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
Mitigating climate change through organic agriculture - Keynote address at the Third Organic Farming Association of India Convention, held at Anand, Gujarat (2010)
Green Revolution (GR) technologies, supported by official policies, and fuelled by agro-chemicals, machinery and irrigation, are well known to have improved agricultural production and productivity. Posted on 25 Dec, 2010 10:43 PM

Green Revolution (GR) technologies, supported by official policies, and fuelled by agro-chemicals, machinery and irrigation, are well known to have improved agricultural production and productivity. While these technologies greatly helped developing countries to address their food-security and food-sovereignty needs, farmers using these technologies have had to depend on external inputs.

Rainfed areas and rice farming Crucial agricultural water issues
Making up-gradation of rainfed areas a priority for food production and poverty alleviation Posted on 25 Dec, 2010 08:30 PM

John Thompson works on power, policy and sustainability issues in food and agriculture, water resource management and rural development. He is a STEPS Centre member, IDS Fellow and joint Co-ordinator of the Future Agricultures Consortium. He presents two crucial agricultural water issues to take priority on World Water Day.

Umiam Lake and Shillong's Rivers: In spite of the odds – An advocacy flyer by Arghyam and Peoples Learning Centre
Cleaning up the water bodies of Shillong: highlighting the main problems, the action underway and potential solutions. Posted on 22 Dec, 2010 11:01 PM

This advocacy flyer by Arghyam and Peoples Learning Centre (PLC) Shillong highlights some of the main problems, action underway and potential solutions to cleaning up the water bodies of Shillong. It deals with the expanding human habitats and escalating socio-economic activities around the rivers Umkrah and Umshyrpi that flow through Shillong leading to their choking with sewage and pollution. This wastewater eventually enters Lake Umiam, which is a reservoir for hydro-electric power.

PLC is a non-profit organisation that works towards promoting knowledge on equity and rights, and is a platform for facilitating interdisciplinary dialogues between stakeholders in key developmental issues. Arghyam supports PLC in engaging with decision makes as well as citizens in order to create public opinion about river and lake pollution, and promote catchment friendly practices.

Action Beyond Dialogue, The Young Changemakers Conclave, 7th Jan 2011, New Delhi
Posted on 21 Dec, 2010 10:44 AM

The Young Changemakers Conclave

Theme: 'Action: Beyond Dialogue'

The Young Changemakers ConclaveOrganizer: The Young Changemakers Conclave

Topics:

  • Human Rights
  • Educational Opportunity for all
  • Poverty & Hunger
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Intercultural Dialogue
  • Water: Harvestation & Conservation
State Bank of India (SBI) Youth for India Fellowships Programme 2011
Posted on 20 Dec, 2010 04:26 PM

Content and Image Courtesy: Youth for India

Youth for India

SBI Youth for India is a fellowship programme initiated, funded and managed by the State Bank of India in partnership with reputed NGOs. It provides a framework for India's best young minds to join hands with rural communities, empathise with their struggles and connect with their aspirations. The programme seeks to help India secure an equitable and sustainable growth path by:

  • Providing educated Indian youth with an opportunity to touch lives and create positive change at the grass root level in rural India
  • Providing NGOs working on development projects in rural India with educated manpower whose skill sets can be used to catalyze rural development
  • Promoting a forum for the programme alumni to share ideas and contribute to rural development throughout their professional life
Mining - An increasing threat to our rivers - Article by Nitya Jacob
Mining constitutes a major, and largely unrecognized, threat to our rivers. It takes away what we have and also destroys whatever is left of it. Posted on 20 Dec, 2010 12:29 AM

Content Courtesy: Solution Exchange and Nitya Jacob
Author: Nitya Jacob

India’s arteries are choking. Her rivers, the lifeline of hundreds of millions, are over-taxed, polluted and encroached. They are being mined, dammed and emptied of water. Save for the four monsoon months, most rivers are streams of drains, depending on how many cities they pass through. This year people gaped in awe at the River Yamuna (I am sure they were over-awed by other rivers elsewhere too) as for the first time since 1978 looked like a river and not a drain.

Mine the gap: Connecting water risks and disclosure in the mining sector – A report by the World Resources Institute
This paper addresses the problem of how water issues and trends may create potentially costly water-related risk for companies and provides tools, questions, and information for financial community to better evaluate water risks in the mining sector Posted on 17 Dec, 2010 10:43 PM

This paper by the World Resources Institute outlines potential water-related risks facing the mining industry and highlights important gaps in water-related disclosure. The purpose is to provide information, questions, and tools to help the financial community better evaluate water-related risks facing mining companies.

Water management across space and time in India – A working paper by the University of Bonn
This paper links development of water management and its practices with social, religious, economic development with the rise and fall of the ruling regime. Posted on 17 Dec, 2010 10:09 PM

This working paper by the University of Bonn attempts to give a spatial and temporal overview of water management in India. It traces how people and the successive regimes made choices across space and time from a wide range of water control and distribution technologies. The paper divides the water management in India into four periods –

  • the traditional system of water management before colonial times;
  • response from the colonial rulers to manage the complex socio-ecological system;
  • large scale surface water development after independence; and
  • finally, the small-scale community and market-led revolution.

The wealth of waste: The economics of wastewater use in agriculture - A report by FAO
It presents an economic framework for the assessment of the use of reclaimed water in agriculture for a more economically efficient and sustainable water utilization. Posted on 17 Dec, 2010 07:36 PM

This report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) deals with the economics of wastewater use in agriculture. It presents an economic framework for the assessment of the use of reclaimed water in agriculture, as part of a comprehensive planning process in water resource allocation strategies to provide for a more economically efficient and sustainable water utilization. 

Immediate moratorium sought on clearances for large dams in northeast India - Press release by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (Assam)
Recent times have seen many concerns raised both about individual and cumulative impacts (downstream and upstream) of multiple dams planned in the North East region. Posted on 14 Dec, 2010 10:56 PM


23rd November 2010, New Delhi

  • Seeking a moratorium on clearances for large dams in Northeast India
  • Withdrawal of clearances granted to 2000 MW Lower Subansiri, 1750 MW Demwe Lower & 1500 MW Tipaimukh dams
  • Future steps on hydropower projects and dams only after full, prior and informed consent of people in the region
  • Protect the Brahmaputra river basin as a cultural and ecological endowment
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