Brass metal work losing its shine
Hundreds of artisans in Hajo are finding their livelihoods threatened by a local monopoly and other factors that have
driven the prices of raw materials very high. The Assam government is intervening to help, but the beneficiaries wish they were consulted more.
Ratna Bharali Talukdar
writes.
For street children, a pot-holed path to learning
On the streets in Guwahati, there are thousands of children outside the reach of the normal schooling system. Many have
run away from their homes, and most must work to make ends meet.
Ratna Bharali Talukdar
reports on the challenges of bringing them into the mainstream.
In conflict zone, a battle to secure futures
With large parts of the state experiencing regular conflict between insurgents and security forces, and also between various ethnic groups,
children in Assam, many of them forced into relief camps, face the risk of losing all access to education.
Ratna Bharali Talukdar
reports.
Assam's high schools and colleges - a mixed bag
The Assam government has claimed credit for the rise in pass percentages in high schools in recent years. But, reports
Ratna Bharali Talukdar,
a closer look at the numbers shows there is still much room for improvement in state-funded education in high schools and colleges.
Attendance up, but penetration poor
For scores of students in Assam's primary schools, cooked food served in
school under the Midday Meal Scheme is an attraction. Headmasters vouch
for its impact in increasing attendance, but point to several challenges in
making the scheme work statewide.
Ratna Bharali Talukdar
reports.
Jhum cultivation under sharper scrutiny
Jhum, a traditional form of shifting cultivation common in the North-East, was the
focus of a recent international meeting in Guwahati. But dilution of the original
practice has impacted the ecosystem in some areas. Should jhum persist or perish?
Surekha Sule
has more.
Peacing Assam together
Dr Indira Goswami, Assamese writer and Bharatiya Jnanpith Award-winner, has recently taken up a new role - that of a peacemaker in Assam.
Nava Thakuria
reports that the initiative has been welcomed by students, politicians, and cultural figures in the state.
Tribal autonomy a step for peace
New Delhi concedes a long-standing Bodo demand to set up
an independent council for the tribal people, and demands
that rebels now disarm.
Registration of informal land sales
Telangana’s free registration of plain paper land sale initiative to digitally clean up its land records not only benefits its dispossessed farmers but makes land governance transparent, reports Manipadma Jena.
The seeds of revolution
Deccan Development Society (DDS) is transforming the lives of villagers of Zaheerhabad, Telangana. Ashish Kothari visited the place recently and writes about how DDS is successfully working with Dalit farmers towards ecologically sustainable farming, women empowerment and community-led communications.
Tracking fears, hopes and facts in a new state
Widely labelled as the first of its kind, the Intensive Family Survey conducted in Telangana on 19 August gave rise to a range of speculations, and predictably drew its share of brickbats and bouquets. Venugopalrao Nellutla seeks to decipher the real motives and usefulness of the survey.
Why voters in Telangana are still puzzled
Days before Telangana goes to polls, Venugopalrao Nellutla examines the lack of exuberance and the dilemmas among people in the region, even as they look ahead to statehood and their own government in weeks from now.
Orphans of our society
Ignored by the government, shunned by society and caught in a time-warp of their own, the nomadic castes and tribes of India are almost "non citizens" of the land. R. Akhileshwari describes the abysmal plight of such people from Andhra Pradesh and highlights the injustice and neglect that they are subject to.
Waiting for compliance patiently
Himanshu Upadhyaya examines a CAG audit report to point out the blatant non-compliance of environmental laws largely by the Forest officials.
Setback for optimal river basin planning
Shripad Dharmadhikary explains why setting up a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi Water Dispute will not help the people or the river.
Diversion of funds mars tribal welfare plans
In spite of the development and welfare plans and programs implemented since Independence, the tribals of our nation remain the most marginalised group. There are many valid reasons for this as Abhijit Mohanty finds out when he looks into the existing Tribal Sub Plan funds and what's happening with it.
Saving forests: Women sentinels of Gunduribadi
The women of Gunduribadi, a small tribal village in Odisha, go out daily for thengapalli or forest patrolling around their village. They are also members of their Forest Protection Committee which decides how to manage the forest and its resources. Sonali Pattnaik spent a day with these sentinels of Gunduribadi to find out how this movement has restored the forest and empowered the villagers.
Reversing fate through love for land, forests and water
Abhijit Mohanty brings us the story of certain tribal villages in Koraput district of southern Odisha that have successfully overcome the challenges posed by denudation and inadequate irrigation and have etched out a path towards food security and well-being.
Farming for self-reliance in Kalahandi
The struggle to feed themselves and their families round the year drives millions of farmers in India to desperate measures. Abhijit Mohanty’s story shows how sustainable agriculture has helped transform the lives of farmers in Odisha’s backward Kalahandi district.
A new course for iron ore mining in Odisha
Rejection of regularisation of mines operating beyond lease areas, and compensation for other violations being used for tribal welfare are among the recommendations of a recent report on mining in the state. Kanchi Kohli places the key points in context.
A better life through literacy
The broad-based Community Based Functional Literacy Campaign launched by the State Resource Centre of Rayagada, Orissa aims to educate women and drop-out girls in three of the most backward districts of the state. Abhijit Mohanty summarises the key take-aways so far.
A battle that hasn’t been won in nine years
With numerous court cases, regulatory rulings and pending environmental clearances behind it, the South Korean steel major POSCO still persists with its plans in India. Kanchi Kohli looks at the latest in the case and wonders why.
For distraught Phailin survivors, life is little consolation
Their shelters and livelihoods ravaged by the deadly recent cyclone, many women along Odisha's coastline are are so bereft of any hope for the
future that they feel it would have been better to be among the dead.
Sarada Lahangir
meets some of them.
New report on POSCO - who's listening?
The report of the Roy Paul Committee set up by the MoEF to examine and act on the earlier judgment of the Green Tribunal recommends several studies and assessments, but few of those seem to have been considered in the most recent appraisal.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Niyamgiri gets some time to breathe
The battle between Sterlite Industries and tribal communities over mining in the Niyamgiri hills may not be just over yet, but the most recent Supreme Court judgment empowering the gram sabha has come as a temporary reprieve for the people.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Rights Act, not working right
There is wide-spread failure in safeguarding the rights of forest communities protected under the Forest Rights Act. State and Central
Governments are complicit in diluting it.
Tushar Dash
reports.
Niyamgiri again
Why bother complying with regulations if a committee can decide that it didn't matter much that the law was bypassed?
MoEF finds itself on the backfoot, after its experts look away from the law.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Is the Forest Rights Act working?
Environmentalist Ashish Kothari discusses the politics behind the approval of the POSCO project, and how the FRA is
faring in Odisha, in conversation with
Pradeep Baisakh.
Anguish in Angul
The proposed natural resource extraction in Angul district and other nearby places in Orissa will devastate the land and its
already-suffering people even further.
Shripad Dharmadhikary
reports.
The battlefield of hopes
As in many other struggles around the country, in Kalinganagar too there are fractures within the opposition to the proposed
industrial plants, and families are torn apart by bleak choices.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
Haunted by the riots
Christian dalits and adivasis in Kandhamal district of Orissa live fearfully among their Hindu neighbours more than two years after
large-scale riots against members of their faith.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
Round and round the sacred hills
Despite many violations, protests, and committee recommendations against mining in the
Niyamgiri hills, the region's fate lies in the corridors of power.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Holding their ground against POSCO
The steel plant and port proposed by the South Korean mining giant in Orissa has remained on paper, as local opposition has successfully fought off the
company's efforts.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
More migrations, new destinations
Ganjam has been a high-migration district from British times.
For two decades, the bulk of its labour force has gone to Surat, but that is changing now, writes
P Sainath.
Put your money down, boys
Ganjam migrants in Surat send home Rs. 400 crore a year, a fourth of that through the unique Tappawala courier system. But global recession has seen
remittances take a hit, writes
P Sainath.
Turning Tamil swords into Oriya ploughshares
Once-young fighters from Sri Lanka are now mostly family men entrenched in Malkangiri town.
The way the one-time, once-brash warriors have woven themselves into the community is touching, writes
P Sainath.
Home, not so sweet home
The recession in the West is having a profound impact on the deep rural interior of Orissa. Thousands are returning home, writes
P Sainath.
Early gains from Forest Rights Act
The new law's provisions are infusing into the proceedings of the Gram Sabhas a democratic character that they have lacked so far.
From a conservation standpoint too, the law is proving to be positive, writes
Tushar Dash.
High growth: In deep waters
Resistance to large projects is founded on many fears and objections. Key among them is loss of access to water. Without proper consideration of the
water impacts of development plans, public acceptance of these projects will remain elusive, writes
Shripad Dharmadhikary.
Vedanta - the suspense continues
The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court's forest bench has put forward recommendations on how the court's order
on Vedanta Alumina's plans for mining in Orissa should proceed.
Kanchi Kohli
reports on a continuing tale of intrigue, as the locals get one more breather.
Divide and conquer, with plant and port
POSCO's attempt to separate the mining, steel plant and
port components in getting environmental and forest clearances from the
central government has been wrong-footed by the Central Empowered
Committee of the Supreme Court. The committee took a wholistic view,
but several concerns remain, says
Kanchi Kohli.
In Orissa, NREGA is still a ray of hope
Despite many shortcomings in implementation, an array
of examples and a government willing to move on public pressure are
showing that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is making progress
in Orissa.
Pradeep Baisakh
reports.
Pioneering library sparks volunteerism
Launched after a successful international pledge campaign in 2007, the Bakul children's library in Bhubaneshwar
is slowly turning into a node for various kinds of volunteering. Professors, young artists, students, organisers and others have started chipping in.
Sailen Routray
has more.
Mine today, gone tomorrow
The Supreme Court acknowledges the indictment of Vedanta's operations in India by the Norwegian Council on Ethics, but its recent verdict appears to
let the company off lightly, treating the Indian subsidiary as unrelated to its parent.
Kanchi Kohli
reports.
Orissa's Niyamgiri tribals await apex court verdict
Thousands of miles away from India, the Norwegian Government's pension
fund has recognized what has gone wrong with a global corporation's mining
interests in Orissa's Niyamgiri hills. But the decision will be made in
the Supreme Court, and things do not look promising, notes
Kanchi Kohli.
NREGA battling cancerous corruption in Orissa
Rs.500 crores of Orissa's funds for rural employment guarantees for 2006-7
appear to have been siphoned off by the state bureaucracy. This money would
have brought 10 lakh poorest families two subsistence meals for four-six months,
at a time of hunger and starvation deaths.
Parshuram Rai
has more.
Uneasy quiet on the POSCO front
A large development or industrial project, stiff people's protests, takeover of vast tracts of land, widespread environmental and social impacts, and more. All of these realities have manifested themselves in government clearances for the POSCO project in Orissa.
Manshi Asher and Kanchi Kohli
analyse the current situation.
Adivasi women turn turmeric traders
In this small sleepy Orissa village with a population of barely 400 adivasis, where there is no electricity and harsh conditions prevail, there is something remarkable about the women. Their level of awareness, their attitude and their personality have undergone a dramatic change in the last few years.
Pradeep Baisakh
has more.
Will Mittal Steel be a raw deal for Orissa?
With Mittal Steel moving into India, it becomes even more important to look at the firm's
poor environmental and social track record around the world in its rise to become the
world's largest steel maker. There are crucial lessons for the governments of Orissa and
Jharkhand, but are they listening, asks
Sunita Dubey.
First class, against all odds
A remote school with no electricity, in an area full of other institutions that don't fare well. Why does the Swastik school in Godbhanga village in
Orissa perform so much better than others in the district?
Ranjan K Panda
observes that it is led by someone who perseveres, and all its achievements can be traced to this simple fact.