Puran Singh of Chirobeda Village, Sundargarh, Odisha is a 21-year old with a day job as an electrician at Rourkela Steel plant. When he’s not at the steel plant, Puran’s passion for protecting the forests around his home takes over.
Read MoreRugby is a sport not associated with India and less so with the villages of interior Jharkhand. This makes the achievement of 60 children from 5 villages of Dumka District, who participated in a Tag Rugby tournament, all the more
Read MoreNot long ago, early morning meant starting the long walk to the city for the child beggars of Jambunatha Bypass. As the name suggests, this is a small hamlet on the bypass road that joins Hospet city to the mining hills. It is inhabited for several decades by a group of nomadic tribal families who live by begging for food and money.
Read MoreEeramma is one of the many children who remember their childhood only against the backdrop of mines. “I was raised within the mines as my parents and elder siblings all worked there. When I turned 5, there was no question of anganwadi or school.
Read MoreIn the Lambani community, to which Shruthi and her friends Tara Bai, Jothi Bai and Rupa belong most girls are married at 15 and mothers thrice over by the age of 18. If that feels like the start of a difficult life, their problems were multiplied by the denial of access to the forest due to mining, leading to a loss of food security.
Read MoreWith a father in Indian Railways and a mother who is a house wife, Shiv Shankar has 2 sisters and 4 brothers. Perhaps it is his many siblings that makes Shiv Shankar vocal about the issues facing children and youth, especially their ecological rights.
Read MoreJarsini, a Standard 9 student in St. Jude’s Higher Secondary School in the coastal village of Pallam in Kanyakumari is a hero in our eyes. Jarsini and her friends had been facing verbal abuse from a newly appointed school principal for some months.
Read MoreNearly 40% of 17-year old Renu Kumari’s home state Jharkhand lives below the poverty line. Economic hardship drives parents to marry their daughters as children, believing marriage is the endgame anyway and doing so early means one less mouth to feed.
Read MoreDiscrimination against the girl child occurs in every strata of society – rich or poor – but is more visible in poverty stricken families. A girl is frequently force-fitted into a culturally defined role, be it at home or outside.
Read MoreThanks to 65-year old Delby and her team of 9 energetic women from the fishing community of Chinnathurai, this small coastal settlement in Kanyakumari today is a model village in waste management.
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