A few tourists are aboard a boat in the middle of the ocean, conversing about a famed yet bygone, underwater city. They discuss how this place was once where people arrived in planes, the nerve centre of art and culture, and where the biggest names in the region resided.

A passenger among the crowd recalls that though the city was thriving, people took advantage of what they believed were abundant resources, until one day when dark clouds shadowed the land, and it rained and rained and rained until there was no land left in sight.

Soon enough, it is revealed that this mystic underwater land was, once upon a time, the city of Mumbai, which was eventually submerged owing to a devastating rise in sea levels because of climate change.

This five-minute ad film, released in 2017, was Kadvi Hawa Badlo “issued in the public interest” which in turn inspired the movie Kadvi Hawa, released the same year. It ended with alarming statistics about how 40 per cent of Mumbai could be submerged in a matter of years.

“How often do we come across such mainstream forms of art, where nature takes the centre stage in story-telling?” Acclaimed writer Amitabh Ghosh spelt this concern in his non-fiction book The Great Derangement, published in 2016.

In the book, the writer depicts how climate change-based stories are often categorised in the ‘science fiction’ section, as though the content is fabricated. He further talks about how the capitalist agenda drives this absence of a realistic portrayal of environmental issues, making people insensitive to the urgency.

When we amalgamate the way Indian cinema has attempted to approach the topic of humans’ impact on the environment, we may find the answer to Ghosh’s question. Even as the topic misses mainstream cinema most times, there are a few moviemakers who are acknowledging that there’s a pressing need to address the future of our planet.

The consequences of human atrocity 

The Sanjay Mishra-starrer Kadvi Hawa dared to be India’s first feature film on climate change.

Director Nila Madhab Panda wonderfully portrayed how climate change posed a threat to the survival of marginalised communities, how the absence of monsoon became small talk during bedtime, and how a primary school student struggled to understand how his area experiences only two seasons, even though textbooks claim otherwise.

Furthermore, the movie seamlessly equates climate calamity with the daily struggles of distressed farmers and climate refugees.

In 2021, the OTT film Boomika portrayed this threat in the opposite way, by diving into the eco-horror genre. The protagonist here is uber-rich and planning to get even richer by clear-felling a verdant hill-pocket for a “green” property. Mother nature decides to take care of herself by “punishing” the assailants who have done her wrong.

While Kadvi Hawa was set in the desiccating land of Chambal, Boomika was set amid the rainforests of the Western Ghats. The starkest difference between the two movies is in Boomika’s treatment of the audience. Here, the makers don’t leave the message to the viewers’ discernment, almost spoon feeding them the agenda of the movie that human atrocity is killing mother earth.

The same year, Rana Daggubati starrer Kaadan was released, which took the easier route of following the promise of full-on action entertainment; but, chose a plot that relies on elephant conservation, where poor forest dependents take on crony capitalists.

Sherdil (2022), a recent low-budget OTT release, tried to send the message of greed versus need with simple storytelling. Keeping the human-animal conflict at its heart, it delves deeper into the struggle of an individual in a remote forest village amid apathetic administration and places it squarely that the unquenchable thirst for more and more is usurping nature. Sherdil successfully blurs the line between a profit-at-all-cost businessman and an ignorant consumer.

Weaving a narrative rooted in reality 

Deforestation, animal conservation, and climate calamity are well understood, but what about the effects of everyday callousness by India’s urban population?

Vikramaditya Motwane noticed this in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018). Before chasing a greater evil, he conveyed that even cutting a single roadside tree or burning garbage is a social menace that we turn a blind eye to.

Arguably, in between all these, it was Amit Masurkar who stole the show with Sherni (2021). The movie animates the debate around human-tiger interaction, forest conservation, and development without forgetting the people who live by the forests. 

It damned the forced narrative of pristine wilderness that denies rightful owners of their entitlements. In the same string, he garlanded the hypocrisy of denotifying protected areas for mining but restricting locals from collecting resources for their survival under the pretext that their occupation is killing the forest.

The movie depicts how honest, sensible efforts can sometimes be futile when the system is rotten. Based on true events, the movie ends on a dark note.

Moviegoers and critics also praised Masurkar for his 2017 film Newton, where, while puncturing the brouhaha of the largest democracy in the world, he subtly touched upon the utter absence of agency in tribal communities. Tribals are displaced and mines devour forests to satiate the purported model of growth.

The Forest Rights Act, 2016 acknowledges that tribal communities are the best keepers of the forest and instates them at the forefront of the forest conservation agenda. Along similar lines, a few movies attempted to explore the status of India’s tribal communities, whose lives and fates are closely tied to the looming climate disaster. 

This was seen most recently in Kantara (2022), where actor-director Rishab Shetty tells the story of how forest-dwelling communities fight back to reclaim their agency.

While weaving the narrative, he relies on folklore to champion their own beliefs, practices, and knowledge — known as the Indigenous or Traditional Knowledge System (IKS-TKS) —  which have evolved over time through the experiential learnings of generations living close to nature, independent of modern science.

This knowledge is not developed in labs or theories, but rather through daily life decisions. 

Saying “not killing that animal during its breeding season will bring us fortune” is not superstition, but rather a mechanism to protect or manage vital resources that these communities depend on.

In Kantara, God appears to protect his people from exploitation — a cinematic expression of empowering the marginalised. The beauty of this movie, however, is that it has not only picked up environmental and forest issues so often ignored, but it set the tale in the backdrop of the very same land.

Environmental issues are complex and multi-layered, and in many ways, cinema has helped break the social barrier of concerns that we often feel uncomfortable with, dragging problems — from the periphery where they are often ignored — to the centre stage. Mainstream movie-makers are braving their way forward to dive into this complexity and are attempting to skillfully narrate these important stories to drive the point home.

Stories may not cause a revolution, but they pass the message on. Cinema reminds us that story-telling is an art, and that good stories need to be told. Whether the masses listen, is what comes next.

Written by Abhijit Dey; Edited by Divya Sethu

This article is part of #MakingSportWork, a series launched by The Better India and Sports and Society Accelerator. The series celebrates India’s independence with stories of heroes who have spent years working to improve lives around them through sports. Stay tuned for inspiring tales of those who are #MakingSportWork.

There’s a sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee that does not conform to the stereotype of a competitive sport. It has no umpires or referees. Instead, it relies on the players to police the game. 

At tournaments, there is a ‘Spirit of the Game’ award in addition to the main competition, with each player assigned an individual “spirit score”. The teams, too, are of mixed gender — men and women, boys and girls, all compete with and against each other.

This sport is Ultimate Frisbee, which over the last few decades, has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. 

How does a self-refereed, mixed-gender sports work in today’s hyper-competitive world? 

This was the question former Delhi University student Benoy Stephen had when, in 2015, during his final year at St Stephen’s, he discovered ‘Ultimate’, the name by which Ultimate Frisbee is popularly known. 

Curious, he joined a local club team that occasionally practised at Greater Kailash (GK) park, located in the southern part of New Delhi. During these practices, he noticed that a few kids from the area would hang around and watch. Some would even join in. 

“They were from Zamrudpur [a nearby locality] and came from socially and economically lower strata,” Stephen, now 26, recalls. “They were housemaids’ kids or daily labourers’ kids.” 

However, most of the kids who wanted to play never got the chance, so in October 2015, they started their own team called GK Mad. 

The children in the team were between the ages of 10 to 16 and played twice a day daily, says Stephen, who volunteered to help them out. He was immediately impressed by their attitude, which he says fit with the values of the sport. 

“They didn’t get upset about losing. There were no pointing fingers. Even if they were losing 13-0, they would keep encouraging each other,” he said. 

Their limited funds meant they played mostly in Delhi and Sonipat. But in 2017, they scraped together the money to travel to Bengaluru for a national tournament. Stephen says GK Mad surprised everyone by winning Division II in their debut, but for him, “the more important and beautiful part was that the team won the Spirit Award”. 

The ‘ultimate’ solution 

In Ultimate, players are rated by the opposing team on five parameters — knowledge of the rules and how to use them, effort to avoid fouls and body contact, fair-mindedness, attitude and self-control, and communication. 

When an alleged foul is called by a player, the rest of the players freeze in place while the two concerned players discuss the incident. They can also request input from other players, who are expected to say what they saw regardless of which team it benefits. The team with the highest Spirit rating wins the Spirit Award. 

“Competition can never come at the cost of the spirit of the game,” Stephen says.

It was around this time the name Y-Ultimate came up as well, though the organisation was not formally registered yet. 

“Whenever we tried to communicate what we were trying to do, almost every time the question that came up was, ‘Why frisbee? Why not football? Why not kabbadi? Why not cricket?’ So we took the name Y-Ultimate to answer that — because we believe the sport is the ‘ultimate’ solution to the problems [of lack of education] we are trying to address,” Stephen said. 

He would go on to spend two years with Teach for India in Hyderabad, during which he tested how Ultimate and education might work together. 

If students misbehaved in his class, they had to play Ultimate at 6 am as a “punishment”. It was an instant success. “It stopped being a punishment because it was fun, and when they were in the classroom, they were more relaxed and didn’t have the energy to cause trouble,” he said. 

He says that by the end of his fellowship, three schools in Hyderabad were playing Ultimate. “The experience incentivised me to move back to Delhi and do this further,” he notes. 

Beyond just a sport 

When Stephen returned to GK Mad in 2018, the team was being coached by Vivekanand Srivastava (the pair knew each other through Ultimate circles). Srivastava, 44, had become “obsessed” with the sport and would go on to play for India on two occasions. At the time, he was using his savings to help fund the team, which numbered about 30 to 40 kids split between the A and B teams.

Among those kids was Sunny, who began playing Ultimate at 16, and says the sport’s unique structure has changed him for the better. 

“Mai pehle logon se baat karne mein bahut hich-kichata tha, but ab mai sabse baat karne mein comfortable hu (I’d hesitate a lot before talking to other people, but now I am a lot more comfortable). I was also not good at resolving fouls, but playing with Y-Ultimate helped me develop patience and now I am much better at resolving them.” 

Thanks to playing in tournaments for Y-Ultimate, Sunny has also received the kind of exposure that otherwise would not have had access to. 

“The tournaments have a bhhaiyya or didi who is an artist, or lawyer, or a development sector worker,” Stephen says. “Meeting people like that from different spheres of life inspires the children to dream bigger than they ever had before. That sense of belief creeps in.” 

“They have come up because of the effort they have put in. They have that belief that if I put in the effort, I will do better than what I am today,” he says. 

He also notes that the game keeps the children out of trouble. The neighbourhood they come from is a rough one, where delinquency, drugs and petty crime are common. 

“There are kids in our teams who have made multiple trips to the police station, but now they have cleaned up,” Srivastava says. “Through observation and experience, we understood the power of this sport and thought, ‘Why not spread it to more children?’.” 

To help accomplish their goals, the pair formally registered their organisation as Flyingdisc Development Foundation in 2019. But it remains known as Y-Ultimate among the general public. 

At the time, Y-Ultimate ran three programmes. The first was training and funding GK Mad; the second was a coaching programme; and the third was a vector model where they supported other organisations with models and curricula, providing them with a blueprint for how to incorporate ultimate frisbee into their programmes. 

‘I have become a good person’

Stephen says they impacted 1,200 kids through workshops and other activities in their first year alone. 

“Before COVID, we were in 11 schools and communities in Delhi,” he says. “We were also in three schools in Manipur, as well as three schools in Pune and five in Mumbai through a partner organisation.”

In 2020, three of their players – Kalpana Bisht, Megha and Sanya – were selected for India’s U-20 Women’s team, with Megha as the captain.

Megha, who is now 17, started playing Ultimate at 11 and became a coach in 2020. “When I started playing, I was a very quiet girl. I had no confidence. But now my confidence level and communication skills have improved a lot,” she said.

She also credits Y-Ultimate with impacting her life for the better. “Y-Ultimate has helped me a lot — both on and off the field. I am able to play without the tension of money (sic). Because of Y-Ultimate, I become a really good person in life (sic),” Megha says. “I am and I will always be very grateful to Y-Ultimate for always supporting me.”

Unfortunately, the pandemic forced Y-Ultimate to scale down significantly. “Mission 2022 was to reach the world championship, but COVID hit and took us five years back,” Stephen says. “Right now, we are supporting four teams in Delhi. We are trying to focus our efforts in Delhi and get our footing, and then look at building further.” 

For this year, their target is to work with 300 children in Delhi.

Fundraising remains perhaps their biggest challenge. “Sport is the bottom of the pyramid for CSR, and Ultimate is at the bottom [among sports],” Stephen opines. 

Regardless, the organisation has already had a significant impact on a number of children. Stephen says that 11 of their first 15 kids in the programme have become youth coaches, with five going to college, and three earning a degree from Delhi University. 

Additionally, one of their players Kalpana is now a PE teacher at a trust school in Delhi, while two others have transitioned into a design career. “Seeing how much these kids have grown gives me a lot of joy,” Stephen says. 

Y-Ultimate has also rethought its model since the pandemic. Previously, they would partner with other organisations and schools to keep their budget down. But when COVID hit and partner organisations stopped operating, they lost contact with the kids as a result. Now they connect with the kids directly through their parents. 

They have also opened a community centre where children can come and study or simply get away from home if they need to. “It is more resource intensive, but we think it will be more sustainable with the relationships we can build,” Stephen says. 

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

Thirty-one-year-old Kriti Gupta has a busy morning ahead. 

She needs to get her daughter ready for school, while her toddler demands her attention. Amid all this hustling, Gupta’s phone chimes. It’s an Instagram notification. 

One of her clients has left a ‘thank you’ for the timely delivery and premium quality of soap she sold on the social networking app. Gupta is a social media entrepreneur who has built a credible brand of customised soaps and toiletries. 

Nearly 500 miles away in Karachi, Pakistan, Sara Zafar Mir is busy making her own money. Like Gupta, she, too, is running her own little online empire. She specialises in premium baby products and Facebook is her social media platform of choice. Every day, she reaches more than 1,50,000 followers, bringing to them customised baby clothes and postpartum care packages at the click of a button. She leads this while also raising two young preteens. 

Mir says, “I am blessed to have a supportive husband and in-laws, who go out of their way to help me in my work. Both my kids help me in my business. It is great to be able to lean on family when needed.”

Gupta and Mir may be separated by the border, but their similarities far outweigh their differences. Both belong to a new generation of South Asian women who are taking social media by storm and creating unique online businesses. 

They use Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook not just to post selfies or share pictures, but also to earn a livelihood, chase their dreams, and be financially independent.

Over 4.26 billion people use social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost six billion in 2027. That’s where a new, dynamic market is emerging, and South Asian women entrepreneurs are here to reach that whole new world of consumers. They are breaking stereotypes and patriarchal norms, which have long been dominant in our communities.

A whole new world 

Gupta says, “My Insta-shop never shuts down. It is open 24×7. Living in a joint family I have realised that everything is manageable if you have a good mother-in-law. And I am blessed in that department.” 

Living in a three-storey home in Jaipur in northwestern India, she cradles her toddler in one arm, while updating her Instagram business account with the other. 

Born and brought up in Bangkok, Gupta was 21 years old when she moved to India to get married. Initially, it was a culture shock to settle down in a rich but conservative Marwari (an Indian ethnic group from Rajasthan) family. She dropped out of journalism school to have her dream wedding. 

Soon she had her first child and her career took a back seat. It was on her daughter’s fifth birthday in 2020 that she kickstarted her entrepreneurial journey by starting Bath and Bubble Co, a brand that sells handmade, natural, artisan soaps and bath products.

On the other side of the border, Mir, a Kashmiri, was married off at a very young age, moving to Karachi with her new husband. As a young mother in Karachi in 2013, she found herself searching for premium baby products and felt that there was a void to be filled. That led her to start Mummy and MiniMe, which is almost like her third baby.

Mir was a teacher before she got married. She left her job when she moved to Karachi. After her son was born, she was ready to start something, but didn’t quite know the ‘what’ and ‘how’.

“At the time, my son was young, so I would always be looking for baby clothes, shoes and products,” Mir says. “So I had some experience [laughs]. I realised that Karachi has some very good quality products, which you don’t find in other cities.”

She explored the internet and found that there were not a lot of people in Pakistan who offered quality products at affordable prices. “We began with PKR 25,000 at the time, which is not a lot of investment,” she adds. 

And so, Mother and MiniMe was born on Facebook, and then expanded to Instagram. After the launch of her business, Mir was joined by her sister-in-law Nauwarah, who was studying at the time. Mummy and MiniMe currently has 157,673 followers on Facebook and 4,782 followers on Instagram.

“My goal as a young mother was to provide affordability and uniqueness. When I used to shop for my son, I realised there were so many options and I thought to help mothers get quality stuff in one place,” Mir notes. 

With time, the online space started becoming saturated. Many new businesses popped up online and the online market became competitive. 

“In 2017, I realised that we need a new strategy. So, we began offering baby gift baskets for newborns. This is now a favourite among our customers. Mostly grandmothers, aunts, and friends are ordering these.” Mir also started collaborating with bloggers on social media to promote her products. 

“I sent a basket with panjeeri (nutritious mixture) to this blogger who had lost her mother and had just had a baby. When I sent her a PR basket, she called me crying saying that her mother used to send her this.” 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mummy & Minime (@mmmpakistan)

The business model

Gupta exclusively uses Instagram to sell her products. Despite her humble 760 followers on Instagram, she has already found some dedicated and returning customers. 

She offers over 25 varieties of exclusive, natural soaps. Currently shipping across India, her products are a favourite among children due to their quirky and colourful designs. Her personalised hampers are also a huge hit and are often ordered in bulk through Instagram and WhatsApp for special occasions. Since creating a website or an offline store would require a huge investment of money and time, she decided to stick to Instagram in the beginning.

“My business started right in the middle of the pandemic. And I think because people were spending so much time online, it added to my advantage,” Gupta says.

She manages to get four-to-five queries each day through Instagram, though not every query converts to a sale. “The Indian festival of Rakhi in August is the busiest month for me, where I make somewhere around INR 50,000 in a month by selling customised bath hampers.” 

A majority of her buyers use Instagram DMs and WhatsApp to place orders and use online modes of payments like Google Pay or Paytm. Gupta says that using the right hashtags and trending reels has helped her reach her target audience. Moreover, the visual format on Instagram has helped business owners like her connect better with customers. She claims it is easier to track her customers on a real-time basis on social media and immediately find out what is working for them. Instagram trends also help in boosting the sales. 

“You never know what clicks. You have to constantly keep thinking of new ideas. I am currently manufacturing the soaps myself at home after I send my daughter off to school. I soon plan to set up a separate space for my business. The first person I plan to hire is someone who can handle our social media,” she says.

Meanwhile, Mir’s business has now reached a stage where she earns a decent living since she first began in 2013. The revenue spikes during Eid, and she receives around 10-15 queries a week. A good 80% of these convert to sales, she notes.  

“It is hard work. You have to be consistent and patient. With time, we can get an idea who is going to continue ordering products and who is there just to window shop, just like a regular retail shop,” Mir says.  

The rise and rise of social media

Economies worldwide have been disrupted by the pandemic, but it has also created new opportunities to do business through social media. Women-owned businesses have received a big boost in recent years. And with a second income coming in, the standard of living of most families has improved. This means the women are not only being empowered financially, but are also getting family support and acceptance for their role as working women.

Sairee Chahal, founder of Sheroes, India’s first women-only social media network, says, “When I started Sheroes, there were maybe 10 million women online in India. Today, there are 350 million, and there’s an increasing number of women who are using this to their advantage.”

For women in a patriarchal setup, running a business requires much more than entrepreneurial skills. There are many family dynamics they are expected to navigate and balance. 

Chahal, who started her first company in 1999 as a first-generation entrepreneur, says, “Women are invisible in their societal setups, whether it’s families or the work that they do both at home and outside. It’s this recognition that is driving them online.” 

Nighat Dad from Lahore, Pakistan, founder and executive director of Digital Rights Foundation, has also closely tracked the trend of women using social media for their growing businesses in recent years. 

“I have so many examples of women who started online businesses and they have grown over the years. They started to have an online presence. A couple of years back, women were really not confident about using these platforms for their businesses, not only in terms of how to use them, but also not having knowledge of financial gains and opportunities,” Dad says. 

In 2019 in Pakistan, Facebook signed a Memorandum of Understanding of its #SheMeansBusiness with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to provide support in hands on training, skills enhancement and resources to women. This was a major step towards empowering women to become entrepreneurs. It is estimated that women’s earnings in Pakistan have increased by 4% compared to previous year. One of the reasons is startups owned by women, and social media has played a pivotal role in helping them grow.

“I spent 10 years building this thesis, and I have seen the adoption in the last two years in a post-pandemic world that I didn’t see in the last decade. We went from 16 to 25 million users in like a matter of a few months, during the pandemic,” Chahal notes.

But not all’s well in the digital universe

While social media has played a pivotal role in helping women become financially independent, it also has its share of challenges. The major issue that entrepreneurs like Gupta and Mir face is developing a sense of trust among customers, since it is difficult to showcase the quality of products through just pictures and videos. Another concern was the easy imitation of handcrafted products at lower prices. 

The digital world can also be intimidating for entrepreneurs who belong to a different generation. So while it is a blessing for some women who have grown up with technology, it might not work for others who are still trying to get used to it.

“Social media can be very demanding and takes a toll on one’s life. We have to constantly think of the next reel, next trend, and next viral post,” Gupta says. At the same time, there is a serious threat to cyber security. Several entrepreneurs have found their accounts hacked, causing them not just financial, but also immense emotional loss.

“Sometimes I feel it is easier to make soaps as compared to making an Instagram reel,” Gupta says. 

Dad believes there are serious challenges and risks associated with online entrepreneurship.

“All kinds of challenges these women face in terms of harassment, finances, and stumbling upon bad actors online and trusting them. In offline spaces, sometimes they are earning, but sometimes they don’t own what they are earning due to having a patriarchal society. Even if you are earning, you really don’t have ownership of your income,” she adds. 

She also emphasises how women who work online should be aware of their rights. “How safe their devices are, how safe their platforms are, how much women know about digital security, and how strong are their passwords,” she explains. Dad’s foundation has a toll-free number on its website to help women entrepreneurs in need.

While Dad is providing much-needed help to the women entrepreneurs of Pakistan, Chahal is filling this gap in India. She uses Sheroes to not only provide livelihood and financial support to women, but also offer crucial mental support. Over three million women have benefited from Sheroes’ counselling services. 

During the pandemic, Sheroes launched a digital bank called Mahila Money. The platform exclusively serves women who are not served by microfinance. Sheroes also acts as a marketplace for women where they can sell a range of items online. 

Is this the beginning of a new revolution?

This rise of women entrepreneurs on social media is not just restricted to South Asia. It is a global phenomenon attracting millions of dollars of investment. 

In 2020 Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced that the social media giant is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries. According to the latest statistics, there are 252 million female business owners in the world. 

In 2021, Instamojo saw a 14.83% spike in new female users in comparison to a 5% drop in male new users. This shows that women are more eager to start their own businesses now and want to go online. Social media has enabled women to connect across boundaries, cultures, and genders, and many are comfortable establishing their businesses in a male-dominated society. 

Meanwhile, Gupta says, “I never got a chance to look back and see how far I have come. I can’t believe that something that was just an idea or a dream is now a fully functional business. It has not just made me financially independent, but has also given my life a new purpose.” 

Written By: Anum Hanif, Lubna Jerar Naqvi, Shreya Pareek, Zeba Warsi

Edited by: Divya Sethu

Featured image: Anshu Gupta Facebook

When you work for close to two decades on a subject that’s not even mapped globally as an issue, there’s bound to be rich learnings from the ground, as well as a huge journey of discovery that transforms you inside out.

In the spirit of sharing this learning, I write today about ‘cloth’, and ‘giving’, and how these two have transformed both me as well as Goonj over the years.

Back in 1999, I noticed lack of clothing as an issue as I watched many clusters of homeless people struggling in the harsh winter nights of Delhi, India’s capital. It is a common sight across the world. 

Cloth is one of the three basic needs of humanity out of food, cloth and shelter —  roti, kapda aur makan —  and yet, it was not, and still is not, listed or mapped on any development agenda.

This, when giving our old clothes, is the most common act of charity world over.

In the act of creating a mass movement around this seemingly mundane act of giving and receiving old clothes, we learnt our biggest lessons about giving and sharing as a society.

The collective power of the masses 

My first lesson in giving came from an unlikely person — Habib Bhai, who I met back in 1999 on a pavement outside a big hospital in north Delhi. 

As I write this piece, I am reminded of the grace and generosity with which he went about his life and work. He lived in a makeshift shack on the pavement with his blind wife and daughter, making a living out of picking abandoned dead bodies from the roads and cremating them in the nearby crematorium.

Habib Bhai found his purpose in life with this strange occupation, treating the dead with utmost respect — anything he found from the pockets of the dead body or any valuables on their body, he would religiously give away in charity. Always. 

Looking back over the last two decades, I realise that the world is a good place because of the grace and generosity of common people like Habib Bhai, who do not utter a single word about their giving to the world.

That is what has defined Goonj’s consistent work with the masses of India, the common people, in the cities and villages of India. 

It is their giving to the world, growing our food, running our factories, managing the underbelly of our existence, while we go out, work and enjoy our day-to-day lives. That is what makes our world go around. We saw this even in the worst phases of COVID-19. Nurses, delivery personnel, healthcare workers, vegetable vendors, grocery store workers — they did not fail us even when the world shut down.

We started Goonj by asking people in India’s big cities to give us all the material they had lying around unused in their homes. At that point, we had no idea about the massive amounts of time and effort we would receive, of the networks we would build, and of the thousands of people who would give us their unused clothes and other material.

In the same vein, when we went to the villages of India, we first thought that we were the givers of much needed material to people. But when people in the villages started giving, it completely swept us off our feet. 

They gave us hours and days and weeks of their time, as well as grueling efforts, while sharing their wisdom, knowledge and natural resources with a lot of generosity and grace. Most importantly, they gave us an endless reserve of love, friendships and respect that will last us a lifetime.  

That taught us the second lesson about giving early on in our work — the collective power of the masses. It can move mountains, make anything possible. I see this vibrant power first hand every time there is a big disaster in the country. 

The unsung 

I remember how, after the Kashmir earthquake, a group of enthusiastic citizens quickly pulled together a central control team to manage the relief operations. Or when, during the Kerala floods, housewives, students, and senior citizens alike used their phones to respond to SOS calls.

More recently, in the most difficult waves and lockdowns due to the pandemic, people from all sections of our society galvanised, cooking day and night in massive quantities in their tiny kitchens to make sure no one went hungry. Giving of ourselves, our time, our knowledge, our efforts, our spaces, our networks — this country and its people have shown countless instances of their boundless capacity for giving.

In this journey, I also notice some things we must change about our lens of giving. I notice the inherent inequality or the different yardstick we often apply on what is defined as ‘giving’ and who is defined as ‘a giver’.

When people like us — who speak good English, wear good clothes, have a few academic degrees — give, that is often recognised and celebrated, but when people like the farmers or the workers give with their sweat and blood, generously to nourish and sustain our lives every day, we still call them receivers.

When we do development or voluntary work, we call it giving, but when I go to a village and the villagers graciously open their homes and lives to me, their giving is completely unaccounted for in how it makes our work possible. It goes back to the larger fact of giving — that we are able to give only because we have received so much from the world.

I still have a lot to learn from this journey, but I know that I am the one who needs to keep checking my own lens and perspective about giving. 

The world, its people and nature do not ask questions, nor hand out certificates of appreciation, nor demand an acknowledgment. They just go about giving and sharing as second nature, as a way of living. That has been one of the most humbling lessons for me and everyone at Goonj. That is what gives us hope as we stand with people learning from the dignity and grace of this world full of givers.

2015 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Anshu Gupta (India) is the founder of Goonj, a voluntary organisation that is turning the world’s discard material into a new resource for rural development by promoting a parallel trash-based economy through barter between the efforts and wisdom of rural communities and urban surplus material.

Written by Anshu Gupta; Edited by Divya Sethu

Growing up in a slum area in Ambedkar Nagar, Mumbai, Ashok Rathod saw many of his friends drop out of school to work in the nearby Sassoon Docks. His own father, however, threatened to evict him from the family home if he joined them, he recalls. 

So around 2006, while attending college and coaching football at the NGO Magic Bus, Ashok wanted to offer guidance to some of the children in his neighbourhood. He knew a few children who had dropped out, and wanted to convince them to go back. 

Rather than lecturing them, however, he wanted to “bring them together”, he says. He chanced upon the idea of using sport as a hook. 

So he decided to coach them in football. He arranged to meet around 18 boys at Oval Maidan at 4.30 pm one Saturday. He wasn’t confident they would all show up, but they did. The boys had a good time and they agreed to do it again the following week.

Initially, some of the children refused to play with others because of caste, religion, or regional differences. Ashok decided to group those children into the same team and instituted a rule that when a player scores, the whole team has to celebrate, or the goal would not count. 

“In one year, they forgot about caste, religion, etc,” the 34-year-old says. “I also noticed a change in them. They stopped using bad language and had more discipline.”

He also insisted that if they wanted to keep playing football, they had to go to school. Some of them had dropped out, so he enrolled them in a local NGO to improve their reading and writing. 

‘Magnificent, aspirational’

Over time, the original group of boys began to bring their friends along. “They thought if we can change, their other friends can also change,” Ashok says. 

It was hard for him to manage the growing numbers financially, but in 2008 CNN-IBN gave him the Real Hero Award, which came with a cash prize of Rs 3.45 lakh. Ashok used that money to buy new equipment and uniforms, and also rented a community centre in Ambedkar Nagar for the kids, which remained open 24 hours. The centre is still operational today. 

By 2010, the programme had 300 children. “I was trying to support everyone, but then the money got over,” he recalls. 

When Ashok approached people for funds, he was asked if he had a bank account and was a registered NGO. “I said, ‘I don’t want to register. I just want to do it.’ But people wanted their tax deduction.”

He realised it would be difficult to support the children without registering the NGO, so in 2010, the Oscar Foundation was formally instituted. 

The name was inspired by the Academy Awards, with the idea being that the Oscar is something “magnificent and aspirational”. The name stands for ‘Organisation for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility’.

However, this didn’t immediately solve Ashok’s funding woes. When he would approach a corporation, they would always ask if he had any existing corporate support. When he said no, they would demur too. “[Getting] the first one was very difficult,” he said.

It eventually took a bit of subterfuge. A few employees from the Indian Hotels Company (Taj), who had heard about Ashok’s initiative, visited the ground in their personal capacity during a training session. Here, he took some photos with them. 

Around the same time, an article about Ashok had appeared in Readers Digest and based on it, he managed to get a meeting with the CSR team at IDBI Bank. He showed the IDBI team the photos of him with the Taj employees. The IDBI team assumed that Taj was a sponsor and agreed to support him. Then Ashok went to Kotak Bank and told them about IDBI, and they agreed to support him too. “Now I am not using Taj Hotels,” he laughs

With an eye on the goal 

Govind Rathod, now 29, was one of Ashok’s original 18 boys. He was raised in Ambedkar Nagar and knew ‘Ashok bhaiyya’. His parents worked in the fish market and he attended a local school. When he was 12, however, he dropped out and moved with his family to Panvel, where he worked in a small canteen and then in construction.

Two years later, during a visit to Mumbai, he met Ashok, who convinced him to start playing football. By the time Ashok introduced his ‘no-school, no-football’ rule, Govind was hooked. 

“I was totally addicted to football … I told my parents that I want to stay here only and want to study,” Govind says. Fortunately for him, his elder brother supported him and helped him get readmitted. To pay his fees, he sold magazines and newspapers at traffic signals and washed toilets in a few buildings. 

Over time, Govind picked up life skills from the football practices as well. “I learned about confidence building, the importance of education, and why we need to stop child marriage,” he said. 

Child marriage was personal for him, he says, for his parents had already chosen a girl for him. “I fought with my family to not get married,” he says. “No one in my family had completed Class 10 — I wanted to be the first.”

In his time with Oscar, Govind travelled to Brazil in 2014 during the FIFA World Cup, to South Korea to attend a United Nations Youth Leadership Camp, and to Vietnam to attend an Adidas Football Exchange Program. 

He also went on to finish college and earned a scholarship to study sports management in Germany. In one of those coincidences that make you think fate must be at work, Govind’s interview for the scholarship was at the Hoechst House in Mumbai, where he used to work. 

“I had my interview on the 10th floor, and I used to wash the bathrooms on the 7th and 8th floors,” he recalls. “Somehow, I got selected and went to Germany for five months. I was the first guy in my family to have a passport, the first to fly in an airplane, and the first to speak English.” 

“I pushed myself, but Oscar Foundation gave me the opportunity and helped me to reach that level. From zero to hero. I can say that,” he laughs.

Most recently, Street Football World (an organisation using football for social change on a global level and supporting Oscar Foundation) invited him to attend the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where he watched England play against Iran. 

Given all these accomplishments, it is not surprising that there has been a marked change in his community’s attitude towards Oscar Foundation. “In the start, the community would say I am just wasting my time,” Govind notes. “For this reason, in the beginning, a few of those 18 left the programme. They didn’t believe [in it at the time]. Now half of the community’s children are part of Oscar’s programmes.”

As a first-generation Oscar “graduate,” Govind has also become a role model for the next generation of kids from the community. “That is a responsibility for me and I think about how to set a good example. I want to tell all the children that nothing is impossible if you have a passion and are dedicated to your goals and dreams.”

Kicking stereotypes to the curb 

A few years after starting the boys’ team, Ashok wanted to start a girl’s team as well, but the parents didn’t think football was for girls. They were worried about their daughters getting injured or developing darker skin from being in the sun, both of which could potentially affect their marriage prospects. 

Ashok finally broke through by threatening to stop teaching the boys if the girls weren’t allowed to. “They agreed to send the girls once a week for one hour,” he says. 

He then resorted to a roundabout way to form an actual girls’ team. In 2011, a girls’ tournament was held in Cooperage in Mumbai, and Ashok convinced a few girls to show up by telling them it was a picnic. The girls had never played as a team before, and didn’t even know the rules. 

Ashok told them to not use their hands, to listen to the referee, and stop the other team from scoring. “They stood in front of the goal like a wall and just played defence,” he says. The girls lost the game on penalty kicks, but gained a huge boost of confidence in the process. The organisers also gave them a uniform and shoes. 

“They told their parents — we got shoes, T-shirts, and many other things. So, parents thought the girls would keep getting stuff and kept sending their daughters. Now we have 1,600 girls in the programme and they have been to France, Denmark, Russia, and England. They even won the Dana Cup in Denmark.”

Off the field, the Oscar team teaches the girls about menstrual hygiene and gender equality as well as life skills. 

Sonal (name changed), who is 14, joined Oscar Foundation in 2017. She lives with her mother in Bandra and attends a municipal school. Her mother is a domestic worker and is separated from her father. 

Sonal says she wasn’t physically active before, but now football has become a fun hobby. “I love the vibe on the ground, and get to meet a lot of new people and make new friends. It feels good to participate regularly in physical activity,” she explains. 

She adds that Oscar has helped her to develop life skills off the field as well. “My coaches take a lot of interest in helping us, beyond football. Learning about life skills and implementing the same has brought a difference in me. My communication skills are much better now.”

Thirteen-year-old Renu (name changed) discovered Oscar in 2019, when some of her friends in the community began attending the all-girls football sessions near her house in Badhwar Park in Mumbai. Renu, who wants to become a teacher, says that in addition to football, she likes participating in music sessions and gender training. 

She credits Oscar with bringing these new experiences to her door. “I play football, know how to play the drums and use a computer. I am happy to have such opportunities.” 

14000 children impacted 

Oscar measures the success of its programme in a number of ways. Attendance at football and in school is one of them. 

“We know that 90% of our kids passed their Class 10 and 12,” Ashok said. “Those that don’t pass, we follow up so they don’t drop out. Once they fail, they don’t want to continue. We counsel them and help them to continue.”

They also do pre- and post-testing for life skills such as decision-making, critical thinking, and gender equality as defined by the World Health Organization. They also test football skills and have started checking if any children are at their proper weight in case they need help with nutrition. “We give milk, bananas, and sometimes eggs,” Ashok explains. 

Today, Oscar operates in Mumbai, Daman, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Ashok’s focus for this year is to expand in Daman and Rajasthan. In total, the programme currently impacts 4,200 children, while almost 14,000 children have been through the programme over the years. 

What remains a challenge, he notes, is explaining the benefits of sport to those who have never experienced it themselves. 

“It is very difficult to explain that sport brings change to the community in a very fun way, but slowly,” Ashok says. 

Because of this, fundraising for sports also remains a challenge in India. “As many as 90% of corporations give to education; only 0.2% is given to sports for development organisations. So, there is a challenge, but…challenges always teach you [something].”

‘Something magical must be happening’ 

When asked about the high points of the programme, Ashok mentions two girls from the programme who played for India in the recent Under-17 World Cup, as well as one who plays for the Maharashtra team. On the boys’ side, two have been selected by Bengaluru FC, one by Mumbai City and one by Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League. 

Outside of football, Ashok says, one of their former students is now a supervisor at one of India’s leading health and fitness platforms, while another is doing his MBA in finance from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

“There are many stories like this through this programme,” he notes. “These children never even dreamed about playing a sport, but now they are going abroad. They are thinking about getting a job at the corporate level, not just serving as delivery boy[s] or working in a shop.”

Ashok is also particularly pleased that many of the youth from the community come back to Oscar to lead their programmes. 

“When I reflect, I feel something magical must be happening. It’s hard to believe my journey,” he says. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

Bali Yatra is an annual festival celebrated in Cuttack, Odisha. It is observed in the time of Kartik Purnima (late October-early November), which is the time when the monsoon winds turn southeast. This was the time ancient mariners and traders from Bengal and Odisha would take off on their nearly six-month voyage to distant destinations, most commonly Bali, Java, Sumatra, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their families would gather at the shore to bid them farewell and pray for their safety on the high seas and foreign lands. 

At present, when people gather at the banks of the Mahanadi river, float paper boats and sing songs, it is to remember and commemorate Orissa’s rich maritime history. They also light sky lanterns as a symbol of good wishes for the sailors. This festival is also associated with Tapoi. 

The legend of Tapoi comes from a very famous folk ballad. The story goes that a family of seven brothers, all of them sailors, had a beloved youngest sister. In due time, they got married. When they were abroad, the wives would mistreat their sister, and thus she yearned for them to come home. However, the wives were caught by the brothers red-handed and disowned. Tapoi thus acknowledges the family members who suffered when their loved ones went overseas.

This festival has commemorated more than a thousand years of rich maritime history, in remembrance of swashbuckling sailors who sailed to far off lands; ostensibly for trade, but mostly for the adventure and thrills of the high seas, and a chance to meet people and cultures different from their own. These sailors were awe-inspiring figures back home, and countless works of literature and folklore have been dedicated to them and their various adventures and misadventures.

Of ballads and bravery

Folklore is one of the most overlooked sources of history for several reasons, chief among them being that it is not objective. In a land like India, history was usually transmitted through word-of-mouth, through ballads, dances, folk theatre, bard stories and shlokas. Kings, sages, merchants and courtesans were eulogised and mythologised over thousands of years of continuous and chaotic history, to a point where it is difficult to sort fact from fiction. They still have their importance when we study our ancestors, however. 

Historian Supriya Sahoo stated, “Because stories create reality, stories of a people, by a people, must be taken into account for an informed understanding of each community.”

Folklore is an important signpost in the winding and confusing pathways of history and can provide various clues and insights that formal records cannot.

The Kalinga empire had always been powerful and influential and is mentioned in texts as ancient as the Ramayana. Kalinga’s grip on ocean trade was well known — in Kalidas’s monumental play Raghuvamsa, he refers to the king of Kalinga as Mohodadhipati (king of the Ocean). In fact, he is called the king of the seas in several ways in various texts — Sarala Das’s Odia Mahabharat and Yosawant Das’s Tika Govind Chandra are just a few examples. 

Travel writings, put together by poetic souls and practical merchants alike, enliven the ancient trade routes with anecdotes, stories and practical advice. Odia literature is especially rich with accounts of travel — the famous epics Lavanyavati and Vaidehi Vilasa (Upendra Bhanja) speak about voyages. 

Rasakallola by Dinakrushna Das has stories of shipwrecks by sea storms, and Kavya Parimala by Narasimha Sinha references Kalinga’s trade with Sri Lanka. The Odia version of the Mahabharata also has accounts of ship-building. Perhaps the most poignant tale related to Odisha’s rich mercantile history is, of course, the ballad of Tapoi. This ballad is not only a tender story of filial love and the pain of separation, but also a rich repository of information about the culture, customs, trading methods and widespread exposure of that time.

Why was Odisha such a maritime superpower?

The geography of Odisha’s coast is especially conducive for sea trade. There are plenty of natural harbours and deltas that were advantageous for setting up ports. An abundance of rivers, such as the Ganges, Mahanadi and Godavari, were great for bringing goods from inland far easier than by land. 

The mountains of western Odisha were also rich with precious and semi-precious stones, which were valued commodities for export. Some of India’s most bustling ports were located along the coasts of Kalinga — Tamralipti and Chandraketugarh (in modern-day West Bengal); Nanigaina (modern Puri), Katikadarma (modern Cuttack), Kannagara (modern-day Konark); and Salihundam and Dharanikotam located in modern Andhra Pradesh. 

Some of these ports had periodic rises and falls, and some endured for a long time. Some of them were used for international trade, while others were used to travel along the Indian coastline for internal trade.

Travel was mainly contingent on the strength and direction of the monsoon winds, which is why merchants set off when the monsoon winds turned to the southeast — their departure marked by the Bali Yatra. 

The routes they took are well documented in Periplus of the Erythrean Sea and the accounts of Chinese monks who came to India to study Buddhist texts. Ships from Orissa heading to Southeast Asia made a stop for picking up supplies, resting and/or trading either in Sri Lanka or in the Andaman-Nicobar islands. 

According to the account of I-Tsing, the journey from Tamralipti to the Nicobar islands took about a month. From there, they caught the southern monsoon winds and sailed across the open sea to Sumatra. From Sumatra, they had three options — sail down the coast of Sumatra, all the way to Java and Bali; trade along the coast; or cross the narrow Malacca Strait, and then either go north towards Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Japan, or south to Borneo, which was famed for its spices and a closely guarded secret by Indian merchants. 

A few Odia-Bengali merchants also travelled to the eastern coast of Africa and Rome — the west Indian ocean trade was, however, dominated more by the Tamils and the Gujaratis. It was a dangerous journey, fraught with storms and shipwrecks. But Indian merchants built cordial relationships among the locals and often settled down. A lot of them won the local kings’ favour and became advisors, or started royal dynasties themselves by marrying into royal families. The dharmic culture bought by Indians mixed in harmoniously with the local culture and became a rich tapestry that still forms the national consciousness of the modern nations of Southeast Asia.

The links that bind

There is a lot of evidence of trade between India and Southeast Asia, which was known as Suvarnabhumi (land of gold) by Indian sailors. The lands of Suvarnabhumi were fertile and the culture was rich. 

The main trade between Kalinga and Suvarnabhumi were spices, ceramics and cloth — especially Kalingam, speciality blue cotton cloth of very high quality. A lot of items were also manufactured specifically for the needs of customers abroad, which shows that some craftsmen made goods only for exports, and had a good understanding of the culture of their target markets. For example, bronze bowls with a knob at the bottom, commonly used in burial rituals in Thailand, are similar to those found in coastal Odisha as well.

Rouletted ware, for example, is a special type of ceramic that was fairly common during ancient times and has been found all along the Indian Ocean rim and Southeast Asia — all the way from Vietnam, to the coastal areas of India, to the Middle East till Rome. Arikemadu in Andhra Pradesh seems to be a major manufacturing site of such wares, and these were exported from Kalinga’s ports to Java, Vietnam, and Bali.

The semi-precious stone and beads trade was quite vigorous as well, and were mainly used in decorations and jewellery all over Asia. As with any items popular with women, large quantities of beads were exported in all directions in the Indian ocean. Glass, camelian, agate and terracotta beads of similar make and composition have been found in Odisha, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Camelian beads are most likely to be from India, as at the time India had abundant supplies of chameleon.

Coins with the images of ships have been found all along the coasts of Bengal and Odisha. Roman coins issued by different eras of rulers, such as Constantine and Tiberius, have been found all over the east coast of India. Chinese coins, with hanzi characters and a hole, punched in the middle, have also been found in ancient commercial centres, indicating a flourishing trade with the Far East.

Indians abroad in ancient times

Indians often settled in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia, with a settlement even in the important Chinese port of Guangzhou. The merchants who settled in Suvarnabhumi seamlessly merged their culture with the local people, and quickly caught the attention of kings. They gained positions of power in the administration and popularised the Hindu and Buddhist religions. Sanskrit was quickly adopted by scholars and ministers of Suvarnabhumi. I should mention that all of these exchanges of culture were not forced upon the people; they adopted religions, languages and traditions on their own and created something unique and beautiful that endures to the present day.

Pieces of pottery and seals found in Chandraketugarh have Kharosthi script on them, indicating they are from Gandhara (present-day Afghanistan). They have carvings of ships and shells on them and seem to portray the ships that set sail from the ports in the east of the subcontinent. Ashoka’s edicts also mention trade voyages from Kalinga to the East. 

Epigraphical evidence from Malaysia and Indonesia talks of a people called the Kling. There is consensus that they referred to the people of Kalinga. The tablets also mention that “the king of Kling sent twenty thousand people here. They settled and prospered well.” The Indonesian Telaga Batu inscriptions also speak of the skills and bravery of Indian sailors, such as the Puhawang (ship captains), Vaniyaga (sailors) and Sthapaka (sculptors). The word Banigrama was also used to refer to offshore branches of Indian merchant guilds that operated at every major commercial centre in Southeast Asia.

The Odia King of Cambodia

The story of the founding of Southeast Asia’s first Hindu-Buddhist empire is also thought to go back to Kalinga. 

The Funan empire in Cambodia was one of the first great empires of South-East Asia with extensive Indian connections in terms of trade, culture and administration. It was founded by the Naga princess Queen Soma (Neang Neak) and her husband, Kaundinya I (Preah Thong). 

According to Chinese records, Kaundinya was a Brahmin merchant ship captain who was shipwrecked on the coast of Cambodia. Queen Soma went to fight off the crew as she thought they were invaders, but fell in love with Kaundinya and proposed marriage. The House of Kaundinya followed matrilineal succession. 

Most Hindu-Buddhist empires trace their lineage to Kaundinya. Since Kaundinya was a Shaivite, the royal religion of the Funan Empire was Shaivism. Several Shiva temples with Sanskrit inscriptions have been found in the region which was once the Funan empire. The dynasty had 18 rulers, of whom Jayavarman, the 17th king, was the most famous. 

Rudravarman was the last king in the empire. There are no Indian records of King Kaundinya of Cambodia. However, noted economist and historian Sanjeev Sanyal has proposed that Kaundinya refers more to the gotra (lineage) of Kaundinya I. At the time, the Kaundinya lineage had settled extensively in Bengal and Odisha. Odisha had extensive trade relations with Vietnam and Cambodia. So, it’s quite likely that Kaundinya hailed from Odisha.

Untold history

Unfortunately, the central narrative of history in India (or at least in Indian schools) has a very clear bias towards the happenings in Central India, especially centred around the modern capital Delhi. 

One might have the mistaken impression that India has a fairly linear, uncomplicated timeline of history — the supposed and mostly mistaken “Aryan Invasion”, the Mauryan Empire, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, the British and then Independence. Kalinga is a mere footnote in the story of King Ashoka’s personal transformation.

The history of India is, quite frankly, a chaotic mess, and is all the more interesting, glorious and beautiful for it. For a start, it is essential that we highlight the story of the coasts of India, the brave sailors who crossed tumultuous seas, unsure of their return, and India’s soft but powerful cultural influence over Asia and the Roman empire for the better part of a millennium. 

It is extremely important to reiterate that Indian settlers never imposed their culture on anyone, and Indian culture was willingly adapted and moulded in unique ways by the local people of different lands all over Asia. And that was what made India’s influence and power so enduring — the ability of the ancients to embrace the entire world as a family, Vasudheiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family).

Somdatta Majumdar is a management student at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and a history enthusiast. You can follow her Instagram @thegeekhistorian. You can also read the original article on Medium.

Edited by Divya Sethu  

Upendra Mahanand begins his day by setting out on his motorcycle to cover at least 4-5 villages in the Rengali block limit. On his way, he notes down grievances of residents, checks their authenticity, takes a photograph of the person with relevant documents, and immediately sends out a tweet, tagging appropriate authorities to take a look at the problem. 

The 41 year-old has solved over 50 cases so far this way, and his follower base has grown to over 1,000 in one year due to his popularity. Upendra, who belongs to Manikamunda village under the Kinaloi Gram Panchayat in Odisha’s Sambalpur district, has been doing this work since 2016.

Before the advent of the pandemic, many might have wondered to what extent social media could help solve local governance issues. But COVID-19, especially the second wave, has shown that social media can do wonders when people’s access to government authorities is physically limited. 

But Upendra caught this wave early. 

The beginning of his journey was not easy, as he recalls. Neither was he technologically advanced, nor did he have any idea of how Twitter works. “Secondly, I did not know whether people would have faith in this new way of working. But after a few issues were resolved, they started reposing faith in me.” 

Upendra’s untiring perseverance has made him a household name in his locality. His purpose of entering digital activism is to help as many people as possible, and work as a bridge between the government and people who seek support to receive their entitlements. 

A good samaritan 

Before embarking on this endeavour, Upendra was working with a collective where he would visit villages and hold meetings with villagers as well as other stakeholders to identify issues faced at the ground level. He had already built a sense of familiarity with the village community owing to his work with the Mahila Sangram Samiti, Sambalpur, as a ward member. He would visit villages, identify people’s issues, and take them to the appropriate authorities for redressal. His work, he says, was to act as a bridge between the government authorities and communities. 

Hailing from a lower-middle class family, Upendra is the sole earning member of his family of four, including his wife and two sons. “I have seen the difficulties my parents faced in raising me. I have studied with a lot of difficulties too. So serving people was my calling from childhood. I don’t want people to face austerity as I had to. That’s what drove me to help people as I grew older,” he says. 

With the movement restrictions that COVID-19 brought along, his usual way of visiting villages and interacting with people also was limited. In the meanwhile, the collective instructed their staff to work online as much as possible. 

Dear Madam/Sir,
Please look in to the matter & make necessary arrangement. @CMO_Odisha @MoSarkar5T @dmkoraput @PRDeptOdisha pic.twitter.com/TtY1lvbKMV

— 12 Baje 12 minute (@12_baje) March 12, 2022

From then, Upendra began holding meetings online with his limited capacity. However, many issues were going unaddressed because of a lack of accountability and losing touch with people. That’s when the idea of using  social media to resolve governance issues germinated. 

In 2020, he attended an online session conducted by 12baje12minute, a Twitter platform for grievance redressal. Here, he learned how he could use social media and solve people’s issues quickly and transparently. He also learned about the Odisha government’s 5T model, which is committed to resolving issues that come through social media platforms in a time-bound manner. Later, he received training on writing content, as well as using proper tags and hashtags on the microblogging platform to reach targeted authorities effectively. 

With these learnings, Upendra has devotedly used his time and energy to tweet every possible issue he comes across — be it the non-issuance of a ration card or the denial of widow and old-age pensions, drinking water issues in villages, etc. 

Nityananda Thanapati, a core member of the 12baje12minute group, says, “Upendra has been consistently using social media, especially Twitter, to highlight people’s issues, many of which have been solved. Not only does he tweet from his personal account, but he also approaches us to tweet people’s issues when he feels their voices should be louder, as we have a larger follower base.”

“Since the current state government takes people’s feedback and grievances positively, digital activism is gaining momentum among youths like Upendra, who feel this is a quicker redressal mechanism, transparent, and accountable in its process. Our effort is to create more good samaritans like Upendra who can serve as change agents in solving local governance issues.” 

A new wave of change 

Susani Munda, a 58-year-old single woman from Langbahal village under Kinaloi Gram Panchayat, was struggling to get her widow pension even after knocking several times on the doors of concerned authorities. Upendra learned about Susani’s case from one of his team members and immediately rushed to Langbahal village to see if the issue was genuine. 

When he met Susani and learned about her difficulties, he immediately tweeted to the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department, Government of Odisha. In a week,  Susani received her pension. 

“Upendra served as God’s messenger in my case. The pension, for which I had waited for over three years, came in just a week. He also helped two other women of our village get their pension, for which they had waited a long time,” said Susani.

Apart from people’s appreciation for his work on Twitter, Upendra has worked extensively during the lockdown to help children learn through a community-led education initiative Mo Chatashali, for which he was felicitated in a state-level event in Bhubaneswar, conducted by NGO Atmashakti Trust and Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR), in 2021.  

“I am tremendously pleased to be selected to receive this felicitation. It not only recognised the longstanding work that I have been doing for years, but also motivated me to engage myself more with this work. More importantly, it will push others to work for the communities,” he opines.

Upendra was happy when people told them their issues had been solved, but he soon realised that he couldn’t handle all their grievances at once. So he thought of bringing local youths together in this job. He is now on a mission to build Twitter warriors in his locality, where over 20 such youths learned the use of the site and are doing their bit to help people out of problems. 

“Earlier, I used my smartphone for clicking photographs, reading news, watching YouTube, and so on for my personal as well as organisational reporting purposes. But I had no idea that I could use it to solve people’s issues. When I saw Upendra using it successfully, I followed him and fortunately, I have so far solved five cases using twitter,” says Pardeshi Mirdha, Upendra’s colleague in Mahila Sangram Samiti. 

Meanwhile, Upendra notes, “The use of social media in a post-pandemic scenario has gained attention and government agencies are also on it. So, what could be more satisfying than solving people’s issues with a click?”

Naba Kishor Pujari is a Bhubaneswar-based freelance journalist; Edited by Divya Sethu

This article has been sponsored by Wingify Earth. 

Krushi Bhawan in Odisha is one of the finest examples of sustainable architecture in India. Spread over 1.3 lakh square feet and four floors, it was envisioned by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as the office of the State Department for Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment in Bhubaneswar, which was designated a smart city in 2016. 

Delhi-based architecture firm Studio Lotus, which adopts the principle of conscious design and use of local resources, was responsible for executing the project at a cost of Rs 70 crore. 

The vision behind Krushi Bhavan’s creation 

Krushi Bhavan was initially envisaged as a government facility to hold the directorate offices and adjunct workspaces. However, the plan was then revised to create an invigorated urban realm. 

The architecture was inspired by German architect Otto Königsberger‘s original vision for Bhubaneswar, where he saw the Capitol Complex with a host of government offices becoming a congregation point for the public as well. 

Congruent with the project objective, the ground floor comprises a learning centre, a gallery, an auditorium, a library, and training rooms. Similarly, the rooftop has been designed to house urban farming exhibits and demonstration of agricultural best practices. 

Studio Lotus also suggested that the building should also be able to host public functions and become a gathering center for the local community, and the government willingly embraced the idea. 

This was achieved by opening up the ground floor as an extension of the street and raising it on stilts to create a public plaza that could be utilised for community engagement through workshops, training modules, and conferences dedicated to the best farming practices for the state.

The project also promotes sensitisation to local materials and looks at a new way of integrating craft in a contemporary environment. The material palette uses a combination of exposed brick and local stones like laterite and khondalite, and by adapting local motifs to an unprecedented architectural scale, Krushi Bhawan emerges as an example of how the government can serve as the prime patron of regional crafts. The Public Plaza boasts of greenery and is home to a garden filled with native flora, featuring an informal amphitheatre and a pond that cools the forecourt. 

The building uses passive design strategies in the staggered massing (that helps shield the building from the heat of the sun), the recessed windows, and the double-skin brick facade. 

To address the tropical climate, a night-purge ventilation system — a first in an office building in Odisha — takes advantage of the structure’s optimal north–south orientation, with 40 mechanised rooftop ventilators extracting hot air and injecting the cooler night air through ceiling and floor vents. 

With sustainable techniques and traditional Odia folklore depicted by 100+ artists from different communities, Odisha’s Krushi Bhavan is truly an #architectural marvel.#Proud #Award #Architecture #Creativity #Odisha pic.twitter.com/JlLJCZYGRX

— The Better India (@thebetterindia) December 2, 2022

Only 20 percent of the interior spaces are air-conditioned — the third-floor offices that become extremely uncomfortable for a brief period each year. The raised plaza, the courtyard, and light wells all enhance air circulation. Other sustainable aspects of the project are solar panels on the roof, rainwater harvesting, and the extensive use of local materials.

‘A collaborative process’

For the project, Sidhartha Talwar, design principal at Studio Lotus, won the JK Architect Award of the Year in 2020. “The concerns of sustainability, cultural and contextual suitability and stakeholder empowerment apply to each project, regardless of who commissioned it or what the budget shapes up to be,” he notes. 

But the key difference between a private and public project, he explains, is determined by the end user — private projects are essentially geared towards objective fulfilment for a small or well-defined subset, be it a retail outlet, a boutique hotel, or a small private residence. Public projects, on the other hand, must be inclusive, agile, and adaptable within their immediate urban setting, so as to remain relevant and useful for the community in the years to come.

“For us, the project and its stakeholders determine the material and technology that goes into the making of a building,” says Talwar. “We strive to produce designs that serve as solutions to a set of pertinent questions, rather than as products of a creative exercise. The solutions that emerge are a direct result of stakeholder engagement, a collaborative process from start to end.”

Krushi Bhavan was voted as a ‘Highly Commendable in Office Building Category’ at the World Architecture Festival in 2019 and was the ‘Supreme Winner in Public Building’ category at the Surface Design Award London.

Written by Taruka Srivastav; Edited by Divya Sethu

This article was sponsored by Wingify Earth.

Sustainability is the hallmark of the Blue Book, a 130-year-old colonial-era structure overlooking the gorgeous Jeolikote valley in Uttarakhand. Built by Madame Durelle, a British woman who settled here, this haven has served many looking to escape polluted cities and find respite. 

The campus has been divided into two halves. The old wing is from the 1890s, when Madame Durell lived here, and retains its old-world charm with Victorian style furniture, textures, and upholstery. 

In an interview with Conde Nast, Shrey Gupta, founder, explains, “We sourced from all over the country — the upholstery comes from Panipat, crockery from Gujarat, brass work from Moradabad, and we got the furniture made in Kirti Nagar in Delhi.” says Gupta. 

The second half houses the new wing with 20th century design work, where each room has been labelled a ‘chapter’ and houses several guests and visitors. 

“Initially in 1890, the bungalow only had a ground floor, and the first floor had been constructed by the owners who bought it from Madame Durell’s grandkids. We were careful while restoring the ground floor ceiling and used teak wood to maintain the original look while preserving the stone walls. While we did not use the same furniture from that era, we ensured there was a consistency in style,” he explains.

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The property boasts of a 200 sq-ft organic garden blooming with herbs, lemons, and more that are often used in the food served here. The bird baths here attract around 60 species, and the entire campus has replaced plastic with glass, wood, and metals. 

The usual buffet system and the idea of a set menu aim to reduce food wastage, no single-use plastic is used here, and the garbage is segregated into wet and dry — the former is recycled, and the latter is composted and used as manure in the garden. 

Toiletries like toothbrushes, combs, and razors have been made with bamboo, and items like skin and hair care products imbibe the qualities of Ayurveda, while claiming to be paraben and sulfate-free. 

‘Exclusive experience and inclusive growth’

The guests at Blue Book, too, are involved intricately in sustainability experiences, which are curated according to individual tastes and preferences. But a common experience is the guided trek to the local village, where visitors interact with the locals and learn the stories of the hills and knowledge of the old. 

Another crucial part of the itinerary is a visit to local small businesses such as Kumaoni Farm Café and Muskotia Farm, which offer authentic Kumaoni cuisine.

“We are taking one step forward to set a new standard to conscious luxury — inclusive growth for the local community. Safe garbage disposal, sewage treatment, sharing our water with the village, helping the local government school and understanding the local medical infrastructure are some of the first steps I have taken in my last three months of living in the Gethia village. This is just the beginning to a long journey of making a difference.”

Shrey notes that another aim of the Blue Book is to employ the local population. For example, they hired a local confectioner from a nearby village to cook traditional Kumaoni lunches that include dishes like pahadi mutton and paneer (cottage cheese), bhatt ki churkani daal (black soya bean curry), laai palak ki sabji (local spinach delicacy), bhang ki chutney (hemp seed chutney), and mandua ki roti (finger millet flatbread), which are some of the dishes served here. 

“Every meal is set up at a different spot,” explains Shrey. “While one may be a candlelight dinner at the poolside, another is under the gazebo, while a third may be at another place,” he says, adding that these are “disruptions” he wanted to bring about in the hotel industry.

Speaking about his bid to employ locals, he notes, “We do what we can to help them. In summer the place experiences water problems, so I cooperate with the sarpanch (village head) and we share water with the villagers.” 

And so the Blue Book becomes not only a notable study in how sustainable practices can transform tourism, but also a glimpse into the past — 130 years ago, to be precise. Shrey also notes, “At the core of Blue Book lies my utmost belief of ‘exclusive experience and inclusive growth’.”

Written by Taruka Srivastav; Edited by Divya Sethu

This article has been sponsored by Wingify Earth.

The Chittorgarh Bungalow in Rajasthan is an ode to an earthy and eco-conscious demeanour executed by Studio Shunya. Reviving lost traditions and craftsmanship, the architecture was focused on using local materials and techniques to build a sustainable farmhouse that pays homage to the city’s rich history and culture.

From building mud walls and using Araish plaster to the carpentry techniques used, the bungalow makes you reminisce about the beautiful forts of ancient India. 

Shreya Srivastava, founder and lead architect of Studio Shunya, explains the thought process behind the project. “As global warming is increasing and the cement sector is the third largest industrial source of pollution, the situation is alarming enough to think of different materials that reduce carbon footprint and improve the health of the residents. For this reason, both the client and I were looking to create an environment-friendly farmhouse, which has minimum running cost while being an ode to the rich heritage of Rajasthan.”

An ode to Rajasthan 

Shreya explains that the project tackles the prevailing hot and dry climate with passive design techniques. To achieve this, 90 percent of the natural building material used for construction is locally sourced and worked on by local labour.

The use of a rammed earth wall in a framed structure helps minimise the environmental impact, keeping the interiors cool in the otherwise scorching heat of Chittorgarh. The context-driven use of natural materials becomes the defining feature of this residence.

The walls have been finished with traditional lime plaster, which strengthens with time. This carbon-absorbing material helps improve the residence’s air quality, which in turn creates a healthy environment for the users, while also protecting the building.

The vaastu-compliant residence has three bedrooms and three halls with high ceilings and thatched roof eaves. There are verandas in its northern and southern parts, imparting a sense of cultural belonging, while also being climate-responsive throughout the year.

Though a seemingly simple and indigenous technique, it took the architects over three months to find a local mason equipped with the precise knowledge to execute this feature perfectly.

“The client’s main inspiration was to get a house like Mihir Garh, a boutique hotel in Rajasthan. We started the design process in October 2020 during the peak of COVID, and hence, the design has a lot of leisure spaces for the family to use, like a swimming pool, a gaming room, a home theatre, a steam and sauna, a football turf, play area for kids, etc.” The project was completed in April 2022. 

Being mindful every step of the way

The home also uses passive construction techniques as per the location and climatology to keep the sun away and add wind to the hot and dry climate of the place. This includes extended eaves, strategically placed fenestrations to increase cross ventilation, high ceilings with clerestory windows for diffused light, and ambient temperatures.

The mud walls of the bungalow are thick and have high thermal mass, which helps keep the interiors cool in summer and warm in winter. Finished with lime plaster, a breathable material, it helps maintain preferred humidity levels inside the house while also purifying the indoor air.

Most of the building materials used were found locally within a radius of 100 km, hence reducing the fuel and energy required for transportation. Mud found on the site was the main element of construction. Another important material, lime, is found in abundance in Rajasthan.

The house also made use of Jaisalmer stone, Udaipur stone, Kadappa stone, Nimbara stone, and marble, and the dried grass used to cover the roof eaves for thermal insulation was also locally sourced.

Unlike conventional projects, most materials involved — like mud, most stones, and lime thatch — were used in their naturally occurring states saving both time and processing costs, which otherwise is a carbon-intensive process. 

Shreya says, “The most arduous amongst the many challenges of this unique project was finding local labour that was well-versed in the long-lost native construction and finishing techniques. For instance, the Araish finish — a marble-mimicking smooth finish achieved using lime — can be seen on many historic forts across India.”

She continues, “Furthermore, the eaves of the roofs are covered with thatch that provides improved shading from the sun and keeps the interiors cooler.”

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The bungalow has also strategically placed bigger windows and double-glass units, in addition to skylights and clerestory windows. They allow ample direct and diffused sunlight into the interiors, which in turn reduces the load on artificial lighting systems. All lighting fixtures of the house are LEDs, and there are solar panels installed on the site, which are calibrated to generate 50 percent of the total electricity needed.

Only 20 percent of the total site area is paved. “It was a conscious decision to leave most of the space for greens so as to maximise water percolation to maintain groundwater table levels,” notes Shreya. 

The builders also planned a kitchen garden to enable the completely vegetarian household to produce their own organic food. Dedicated shelters were also installed for farm animals to meet other daily needs like dairy, moving closer to becoming a self-sustaining household.

With a growing number of people willing to build a habitat that consciously imbibes nature into the fabric of architecture, this mud residence is sure to provide sufficient impetus to that change, especially for people looking for luxury in sustainability.

All picture credits: Studio Shunya

Written by Taruka Srivastav; Edited by Pranita Bhat

While many of us have resorted to Zoom and Skype to maintain continuity in our work, the pandemic has turned out to be a curse for the poor and the marginalised. Ragpickers, especially, hardly received any support or compassion, even though they recycle almost 20 percent of the country’s urban solid waste and keep cities clean.

In this trying time, the Noida-based Atmashakti Trust, offered a ray of hope. The non-profit works towards the rights and entitlements of the marginalised communities in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, and led the path on disaster response to ensure last-mile services in a society where inequality is pervasive.

Founded in 1995, Atmashakti Trust has been working in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh to create awareness in constitutional rights and entitlements amongst the most marginalised rural communities with an emphasis on Tribals and Dalits. It facilitates the formation of local-level Sangathans, who take up a range of issues such as Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Natural farming, Training and capacity building.

The complete lockdown for containing the spread of the coronavirus left lakhs of industrial, domestic and daily wagers everywhere in the country without work, money, and even access to food.

“Those of us in Noida and Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon, Haryana, stepped up to draw from our limited resources to save affected families around us from starvation. We called it ‘MissionRahat’, and aimed to support them with dry rations and cooked food to tide over the worst phase of the lockdown and the side-effects of the pandemic,” says Ruchi Kashyap, Executive Trustee of the organisation.

Due to the announcement of lockdown at short notice, another sector, the ragpickers, had minimal scope to save food and other basic needs.

“Our society has not yet prepared to give ragpickers the space they deserve. Therefore, we decided to work for these communities to bring back their identity for which they suffer every day,” adds Kashyap.

“The lockdown wrecked our lives. We were stuck in our sheds without work and access to food as we could not move out of our houses,” says Khusbu, a ragpicker from Bhapura slum of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Ten years ago, Khusbu and her husband left Darbhanga in Bihar to Ghaziabad in UP for work and a better life. But fortune did not smile on them. Instability and unavailability of their preferred jobs pushed them towards ragpicking.

“I could not believe it when I received a bag of dry rations from the volunteers of the organisation. It was more than I had expected. We had knocked several doors for help but were unsuccessful. Because of the timely help rendered by Atmashakti, we no longer fear for hunger,” informs Khusbu.

Kohinoor Bibi, 45, is another ragpicker from the Seemapuri slum in North-east Delhi. She lives with her husband and six children.

She says, “We were not able to step out from our sheds as policemen were threatening to beat us if we were found outside. My family of eight was in dire need of help, but why would anyone look at us? What identity did we have in society? We had thought that no help would be offered to us.”

But in their hour of crisis, help came to them.

She continues, “Atmashakti provided that crucial help. They gave us six weeks of rations, which reduced our burden. Ragpicking is the only job that gives us money to run our families. We earn on a daily basis and our income is dependent on the number of rags we collect every day. The lockdown cost us heavily.”

Atmashakti Trust distributed dry rations to over 3,000 ragpicker families that included 20 kg of Rice/Flour, 2 kg of Dal, 1 litre of edible oil, and one packet of salt.

“The plight of the ragpickers is at the crux of the snags, unlike other informal workers. As we began our COVID-19 relief response, we realised that they were the most vulnerable communities. However, it was not an easy task. We got in touch with the District administration of Ghaziabad to support more than 2,000 ragpicker families in Uttar Pradesh,” says Ruchi Kashyap, Executive Trustee of Atmashakti Trust.

Battling life and death

Often considered as the primary foot-soldiers in collecting, sorting, and managing the large chunk of garbage generated in cities like Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad, everybody turned a deaf ear to their misery.

“The earnings of ragpickers depends on how much waste they collect each day. They do not have a choice to earn a daily fixed wage. That puts them in a vulnerable position as they cannot save money and food for the future. At the same time, factories and manufacturing companies were closed due to the lockdown, which was the only source of their daily earnings. So, their future was uncertain,” states Kashyap.

Kiran Devi, 54, lives in a jhuggi near Bhapura slum in Ghaziabad. Like others, lockdown also had the worst-ever effect on her family. With her husband mostly unwell, she had to shoulder the family’s responsibility.

“Though we have been staying here for the last ten years, we are consistently being denied an Aadhaar card or a Ration Card here. Not having these documents is depriving us of access to government benefits. Where will we go? But thanks to Atmashakti, we survived,” says Kiran.

Though ragpickers are estimated to be between 1.5 million to 4 million in the country, their contribution to our economic activity is worth about ₹3200 crores. And yet, they continue to struggle for their identity and survival. We leave no reason to offer them the poorest position in our societies.

“Their crisis cannot be solved unless there is a consistent effort to give back their lost identity. We all have to do our part to change their public perception. Atmashakti’s humanitarian response has planted seeds of hope for many,” says Balicharan, a social worker, He was coordinating the organisation’s response programme in Noida and other parts of Uttar Pradesh during the lockdown.

He elaborates the COVID-19 response strategy:

1. Using the public distribution network: In Loni, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, most areas were under the contaminated zones. Using the Public Distribution Channel, they reached 8,000 distressed families in 36 wards, who were non-ration cardholders and deprived of essential rations.

2.Coordinated mechanism with NGOs/Solidarity groups: Solidarity networks in Delhi/NCR helped administer relief work by identifying genuine needs and avoiding duplication.

3.Coordination with the local administration: They collaborated with the local administration to extend the reach of intervention.

Discrimination at its worst

Ragpickers live in temporary sheds in the slum areas of Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad. Their work is considered menial, and they are often treated as untouchables by the so-called privileged classes.

Gopal Verma, a volunteer at Atmashakti, sheds light on how discrimination towards ragpickers has created a new narrative.

He says, “It is understood that we all should adhere to isolation and physical distancing, but ragpickers are being abandoned in the name of these practices. Despite their services, they are at the receiving end of hate and dismissal. How can we think of an equal society when the so-called upper layer of the society does not extend the helping hand to the deprived?”

More than 600 ragpicker families in the Sihani slum in Ghaziabad went without help during the lockdown, he adds.

While other informal workers are being helped by youth clubs, NGOs, and charitable organisations, nobody came forward for ragpickers. Various research findings also revealed that ragpickers hail from the poorest and other marginalised communities, which exposes them to the betrayal and ubiquitous social alienation.

No law to favour them

In the absence of a policy for rag pickers in our country, they remain out of the formal employment sector. They toil to keep our cities clean, and yet, have been conveniently forgotten by our policymakers.

“We don’t have an identity in society. As a fallout, our children are denied enrollment in the Anganwadis. Can we not even expect this from the government?” asks 45-year-old Kavita Devi. She resides in Ghazipur while her two children are in Bihar for education.

“As there is no law that favours their concerns, these ‘invisible Indians’ continue to struggle for their survival. We tried to make sure that all ragpickers in these regions receive rations till the lockdown subsides, and they can resume work,” says Neha. She was overseeing the procurement of the relief materials vital for the timely distribution of rations.

The easing of lockdown has a mixed effect. Although many ragpickers have returned to work, waste recycling factories have resumed operations in very few places, causing ragpickers to work at reduced rates. Moreover, middlemen dealers, who purchase the recyclables, have not resumed work in full numbers.

“The ordeals of the ragpickers are acute and multifarious. We are happy that our team could proactively engage with volunteers and solidarity groups to reach them. It is time to bring back their dignity in the society,” concludes Kashyap.

(Written by Nabachannel Kishor and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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There is a small hamlet called Bhavarpur in Bilkhar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district. In recent years, the residents of this village have migrated to cities for work. Water shortage and continuous drought has made agriculture nearly impossible for the small and marginal farmers. They preferred opting for wage labour through migration.

But due to the lockdown to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, the migrants lost their jobs in the cities. They were compelled to return to their village.

But even in the village, their survival was in jeopardy.

Many of them approached the village Pradhan to seek jobs under the MNREGA scheme. Despite continued efforts on their part, there was no clarity about when they could get work.

The only alternative left for them was to rebuild their lives by farming. A major stumbling block was the lack of water resources. In the face of all uncertainties, during a casual meeting, a few of them realised that the river Gharar would flow from their land during the monsoons and had lost its course. This would cause general flooding during the monsoon and a shortage of water during the summer.

The water of the Gharar river heads from the hills of Panna and flows through Ajaygarh, Kartal, Banda in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It was once considered to be among the perennial rivers of the region. It used to flow through 40 villages, with farmers heavily relying on it for irrigation.

In the course of the construction of check dams, the encroachment of the land surrounding the river, and other negligence due to human error over many years, the river receded to a wastewater drain.

The villagers of Bhavarpur couldn’t get work under MNREGA, and the lost river was a pressing issue. Nearly 60 men and women came together and started working towards the revival of the Gharar by Shramdaan (volunteering labour) on June 10.

After four days of tough work, water started appearing. The sight of the water boosted their energy and motivation further. By June 18, a 2-km stretch of the river was cleared.

After that, the work was taken over by the government under MNREGA and the workers were remunerated. With this, the remaining 3-km course of the river was cleared by the end of June.

Paving the way to the river will save the village from getting flooded during the monsoon, say the determined volunteers. More of them join the work with each passing day as the mission has created a heroic wave in the region.

Jairam, a migrant labourer from Bhavarpur, says, “We are trying to save our village from flooding during the monsoon. This stream will also be useful for irrigation in the summer.”

The villagers have also been accommodative to the shramdaanis. Those without land have been offered some portions so that they could use it to farm during these difficult times.

Meera, a resident of Bhavarpur, migrated to the village along with her family many years ago. She shares, “I am happy that recognising our efforts, others from the village have offered their land to us for a year. With land and water now available, we will be able to cultivate crops.”

The volunteers and villagers have been camping in Bhavarpur village. The campsite looks festive, with the shramdaanis relishing the food served by nearby villagers. Men, women and children sing and dance to celebrate their efforts in the sense of camaraderie. They seem empowered, forgetting all the worries and uncertainties regarding survival.

(Written by Aarti Narayan and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Ever since I was a child, I saw my parents exhibit two inspiring qualities – care and perseverance. While caring shows who we are, being perseverant shows how much we care.

For the past 30 years, my parents have been running Rosy Child School, a primary school in Darbhanga, a remote town on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar. The school catered to children from nursery to Class 10 and was established to address the lack of good educational institutions in town. Emphasis has therefore been given to extra-curricular activities along with academics.

Despite COVID-19, the urban school system is still functional due to access to technology. Students in rural areas, with a greater need for education, are now lagging due to the lack of technical knowledge and infrastructure. With focused efforts, we can bridge this gap.

By providing access to primary, middle and high-school education for thousands of children, the school has played an arterial role in nation-building. It has produced engineers, chartered accountants, doctors, members of Indian Air Force, public sector employees, actors, flight attendants and business professionals.

The impact of COVID-19 on the school system

When the pandemic struck, it brought turbulent times. The Indian school system was juggling between the Coronavirus threat, Government directives regarding schools, and the methods of continuing education for children. Concern for children’s safety and security in the light of the pandemic prompted schools to adopt various measures. Institutions remain closed until further notice, and the big question is how to keep education going.

There seemed to be an expanding gap between urban and rural education. While urban schools and children are better equipped with technology and getting ahead in their learning, rural areas, where the need for education is higher, are now lagging, due to the lack of technical knowledge and skills.

For instance, in my parents’ school, all communication from the school was handed to students in the form of hard copies. Even report cards were handed physically; the school fee was never collected electronically; the school records were being maintained in a very structured way, but all on paper. In a nutshell, it was the old-school way of schooling.

From Old School to Online School

In a school where technology usage is extremely limited, and any form of online communication was non-existent, there was a sudden and urgent need to turn virtual! While this seems challenging, even in technologically-advanced schools, we needed to bridge the gap between the classroom and online learning.

Locked in my Mumbai home, 1,200 miles away and passionate for technology, this was my golden opportunity to play a part in helping the children of my hometown. I give my parents enormous credit for being willing to allow the adoption of technology in the school. I was both excited and anxious when I started my due diligence of various technology tools and laid down protocols to eventually implement the online learning platform, an extremely rewarding experience.

While going online, several aspects of the school system needed to be considered.

Converting Challenges to Opportunities

1. PEOPLE
a) Technology Training

Problem: There was limited or no understanding of technology among several students, teachers, and parents.

Solution: For onboarding – I wrote e-circulars with step-by-step instructions and screenshots as guidelines for online classes. Tech support was also provided through phone calls to explain the tools and processes.

For seamless implementation and smooth experience for all participants, in all video calls for the first month, the non-academic part was handled by me. Teachers and students entered the online class as participants and focused only on the subject rather than worrying about technical interruptions, taking attendance, monitoring each student for compliance etc.

Having another individual to manage the non-academic part on every call was an important success factor. Once we had a month of stability where students and teachers were comfortable with the system, I identified the three most tech-savvy teachers as champions and took an online training session for them to hand over online administration.

From the second month, the champion teachers handled all classes themselves, with very less dependency on me.

b) Younger Students

Problem: Lack of good command of the English Language. Complicated instructions on technology usage given in English would be tough to understand.

Solution: Voice messages were recorded in English and Hindi for all complicated communications to enable better understanding.

Problem: 99 per cent of the students did not have a laptop and were attending classes through smartphones. Therefore, prolonged staring at a small phone screen would have long-term health issues, especially for younger students.

Solution: Teaching was done in the form of short videos, instead of hours of real-time classes. Videos created by teachers were sent every morning on the class WhatsApp groups. This enabled students to watch and attend classes at their own pace.

c) Extracurricular Skills

Problem: Since the school focuses on extracurricular activities, it was essential to keep that going for an online classroom experience.

Solution: We initiated and had online classes for music, art etc. Regular online competitions on creative writing, art, photography, debate etc. have also kept enthusiasm, creativity and interest in online learning alive.

2. PROCESS
a) Record Keeping:

Problem: Difficulty in connecting to all students. We found that contact details of several parents were not updated. Moreover, since the school did not contact parents on phones, their numbers were not updated since the initial admission of the student.

Solution: We had the staff call every number in the school records and confirm them. We got WhatsApp groups created for each class and crowd sourced the contact details of those missing from the records. Everything was then stored digitally on Microsoft Excel.

b) Assignments

Problem: To manage assignments online. Assignment/homework and evaluation of the same is an integral part of education. Not only is it essential for academic revision but is also a parameter to evaluate the student’s progress in a subject.

Solution for senior classes: I formalised the process via email. School email addresses were created for each class, accessed by the respective teachers, where students could submit their homework.

Solution for junior classes: I formalised the process via WhatsApp. Assignments were sent with the subject video lesson every morning on the class Whatsapp group. Students submitted their assignments and got the checked sheets back on the group the same day.

c.) Evaluation

Problem: Unit tests are a regular feature in schools, and we needed to have one after a month of classes.

Solution: I decided on Google Forms for unit tests since they simplified the process. Results were automatically computed and displayed back to the students immediately upon submission. Our technical setup also allowed cameras to be enabled with the video conferencing app while students took their tests. This was an almost perfect simulation of a real-world evaluation despite distributed technical products.

Problem: Lack of technical knowledge among teachers to understand online evaluations.

Solution: I converted all tests created by teachers into Google Forms for a seamless first-time experience. It was monotonous work, but with the lack of a technical workforce, it had to be done single-handedly. For the second round, I trained our identified champion teachers to create tests forms and handle the evaluation process independently.

Problem: Lack of technical knowledge, especially among younger children, to understand digital evaluation.

Solution: For senior classes, I gave a training session with a sample test form for students to get an understanding of the new way of assessment.

For junior classes, at the assigned time, test questions were sent on the class WhatsApp group. Students wrote their answers on a sheet of paper, took pictures and sent them to the group at the time of submission.

For the next round of tests, even junior classes will use Google Forms. Their familiarity with technology makes us confident in teaching them newer tools.

d) Feedback

Problem: Student/teacher feedback has always been an integral part of this school culture. The principal’s office has always been open for student/teacher walk-ins for any problems/feedback discussion.

Solution: We started regular video meetings on weekends of students with the Principal. This helped understand any issues they might be facing about the online learning infrastructure, the pace of a particular class etc. Private phone number of the Principal was also shared, and students were encouraged to call anytime with any concerns.

This was a new way of teaching for teachers as well. So, we had regular one-on-one calls with them, to understand their problems and formalise the best way of doing things. There was initial nervousness but the excitement of learning new technologies and helping their students stay connected with education in the pandemic, far exceeded the fear of the unknown.

3. INFRASTRUCTURE
a) Network Infrastructure

Problem: There is very limited bandwidth in small towns. Most students and teachers do not have WIFI and are dependent on mobile data.

Solution: I did a week-long due diligence of all stable video conferencing and communication solutions. I installed and evaluated Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and Zoom to come up with the best match. The main criteria for our situation were low bandwidth and a small learning curve. We adhered to the best practices for video conferencing implementation, such as proper checks of participants before being allowed on the meeting, and IDs and passwords being frequently changed to enable security.

It is working seamlessly for us even with the usage of mobile data. Occasionally, people do experience patchy network from some service providers.

The table below gives an understanding of the technical evaluation.

b) Tech Support

Problem: Point of contact for technical support is essential for seamless adoption of new technology.

Solution: The biggest limitation was the absence of technical personnel. I knew it was time for me to leverage my technical background to deal with a wide range of technical challenges and handle a large number of phone calls. While I had to provide support during the first two months, I could bring our staff up to speed to share the load from the third month onward.

A teacher says, “I did not think that online education would happen for us and that too so quickly and easily. Our school believed in the old school way of learning and had kept technology away from education. I was explained technology in a very simple and easy way so I am able to understand and manage the classes now. To explain and talk about it on a phone was a challenge in the beginning, but I am getting used to it. I like the mute feature where all students can be made to keep quiet by a button click, I wish I could do it in my regular class too. We are happy that children are not left behind and are connected with education. We are also receiving appreciation from students and parents.”

c) Access to Devices

Problem: Most households had a single handheld device but multiple students. Therefore, it was a challenge to have all students attend classes at the same time.

Solution: I created the school time table such that one class had an online class at any given time. We moved important subjects to online live classes, while the more subjective ones were taught through videos made by teachers and shared online.

So, while younger students until class 5 received their study material in the form of videos made by their teachers on WhatsApp groups, the older ones attended live video classes. This made it easier for each group to access their different subjects and classes, and for us to manage the overall timetable.

Problem: Affordability limitations of Students – No smart device in many households

Awaiting a Solution: Approximately 10 per cent of students are not connected due to lack of smartphones. This is a problem we are working on fixing. We are considering a scholarship programme through which sponsors can donate smartphones to students and help onboard them with online education.

Problem: As the COVID-19 lockdown is easing, it is getting difficult for many working parents to leave their only mobile phone at home for their children and not take it to their workplace.

Awaiting a Solution: Around 15 per cent of students who were connected are missing out on classes since lockdown has eased. We are working on fixing it the same way through the scholarship programme.

Onward to a new way of learning

The outcome of all the work is a seamless online learning system with the simplest, lightest, and most effective platforms. While the current set up has been working well, I plan to establish a unified platform to serve our online schooling needs.

With the experience gained over the past few months, both students and teachers are now better equipped at handling technology. We are also in the process of new technology adoption and are ready to enjoy some learning curve.

The enthusiasm of students and teachers during this time was overwhelming and inspiring.

A student shares, “I was very excited when online classes started as we would learn and get to use new technologies and continue our studies during lockdown. We had problems sometimes because we shared the phone with our parents. I miss going to school and meeting my friends, and playing in the games period. I want to go back to school soon.”

Thirty years ago, my parents started the school with the motto “Come to Learn. Go to Serve”. I’m optimistic that these efforts will help over a thousand children who can come to learn virtually today and go to serve humanity tomorrow. I am honoured to play a part in their journey.

Cover image for representation only. 

(Written by Payal Bahadur and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

A wild elephant from the jungle and astronauts from outer space come alive alongside teachers in an online class as the kindergarten students of a modest school in Kerala’s Malappuram jump in thrill and excitement. They don’t miss a single online session, otherwise considered mundane and tiresome for such young children, thanks to the insight of the school’s innovative social sciences teacher.

Shyam Vengalloor, the social science teacher at AEM AUP School at Moorkanad near Valanchery in Malappuram, has become a celebrity in the state for introducing augmented reality (AR) to online classes, the first-ever in any school in Kerala.

Increasingly considered among the most modern technologies to impart school education but least prevalent in institutions across the country, AR superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

The video of online classes with teachers using images of an elephant, a tiger, an astronaut and the solar system appearing beside them as they explain these concepts to the children went viral on social media a few days ago.

While schools in the country still shut, Vengalloor thought about ways to make online classes more engaging.

“I thought if augmented reality could be introduced to online classes, children would get to see and feel what they were being taught. I was told that it could be expensive and would need extensive resources, but I could do it just with my laptop and mobile phone with augmented reality apps and Gif (graphics interchange format) images. It took me one month to put everything together. I also convinced other teachers regarding its ease of use,” says 25-year-old Vengalloor.

He’s an aircraft maintenance engineer from Thiruvananthapuram who worked with Air India in Mumbai. After completing a Diploma in Education (D.Ed), he joined the AEM AUP School.

“I took the decision to return from Mumbai as I was always interested in teaching. Also, Mumbai is an expensive city to live in,” says Vengalloor.

He integrated AR in online classes by superimposing graphics, audio, and sensory elements. “I usually see that students don’t find online classes interesting after the initial sessions. We needed to experiment with innovative methods to retain the attention of children, particularly the younger ones, who have shorter attention spans,” says the young teacher, who also enjoys travelling.

Now, almost 40 schools from across Kerala, and even those from Singapore and Sharjah are seeking his help in making their online classes innovative and exciting. He will be addressing a webinar for teachers on July 29. Kerala’s education minister C Raveendranath met Vengalloor recently and lauded his efforts.

Shreya, a class 7 student at the school, was thrilled to share her experience. “Our teachers stand right under the solar system with the planets revolving around the sun just under the roof of our classroom. They show and explain to us different planets by touching them. It is so much fun to see an elephant or a tiger next to our teacher,” she says.

Happy with the response of her students, Preetha, who teaches Hindi to students of classes 6 and 7 at AEM AUP School, says that she has never seen children so excited before. The classes are accessed by around 1,000 students through the school’s YouTube channel and the PTA WhatsApp group. Several schools have also subscribed to the channel.

Before the pandemic, the school had introduced a robot-shaped mannequin in the classroom with Amazon’s Alexa voice-based AI (Artificial Intelligence).

They also have intriguing plans. “We are planning virtual tours from Kanyakumari to Kashmir for our students so that they get to know and see these places in real-time. A green screen will be used to show them videos and images of different cities. Once ready, the videos of the tours will be uploaded on the school’s YouTube channel and will be accessible to all,” concludes Vengalloor.

(Written by Rahul Nandan and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Did you know that India’s Public Distribution System feeds 10 per cent of the world’s population?

The government of India runs 5,37,000 Fair Price Shops. This is the largest food distribution network in the world, spread across 3.3 million sq km serving 80.74 Crore people. 

How does this vast and complex system work? 

The National Food Security Act (NFSA) came into effect on 5 July 2013. It marked a paradigm shift to food security from welfare to a rights-based approach by legally entitling a large portion of the population to receive subsidised grains.

According to the Act, 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of the urban population (overall two-thirds of the total population at the national level) is to be covered by Public Distribution System under two categories: 

• AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) – These are the poorest of the low-income families, entitled to 35 kg of food grains per household. 
• PHH (Priority Households) – States/UTs determine the families eligible for PHH Ration Cards, who are entitled to 5 kg of food grains per person per month at subsidised prices. 

The state-wise coverage of population is determined by the Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog) based on the 2011-12 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of NSSO. This survey is used to identify the percentage of the population below the poverty line. State targets are set, taking into account the portion of their populations below the poverty line. The actual coverage refers to the number of ration card holders. This is where we stand on target vs actual coverage:

Some of the large states short on their coverage are : 

• Gujarat (-11.7%) 
• Uttar Pradesh (-10.5%) 
• Bihar (-9.1%) 
• Madhya Pradesh (-6.5%) 

Some lag remains, but we are making progress in the right direction — the number of beneficiaries increased from 56 Crore in 2017 to above 80 Crore in 2020, with eight crore new ration cards issued. 

In the same period, the automation of Fair Price Shops increased significantly with over 90 per cent of them equipped with ePoS (Electronic Point of Sale system). Around 93 per cent of the grain distribution is through this system, and the dominant mode of authentication is Aadhaar at 70 per cent. 

With better efficiency, transparency and accountability brought in the system by automation, the quantity of food grains distributed per card per month has gone up significantly. In contrast, there has been some rationalisation on the number of beneficiaries per card. Earlier issues of duplicate and bogus cards, obsolete information of card-holders (deceased/newly-born) have been solved to a large extent through the Aadhaar-based authentication.

How did this distribution network perform during the COVID-19 lockdown? 

In March ‘20, the Government of India announced additional free food supplies for two-thirds of the population as part of its effort to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was to support families from April-June using the existing network of Fair Price Shops with the additional provision of 5 kg food-grain plus 1 kg pulses per month. 

The latest government data shows that 91 per cent of the quantity allotted by the Centre was procured and lifted by the states, and transported via a record number of railways rakes and trucks. Of the procured quantity, 84 per cent has already reached the intended beneficiaries via the fair price shops.

Most large states managed to distribute over 60 per cent of the allocated food grains, with some exceptions — Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu — lagging. With the scheme being extended to November ’20 as per the recent announcement, there will be time for these states to catch up and fill the distribution gap. 

Infrastructure matters. 

Having an extensive network of Fair Price Shops (there’s a shop per 6 sq km in India) and the digital infrastructure by way of ePos and Aadhaar-based authentication, food grains reached every corner of the country within weeks and were distributed. In the absence of a robust and responsive infrastructure, no quick relief measures could have been implemented.

Even during a long and uncertain COVID-19 lockdown, this infrastructure was silently working to transport the grain to each of those 5.3 lakh shops from Kupwara to Kanyakumari and Kutch to Mon.

In addition to the infrastructure, we have enough stocks in the godowns and enough crops in the fields to provide food security.

What needs immediate attention now is:

1. Ration card portability: ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme will enable ration card holders to receive their entitlements from any FPS across the country, irrespective of the state that issued the card. Hardware that’s already put in places such as ePoS, and software updates and digital infrastructure such as Aadhaar authentication are working together to make this possible by March 2021.
2. Balanced nutrition: Mere rice and wheat cannot provide enough nutrition — we have a large-scale malnutrition problem that needs to be addressed urgently and holistically. PDS has a role to play by procuring and distributing a wider variety of indigenous and nutritious grains. For instance, Karnataka state has decided to buy and distribute ragi — a welcome step.
3. Coverage as planned: Inclusion of all intended beneficiaries is critical and needs to be expedited to ensure that no needy family is left out.
4. Operational issues: Infrastructure in the form of ePoS, electricity and internet needed for their working, and reliable ways of authenticating the beneficiaries need to be made robust and fail-proof.
5. Empowering FPS owners: The supply chain and transactions are getting automated, leading to better monitoring and efficiency. But last-mile delivery is still in the hands of the Fair Price Shop Owner. Each shop today has about 460 cards associated with it, about 300 of which transact each month.The shop owners make meagre incomes given the wafer-thin margins that the government allows. Some states have experimented with organising retail sales of other products through FPS (like the Annapurna Bhandar Yojana in Rajasthan, now discontinued), but it hasn’t become a robust widespread system.
   54 per cent of the shops are owned by individuals, five per cent by Self Help Groups, 15 per cent by co-operative societies and the remaining by Panchayat and others. What kind of training and ongoing support do these shop owners receive? Who is helping them run their businesses better and prosper? Many of the issues highlighted by the media and others — lacking motivation, under-distributing, replacing stocks with inferior goods, and treating customers poorly — can be addressed to some extent by a well-structured training and development programme.

If we fix these issues, we provide lifelong benefits of better daily nutrition to 10 per cent of the world’s population. It’s a problem worth solving!

(Written by Vrunda Bansode and Veda Kulkarni. Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Vrunda Bansode and Veda Kulkarni lead the India Data Insights initiative at Sattva Consulting – a leading social sector research and advisory firm. IDI publishes data-driven analysis on India’s socio-economic issues and policies, to help the organisations working in the social sector make better decisions. Their in-depth analysis on PDS can be accessed here.

William Shakespeare’s famous quote goes, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” This old adage summarises the year 2020 in light of the successive miseries inflicted upon humankind.

But even amidst this gloom, there are inspiring stories.

One such is about three remote villages in the Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is populated by around 5,200 Chakma tribals.

Despite its distinct identity, this tribe has been a victim of partition. The Bengal Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe awarded their homeland, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, (CHT) to East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, in defiance of the Two-Nation Theory.

Religious persecution and construction of the Kaptai Dam, left them stateless and homeless. The Indian government took cognizance of this mistake and welcomed the 35,000 Chakma Buddhists under a Definite Plan of Relief and Rehabilitation. They were settled in the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA), in present Arunachal Pradesh. Today, the Chakma tribals live in three districts–Papumpare, Changlang, and Namsai (previously under the Lohit district) of Arunachal Pradesh.

A majority of the Chakmas depend on agriculture and horticulture. They grow paddy, mustard seeds, buckwheat, seasonal vegetables; others sell these agricultural products and run small local shops.

Unfortunately, even after five decades of historical blunder, the Chakmas are still deprived of citizenship and political rights such as voting, and excluded from Panchayati Raj, government employment. Further, distance from the mainland isolates these villages. Moreover, the Bereng River becomes a ‘River of Sorrow’ in the monsoon season, separating the three villages from the district.

Before 2004, there was a bridge over the river, connecting Gunanagar- the nearest township about seven kilometres from these Chakma villages. When the decades-old hanging bridge was washed away in 2004 due to floods, the villages fell into darkness. There were many accidents and countless losses.

Owing to this formidable impediment, myriads of tragic stories are under-reported every year–of patients’ health deteriorating due to unavailability of medicines, and consequently succumbing to the diseases because they could not be admitted to a hospital. Even in medical exigencies, patients are compelled to languish at their confined homes.

Further, students can’t attend their classes and finally drop out of schools. Hundreds of students are coerced into leaving their studies halfway every year, a stumbling block to the improvement of the poor literacy-rate among the community.

But the villagers have no choice but to cross the river because it is the only convenient and time-saving route to Gunanagar. And they depend on the township for essential commodities, healthcare, markets, higher educational institutions, public offices and connectivity to the rest of the country.

For a long time, they expected the government to build a bridge over the river to mitigate their sufferings, but their patience was tested for too long without yielding any results. Finally, in their desperation, they decided to undertake the construction of a bridge on their own dime.

They formed a Construction Committee for a detailed plan of action–from the procurement of raw materials to implementation. It was led by the Chakma Youth Welfare Association (CYWA). Its president Babulal Chakma says, “My heart is content after completing this bridge.”

The Chakma community also received a donation of Rs 51,000 from the neighbouring Khampti brethren; The Khamptis and Chakmas are the only two communities in the state that have written scripts of their language.

The Construction Committee started working relentlessly in early March 2020, but restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown slowed the process. With reduced workers and social distancing measures, a 154-ft-long wooden bridge was constructed by the end of May.

Their total expenditure stood at Rs 4.85 lakh. The villagers contributed as per their financial capacities and succeeded in regaining their lifeline without any support from the government.

With this accomplishment, the villagers are now able to sell their agricultural products without going to the market. The businessmen from neighbouring districts can easily transport agricultural products and goods from the villages to the market places.

History is proof that physical boundaries like rivers and mountains have been used for demarcation of an area. This can impact people’s feelings and emotions with neither side trusting the other. Overcoming the physical barriers by building a bridge enables free movement that eventually strengthens the bonds among the communities living in the same geographical area.

(Written by Sonjit Chakma and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

I love Squash and have been playing for many years. For those who may not know, Squash is a racket and ball game played inside four walls. Two players usually play a game. The idea is to bounce the ball off a wall, in such a manner that the other player cannot strike it as it returns. If they miss, you get the point. If they hit the ball, they do the same thing – bounce it off a wall towards you.

The game is believed to have originated in Harrows School For Boys, London, sometime in the 1830s. A similar game of rackets, played with a stiff ball, was already in existence at the time. But the boys realised it was more fun to use a punctured rubber ball, which erratically bounced when it was whacked into a wall at high speed with a racket. The ball ‘squashed’ on impact – making it more unpredictable.    

This game has been growing in popularity around the world, and currently some 20 million ‘jubes’ officially play the game around the world. And I am one of them. Indeed, I love it so much, that at the age of 37, much to the utter confusion of my family, I started learning the sport from one of the best coaches in India.

Here, I want to talk about Vijay Kumar Goel. For over 20 years, he has contributed to the sport in the country. His efforts have not only helped bring out the best squash talent in India, but his initiatives have also given direction to many talented young people who come from rural backgrounds. And it all began in a sugar mill!

Here’s how it all began.

Dhampur Sugar Mills was set in 1933 by and has operated ever since. It is one of the leading sugar producers of the nation. A chemical engineer, Vijay Kumar Goel has been a Promoter Director of the Dhampur Sugar Mills since the 1960s and had been an above-average Squash player himself.

However, the game didn’t dominate the mill until the 1990s, when his son Gautam began playing Squash in a court within the mill’s compound. Eager to help his son develop in the game, Vijay Kumar hired Shyam Lal as a coach. Shyam Lal had been in the Armed forces and was one of the top three national-level Squash players in India at the time.

This simple coaching, begun by a fond father for a son, would go far. As the years progressed, Goel would grow from being a leader in the sugar industry and attentive father to one of the biggest promoters of the sport, and thus ‘Dhampur Sugar Mills’ has become among the best Squash academies in the country.

(Years later, Lal also supported the Hamdard Education Society in Delhi to develop sporting talent there as well.)

Goel’s help comes in many forms for young talent. He supports various academies, of course. But that aside he has opened up one his homes in Delhi to provide accommodation to players from the academy who go there to train and prepare for tournaments. Along with that, he arranges for the dietary and other requirements, pays the participation costs for crucial matches and provides financial assistance to exceptional players.

During my conversation with him for The Better India, he credited young squash players for his support, with whom he appeared to maintain a close mentorship role. Their simplicity, dedication, and commitment to the game galvanised him, he said.

He also stressed how he endeavoured to keep freedom, equality and respect at the core of all interactions, irrespective of age, gender, religion or position. This attitude seemed to reflect in the squash players he has supported as well. They might come from small towns, or be from any background. But they were all equally ferocious on a Squash court.

Here’s a sample list of some of the academy’s graduates:

• Kush Kumar: Won Gold in the Asian Youth Games, Bronze in the World Juniors, Gold in the South Asian Games; won the National Championship (Junior) 9 times.
• Ravi Dixit: Won Gold in the Asian Junior Championship, Gold in the Malaysian Junior Open and Gold in the South Asian Games.
• Parmeet Singh: Won Silver in the Asian Junior Team Championship; Bronze in the Qatar Team Championship; Won the National Championship (Professional) 6 times.
• Ranjit Singh: Won Gold and Bronze in various Asian Junior Team Championships.
• Abdur Rahmaan: Highest National Ranking (Men’s) – 9; Winner of All India Inter-University Men’s Championship as part of the Delhi University.
• Amjad Ali Khan: Highest National Ranking (Men’s) – 6; Gold Medal, National Inter-State Team Championship; Multiple Times Winner of the Uttar Pradesh State Championship.
• Sajid Hussain: Represented India in the Qatar Team Games; Represented Delhi State at Nationals and won Gold. Won Haryana State Championship; 2 times medalist at All India Inter-University Games.
• Diwaker Singh: Highest India Ranking (Juniors) – 2. He has represented India twice – during matches in Britain and Tamil Nadu.
• Khushboo: Represented India in 2018 in Asian Junior Individual Championship in Chennai, Highest India Ranking (Girls Under 13) –  2, Asia Ranking (Under 11) – 5.

Many of these players have gone on to set up their own academies that have trained current and upcoming champions. An example would that be of Amjad Khan who was a top-level player himself and returned to Dhampur as a coach and also helped set up the academy in Delhi.

All these initiatives have been instrumental in bringing out talent and preparing players to compete at the national and international levels.

In sum, Goel’s attention has helped Squash develop an entire eco-system in India over the decades, a rarity for a sport that is not Cricket, Football or Hockey. And it is incredible to think, it all began in a sugar mill!

(Story By: Akhil Kishore. Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

In 1993, after the Chicago Bulls won their third consecutive NBA title, Michael Jordan announced his retirement. It would be the first of his three retirements. After a couple of years playing baseball in the minor league for the Chicago Sox, Jordan decided to return to basketball. The documentary ‘The Last Dance’ on Netflix describes plans to announce his comeback. Drafts were written and re-written and Jordan wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally, he took him upon himself to tell the world about his return to basketball. He said it with two words:

“I’m Back”

Image Credit: IndianCricketTeam | Instragram

Nearly three decades later, MS Dhoni announced his retirement using 16 words. “Thanks – Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 19:29 hrs consider me as Retired.”  More than two words but short nonetheless. Just the day before, images of Dhoni landing in Chennai for the IPL preparatory camp were everywhere. It was the first glimpse people of him in months.

There are a few ways to retire:

a) Retiring when you’re on the top of your game

b) Fading away from memory

c) Being forced to retire

d) MS Dhoni’s way to retire

Dhoni has been out of the public eye since India’s heart-breaking semi-final loss to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup. In early 2020, he was dropped from the BCCI’s list of contracted players. But the man himself was silent. Everyone speculated that the IPL would be his launchpad for his return to international cricket. Then a pandemic brought the world to its knees.

In their book ‘The Power of Moments’, the Heath Brothers write about a phenomenon called ‘The Reminiscence Bump’. According to this theory, some of the most memorable moments in our lives happen during the ages of 15-30. This is only an estimation and doesn’t apply to everyone. The reason is simple – most of our firsts happen during this time period. Leaving home. First job. Falling in love. Getting married. Having children. “Novelty changes our perception of time,” they say.

It’s true. While everyone remembers him finishing off with a six to give India its first World Cup win, here are some Dhoni ‘reminiscence bumps’:

a) Dhoni smashing 148 against Pakistan and 183 against Sri Lanka

b) Dhoni handing the ball to an untried Joginder Sharma in the final over of the 2007 T20 World Cup

c) Dhoni leading India to victory against Australia in the CB series in 2008

d) Dhoni rushing to the stumps to run out Mustafizur Rahman in the 2016 T20 World Cup

e) Dhoni exalting after India won the 2013 Champions Trophy

f) Dhoni walking into bat for CSK and the crowd losing it

g) Dhoni stealing another single

i) Dhoni falling short of the finish line in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand

Just as our most memorable moments occur relatively early in life, Dhoni’s greatest highs came in the first six years of his captaincy. He led India to wins in T20 and 50 over World Cups in 2007 and 2011 respectively. India reached No.1 in the Test rankings in 2009. In 2013, he led India to victory in the Champions Trophy. He was captain when India lost the T20 final to Sri Lanka in 2014 and the Champions Trophy finals to Pakistan in 2017. In 2015, India lost to Australia in the 50 over World Cup semi-finals after being unbeaten throughout the tournament. In 2016, they were hot favourites to win the T20 World Cup at home but lost to West Indies in the semi-finals.

Re-Read: 6 Reasons Why Dhoni Is One Of The Best Things That Happened To Indian Cricket

For the longest time, one of the preconditions for greatness was being a test great. While Dhoni played 90 tests, it wasn’t his preferred format. It is a known fact that then BCCI head honcho N Srinivasan stepped in to stop him from being axed as captain after disastrous overseas tours against England and Australia in 2011-12. In many ways, 2011 was 2007 for Dhoni all over again. In 2007, an incredible low was followed by an exalting high. In 2011, an incredible high was followed by forgettable lows. While he didn’t let in on why he quit test cricket, the multiple overseas losses must have bogged him down.

It can be said that after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni is the most popular cricketer that India has produced. How else can someone from Ranchi find a second home in Chennai? And after Kapil Dev, he was the next person from small-town India who gave an entire generation the license to dream.

So that’s how one of India’s greats pulls down the curtains. With an Instagram post in the midst of a pandemic. This means he is in a bio-secure bubble somewhere, away from the media hounds and die-hard fans. Even a glittering ceremony, if it ever should be conducted, is some time away. So all we will have to live with are the memories.

In Michael Jordan’s eulogy to the late great Kobe Bryant, he said: “When someone dies, a part of you dies.” Something similar happens when a sporting hero retires – a part of you goes with them. It’s an inexplicable feeling. In some strange way, your life and their deeds on the field are intertwined.

I keep thinking – why is it that when some players retire, it hits us hard? I think it’s because we trust them with our dreams. We hinge our happiness, peace of mind and a good night’s sleep on how they play on the field. It’s a huge responsibility and our dreams and wishes don’t always come to fruition. That’s life.

But we wake up the next day and put our dreams in their hands again. That’s why we watched as long as Dhoni was at the crease. That’s why the rising run rate didn’t matter. As long as Dhoni was there, there was reason to keep dreaming.

Dhoni will go down in history as a great captain, fantastic finisher and astute keeper.

But more importantly, he was the keeper of dreams.

Author: Pawan Ram | Edited by Vinayak Hegde

Pawan is a writer, blogger, podcaster, and masala dosa aficionado based in Bengaluru. Article originally published in Pages of Sport

Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, but I learnt a lot when I became a first-time mother. It was a great feeling — he was someone that I had to keep healthy and happy forever. I was a quick learner and figured out the drill pretty soon, starting with diapering.

I always leaned towards ‘natural parenting’ and listened to my mother and mother-in-law for advice on infant care. My predisposition to all things natural, coupled with the fact that my baby was prone to allergies and rashes just strengthened my resolve to cloth diapering.

And that’s what started my quest for the perfect cloth diaper.

Modern Cloth Diapers (MCDs)

My first child was born in the US, where several cloth diaper brands were available to us. These Modern Cloth Diapers (MCDs) had styles and designs to choose from, and they served different needs (night time, heavy wetter, etc.).

Cloth diapering with MCDs seemed like the right choice. These were a tad better than the average langots we saw in India. There was some thought that went behind the choice of fabric, the one-size-fit-all and they claimed to work like any other disposable while being rash-free and leak-proof — the only two features in a diaper that mattered.

I started with a small stash of MCDs and enjoyed the process. At first, I was just happy to do my bit for the planet. It was reassuring to know I was being green and leaving a better world behind for my children.

Not as Convenient

MCDs seemed convenient when we started our cloth diapering journey. It was easy to do once you got used to the routine.  But there if anything went wrong — one would have to start all over again. For example, if the baby was sick, the piles of laundry (not to mention the smell of used cloth diapers) quickly became overwhelming.

The commitment was challenging to maintain. To truly convert to cloth, one had to have an ever-ready ‘stash’ of at least 8-10 cloth diapers with different sized inserts (an absorbent layer put inside the diaper) at all times. And they weren’t cheap.

Another issue that I was facing with cloth was that of leaks. It takes some time to find the right fit — especially in the ‘one-size-fits-all’ variety. And by the time you figure out a setting, the baby grows out of it. So, leaks were inevitable in several scenarios, often leaving me to figure out where I went wrong.

There was also the additional laundry time, needed to clean and wash cloth diapers.

Even on the ‘being green’ front, things were not as bright as they first appeared. I later learnt that cloth diapers consume a lot of groundwater during production thanks to their use of Polyurethane Laminate (PUL). Also, some of the trims on the cloth were imported, adding to the overall carbon footprint. And all that additional washing added detergent and softeners to the groundwater. All this and more increased the greenhouse gases that these diapers generated.

Deflecting to Commercial Disposables

The final blow came when I moved back to India with my 8-month-old. Delhi’s groundwater is ‘hard’, i.e. contains high mineral content. That, coupled with the heat, impacted the core functionality of my diaper – increasing leaks and rashes.

So MCDs did not work for me in the long run. I would often shift back to commercial disposable diapers. Initially, it was while going out and night-time diapering. But eventually, I was using disposable diapers throughout the day.

While the convenience of disposables was a hard habit to break, I wasn’t able to deal with the guilt I felt over the amount of trash I generated daily.

To reduce toxic waste, I tried to turn to imported biodegradable disposables diapers.

However, over time I learnt that not only was the process of bio-degrading waste not adequately implemented in India, but our waste management system did not separate organic and inorganic waste. And the disposables were exorbitantly priced to boot.

My search for options continued.

Converting to Hybrid Diapers

Hybrid Diapers are simply diapers that separated into covers (the outer layer with designs) and soakers (the absorbent inserts). These diapers sit on the spectrum between a disposable and a cloth diaper, hence the word ‘hybrid’.

Hybrids brought with them the best of both worlds between cloth and disposables. The cloth took away the guilt of generating excessive waste, and the insert made the diapering process less bulky. There are several brands which sell both reusable and disposable inserts as well, reducing that worry also.

They seemed like the perfect option. Hybrids were more comfortable to use and learn, required less washing, and fit better than regular MCDs.  They were also cheaper than regular MCDs and needed a smaller ‘stash’ to make them work.

Health of Cloth and the Convenience of Disposables

The hybrids available in India were not entirely convenient. A significant issue was that the covers came with snaps that could hold only the inserts that came with that particular cover. But I liked hybrids and wasn’t going to give up on them. So I finally decided to stick to the hybrids, but only after I came up with a solution myself.

That is when I designed ‘Bdiapers’, a hybrid diaper with a patented 2-part pouch system that separated the ‘cloth’ from the ‘diaper’. Bdiapers are sold with washable and disposable inserts which makes it convenient; reduces washing and encourages reuse. And the pouch system makes it easier to secure any type of insert (home-made included) – making it one of the healthiest diapering options in India.

While the pouch system reduces washing and water wastage, the inserts encourage proper waste disposal. You need to toss away solids in the toilet bowl before wrapping these in paper and disposing of them like any other non-biodegradable separated waste, like say, a sanitary napkin.

To sum up, hybrid diapers worked best for me, and I have been committed to bringing these to other moms who are always looking for an alternative to disposables and are not able to commit fully to the cloth.

While diapering is an essential part of our parenting journey, it is vital to figure out a system that works best with your temperament, predisposition and the health of your child. I hope this journey helps you make the right choice for you.

Amrita Vaswani is a mother of 2 boys, 4 & 9 years old, and the owner of Bdiapers, India’s only Hybrid Diaper with Chemical Free Disposable bio-soakers. Amrita is a passionate advocate of Organic, Natural and Eco-Friendly Parenting

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The views expressed in this article are that of the writer’s and do not reflect the opinions or position of The Better India.

Image courtesy: Bdiapers

(Edited by Sruthi Radhakrishnan & Vinayak Hegde)

Ever since the lockdown began in March, it has been marked with uncertainty and fear owing to the pandemic. To escape from these testing times, people have embraced technology to stay connected with loved ones. We have found ways to keep ourselves entertained, thanks to OTT platforms or home-delivery services. However, news has become more depressing and there appears to be a change in content preferences among netizens – podcasts. 

As a result, podcasters and listeners are undergoing rapid change in their style of audio content creation and consumption, respectively. Listeners are preferring to access more positive and uplifting stories. To address the need, many new podcasters have entered the field. 

Inspiring through stories of critical-illness

Delhi-based Pallavi Rao Narvekar hosts Can Inspire, a podcast that explores real-life stories from fighters of critical illness. Pallavi’s journey into the world of podcasting wasn’t easy. In the past two decades, she has worked as a radio jockey at All India Radio and Radio Mirchi. Things were going well in her career as she enjoyed interviewing interesting people for her shows. 

However, tragedy struck when she got diagnosed with cancer. It was so severe that her vocal cords got affected and her doctors told her that she couldn’t speak anymore. “The doctors literally gave up on me but I was adamant to work things out,” says Pallavi. “After intense medical care, yoga, and will power, my health eventually improved and I could start speaking again.” 

But her health faced complications yet again in 2015 and she got admitted for treatment. It was here when she started writing a book based on the people around her. “Storytelling and narration have always been a part of my DNA. I spent most of the time speaking with everyone at the hospital from doctors to nurses and I would ask them about other patients,” she says. Pallavi spent her days writing the book at her hospital bed which was later launched at the same place. 

“People reached out to me saying that the book motivated them,” she says. Pallavi started observing her own life experiences from a different perspective; she realized that there must be people like herself facing numerous health-related challenges whose stories could inspire more. Thus sparked her dreams to start her very own podcast.

“My show starts with a bit of my own personal narration and it’s followed with a brief introduction of the guest. Later, we share common characteristics in our stories,” Pallavi recalls. “I had a guest speaker who survived breast cancer and later went on to climb Mount Everest.” At a time when COVID-19 appears to take away the grim limelight from other critical-illness such as HIV or cancer, Pallavi’s podcast has become a symbol of hope for many listeners. 

Speaking on the benefits of podcasting, Pallavi notes that it gives her liberty and allows her to record or edit at her own pace. “It is an intimate medium and it needs a well-researched content. You should do your homework well before starting. Also, listeners’ engagement is very important.”

Travelling through sound

Once the pandemic started ravaging across the globe, borders were closed, trains, airports, buses and malls were shut. People had nowhere to go. For travel blogger  Meenakshi Shrivastava, the coronavirus forced her to stay at home. As an ardent traveller who is keen to experience new things and visit the newest of places, the pandemic changed her plans. Meenakshi says that she has turned this dull situation into an opportunity of learning by creating a travel-based podcast, “Inspiring Explorers”.

“As my father is a banker, we have been travelling around as he gets assigned to different places. In the beginning, my travels were more of just sightseeing. But later as I grew up, they became more on finding experiences and meaning,” says Meenakshi, who then created an Instagram page @mybohovoyage to share her experience with others. Having met numerous people in her journey, she found the urge to tell their stories. “People also ask me on money for travelling, how to live abroad, or having an unconventional career and not being bound to a nine-to-five job,” says Meenakshi. 

Having nowhere else to go due to the lockdown, she quickly devised a plan to start a podcast. So she started reconnecting with people she had met on her journey. Thus was born, “Inspiring Explorers”, where Meenakshi interviews “successful personalities who despite all the obstacles did not give up and followed their passion and heart”. 

Her podcast aims to “inspire listeners to realize their inner potential and do what they love, become financially independent and explore the world”. Throughout the conversation, Meenakshi emphasized the need for people to adapt and to create opportunities, especially during this pandemic. 

Voices of Children

This pandemic has not just affected adults but also children who are facing their own difficulties such as navigating online classes and staying at home without going out to play. To address how children are coping, National award-winning filmmaker Gopi Desai created her show “Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai” where she speaks to kids.

“Life changed after lockdown and everyone’s mind was in turmoil. That was when I wondered what the kids must be thinking, what must be going in their minds and how they cope. So I started my podcast “Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai” for children between ages six to fifteen. It has been a learning experience for me,” she says. 

In her show, children talk with her about many things from online classes to learning new skills, activities, parents and friends. “I make it a point to ask them about unprivileged kids, migrant labourers and their return to their villages across India. Children talk with compassion and how they would love to reach out to poor kids. Kids also share their fantasies, aspirations and goals.” Gopi concludes with, “In this trying and testing time, podcasters have a major role to play as people also seek solace in listening stories.”

The Road Ahead

One of the reputed podcast coaches and producers in the country, Bijay Gautam, co-founder of WYN Studio and host of the Inspiring Talk, says that now is an “amazing time to be a podcaster”. When asked if the consumption for motivational podcast shows are on the rise, Bijay says that there is no data on content preferences among listeners in India. 

“There was a drop in podcast consumption and an increase in screen time in the first few weeks of lockdown but now people are slowly starting to try out different ways to stay entertained. Podcasts are now starting to get more downloads,” he adds. 

Bijay notes that the “pandemic has not affected podcasters much as people are trying to adapt ways to record their shows. “While it was a bit hard in the beginning as we couldn’t go to our studios, we eventually started using simple devices to start working and recording,” he says.

He goes on to add that in this lockdown period, podcast creators are also attracting listeners with entertaining content apart from non-fiction narrations. For instance, Bijay recently released “Heirs of The Pandavas”, a mythological series based on the epic Mahabharata, involving heavy sound effects and music.

Some podcasters like Kunal Mandal are opting to narrate stories with a very simple theme. Kunal hosts “Stuff Tales” where he narrates “extraordinary stories behind the ordinary stuff you use or do every day” from toothbrushes to WiFi and air-conditioners. Likewise, Deepika Arun runs “Kadhai Osai”, a storytelling platform, where she narrates stories written by famous Tamil authors. 

As the pandemic continues to spread across the country, there are still exciting groups of passionate podcasters hoping to create a positive impact among listeners.

About the author: Mohammed Rayaan is an independent journalist based in Chennai. You can find his writings at rayaanwriter.com. Follow him on social media @Rayaanwriter.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)