Opinion

March 27, 2023

Zooming into the main cropping patterns in India

The Indian government's agricultural policies are primarily focused on the promotion of conventional agriculture, on monocropping production schemes paired with chemical agricultural inputs into the food production system. These practices had led to an increasing soil fertility problem in India over the last decades. As a consequence, there has been a rapid increase in the number of Indian farmers and state governments adopting and promoting regenerative agricultural practices. This has increased awareness about sustainable agriculture among farmers that live in rural areas where access to information about these practices is limited or nonexistent.
March 20, 2023

Women friendly agricultural hand tool to improve the quality of life of rural women farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkand, India

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy. Agriculture in India is largely dependent on manual labour and hand tools, as mechanised farming methods are not commonly used. Although in other parts of rural India farmers use hand tools for many farming operations, in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand manual agriculture is still the most common practice.
October 12, 2022

Development and Social Change: Exploring the relationship between the Munda Samaj and Service Castes in Jharkhand

The Adivasi society, primarily governed by kinship bonds is considered non - hierarchical when compared to the highly differentiated caste system. Mandelbaum’s Society in India considered tribal society homogeneous and egalitarian (as cited in Xaxa, 2008).
June 9, 2022

Adivasi, Tribe or ST: The Debate on the Status of Adivasi Livelihoods

Using the label ‘Adivasi’ (and not ‘tribe’ or ‘ST’), meaning ‘original inhabitant’, for themselves was the Adivasis’ proclamation of their right to ownership of the land in which they lived for centuries as well as a signal, to all those who passed by, to back off!
November 24, 2020

Challenges in Designing a Culturally Responsive Curriculum

This article explores the necessity, scope and issues related to developing a culturally integrated curriculum for rural areas, bringing what is taught in schools closer to social life
October 17, 2019

Not to ‘Empower Women’: A Musing on Efforts and Interventions

There is a perception that women are the most vulnerable, and so any action for them will be empowering; this is a fallacy.
April 4, 2019

Scaling up Gram Panchayat Organization Development: The Way Forward

November 2, 2018

Self Help Groups: Empowering Agencies

SHGs are living organizations and need to be allowed to grow organically in response to internally identified needs rather than be directed by outside entities that have the narrow aspirations of economic growth only.
October 7, 2018

The Narrative of Development: In Search of an Alternative

Realizing that the world of consumerism and many of the interventions carried out in the name of development will take their people away from traditional practices and habits that have sustained them in good health over centuries, the Kandho tribe takes active steps to resist any outside help that will snuff out age-old, time-tested resources and ways of living and life. In this, they are helped by Living Farms, a civil society organization, in South Odisha.
September 14, 2018

Agripreneurship: Helping Revive Smallholders

Promoting a community-based model of agricultural advisory services through Community Service Providers has helped PRADAN improve the lives of smallholder families through increased agricultural productivity