Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

Nested amongst the Satprura hills lies Kapoti, a village in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. This region is known as Baiga Chak and is inhabited by Baigas, a vulnerable tribal group. Following a simple lifestyle, Baigas have been a self-provisioning, self-determining and nearly self-sufficient community residing in the resource rich highland forest regions in small hamlets for generations. The dense forest, its flora and fauna and water are the main sources of sustenance for this community.

#HelloWRD: A social media campaign

India stares at a Covid-19 induced waste management crisis and there is a need to strengthen waste management services. An important sanitary barrier to prevent the dissemination of illnesses and diseases, waste management’s impact on the world’s healthcare systems, and the economy are significant. Keeping this in mind, the Centre for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CECCSD), Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi organized a panel discussion on ‘Waste management during Covid-19: Challenges and the way forward’ recently.

Every year, incessant rainfall during the monsoon causes floods in the state, with North Bihar being the worst affected. Even this year, with the monsoon peaking up, fear of floods is looming over the state and some areas in the region have started witnessing a rise in river water levels.

Uncertainty - the pervasive feeling that all of us have been living with from the middle of March 2020. It's the same in our partner villages in Odisha and Jharkhand. Communities we work with have been facing and overcoming uncertainties all through their lives. But this time, the crisis has put unusual stress on their abilities to cope.

When the first positive case of Covid-19 was reported from Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, known for its narrow lanes and compact housing, a sense of panic gripped the nation. And the fear and panic were not unreasonable given the extraordinary characteristics of this slum.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the need to create jobs locally. This intersects with the water sector's need for local management. How do we create meaningful opportunities to address the aspirations of the local talent pool and make them discoverable?

India has the highest population of any country in the world without access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. According to WaterAid and the World Health Organisation (WHO), 163 million people still lack access to safe water and millions still defecate in the open.

Water, for India, has profound impacts on the health and wellbeing of our citizens; perhaps more so, considering how intertwined it is with various facets of our life, be they social, economic, gender-based, political, or even religious. The evolution of the National Water Policy and the ensuing national debates/ critiques have reiterated how challenging it is to build a common policy with national consensus.

As the Covid-19 pandemic was leaving deep scars around the globe, it forced governments to take measures to protect citizens and ensure food security for its people. In India, initially, it looked as if the remote rural areas would skirt the pandemic. But soon, cases emerged in tribal areas as well as in semi-rural pockets following the return of the migrant workers, leading to social panic.

Covid-19, reverse migration and rural lives