Society, Culture, Religion and History

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January 13, 2022 The water structures constructed during the Gond period continue to survive the test of time and provide evidence of the water wisdom of our ancestors.
Kundeshwar lake, Kundam in Jabalpur (Image Source: K G Vyas)
January 2, 2021 Lack of community ownership and local governance are spelling doom for the once royal and resilient traditional water harvesting structures of Rajasthan.
Toorji Ka Jhalara, Jodhpur (Image Source: Rituja Mitra)
December 7, 2020 The new farm related bills will spell doom for women workers who form the bulk of small and marginal sections of Indian agriculture, warns Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM).
Farm women, overworked and underpaid (Image Source: India Water Portal)
December 11, 2019 Dry toilets have long been hailed as a sustainable solution to the sanitation and waste management crisis facing India today, but have been overshadowed by more modern toilet designs.
A traditional dry toilet. Image: India Science Wire
December 4, 2019 To adapt well & build resilience, climate change strategies need to factor in efforts towards water security, writes Vanita Suneja, Regional Advocacy Manager (South Asia), WaterAid.
Image credit: WaterAid/Prashanth Vishwanathan
December 2, 2019 Water stewardship is an approach predicated on the concept that water is a shared resource and so water risks are also shared risks that everyone in a catchment will face
Picture credit: Romit Sen
Gendered impacts of COVID-19
The pandemic affects rural women disproportionately with damaging impacts on their employment, health and security. Posted on 20 Sep, 2020 09:15 PM

COVID-19 has unleashed one of the greatest human tragedies of the contemporary era demonstrating our fragility and has laid bare severe and systemic inequalities at all levels. It provides several lessons in the conduct of all aspects of human personality, professional, societal, and institutional lives globally.

The time-use survey indicates that women are now spending more time on unpaid domestic and care work (Image: Sunita, Pixabay)
Uttarakhand: Reaching the unreached
PSI addresses the shortage of safe drinking water in remote Uttarakhand villages through a participatory community-based approach to springshed management. Posted on 11 Sep, 2020 07:48 PM

People in remote hamlets left out by previous schemes like Swajal and Sector Wide Approach Program of the Uttarakhand Jal Nigam and Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan longed for household-level piped water supply for drinking and domestic purposes.

Women trudged long distances daily to fetch water for their basic household needs in Rupail (Image: People's Science Institute)
IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk - COVID-19: Impact on Women-VillageMakers
IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk: Panel discussion and release of study findings - Rural telephonic time use survey study - Life in the era of COVID-19: Impact on women-village makers and future prospects
Posted on 05 Sep, 2020 11:02 AM

Ganga's riverine communities in troubled waters
The fishing community is the most vulnerable as its members come into direct contact with the river water and thus, suffer the maximum impact of pollution. Posted on 01 Sep, 2020 03:04 PM

A large section of the population living in the Ganga river basin still depends on the river for daily use activities and livelihood. Hence, the cleaning of the Ganga river’s water and making it safe for use remains a major goal for policymakers.

There is a need to formalise the traditional occupation of riverine fishing by providing proper licensing facilities to allow for targeted policies for the community in order to mitigate the livelihood challenges being faced by it. (Image: Pikrepo)
Book review: Future Earth
The book outlines how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. Posted on 23 Aug, 2020 07:57 PM
Climate change (Image: Kai Stachowiak; Public domain pictures)
Decentralised governance key to handling Covid-19
There is a positive correlation between the panchayat raj system and effective handling of Covid-19, says Mani Shankar Aiyar. Posted on 22 Aug, 2020 07:38 PM

Panchayats have been the core of India's rural governance even before they received the constitutional mandate through the 73rd constitutional amendment in 1992, forming the basis of decentralization in the country. There are 2.5 lakh gram panchayats; over 6 lakhs villages; around 4500 urban local bodies and 4000 census towns in the country.

A first time Sarpanch of Lahora Gram Panchayat in Rajasthan’s Tonk District, stands committed, guiding the community with her political acumen. (Image: UN Women;CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Think, before you have your cup of tea!
Women workers from tea plantations in India are overworked and underpaid. Voiceless, without any rights at the workplace, and their health compromised, they continue to suffer in silence. Posted on 19 Aug, 2020 06:58 PM

India is the second largest tea producer in the world, with production at 1.2 million metric tons

Women workers at a tea plantation in Assam (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Gender-sensitive response to the climate crisis
Gender-transformative approaches are needed for climate adaptation, to lessen the stresses that force people to migrate. Posted on 14 Aug, 2020 11:19 AM

A crowd of people jostling by the ticket counter at Jhansi railway station in Uttar Pradesh; men and women, some with families in tow, boarding trains to Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and other big cities. These are common sights during the summer months at Jhansi, a major town and railway junction.

Women and girls spend a considerable amount of their time in fetching water. (Image: Romit Sen)
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:41 AM

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities

NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Interspecies love in a flood-ravaged Assam village
Systems of co-existence can help in mitigating the human-elephant conflict in the region. Posted on 08 Aug, 2020 03:51 PM

Salmora in Majuli river island in Assam is not any ordinary village. Located on the southeastern corner of the island, surrounded by the mighty Brahmaputra on three sides, this village is remarkable in many ways.

Potters' families belonging to Kumar community of the village make earthen pots (Image: Mitul Baruah)
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