Information can make or break you. Information can enable or disable you. You can have information and feel empowered or you can be deprived of information and opportunities, rights and freedom. In the disaster in Uttarakhand, information was the biggest casualty. How? Although stories of devastation and horror are flowing out of Uttarakhand, we have…
From time immemorial, humans have communicated orally and, more recently, through the written word. In the past few decades, messaging has transformed from being time and space dependent to real time, with distance being no longer a barrier. However, while written communication is dependent on literacy, the oral medium, which includes listening, speaking and watching,…
Rakhi Paliwal, 23, vice-president of Upli-Oden panchayat in Rajsamand district in Rajasthan, is the only elected woman panchayat member who rides a motorbike, gets up at 4am in the morning to counsel women against open defecation, attends law school during the day and updates her Facebook page regularly using her smartphone. In March this year,…
Sua Devi Kalbeliya and Khatu Kalbeliya are folk dancers who have travelled all over the world. They are not educated and almost illiterate. If you look at their passports with multiple copies, you will see they have been abroad more than 90 times to several countries to perform, teach and conduct workshops on folk dancing.…
अगर आपके पास जानकारी है, तो आप सशक्त हैं और इनके बिना आप अवसरों, अधिकारों और अपनी आजादी से भी वंचित हो सकते हैं। उत्तराखंड त्रासदी में सूचना ही सबसे अधिक आहत हुई, मगर कैसे? हिमालय के ऊपरी इलाकों की सही स्थिति के बारे में हमारे पास लगभग न के बराबर सूचना है। इसमें कोई…
The Karbi Anglong district in Assam was created in 1976 to protect tribal communities. It is the largest district in Assam and perhaps in the entire north-east region. Inhabited by ethnic groups such as Karbis, Bodos, Kukis and Dimasas, Karbi Anglong faced an insurgency and is one of the country’s 250 most backward districts. In…
