Society, Culture, Religion and History

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October 8, 2023 While the current push for legal personhood for rivers is facing obstacles and is stalled, it holds potential as a viable long-term strategy for the preservation of India's rivers
River quality deteriorates as demand for hydropower to support economic growth continues to expand. (Image: Yogendra Singh Negi, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)
June 16, 2023 Majuli serves as a symbol of both the delicate balance between human activity and the environment and the tenacity of its residents
Addressing various aspects of women's lives to enhance their social, economic, and political status (Image: Rebuild India Fund)
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
Covid-19: Implications for watershed management
Watershed work needs to be stepped up to ensure that the lockdown does not impact the livelihoods of the rural poor. Posted on 16 Apr, 2020 04:47 PM

Over the last four decades, watershed management has emerged as one of the most decentralised, integrated, persisting, innovative and effective programs to enhance natural resources such as water, soil and the vegetative cover as well as to provide means of livelihood to marginalised sections in rural areas.

COVID-19 has adversely affected this year's watershed management work (Image: ILO South Asia-Pacific; Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
COVID-19: Preparedness and Responsiveness of PRIs in Dealing with Reverse Migration
PRIA International Academy (PIA) is hosting a webinar on “COVID-19: Preparedness and Responsiveness of PRIs in Dealing with Reverse Migration”
Posted on 12 Apr, 2020 07:42 PM

This webinar will explore the following questions:

Combating Covid-19 collectively: DHAN’s way
DHAN Foundation has been responding to the crisis, reaching out to the most vulnerable communities. Posted on 10 Apr, 2020 12:21 PM

As the Covid-19 pandemic reaches new corners of the country, the NGO community in India has been preparing itself to respond to the unexpected needs that the crisis is producing. DHAN Foundation, a professional development organisation working in several states of India with the communities has begun to develop a strategy.

Creating awareness about the pandemic as well as about the measures essential to be safe (Image: DHAN Foundation)
Advisory on how to prevent Covid-19
Those who need to work to survive cannot stay home. What can they do during such times? Posted on 02 Apr, 2020 06:50 PM

COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease), an acute respiratory disease emerged in late 2019 and has been spreading rapidly across the globe. The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It is marked by respiratory problems that are usually mild (coughing, fever) but can be severe (pneumonia, trouble breathing).

The fear is that Covid-19 would almost certainly spread within communities in India, just as it had started to do in Italy, South Korea, and Iran. (Image: Trinity Care Foundation)
Joining the battle against Covid-19
As corona virus 'travels' to rural areas, PRADAN ramps up its response by training tribals and marginalised women. Posted on 02 Apr, 2020 10:48 AM

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared coronavirus disease a pandemic. Originating from Wuhan in China, it has traversed almost the entire globe, and claimed more than 41,000 lives, while over 8 lakh people are infected already. That’s largely the urban population.

Keeping the communities abreast of best practices for a safe and healthy living (Image: PRADAN)
Enabling a transition to responsive forest governance
NGOs involvement in implementation of the FRA provides an extremely valuable support system, study says. Posted on 31 Mar, 2020 02:08 PM

The Forest Rights Act or FRA was enacted in 2006, following collective pressure from a massive social movement to correct the historical injustices imposed since the colonial takeover of India's forests.

The state needs to be highly responsive to the needs of communities during the post-rights recognition phase (Image: Gramvaani)
Clean drinking water: Still a pipe dream for Maharashtra?
While water supply coverage has improved over the years in Maharashtra, why does safe and continuous water supply still remain a distant dream for the state? Posted on 30 Mar, 2020 04:34 PM

Latur in Maharashtra has been facing acute drinking water scarcity over the last month and has been in news again, and that too, inspite of having piped water connections and a good monsoon this year!

Har nal me jal, a pipe dream? (Image Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Vulnerability in the times of Corona
When a pandemic strikes, it pushes the burden on the weakest in an unequal society. Posted on 25 Mar, 2020 10:54 AM

Disasters have the ability to disrupt everyday life. However, it is not often that we probe about what constitutes a disaster? How do we define it? Well, a disaster varies in definition for different agencies.

Image: Muffinn, Flickr Commons
Using music to build water positive villages
A campaign tries to make watershed development work a citizens movement. Posted on 24 Mar, 2020 10:19 AM

An inspiration called Kumbharwadi in the rain-shadow region of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra is one of the many successful stories of water stressed villages that were transformed by Paani Ka Teeka’s knowledge partner – Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), a Pune based non-profit.

Kumbharwadi in 1998 - A bleak scenario

Women drawing water from a village well. Prior to watershed development and integrated water management, scarcity of water was a way of life for the people of Kumbharwadi (Image: WOTR)
A national action plan to ensure sustainable and responsible business on the anvil
Policy matters this week Posted on 23 Mar, 2020 12:19 PM

Centre to finalise National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights

An industrial area in Chhattisgarh (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
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