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FeaturesAnatomy of a health disaster
In the past decade, the little access the poor in Andhra Pradesh had to healthcare has declined sharply. Now, health spending is amongst the fastest growing components of rural family debt, and high medical costs a contributory factor in the farmers' suicides More... Death of a carpenterBesides farmers, the stagnation in the agricultural sector and crop failure due to prolonged drought in Andhra Pradesh has also affected the livelihoods of many non-farm groups like potters, leather-workers and carpenters More... Sinking borewells, rising debtThe borewell craze in Telangana has ruined the region's water table and sunk impoverished farmers deeper into debt More... When farmers dieAlmost every sector failed the Andhra Pradesh farmer -- the government, the political class, intellectuals, planners, human rights groups, a once-activist judiciary and the media More... The importance of minority educationAt a conference on minority welfare and education, held recently in the capital, members expressed their views on the position of minorities in India today, their problems, and what needs to be done to improve their status More... Orissa villagers opt for 'green fixed deposits'In a novel participatory partnership scheme the Tata Steel Rural Development Society offers farmers incentives to plant and nurture teak and cashew plantations. Already 35,000 cashew trees and thousands of teak trees are thriving in every square foot of available space More... 'The Sacred Hills of Ellora': Fantastic examples of religious co-existenceDocumentary filmmaker Simonetta Gatto believes that the best lessons are always learned from history, as with the Ellora caves in Maharashtra, where Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples have co-existed in harmony for millennia More... Run Zola runThe Mumbai International Marathon, scheduled for February 15, should not only be loads of fun, it will also generate funds for a number of charitable organisations More... Going for the authenticThere is a growing demand for what is authentic, local and trustworthy. This new commitment to authenticity—real food, real culture, real politics, etc—requires a revolution in the structure and methods of business More... 'Silence about AIDS is death'The World AIDS Campaign this year focuses on combating HIV-related stigma and discrimination. A recent ILO study covering Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi and Manipur revealed just how extensive discrimination against the affected and infected is More... Shaken to the coreThe residents of Sastur in Maharashtra, where 1,400 people were killed in the Latur quake a decade ago, continue to suffer alarming levels of psychological distress. A recent study emphasises the need to integrate psycho-social care into post-disaster reconstruction initiatives More... Survivors of LaturA decade after the Latur quake killed 8,000 and injured 16,000, there is plenty of evidence of poorly planned and executed disaster management interventions: villages relocated several kilometres from the fields where women work; new toilets constructed but unused because there is no water; newly-built settlements so flimsy that people are afraid to sleep in them More... Living with AIDS in OrissaPeople with HIV/AIDS in Orissa are ostracised and mistreated by their families, community and the medical fraternity. These conditions have prompted the formation of Orissa's first registered association of people living with AIDS, the Kalinga Positive People's Association More... Tracking the Drought-III Dry days in Shivpuri
325 years after its publication in Amsterdam, the 'Hortus Malabaricus' (Garden of Malabar), a treatise on the medicinal plants of southern Kerala state, has been translated from old Latin into English. The translation unlocks a wealth of information for historians, botanists and medical researchers. But will it also help the biopirates? More... A giant leap backwardsPublic figures in America are using September 11 to throw basic human rights out the window More... Carnival of resistanceJohn Samuel reports from the World Social Forum in Porto Algre, Brazil, a global meet that presents the counterpoint to the World Economic Forum at Davos. The myth that there is no alternative to globalisation is being busted here by 150,000 participants from across the world More... 'The poor do not have access to resources. Whose world is it?At the Asian Social Forum, Mari Marcel Thekaekara recorded the straight-from-the-heart testimonies of people who have suffered injustice and exploitation, people who bear the consequences of globalisation More... Women 'major' in disaster managementThe terrible aftermath of the Orissa supercyclone in 1999 prompted UNDP to launch the Community-Based Disaster Programme (CBDP) which trains small armies of volunteers to handle evacuation, first aid, reconstruction, carcass disposal and counselling in disaster situations More... The Handwashing Initiative: selling soap or saving lives?The World Bank's Handwashing Initiative is based on the conviction that the simple practice of washing hands with soap could reduce deaths from diarrhoea by half. But its intentions are being questioned in Kerala, where people say they need safe drinking water, not multinational soap More... The great genetic scandalGenetic erosion, coupled with genetic pollution, will destroy the world's unique genetic base and create an unforeseen crisis on the food front More... Roughshod democracyRakesh Sharma's film tells of how the GMDC has capitalised on the Gujarat quake to displace the gullible population of two tiny villages. Using a natural calamity to speed up land acquisition speakes of the inhumanity of corporate and State processes More... |
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In Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, the government provides impressive figures of relief works, fodder and water provided to the drought-hit. But in village after village, people have to trek kilometres to collect water, and claim they see no trace of government supplies of grain or fodder as they fight to survive one of the worst droughts in recent history 
Even in the verdant coastal districts of India, such as Ratnagiri in Maharashtra which receives 3,000 mm of rainfall annually, the wells have run dry. What has gone wrong? Why are no solutions to conserve/harvest water visible? The second in our series which tracks the drought across India 
All the surface water sources in the vast and desolate flatlands of Kutch, Gujarat, are bone dry. The groundwater tables are falling at alarming rates. How do communities survive the drought here? This is the first in a series of articles tracking the drought
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