Amita Bhaduri
Udaipur's water threatened by India's largest reserve of phosphate
Posted on 22 Jun, 2015 10:01 AMHuddled in the Aravali range in the southern part of Rajasthan about 26 km from Udaipur, is the largest reserve of phosphate in India.
![Piles of overburden (waste) dumped near the mine pits of Jhamarkotra](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/jhamarkotra-mines.jpg?itok=du5hYN1A)
Puppets talk, people listen
Posted on 14 Jun, 2015 10:31 PMAll the world’s a stage and all men and women players in it, said Shakespeare. Kathputli Colony in Delhi is living testimony to this. ‘Kath’ means wood and ‘putli’ is the Hindi word for a doll or puppet.
![Modern day puppets talk on issues pertaining to real life situations](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/lead2.jpg?itok=SafHQqTH)
Farmers field school in Jharkhand shows the way in integrated farming
Posted on 14 Jun, 2015 03:38 PMChedua Bedia is a 47-year-old marginal farmer from Dubulabeda village, Angara block of Ranchi district. In addition to being a successful farmer, Chedua has founded a school and motivates other farmers from his village to attend classes!
![A farmers field school at Angara](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/farmer_field_school.jpg?itok=CrKNuQwF)
Abandoned dams; abandoned people
Posted on 19 May, 2015 04:07 PMKanhar, 1976; Polavaram 1941. These are just two of the several dam projects that were proposed decades ago but are yet to see the light of day.
![We don't want dams, dams destroy mountains' reads a slogan painted on a wall in Uttarakhand (Image Source: GJ Lingaraj)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/a_protest_message_against_tehri_dam_garhwal_uttarakhand_0.jpg?itok=CsRwA_18)
Women assert their space under the sun
Posted on 05 May, 2015 02:12 PMWhen Satya was asked by the Sarpanch to opt for the position of a worksite supervisor as a Mate, she was thrilled at the prospect of a better life. Brought up in Murayur village in Sivagangai district, Tamil Nadu, she knew how tough agricultural wage labour work was. While her mother left her with grandparents, her father also took on menial jobs and errands from big farmers.
![Satya’s position as a supervisor is valued by all](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/satya_at_work.jpg?itok=3CEFiBkF)
Don't forget this Ambedkar Jayanti
Posted on 04 May, 2015 06:40 PMIf Babasaheb Ambedkar had been alive today -- April 14, 2015 -- he would have been 125 years old. In the predominantly tribal and dalit district of Sonbhadra, it was natural that Gambhira Prasad, President of the Kanhar Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti (KBVSS), decided to mark the day.
![The women of Sundari village protest](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/sundari_protest.jpg?itok=Gf3ENXgh)
Niyamagiri hills get temporary respite from Vedanta
Posted on 03 May, 2015 07:09 PMThe Niyamagiri hills in the Eastern Ghats is peopled by indigenous groups such as the Dongria and Kutia Kondhs -- or 'primitive tribal groups’ in official phrasing. For them, these hills which spread over 300 sq kms in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts in southwestern Orissa, is the sacred abode of Niyamraja, their God.
![The hills and the streams are their soul](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/the_hills_and_the_streams_are_our_soul.jpg?itok=DQltjIYM)
Facing uncertain rains, farmers dig in
Posted on 20 Apr, 2015 12:40 PMAmulya Soren couldn’t get stable yields in the kharif (monsoon) paddy in his farm. A member of the Santhal tribe, he was the beneficiary of a surplus land redistribution programme in Hirbandh block of Bankura, West Bengal. The undulating terrain in which his farm lies receives sufficient rainfall of about 1000 mm a year, yet sufficient irrigation was an issue.
![Farmers constructing happa; Image: PRADAN](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/villagers_are_working_in_happa_excavated_under_mgnrega.jpg?itok=654EXtkq)
Unpacking the water and sanitation budget
Posted on 30 Mar, 2015 07:50 AMWhat does slashed funding for the water and sanitation sector in this year’s budget mean? Is the government’s claim that the states will get more money because of the latest Finance Commission recommendation, spot on? Sona Mitra and Kanika Kaul of the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CGBA) shed light on these at the All India Convention on the Right to Sanitation.
![Handwashing at a Karnataka school](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/handwashing_in_a_karnataka_school.jpg?itok=8UvYRrLn)
A hard look at the strategy of fighting open defecation
Posted on 05 Mar, 2015 10:31 PMWith over 620 million defecating in the open in India, do we need a new approach to curb this practice? The force of habit is such that even households with toilets have around forty percent of adults defecating in the open. But, does curbing open defecation necessarily lead to significant improvements in child health outcomes like diarrhoea, anaemia, parasite infection and growth?
![School sanitation at Mysore](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/school_sanitation_at_mysore.jpg?itok=TYKlv-NR)