-TheBetterIndia.com/ Women's Feature Service Maharashtra: Many women in Mokhada tehsil of Maharashtra have donned the role of social workers and they are visiting one village after the other, silently campaigning for their rightful share of water. As one starts trekking the mountainous countryside with Sangeeta, Heera, Savita, Gangu and Pushpa, one can clearly discern the heady union of life and a strong sense of purpose among these energetic adivasi (tribal) women. For...

-The Indian Express A new initiative attempts to economically empower villagers living near Kanha National Park, and protect its green cover and wildlife. The Kanha–Pench forest corridor is rich in biodiversity and home to a large concentration of tigers, leopards, gaurs, barasingha, and cheetal. But with the population of the villages increasing and land holdings shrinking, conservation efforts were paramount. If the needs of the villagers for improved livelihoods are not...

-Hindustan Times Barmer (Rajasthan): The last time clouds of despair descended on Trimohi, a hamlet in Rajasthan’s Barmer district about half a kilometre from the Pakistan border, was during the 1971 war. This time, the pain is a lot more personal. Delta Meghwal, 17, the first Dalit girl from the village to pursue higher education, was found dead in a water tank of the Jain Adarsh Teachers’ TRAIning Institute for Girls in...

-Outlook Vigorous action can nullify the reasons that conspire to keep Dalits out of newsrooms In the ’50s, a foreign correspondent wrote to a renowned south Indian English daily, seeking comments on alleged discrimination against non-Brahmin journalists on its staff. Discrimination was out of the question, the paper clarified, as it never hired a non-Brahmin!  Over  60 years later, the media landscape has altered but the Indian newsroom is still the sanctuary...

-Hindustan Times Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Fifty lakh students across the state may not get their textbooks on time as the Madhya Pradesh Text Book Corporation is yet to start publications for the current academic session. The corporation says the delay is because they have not got the syllabus from the Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK). In January, the Rajya Shiksha Kendra collaborated with the National Council of Education Research and TRAIning (NCERT) to provide...