Blog

When Barsha Mishra chose to live with a family in interior Jharkhand, she realised the privileges of her urban life.

Kamla Devi is busy preparing 250gm-packets of oyster mushrooms at her home in Serengdih tribal hamlet of Naxal-affected Khunti district in Jharkhand. The packets of the much sought after mushrooms will sell for Rs50 each in Ranchi and Jamshedpur towns. Kamla, who lost her husband a few years back, is a mushroom entrepreneur, cultivating them in a corner of her house and earning enough to support her family.

An existing interactive voice response system was refashioned, enabling migrant workers in destination cities get messages regarding their circumstances across, subsequently facilitating their return.

During our transect walk through Chataniha, a village in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, Ramkali and Munni explained how their lands were losing topsoil due to ploughing and subsequent rain. The same issue was raised by many other villagers such as Budhni, Sugmanthy and Bitty Panika in the meeting held after the walk.

During our transect walk through Chataniha, a village in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, Ramkali and Munni explained how their lands were losing topsoil due to ploughing and subsequent rain. The same issue was raised by many other villagers such as Budhni, Sugmanthy and Bitty Panika in the meeting held after the walk.

Twelve-year-old Premlal and his friends spend hours every day in the paddy fields of their village Bhinjain in Chakai block of south Bihar. It is monsoon and the children use an age-old technique of blocking water in paddy fields by putting up barriers. The water is then drained out, leaving behind large puddles. Since fishes reach fields with rain water during monsoon, children can easily catch them. Premlal is a Santhal, member of the scheduled tribe largely concentrated in Jharkhand, Bihar, Tripura, Odisha and West Bengal.

With ‘civilisation’ and ‘modernity’ having made inroads into India’s tribal areas, its heritage of traditional tribal systems of medicine is increasingly under threat

There is a natural need for farmers to learn from each other which cropping patterns, cultivars, irrigation techniques, pest and disease control, or poultry/livestock rearing practices work and which do not work. In other words, what are ‘Good Practices’ to follow and what are bad practices to avoid. Such Horizontal Learning by farmers is practical and demand-driven, not undertaken for academic interest.