NEW DELHI, Apr 18 (IPS) - Over 37.7 million people in India are affected by water-borne diseases due to contaminated drinking water supply and an estimated 1.5 million children die of diarrhoea each year, according to newly available statistics. 

By Bharat Dogra

NEW DELHI, Feb 7 (IPS) - Recent official irrigation statistics have revealed a curious situation in which, after spending 25 billion U.S. dollars on various irrigation projects during 1990-2004, the actual area under irrigation declined from 17.4 million hectares to 14.3 million hectares in the period.

   By Kalinga Seneviratne*

ORISSA, India, Oct 29 (IPS/AMIC) – Gram Vikas, one of India’s largest non-government organisations, has a simple solution to uplift rural Adivasi (tribal) communities across this eastern Indian state – it’s a MANTRA (Movement and Action Network for Transformation of Rural Areas) of all in, or all out.

   By Kalinga Seneviratne*

 

The lack of clean water in their own homes prevents women from having good education and deprives them of a safe and secure future. 

 

BANGALORE, India, Oct 8 (IPS/AMIC) - It is often said that social taboos hinder the education of girls in India’s poor communities. But as the experience of some slum communities in this southern Indian city indicates, it is also the lack of access to water that deprives them of an education.

By M Martin

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala, Oct 1 (IPS) - Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney described his 2002 Kerala tour in one word – 'magical'. For thousands who throng the state's green villages, picturesque backwaters and beaches, the experience is no less than a 'Magical Mystery Tour’. But local fisherwomen say it means new and harsh realities for them.

By Nitin Jugran Bahuguna

RAIPUR, Chattisgarh State, Sep 17 (IPS) - Like other women in this largely tribal, central Indian state, Draupati Bhosale was averse to the idea of having toilets built within homes, but went along because the government was building them at heavily subsidised costs. ‘’I thought it would give me extra storage space,’’ she said.

By Soma Basu

TAMIL NADU, India, Jun 22 (IPS/IFEJ) - Small waves gently lap at the 15 by 15 feet white platform here, which used to be the venue for happy occasions ranging from pleasant evening sit-outs, marriage functions and Independence Day celebrations for the 2,000 residents of this coastal village in India.

By Max Martin

THRISSUR, Kerala, Jun 1 (IPS) - Andrews Ambrose never misses a chance to share the wisdom he gained from 40 years of life as a fisherman on this coastal strip. He has to his credit two books and a map of the seabed.

By Soma Basu

MADURAI, Tamil Nadu, May 5 (IPS/IFEJ) — The carved granite pagodas that dominate this town in southern Tamil Nadu state have earned it a place on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. Less noticeable, though, are the vast reservoirs that once took care of the water requirements of this millennia-old cultural centre.

By Bharat Dogra

ITARSI, India, Feb 9 (IPS) - The philosophy of 'satyagraha' or non-violent resistance, first employed by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, has been adopted by tribal fisherfolk in 44 hamlets on a dammed river in central India to protest the loss of their livelihoods.