Rural

Digital India should be leveraged to transform rural areas: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Digital India initiative should be leveraged to transform rural India and create avenues for those in smaller towns and cities, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday

The last shepherd basket weavers: An octogenarian is among the few surviving 'Dhangars' to practice the craft

85-year-old Siddhu Gawade, a shepherd, has been weaving symmetrical baskets for the past 55 years.

In Chhattisgarh, a long road to clean energy as families in rural areas are still compelled to use firewood

Two years after the government launched its scheme to improve rural women’s health by providing clean cooking fuel, the attempt to switch from firewood to clean fuel in the primarily rural state of Chhattisgarh is slowly fizzling out.

In Maharashtra's Ambap village, a couple with polio defied odds to set up a model farm

Geetanjali and Shivaji were affected by polio, a disability that subjected them to terrible name-calling.

In Wade Bolhai, visually impaired calendar salesman Sambhaji Bhor fights for the rights of the disabled

For the past two decades, Sambhaji has been selling calendars. This started off in the late 1990s when one of his uncles suggested him to make a living out of it. The piece of advice changed Sambhaji’s life as he embarked on the journey of traversing villages.

In Kolhapur, octogenarian master sculptor Ananda Kalke struggles for relevance

85-year-old Ananda is the only sculptor left in the Sangrul village of Karvir taluka in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district who doesn’t use machines to sculpt idols.

Babytai Awale's long battle against patriarchy, casteism in Maharashtra's Tilwani village

The first woman from the Tilwani village [Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district] to pick up the occupation of puncture repairing, and a proud feminist, today everyone in the village calls her Awale ma’am.

Khanderav Parit's battle against caste: How a former mill worker is fighting oppression through his writings

An award-winning rural author, mill worker, and now a farmer, Khanderav Parit’s writings reflect the everyday life of the oppressed.

Wealthy but not healthy: India's rich more likely to suffer hypertension, says National Family Health Survey

Nearly 13 percent women and 18 percent men aged 15-49 in the highest stratum of the wealth index have hypertension (high blood pressure), according to data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2015-16 (NFHS-4). This is the first time the NFHS has included the measurement of blood pressure.

As 8 states go to polls in 2018, a look at how rural debt, distress and death continue to grow nationwide

Behind rising NPAs is a story of growing crop failures – increasingly linked to climate change – and falling rural incomes.