Maheshwar (Khargone district, M.P.): “ Hamaari ladaai vikas se nahi, visthaapan se hai [Our fight is against displacement, not development],” Radhe Shyam Patidar of Pathrad village says, with a hint of aggression visible in the wrinkles around his ageing eyes. “We are only demanding proper rehabilitation for our village and we will not back down on that,” he says. Interestingly, whether the Maheshwar dam project, India's first privately financed hydroelectric project,...

A group comprising 24 development journalists from 21 countries of Asia, Africa and South America visited the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants' Society here over the weekend to get exposure to grassroots work in community mobilisation, poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. The mid-career journalists are attending a four-month course conducted under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation and Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan of the Ministry of External Affairs...

Even as women agriculturalists form more than half of the total global population involved in farming it is actually the men folk who continue to receive better training leaving the other gender behind and poverty index screwed up, claimed a report released on Thursday. The report Training for Rural Development: Agriculture and Enterprise Skills for Women by City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development said developing countries can tackle poverty...

A quiet revolution to create a healthier India has kicked off in the east with Assam on Thursday becoming the first state in the country to introduce a bill guaranteeing the right to health and well-being. Responding to an appeal from the Centre for legislating on health rights, the state government tabled the landmark Assam Public Health Bill, 2010, in the assembly. The bill, which will be put to vote...

BD Sharma is one of India's foremost experts on tribal issues. He has served as collector of undivided Bastar district in Chhattisgarh and commissioner for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and has campaigned extensively to protect the rights of tribals. Currently, the coordinator of Bharat Jan Andolan, a network of grass-roots organisations, Sharma tells that current notions of development are at the root of the Maoist insurgency: What has changed...