January 2015
Rehabilitation of the Kashmir Valley
January 30; Kupwara, Kashmir The floods that hit Kashmir valley in September last year, swelled the Khemil river that resulted in devastation of crops in Kupwara district. What made things worse for the residents was the lack of dredging in the river: the fertile land was fast turning barren. Community...
Why do 56,000 women die in childbirth every year?
Each year, approximately 56,000 women in India die in childbirth – a staggering number. This is particularly horrifying because today, no women need die in childbirth. Nearly every single one of these deaths could have been prevented – had the women received the medical care they are entitled to by...
Impact: Correspondent Stops Corruption at Fair Price Shop
India is home to 190 million of the world’s hungry. A staggering number by any count. To combat this the government has put into place a number of schemes, most importantly the Public Distribution System. Bogged down by corruption and neglect at every level, the scheme often does not reach...
Impact – Drainage System Implementd In Gangnapatti Village, Darbhanga, Bihar
This video was made by a Video Volunteers Community Correspondent Mangnuram. To read more about this story – click here. Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it.’ They give the hyperlocal context to global...
What does it take to make the government work?
January 16; Darbhanga, Bihar Most often, to get the government machinery working, all that is required is a nudge in right direction. For many in India’s poorest communities factors like caste and class stand in the way of approaching officials and getting things done. It was therefore that nobody in...
Abki Baar Company Sarkar? | Did we vote in a corporate government this time?
In Jharkhand, some 228 families have spent the last three years clinging to their land, defying the Indian government, the World Bank and an international coal conglomerate. But the government’s decision to do away with mandatory consent in the Land Acquisition Act may spell the end of their struggle. ...
People of Kashmir speak on why they voted and why they didn’t
Video Volunteers has long recognised that there is a problem with the media coverage of Kashmir, and in response, we decided to bring our model of community video to Kashmir in September 2013, when we trained 11 Right to Information (RTI) activists as video reporters. The timing was fortuitous, because...
What do the Kashmir election results say about nationalism and separatism?
The Prime Minister said he “saw people’s faith in democracy” in the voter queues in Kashmir last month, and the Defence Minister claimed that Pakistan was “unnerved by the 72 per cent voter turnout” in the state. There was unusually high voter turn out in the recently concluded Kashmir state...