Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

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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)
October 6, 2022 In an effort to inform the general public, especially citizen activists, policymakers, researchers, and students, about the current status of the Vrishabhavathi river, Paani.Earth has created the necessary maps, data, analysis, and information to drive conservation awareness and action around the river.
Vrishabhavathi river (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
October 1, 2021 Community videos as a tool to influence behaviour change and adoption in rural communities
Community videos are produced by farmers themselves and feature local participants and agents from the rural communities themselves (Image: Digital Green)
September 17, 2021 Benefits of well-managed commons on livelihoods
Collective efforts revived the canal structure of Bichhiya dam bringing water to the village (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)
September 4, 2021 Committed to use the power of all forms of communication to bring about behavioral change and transformation at scale
Villagers participating in shramdaan for making watershed structures (Image: Paani Foundation)
September 3, 2021 Safe water learning cards being used to train a wide spectrum of stakeholders
Different combinations of safe water learning cards can be customised for a session based on the target audience (Image: INREM)
Centre notifies fly ash utilisation draft rules
Policy matters this week Posted on 29 Apr, 2021 10:42 AM

Draft rules call for 100 percent utilisation of fly ash in three to five years

An NTPC thermal plant (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Half of government schools and anganwadis devoid of tap water supply: Report
News this week Posted on 17 Mar, 2021 11:01 PM

Tap water supply to government schools and anganwadis in a grim state: Panel report

A Mini-Water Supply (MWS) serves the local school (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Disaster strikes Uttarakhand, yet again
News this week Posted on 17 Feb, 2021 11:28 AM

Uttarakhand glacier disaster: Death toll rises to 58 as rescue operation continues

Flash Floods in Chamoli, Uttarakhand (Image Source: India.com)
Mini piped water scheme helps overcome social exclusion
Promoting sustainable systems that facilitate provision of safe water and sanitation to communities in a tribal village. Posted on 11 Jan, 2021 10:34 AM

In 2016, India ranked 131 among 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI). With a population of 1.3 billion, the need for services is high, a

Anganwadi Centres now provided with improved toilets and running water (Image: Water For People India)
Open source products protect against technology obsolescence
Open-source products offer a technology evolution path and help avoid risks in technology projects. Posted on 19 Nov, 2020 02:30 PM

There are several uncertainties with technology endeavours of non-profit organisations. They pose significant risks to non-profits - wasted resources, inability to evolve with time, and obsolescence in the long term. Open source products offer a sustainable path.

Open source products track the sector and the technology evolution and evolve themselves continuously. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
A rainbow recovery post-COVID
The movement towards radical ecological democracy needs to combine the practical and policy-level grassroots work with broader mobilization. Posted on 08 Oct, 2020 12:27 PM

There is a disquieting hush across the world as the linkage between the planet’s health and human well-being became pronounced during the times of the pandemic. The deepening socio-economic and ecological crises caused by patterns of production and consumption are being increasingly recognised.

The women of Deccan Development Society sanghams move towards more localized natural resource management (Image: Deccan Development Society, Facebook Page)
How forest-dwelling communities are braving the pandemic
Local communities and gram sabhas better understand the local complexities than the local administrations while dealing with a crisis situation. Posted on 04 Oct, 2020 02:59 PM

The pandemic and lockdown measures have had a drastic impact on a large population of poor and marginalised communities, causing loss of livelihoods and employment, food insecurity and socio-economic distress. While vulnerabilities, atrocities and injustices faced by forest communities due to forest, conservation and economic policies have increased d

The non timber forest products collection season, which is mainly in the months of April to June coincided exactly with the lockdown (Image: CIFOR, Flickr Commons)
Poor implementation of forest rights act hurts tribals
Need to recognise the rights of forest-dwelling and tribal communities over their traditional lands. Posted on 02 Oct, 2020 10:35 PM

In pre-colonial times, India’s forestlands were mostly under the use of the local communities. Forest policies led to centralisation in colonial times with forestland being subject to commercial over-exploitation for revenue generation purposes. This, in turn, led to land alienation of forest dwellers and an overall increase in deforestation.

Indigenous groups that lived and helped maintain the forests for centuries have been undermined (Image: Baiga women, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0)
Governance lessons that could keep us prepared for pandemics
Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group speaks on rethinking aspects of our governance system in post-pandemic times. Posted on 30 Sep, 2020 05:09 PM

Unabashed assaults by human beings on the natural ecological system have caused the coronavirus to spread in the first place.

Decentralised governance systems that allow to adapt and learn are best placed to deal with disasters (Image: Kantsmith, Pixabay)
Pandemic impacts on women – Stories of survival
Women experience the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in different, often more negative ways. How are they coping? Posted on 30 Sep, 2020 09:52 AM

The pandemic has wrought havoc on the entire world. Pessimism, suffering, unemployment, hunger and poverty resound in all corners. To survive is a physical, mental and financial battle. And every family and individual has an anecdote to narrate that speaks volumes about their combat strategy, losses and victories.

Gender dimensions of the pandemic (Image: Gby Atee)
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