Citizens' Rights and Duties

Featured Articles
July 7, 2022 PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
December 6, 2019 A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
November 21, 2019 A report by NIUA brings to light the chinks in Jaipur's sewage system and suggests some solutions.
Routine check done by the sewage treatment plant staff in Delawas, Jaipur. The plant is part of the ADB best practices projects list. (Image: Asian Development Bank, Flickr Commons)
November 18, 2019 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 15, 2019 On World Toilet Day, we bring to light the labour of India’s sewer workers - those who do the unclean work that a Clean India relies on.
Photo credit: Sharada Prasad
Harvesting rainwater effectively
An innovative project makes rainwater harvesting easier and more effective in certain areas of Mewat village with increased groundwater salinity. Posted on 15 Feb, 2018 01:25 PM

One of the major causes of deterioration of water quality is the increase in overall salinity. Total hardness and the presence of materials like fluoride, nitrate, iron, arsenic, and toxic metal ions determine salinity levels in groundwater. With the demand for groundwater growing rapidly, its exploitation is also accelerating which causes depletion.

The innovation was introduced in a government school building in Untka village located in Mewat district of Haryana.
Water issues: Take account of socio-cultural question
Prof. Frederic Landy, director, French Institute of Pondicherry speaks to India Water Portal on water and socio-environmental challenges. Posted on 13 Feb, 2018 08:30 AM

As part of Bonjour India 2017-2018, the four-months-long, ongoing Indo-French journey celebrating the Indo-French partnership, water-related issues are being highlighted through research, art and debates in cities like Jaipur, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pondicherry and Kolkata.

A small canal in Chanaute, Birendranagar, Nepal. (Photo: Janak Poudel (CC BY 4.0 SA)
What budget has for farm and rural sectors
There is a sharp rise in allocations for rural and agriculture sector in this budget. Posted on 07 Feb, 2018 04:31 PM

This year’s budget was expected to be extensively farmer- and rural-sector oriented. And that is exactly what it turned out to be. The distress in the agrarian sector has intensified and its political implications were rife this year considering the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled next year.

The budget has a slew of initiatives to revive the farm sector. (Image: Azhar Feder, Wikimedia Commons-CC-BY-SA-3.0)
Eliminate garbage naturally
A Mumbai-based scientist comes up with an effective solution to Kashmir’s mounting garbage problem. Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 06:19 PM

Kashmir was once known for its pristine mountains, lakes, beautiful landscape and clean environment. In the last few decades, however, things have changed. An increasing amount of untreated garbage produced by humans is becoming a critical problem affecting not only the health of the residents of Kashmir but its environment, too.

A screenshot from the film Untreated Waste--Invitation to Disaster (Source: Abdul Rashid Bhat)
Open water data for integrated water science
Datameet and Centre for Internet and Society have released a prototype web app that allows users to access daily rainfall data from Jan 1981 till Dec 2017 for a watershed of their interest. Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 03:30 PM

Understanding water in all its forms in every part of the water cycle is vital to ensuring its sustainable and equitable management. Whether there is a scarcity of water or an excess of it, knowing precisely the quantum of water, whether underground in aquifers, embedded in the soil as soil moisture or in numerous lakes, reservoirs and rivers is vital.

Image courtesy NASA
Profiting from sustainable farming
Sustainable agro-ecological farming is one way to overcome the limitations of conventional farming. Green College shows us how to do it. Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 01:48 PM

Pitidri is a nondescript village that dots the rainshadow area of Purulia district in West Bengal. Droughts are common here even when the area is endowed with above average rainfall of over 1300 mm a year. Until some time ago, Urmila Mahato, a 42-year-old farmer from Pitidri had been struggling to ensure her family’s food security.

Urmila Mahato at her farm.
Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
A remarkable, first-ever collection of 35 essays on India’s future, by a diverse set of authors – activists, researchers, media practitioners. Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:39 AM

Alternative Futures: India Unshackled is a book that brings together scenarios of an India that is politically and socially egalitarian, radically democratic, economically sustainable and equitable, and socio-culturally diverse and harmonious.

Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
Waste away, Ambikapur shows way
A small city in Chattisgarh, Ambikapur implements a cost effective way to get rid of its waste and generates jobs in the process. Posted on 19 Jan, 2018 11:37 AM

Ambikapur has become a role model for all the urban local bodies (ULBs) in Chhattisgarh for its successful solid liquid resource management (SLRM). Thanks to Ritu Sen, former collector of Ambikapur and her team for taking the initiative to clean the city and for bringing the women's self-help groups (SHGs) together for this noble cause. 

A worker carries household waste to the SLRM centres at Ambikapur.
Stubble burning banned, farmers stumped
While banning stubble burning is a positive step towards reducing air pollution in the Delhi-NCR sector, the farmers need support from the government to adopt measures to enable smooth crop rotation. Posted on 07 Jan, 2018 06:20 PM

Amar Singh sits in his huge courtyard at the centre of his home in the village of Atraula in Meerut. Lying in the far west part of Uttar Pradesh, this is a flourishing sugarcane belt. An important agricultural region, its demographic, economic and cultural patterns are similar to that of nearby Haryana and Rajasthan.

A large amount of crop residues are available in western UP and most of these are burnt in the field (Image: Ed Dunens, Flickr Commons)
Is it worth the salt?
Unregulated salt production near Sambhar lake is not just causing health problems among salt workers, it is also depleting groundwater and ruining the ecosystem of the wetland. Posted on 12 Dec, 2017 12:22 PM

The fields are silvery white with raw salt crusts in the vicinity of Nawa, a small town on the northwestern banks of Sambhar lake, India’s largest inland lake. Nawa lies about 90 kilometres east of Jaipur. Also an extensive saline wetland and a Ramsar site, the blinding white salt flats stretch as far as one can see.

Ramachander Singh, a salt worker who has been raking salt for decades now at this salt pan or kyari dotting the lake bed of Sambhar, Rajasthan.
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