Sanitation Facilities in Varanasi: The Stinking Truth

Each year the Uttar Pradesh government spends crores on construction and maintenance of sanitation facilities for the public. But one visit to the Varanasi Cantonment bus stand and you can clearly see that money is going down the drain. VV-PACS Community Correpondent Shabnam Begum from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh reports on the sorry state of affairs of the public toilets. Reena Khan a daily commuter says the situation is worse for women as there are hardly any clean public toilets in the area. She says: "The toilets are pay per use, but we don't get the facilities. I can't tell you how horrible it was in there." Call to Action: Please call the Municipal Council, Varanasi on 0542-2240194 and ask the authorities to regularly maintain the public toilet at Varanasi Cantonment Bus stand. About the Partnership: The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme and Video Volunteers have come together to create the Community Correspondents Network. The videos generated by the network will be able to highlight voices from the margins, providing skills to social communicators to provide advocacy tools to community based organisations.
No Cards

Community Voice Is Hard to Define. We’re Trying Anyway.

 
/ February 26, 2026

This piece summarizes the key findings from eight research reports recently published by Video Volunteers exploring how community voice works, where it breaks down, and what it actually produces when it is taken seriously.

No Cards

A Call for Research on AI’s Role in Amplifying the Insights of the Systemically Unheard

 
/ January 14, 2025

The article argues that systematically ignoring and silencing the voices of the poor and marginalized worldwide does not serve society or democracy well and must be countered. While new technologies such as AI could provide an opportunity for change, we contend that these technologies need to account more effectively for...

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *