaught on Orissa’s forests began with the Hirakud dam, Rourkela steel plant, Mandira dam, the Upper Indravati hydroelectric project. Three million forest-dwellers in Orissa are estimated to have been displaced since Independence; most have vanished without a trace. Now it’s the mining leases that are destroying these forests. But local communities are no longer silent about this ‘development’ More... Beedi-rollers of Biharsharif: ‘The living dead’Beedi workers are listed in the schedules of the Minimum Wages Act 1948, which do not list most other home-based activities. They are also entitled to health insurance, maternity benefits and housing assistance. Why then are beedi workers so desperately poor, with no access to these benefits? More... In the line of fireThousands of children from the Gothi Koya tribe in conflict-torn Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh have become the most tragic and innocent victims of the violence between the state and the insurgents. Rajashri Dasgupta travelled to Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh where the administration has set up residential schools for these orphans and refugees More... India has no rules governing radioactive wasteThe recent radiation incident in Delhi’s Mayapuri industrial area may have goaded the authorities into action, but the dangers posed by radioactive material have mostly been ignored in India. Will the draft Electronic Waste Handling and Management Rules address this issue? More... Vidarbha: Dirty technology in the guise of development?The government of Maharashtra plans to allow 43 new private and public thermal power plants in Vidarbha, a region that’s suffered years of neglect and is home to thousands of distressed, suicidal farmers. Is the government justified in sacrificing Vidarbha to the power needs of the rest of the state/country? More... Biscuits for breakfast: Empty calories for the hungry poorA packet of glucose biscuits and tea is the standard breakfast for Kalpana’s three children in Indra Nagar basti. Popsicles and Kurkure are favourites with Lata’s son. The third in this series reveals how the urban lifestyle of migrant workers in slums forces children and adults to depend on low-nutrition, commercially packaged food that puts women and children at greater risk of malnutrition More... Multilingual democracyWith 22 official languages, 200-odd rationalised mother tongues, and no one knows exactly how many minor languages and dialects, linguistic diversity is part of the historical cultural heritage of the country. But many native languages are dying out for want of recognition, support, and in some cases, lack of a written tradition. This three-part series, written in the wake of the first language summit held in the country - the Bharat Bhasha Confluence in Vadodara in March 2010 - examines India’s linguistic tradition and why it is important More... The loss of languages: What’s all the fuss about?Linguists estimate that one-fifth of India’s linguistic heritage may have reached the stage of extinction over the last half-century. Does this really matter? The second part of this fascinating series on India’s language diversity attempts to answer this question More... The case for a linguistic surveyIn January 2010, the Bo language died a quiet death with the demise of its last native speaker. This has been the fate of many Indian languages. The last in this series on India’s linguistic diversity makes out a strong case for initiating a linguistic survey, 100 years after the last and only such attempt was made. More... African landrushIndia's farmland is now international. In Africa, South America and South East Asia, companies that are Indian or Indian-owned have bought or leased hundreds of thousands of hectares to grow foodgrain, pulses and edible oil. Their acquisitions and activities are seen as backed by the central government in a tacit furthering of India's food security mission More... ‘The protectors are thieves in disguise’In village after village in Orissa, people complain that joint forestry management, which mandates the setting up of a Van Suraksha Samiti headed by a forest official, only ensures that money-power and corruption destroy the forests communities have been managing so successfully More... Abandoned and divorced: The NRI patternTwo out of 10 NRI marriages reportedly end with the wife being abandoned. India has no laws that protect wives whose NRI husbands get ex parte divorces and custody of children. Will government’s decision to issue two valid passports to women marrying abroad help this situation? More... The mirage of environment protectionDo initiatives like NDTV Greenathon, which encouraged viewers to donate solar lanterns to villages without electricity, really help the environmental cause? Do they question the inequitable distribution of resources between big industry/urban consumers and rural India? More... |
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