Musing

March 10, 2017

My Journey with Tasar Sericulture

Recounting his initial engagement with tasar as a livelihoods option for the tribals of Chaibasa district, the author describes how over the last two decades this has become a meaningful though challenging involvement, requiring perseverance and optimism
March 8, 2017

Memories of the Tasar Project

Scouting for locations across states to launch the Tasar Project, motivating farmer families to develop plantations, garnering funds from agencies, training farmers in scientific methods of tasar rearing, and marketing the collective produce were some of the slow and steady steps in the creation of an alternative livelihood for the villagers of Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh
January 3, 2017

A Cycle of Change

Coming together as a group, collectively staking their right to making decisions about what crops to grow, challenging prevalent traditions, the women of the SHG find their confidence and strength by becoming forces to reckon with in their community.
January 1, 2017

Gender Roles: The Community and the Self

Recognising the subtle ways in which gender roles are inculcated in girls as they grow up, the author realizes that rural and urban society alike continue to foster and typify a woman’s way of being
December 10, 2016

Born Into Penury: Failing to Make the Cut

Representing the struggle of thousands of people living below the poverty line, Dugi Mai Bodra’s life-story is one of steadfast perseverance and dogged determination that finally culminates in her finding her own power through the SHG to which she belonged.
November 10, 2016

Girls but not Brides

Leading to a lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation, child marriage is at the root of many gender-related problems and is a clear violation of child rights. When this happens in poor, underprivileged families, the results are all the more distressing
June 20, 2016

My Journey in Araria

Providing a safe space in the SHGs and VOs for women to share and discuss not only issues related to livelihoods, savings and credit…although these are important…but also themselves, their lives, their health, their choices or the lack of it, their decision-making abilities, and their self-image, the PRADAN team in Araria is working with women and teenage girls to bring about fundamental changes in mindsets by challenging age-old beliefs and traditions
May 9, 2016

Gender Struggle: Changing Beliefs, Challenging Patriarchy

At the core of all the struggles, in history, is belief. The belief to be liberated, the belief to be treated as equals, the belief that we are not wrong! How does one fight for equality if we don’t even consider ourselves as equals, or believe that men and women should have an equal space in society?
March 15, 2016

PRI Elections in Jharkhand: Making Women Count

Taking their place as representatives in PRIs, women in villages take the first step to strengthening rural populations by fighting for their rights and working towards development, self-sufficiency and equality
January 5, 2015

My Journey into Kishanganj

Realizing that there is no single approach to engaging with women in order to organize them into SHGs, the Kishanganj team found success when it was willing to let go of its biases and identified the pressing needs of the women in the Muslim-dominated hamlet, supporting them in the areas of health and nutrition before considering savings and credit