Category: News

Curse of silicosis haunts ‘village of widows’ in India

Bundi, Rajasthan, India – At first glance, Radha Bai and Hira Bai do not appear to be crusaders. On a September afternoon, the two frail and elderly women, their heads veiled by the loose ends of their brightly coloured saris, could be heard raising loud slogans outside the administrative offices of the district of Bundi, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

They were demanding their rights to compensation, leading a group of 80 widows whose husbands worked in mines and had succumbed to what the locals call the “curse” of this region – the fatal respiratory disease, silicosis.

Read more

Courtesy: Aljazeera

Over 19k tribal applications pending FRA approval

Nashik: As many as 19,810 applications from tribals, both individual and groups, are still pending approval of the district Forest Rights Act (FRA) committee.
The panel is headed by the officer at the level of additional district collector. Many of these applications are struck at various levels before they are forwarded to the FRA panel for approval.

Other than this, there are 765 other cases where although the nod has been given by the panel, they are awaiting signatures of the competent authority before it could be presented to the applicants.

Read more

Courtesy: The Times of India

How Dalit Women Farmers Across Marathwada Are Fighting Exploitation and Claiming Land Rights!

While the battles fought by the farmers of Marathwada are well documented, not many know about the relentless fight that marks the rise of Dalit women farmers in the drought-affected region.

To establish a context, the fight for land rights of Dalit farmers began under the leadership of the late Eknath Awad, one of India’s most respected Dalit leaders, across eight districts of Maharashtra including Jalna, Aurangabad, Latur, and Beed. Kantabai Ichake, a septuagenarian from Marathwada, has now emerged as one of the leading voices at the forefront of the land rights movement. Read more

Courtesy: The Better India

How Dalit Women Farmers Across Marathwada Are Fighting Exploitation and Claiming Land Rights!

To establish a context, the fight for land rights of Dalit farmers began under the leadership of the late Eknath Awad, one of India’s most respected Dalit leaders, across eight districts of Maharashtra including Jalna, Aurangabad, Latur, and Beed. Kantabai Ichake, a septuagenarian from Marathwada, has now emerged as one of the leading voices at the forefront of the land rights movement.

Kantabai recalls how Dalit women across Marathwada were mocked by most villagers when they got together and asked for the barren common grazing land in the village because they want to cultivate it. “You will bang your heads on the rocky land and die they said,”

Read more

Courtesy: The Better India

Campaign for fair national mineral policy

Initiative to make sure principle of intergenerational equity is made a priority

An alliance of institutions, NGOs and communities have jointly launched The Future We Need Campaign, a initiative to make intergenerational equity an essential part of the country’s new National Mineral Policy. Read more

Courtesy: The Hindu

1 … 126 127 128 129 130 … 142