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TBI Women: Village Women Educate Themselves To Manage Money

The women of West Bengal’s Purulia district have been striding towards change for the last few years now, transforming the livelihood status and economic condition of hundreds of families. Aided by Pradan, a non-profit working on creating sustainable livelihood in the region, it’s a women-powered Self-Help Group (SHG) revolution that has acted as the catalyst. [...]

June 18, 2012 / No Comment / Read More

Bengal’s Tribal Women Lead Change, Ensure Food-Security and Fight Social Ills

May 23, 2012 No Comment

Tribal women of Purulia district in West Bengal have learnt, with the help of several NGOs and SHGs, to implement efficient water management techniques and multi-crop approach and achieved food-sufficiency in a region that was on the ‘drought-hit’ list in spite of heavy rainfalls. They are now tackling social ills in their villages! It was [...]

Seaweed Cultivation and Mangrove Nursery Projects Bring New Hope to Women in Sunderbans

January 12, 2012 No Comment

Ishika Mondal, 34, works for two hours every day in waist deep water, trying to keep the fragile ‘Gracilaria’ or ‘Seola’ (seaweed) seeds alive at the small experimental seed bank in her village of Harekrishnapur in Sunderbans, West Bengal. “This is our hope for the future. Selling the seaweed every 40 days will bring money [...]

Sweeper-Actor Kailash Stages A Sanitation Success Story

October 31, 2011 1 Comment

Kailash Basfore, 35, is a sweeper by profession. However, he is also an actor. He is part of the Harijan Para Slum Folk Theatre Group that periodically performs plays on the benefits of sanitation in the 52 slums dotting Kalyani, a township located 65 kilometres north of Kolkata in West Bengal. Motivating Kailash and others [...]

Water Women: How Jyoti Nagar Turned On The Tap

April 25, 2011 No Comment

Kolkata (Women’s Feature Service) The road roller operator working on repairing a damaged part of the road inside the Jyoti Nagar slum on the outskirts of Kolkata decides to take an unofficial tea break. A frail woman standing nearby steps up to the man and ensures that he gets him to work promptly. The woman [...]

India’s Brave New Women Scientists

February 4, 2011 1 Comment

Kolkata, West Bengal (Women’s Feature Service) When her male colleague packed his bags and wandered off to the Maoist belt of West Midnapore in Bengal, 30- year-old scientist Paushali Bal, an M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D in Epidemiology, felt disadvantaged in being a woman for the first time in her life. “The area was [...]