It has been more than 20 days since cyclone Amphan struck his village, Khanpukur, in the Hasnabad gram panchayat of coastal North 24 Parganas. Yet, Sanjay Gayen has to wade through waist deep water to make his way to the village community kitchen. The river embankment of the Dasha river was br...
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard village children talk of coronavirus while waiting for the school to open on a Monday morning (March 16, 2020). I knew about the disease from phone calls with my family in Europe and, honestly, I felt safe in a remote Sundarbans village in West Benga...
There is a distinct sense of despair and helplessness around her as Renuka Acharjee comes out of her tarpaulin wrapped, devastated house. Remains of an uprooted electric pole lie at the far end of her property line. It’s been nearly a month that the cyclonic storm Bulbul ravaged her village, Gobar...
The Sunderbans, which is the largest delta in the world, is formed at the confluence of the mighty Ganga, Hooghly, Padma and Brahmaputra rivers. This deltaic region stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east and is shared by India (West Bengal) and Bangladesh. Known...
Hafijul Molla’s hand involuntarily slips to the pocket of his scruffy shirt. He pats the pocket, probingly. Reassured finding his inhaler intact, he continues with his story. Molla, a resident of the Goaldaha village of the Minakhan Block, North 24 Parganas district is the secretary of the Silicos...
A few months ago, a young woman went to her doctor in New York. Her toenails had gradually blackened over six months and fallen off. No one in her family had abnormal toenails and she had no diseases, no injuries, nor a family history of nail disorders. During the tests it was discovered that she ha...
The Department of Self Help Group (SHG) and Self Employment (SE) was set up in 2006 by an amendment in the West Bengal Rule of Business. The department's main activities are to implement Swami Vivekananda Swanirbhar Karmasansthan Prakalpa (SVSKP) which is aimed at generating employment and to provid...
For decades, generations of farmer communities have been at the receiving end of adverse conditions in every aspect of their trade – shortage of funds, inclement weather, unscrupulous financiers and middlemen, and bad debts, among others. Traditionally, agriculture has always been the backbone of ...
Millions of animals are torn open every year in laboratories because people – and those in government- feel safer knowing that almost everything that reaches us has been tested on an animal before. The point is – does it make you safer? Imagine inventing a medicine for a bird. It is only tested ...
It is a common misconception that any sort of agricultural development programme in India only means increase in production level helping the poor and marginal farmers by several government initiatives. To supply the farmers cheap inputs, enhancement of irrigation facilities, cheap loans, developmen...