'People-work'

Given how much we outrage on social media on a range of issues, it may be worthwhile to step back to check on the anatomy of what we call outrage:) It is very likely that we are using the chapeau term ‘outrage’ for the three methods we typically deploy to express our disagreement with an event, a policy decision, an ideology or even a trend: 1)     Outrage 2)     Lynching 3)     Angry lament And then there is debate, of course, to the extent that is possible on social media  What sets outrage apart from the others is that it quickly moves ahead of the right vs wrong paradigm to suggestions, solutions and alternatives. Therefore outrage on social media has shown its rare power to galvanise emotion and action, to give everyone with internet the option to rally behind solutions of their choice, new pathways of their imagination.  It is for this reason that we need to allow outrage on social me...

This is Ruchika holding up her class 6 project on 'water conservation' which got the highest marks in her class. Encouraged by this victory, she has since made projects on topics such as dances of India, health benefits of sports and types of food. She walks into the living room, where I also have my work desk, and announces the topic of her latest project, saying "Mujhey information nikaal ke do (Please pull out the information for me) ". She starts the conversation with a half apologetic smile and an already-victorious glint in eye. And within minutes, as the google search throws up stuff, her face turns intent, her eyes flit across the screen with an urgency and speed as though if she were not fast enough all this information may just go away out of her reach, never to return. Then she selects what she finds useful. Takes a print of a funny illustration and laughs out loud. Then she puts her finger on the screen on a word she can neither pronounce nor ...

Childhood fevers have a place of reverence in my memory ledger. They have created my template of good values and bad. They have taught me how to be cared for, and how to care – in that order. They have given my delirium a script and a meaning, place and purpose. These were not long bouts of debilitating illness. Just a few days of high pitched flaming fevers, sometimes from the burning sun, sometimes from prancing about in untimely rain; at other times, for unexplained reasons. In April 1979, a Hindu-Muslim riot broke out in the small town of Jamshedpur in eastern India, built around India’s first iron and steel industry. I was born and raised here. As all communal riots do, the reason was small and simple based on a sinister plan. It was a popular Hindu festival on that day; devotees were to gather in a procession which would go across the city carrying religious flags to celebrate. 

The whole lame and twisted logic to now defend the fundamentally undemocratic process of snatching farmers' land without their consent and without a social impact assessment is to say that a majority of respondents in a CSDS survey would rather not farm under the current conditions.

Dear Honourable Members of Parliament and Legislators, As part of the nationwide AIDS Momentum Campaign, we bring to your notice the grave concern of civil society members about the Government of India’s recent approach to our country’s HIV/AIDS prevention and care programme. More than 150 organisations across the country are of the strong view that any move by the government towards shrinking organisational and budgetary support to the AIDS response will lead to a reversal and upsurge of the epidemic among the most vulnerable groups and beyond.

The anti NGO stand of the Govt of India, egged on by a rabid TV media has revealed more about the Govt than about the motives of the NGO in question, or those like them. 1- It has revealed that the Govt will do anything, including pulverising citizens rights, if the interests of corporates seem in danger. The Greenpeace activism had the potential to harm the Adani like entities. 2- It has revealed that the Govt has such shoddy relations with its counterparts in the developed world th at an NGO activists foriegn visit seems like a threat. Wasted foreign trips by Modi. 3- It has revealed that the Govt will hide behind the argument of energy security of India to support the energy giants and mining giants. All this, while the poor who are purportedly the beneficiaries of this future 'energy security' may be annihilated in the process. 4- It has revealed that while the Govt finds it laudable to beg the developed countries for FDI , foreign funding for NGOs is 'slave...

In the bitter cold of January 20th,  Roobina, a young woman , was forced to deliver her baby on a pavement in Bhopal because she was not able to pay the thousand-rupee bribe allegedly demanded at a free government-run hospital. The baby boy died minutes after being born. While hospital authorities have denied all allegations and the matter is being investigated by the local police, the incident is deeply symptomatic of a failing health system and its unsuspecting victims. Gandhi may have someone like Roobina and her dead infant in mind when he gave the famous dictate to the drafters of the Indian Constitution, saying “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.” In another India, far from Roobina’s, the private healthcare industry is valued at $40 billion and is projected to grow to $280 billion by 2020. The current growth rate of this perennially and most rapidly growing area of...