Crumbling Infrastructure
India is more connected than ever before. Mobile towers, internet lines and television poles stretch from one end of the country to the other. Yet underneath these growing technological networks, much of India’s rickety infrastructure is in desperate need of attention. Broken roads prevent goods from being transported to market. India’s power grid is frightfully overburdened, especially in densely populated urban areas. Cities are often better off than rural areas, where sagging infrastructure prohibits free economic development. Water lines and sewage leakage create severe pubic health dangers. And while India boasts one of the most extensive railway systems in the world–the cars, tracks and facilities are often dangerously out of date; it is hard pressed to keep pace with the demands of its booming economy. In this section, IndiaUnheard Community Correspondents report on infrastructure.
Impact Story
Are 70% Indians free?
Independence Day is over. We have posted #HappyIndependenceday hashtags, heard patriotic songs and saluted the tri-colour proudly yesterday. We remembered Nehru’s famous independence speech the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ and were inspired yet again by the ancient words. As we discover that the Prime Minister’s speech on Independence Day wrongly claimed...
Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan – Half constructed toilets since 2015
Laxmibai explains the appalling work done by government-approved contractors in of Batiyagarh Ward 19, Madhya Pradesh. “The toilets are incomplete since 2015. One pit is made while the other yet remains incomplete,” tells an angry Laxmibai. Due to the incomplete work, Laxmibai has to dispose of the waste of her...
61 families suffer due to lack of Anganwadi facilities
An Anganwadi centre in a village is an essential institution in a rural setting to ensure a healthy, educated and aware child and mother. However, this village in Bisungarh district of Jharkhand, home to over at least 61 mothers worry that their children are denied the benefits of anganwadi such as...
20 year old shelterless Anganwadi Centre in West Bengal
Launched in 1975, the integrated child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is one of the world’s largest programmes for early child development. The primary objective of the scheme is to improve the nutritional and health status of children aged 0 to 6 years and pregnant and nursing women. In 2005, the...
Impact: Mothers & Nurses get their due payment from health department after 3 years
A snoring health department in Dhanbad district was awoken from its three-year slumber of non-payment by Halima Ejaj, a soft-spoken woman in Jharkhand in March. Under the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a mother having an institutional delivery in a government hospital is paid Rs. 1,400, while the Sahiya, the government appointed...
Braveheart who risked his life in fire, yet to be compensated in Bihar
A fire broke out in a sleepy hamlet of Bihar in the middle of the night, awakening village residents from their deep slumber. Six houses of the village, all belonging to poor farmers, were burnt to ashes along with the yearly ration, stored produce and all household items. Had it...
Video Volunteers’ Impact: Community gets together for clean water
The residents of Chingnar village in Chhattisgarh were filled with angst because of the lack of clean, hygienic water. Their children fell sick by drinking contaminated water from the local ponds, and they wished for a borewell to be fixed. But they waited for this miraculous change to take place...
West Bengal: Water scarcity forces people to ration drinking water
Annapurna Kumari has been drinking a little water in the past few years, and whatever water she drinks is polluted and unhygienic. Just like her, the 200 other residents of Darikuri Dolashal village, West Bengal, are falling sick in the face of acute water scarcity. So severe is the problem,...