Gandhian to the core

ABOUT 15 years ago, I read in a newspaper how handloom weavers of Varanasi were mortgaging their daughters to moneylenders because of poor income. The government supported mill cloth at the time. When I discussed the matter with Lakshmi, he had tears in his eyes. Tears because he had spent much of his life trying to support artisans, but the government failed to recognise his efforts.

Desert healer

It was 3 pm. I was on top of a mountain in the middle of the only green expanse in the cold desert in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. For the last 50 km I saw only mountains of stones and sand, and I would see only desert for the next 100 km or so. In between was this village full of trees. Lush greenery, herds of sheep feeding on clover and ponies carting compost offered a view far removed from what the name of the village evokes; Thang Karma means white open field in the Himachali language.

Voice cracked

It took two two-and-a-half-metre bamboo poles and a small transmitter worth Rs 50 to start Radio FM Mansoorpur in Bihar’s Vaishali district. The radio station, started in 2002 by Raghav Mahato, a radio mechanic, shut four years later because he did not have a licence.

“My room used to be full of used napkins”

A Muruganatham, 47, of Coimbatore, invented a machine that makes 1,000 sanitary napkins daily. He also improvised a vending machine that can dispense napkins when coins are inserted. He spoke to Down To Earth on what must be done to make menstrual hygiene affordable

From the blurbs

Theatre of Conflict, City of Hope, Mumbai 1660 to Present Times, Marriam Dossal, Rs 2450 The work traces the evolution of Mumbai from seven ‘islets’ to a megalopolis of hope, grit and despair. It traces how coconut gardens, rice fields and fishing villages yielded to cotton mills, docks and railways in the 19th century, and more recently to skyscrapers, malls and urban slums. The Sunderbans, Folk Deities, Monsters and Mortals by Sutapa Chatterjee Sarkar, Orient Blackswan, Rs 550

One man, 22 years, a road

Shaking hands with Ramchandra Das is like clasping a stone. His hands are callused by 11 years of cutting a hill to build a road all by himself. Das’s only companions were a hammer and a spade.

The voice of fishers

On december 30 , 2009, fishing communities lost a friend in Harekrishna Debnath, the chairperson of the National Fishworkers’ Forum (nff) that represents fishers’ associations of all coastal states in India. Debnath, 60, died of lung cancer.

Policing the police

Surprise was in store for Sushil Kaushik when in 1989 he first joined duty as a constable in Serkot in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district. He had no idea how corrupt police officials can be.

'We improve life through natural resources'

On your inspiration I studied engineering, but was convinced I was not meant for it. During my stint with Ford Foundation, I worked with a doctor couple from Johns Hopkins University, USA. They were training rural women in Maharashtra as community health workers. I realized that is exactly what I wanted to do. On PRADAN I conceived of the organization, but Vijay Mahajan, the co-founder of PRADAN, was instrumental in giving it shape. PRADAN works in seven states,

'People's plan solved water crisis in Dhule'

Divisional Commissioner of Aurangabad Bhaskar Mundereceived this year's Vasantrao Naik Pratishthan's Jalsanwardhan Puraskar for his contribution to agriculture by linking of rivers in Dhule district at no cost. He spoke to Ramesh Raut. Excerpts On linking of rivers in Dhule