Indian participants won a remarkable 387 medals at the Special Olympic Games for sports persons with intellectual disabilities held in Australia in December 2013. Pushpa Achanta urges greater state and institutional support for these neglected sports persons as she brings us their inspiring stories.

A recent workshop in Karnataka focused on the health impact of coal-based power plants and other industrial pollutants and shared inputs on how to empower local communities to combat the same. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Sanitary conditions in most of the slum areas in Assam are abysmal. Ignorance about cleanliness, lack of water supply and proper working toilets, absence of covered drainage and sewage, and no action from the local and state government are to be blamed for the mess, reports Nilotpal Bhattacharjee.

Much has been said about India’s success in containing the spread of the AIDS epidemic. But can it build on the progress so far and ensure that survivors receive the dignity and social security they need? Pushpa Achanta’s conversations on the eve of World AIDS Day aren’t heartening.

N G Hegde on a Karnataka water project that is more than an innovation making water and irrigation a reality in a drought-prone area.

Karnataka's best bid at electronic governance is targeting land records, says Keya Acharya.

Anitha Pailoor profiles a large landholding family farm in Karnataka's Hassan district that switched from chemical farming to organic in the mid-nineties.

Jacob John reviews Of Master Plans, Laws and Illegalities in an Era of Transition, a report prepared by the Alternate Law Forum for the Bangalore Development Authority.

The Karnataka Election Watch Committee collected an enormous amount of data about candidates as the state went into Assembly and Lok Sabha polls late last month. A brief report.

27-year-old Ratnamma, a garment factory worker, was forced to deliver a baby on the streets of Bangalore. 20-year-old Gayathri was run over by the bus belonging to the Bangalore garment factory where she worked. Garment workers in Bangalore are caught in an exploitative web, reports Padmalatha Ravi.

A three day festival of a special tender mango called appe midi held last month in Shimoga, Karnataka attracted 6000 visitors. The festival showcased a range of preparations including popular pickles, and gave a filip to the conservation of this wild mango variety. Shree Padre reports.

In Karnataka, job-training programmes are on offer at a number of institutes, and yet, students unable to make it into college are not lining up in large numbers. Ironically, a manpower crunch exists across industries at the entry level, placing employers in a bind. Padmalatha Ravi digs deeper.

A study of women's lives in the L R Nagar slum of Bangalore shows how women's economic and social independence in the slum may be linked to age, as well the socio-economic constraints of individual families. Sarayu Pani summarises her study.

This 58-year-old illiterate farm labourer has developed irrigated farming at a hilltop in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. His hard work, vision and never-say-die attitude have turned the land around and he now advises visiting farmers. Shree Padre reports.

A Karnataka Bank branch in Mysore is the setting for a unique tale of investment - in water. The bank's senior manager devised a simple plan to allow accumulated rainwater, which was earlier just pumped out and wasted, to percolate into the earth. Shree Padre reports.

The government school system is not a rationally driven and coherent apparatus of state policy. Instead, its everyday work is continuously and varyingly reshaped in the light of social, institutional, and policy related inflections, write A R Vasavi and Rahul Mukhopadhyay.

It was 25 years ago this month when villagers in Karnataka undertook an eight-kilometre-long trek to resist massive tree-felling at the Kalase forests. In today's milieu, the Appiko movement is facing fresh challenges, writes Sudhirendar Sharma.

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 •  Printer friendly version 10 September 2008 - If your journey along the west coast still remains picturesquely green, thank the chants that had rented the air of this region 25 years ago, and which seemingly echo even today. Chanting the Kannada slogan of Ulisu, Belasu and Balasu, meaning ‘save, grow and sustain’, the forest-loving people of Uttara Kannada - the most green district in the country – stood up against the tyranny of the state that was clearing the native forests to pave way for monoculture plantations.

The 25-year-long journey

In the name of good governance, decision-making powers in Karnataka are being given to parastatal organizations and non-elected task forces. Kathyayini Chamaraj asks for a re-look at outsourcing government.

It takes more to feed the family amidst destroyed houses and ruined hopes. The flood-hit women in North Karnataka are putting up with more than what their menfolk could ever empathise with. Savita Hiremath has more.

With two decades of continuous research and wise management, this ex-lecturer in Karnataka's Udupi district has made a barren hillock into a model of rain harvesting. Shrikrishna D reports.

The grant of close to 10000 acres of forest land in Chitradurga district for non-forestry purposes threatens the ecology as well as the means of subsistence of local communities, leading irate villagers to decide to boycott the impending State Assembly elections. Malini Shankar reports.

From water-harvesting to science education to agriculture, Vidnyanvahini's all-round efforts create vibrant communities, and inspire others to pursue similar paths.

Susan Mani looks at the issues involved in the coming together of government and NGOs to improve service delivery.

Shahid Burney, a Pune-based editor-journalist recently used the Right to Information law to precipitate the transfer of a number of state police officers whose postings violated Election Commission norms. An India Together interview with Burney.

The World Bank continues to push its agenda on water privatisation even though its much-heralded examples from recent years turned out to be such dismal failures. The result will destroy countless small farmers and hand over agriculture to the rich and corporations, says P Sainath.

Thousands of cotton farmers in Maharashtra are due money from the state's procurement agency -- the marketing federation -- for the 2004-5 season. Though officials maintain that they have released payments, farmers are not getting money from the banks. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Water-starved Vidharbha has a growing number of water parks and amusement centres. The iron laws of rural life don't apply in the entertainment complexes built right next to the poor. In a region that scarcely receives adequate water to meet people's drinking needs, there is plenty of water for the playgrounds of the rich, finds P Sainath.

The Ganesh festival is the most important event in Maharashtra. This season, farm distress has hit the utsav badly in Vidharbha. Very few have money to spend. Meanwhile, farmers' suicides there are going up. There has been one almost every 36 hours this year. P Sainath continues his series on the region's crisis.

Many farmers deep in debt are trying to find a way out through playing bhishi (chit funds). Denied bank loans and desperate for credit to run their farms and for other needs, they take huge risks. The results are usually tragic. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

The Bhagwan Datta mandir in Belkhed, Akola, was built by Dalits when they were still Hindus. It was ostensibly the focus of the fiery violence there earlier this month. The real reasons? Caste, the decline of organised Dalit politics, the crisis in agriculture, and wage conflicts - all played a role, writes P Sainath.

Farmers weighed down by debt are now falling prey to land grab by an array of predators that includes talatis and school teachers. A "proper" deed of sale is the preferred method. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

Harvesting water in the lower elevations is easier, because a lot of it gathers there, but this may be too late and too little. Not only do those in higher reaches suffer without water, additionally valuable topsoil is washed away if no percolation takes place at higher levels. Surekha Sule reports from Marathwada.

Ten months after his father ended his life, Madhav toils from 6 am to 8 pm to herd the cattle of a big farmer for a paltry Rs 20 a day. Education? Forget it. In village after Vidarbha village where farmers have committed suicide, children have eventually dropped out of schools to take up the plough and work like beasts of burden, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

Inexplicably, Maharashtra's bosses have gone into hiding after announcing a "bailout package" for Vidarbha's beleaguered farmers. Not a single pie has been distributed yet, two months after the chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, announced it. Farmers' suicides are failing to move a heartless government, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

In Vidarbha, where over a thousand farmers have taken their own lives in last the four years over unabated distress, Venkanna Ramayya Rayee's suicide has an unusual edge. A farmer from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, his name won't figure as an entry in the suicide ledger in either state. Jaideep Hardikar has more.

Too many factors coincided to deliver justice speedily in the Sunil More case. But whether this will have a long-term impact on rape cases is debatable. Unless the speed of investigation and the filing of charges becomes the norm, such cases will remain the exception, writes Kalpana Sharma.

Recreation and play grounds in the nation's commercial capital may soon be handed over to 'caretakers' with liberal concessions for builders and developers. Meanwhile, bona fide caretakers of public spaces, who've been doing the corporation's job for it for years, find new hurdles. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Both the Maharashtra Chief Minister's and the Prime Minister's relief packages for Vidarbha included for distribution of thousands of cows to the region's beleagured farmers. Jaideep Hardikar finds out that the measure has hurt, not helped.

Farmers in Datodi village in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, turned to sugarcane when the Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, called on the debt-ridden cotton farmers of Vidarbha to shift to the sweet cane last year. They are now paying the price, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

More and more land in Vidarbha has come under women's cultivation, but pressures of culture and family economics are still strongly against their title to land itself. But increasingly, women are coming out to assert their rights, reports Aparna Pallavi.

Pune-based firm Neeti Solutions has designed a unique version of the popular game Snakes and Ladders, aimed at teaching children about fires and earthquakes and how to cope best in such situations. Rasika Dhavse has more.

He was a zamindar by birth and a successful lawyer by training. He charmed and transformed generations of youth and propelled them into social and political activism. Baba Amte, who passed away last week, was a rare combination of sensitivity and courage, writes Ravindra R P.

Up against a political shylock and wiping his tears and looking skywards for some divine intervention, Tukaram Kandalkar, farmer in Amaravati, Vidarbha, tells his lawyer with folded hands: “Do anything, but save me from losing my land.” Jaideep Hardikar reports.

In a city that lives on the edge, the taxi drivers see and hear a lot. They could provide any news channel its biggest scoop ever, but they are also smart enough to value their lives and keep their mouths tightly shut. More street voices from Rajendar Menen's book.

The forest regions in Brahmapuri and Chandrapur regions in Maharashtra are the scene of a spurt in tiger attacks for the last two years. Fear of attack has also caused significant damage to the forest-reliant local economy. Aparna Pallavi reports.

The Mumbai Port Trust land, three times the size of the mills, could provide vital space for housing and much-needed lung space. But the absence of proper planning and prioritisation does not portend well, writes Darryl D'Monte.

A hillock along this layout is blissfully peaceful. In that sense, the place is perhaps akin to heaven, indeed. But electricity, water and roads? Well.... Jaideep Hardikar has more.

What the developer gives against the money is just a token receipt – no land title or legal holding deed. And you are supposed to be owner of one of the plots! But where is the land located? Jaideep Hardikar has more.

Will the Congress-NCP gain from a multiplicity of fronts which could dissipate the anti-Congress vote? Or will the Shiv Sena-BJP benefit from the Third Front's cutting into the Congress-NCP vote?

The Assembly elections saw the culture of 'coverage packages' explode across Maharashtra. In many cases, a candidate just had to pay for almost any coverage at all. P Sainath reports.