Nation's food bowl in crisis
When the state that was the country's biggest agricultural success story in the 1970s tops the list of indebted farmers, it is obvious that there is something very rotten in the state of agriculture in the country. A three-part series that looks at the agriculture crisis in India's food bowl, Punjab
The killing fields
Rani Kaur's husband committed suicide in 2003. Before that her eldest brother-in-law, Aloo Singh, took his own life in 1993, followed by another brother-in-law, Gurutej Singh, in 1996. In 2004, Gurutej's son, Kala Singh, ended his life. There have been 81 farmer suicides in Balran village alone in Punjab's Sangrur district, but the government still has no policy to deal with the worsening situation
In the name of the Guru
The Nanak Kheti movement to reclaim the natural method of farming practised in the Punjab of yore, hopes to restore the degraded soil, lower input costs, and return farming to being a sustainable activity for the farmer
How market forces shape urban spaces
Urban studies specialist Saskia Sassen challenges conventional wisdom on the homogenising effects of globalisation. On a recent visit to Mumbai she talked about the ways in which the corporate built environment co-exists and sustains a new type of informal economy
Uncertain future for organic cotton
Organic cotton is being projected as a way out of the pitfalls of capital- and input-intensive agriculture. But poor awareness and little or no support from the government are making even organic cotton cultivation risky and unviable
Female condoms: Shifting the burden of safe sex to women?
Hindustan Latex is all set to market the female condom, particularly to sex workers. NACO is partnering with 61 NGOs across six states to reach out to 60,000 female sex workers. Sex workers in Hyderabad, where the condom was tested, say it gives them a sense of control over their bodies
Credit, violence and women
Women and moneylenders have always had a volatile relationship. In suicide-ridden Vidarbha, this aspect of the agrarian crisis has remained largely hidden, but in several documented cases, women have been attacked and their land and property snatched
Presumed guilty: India's denotified tribes
In September, a mob in Bihar lynched 10 members of a denotified tribe, taking them for thieves. A probe later revealed that they were not thieves. Sixty million people in India belonging to denotified and nomadic tribes continue to suffer such discrimination
Coastal convulsions
The proposed Coastal Zone Management notification, which is expected to replace the existing Coastal Regulation Zone notification (1991), will hit the coastline like a second tsunami, say activists. With the shifting of 'zones', entire fishing communities will be moved out of coastal areas, making way for unbridled construction in the name of 'development'
Hi-tech building plans threaten to displace Valanthakkadu's dalits
The tiny island of Valanthakkadu, situated in the middle of Vembanadu lake in Kerala, is being eyed by builders and land developers who want to turn it into a 'high-tech city'. The local dalit population, which lives entirely off the rich ecosystem, is up in arms