Today, "social entrepreneurship" has become an important development to help some of the poorest groups in the world like the rickshaw pullers in India. Colorfully adorned cycle rickshaws have long been a part of India's landscapes. These hardworking yet environmentally friendly rickshaw operators can navigate busy urban streets and rural country roads with the same ease. But they are all but invisible to their passengers as they barely subsist above the...

In March 2004, a group of Dalit women from Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region stood on a stage in a plush Delhi auditorium. Th-ey were honoured with the Chameli Devi Award for outstanding media work. The same year, three of their colleagues received fellowships from the Dalit Foundation in Delhi for reporting on issues related to the rights of the Dalit community. The women in question run Khabar Lahariya: an eight...

Ten journalists have been selected to spend time with rural communities, understand their anxieties and specialise in covering the country’s rural crises, through an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. The recipients of the Inclusive Media fellowship are: Mahim Pratap Singh of The Hindu (to work on the impact of distress migration on nutrition security and livelihoods in five districts of Orissa), Joaquim Fernandes of The...

Dismissing notions that readers are not interested in development issues or rural reportage, editors and activists Monday stressed that the media perspective on the issue needed a change as “society is no longer passive”. ‘Can rural reporting be sexy?’– this was the topic of discussion at an event organised by the Foundation for Media Professionals, an independent organisation by a group of Indian journalists, here Monday. “The time has come for rural...

In 2010, subject to government approvals, Indian farmers will seed their fields with transgenic brinjals—brinjals with a genetic variant that, courtesy Monsanty-Mahyco Ltd and a clutch of agricultural universities, protect them from insects. But 14 years ago, Polumetla Ananda Kumar successfully planted the first Indian transgenic brinjals in a field in west Delhi. Then he promptly burnt the entire crop to the ground. Kumar, head of the National Plant Biotechnology Centre at...