A Valiant Struggle against Corruption

A Valiant Struggle against Corruption

Many PACS Programme CSOs and community based organisations initiated under the programme have successfully battled corruption at different levels. One of the most challenging campaigns relates to corruption in a handloom cloth production centre at…

Chingari Sangathans at Crossroads

Chingari Sangathans at Crossroads

In February 2006 Banda district in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh witnessed an unprecedented event. Starting from Nahri gram panchayat in Naraini block, around 500 people, including around 80 women, marched over three days…

UP Tribal Groups Ignored by Policy-Makers

UP Tribal Groups Ignored by Policy-Makers

An imaginary line divides the Kols, a tribal group with a population of around 3 lakhs living in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Kols living in north-eastern Madhya Pradesh enjoy the…

For the Kols, by the Kols

For the Kols, by the Kols

Twenty years old and single, Kesarbehn is the youngest member of a unique grassroots organisation in Bundelkhand: the Patha Kol Adhikar Manch. She starts her working day at 6 a m when she leaves her…

Combating Inertia in Uttar Pradesh

Combating Inertia in Uttar Pradesh

Incomplete bridges and roads; public hospitals without doctors or medicines; schools without teachers. These are familiar sights in Uttar Pradesh. They are symptoms of poor governance and a weak civil society. Economists Jean Dreze and…