Hundreds of women in Maharashtra's Gondia district travel from small towns to the villages to earn a daily wage. Unlike most migrants, they are footloose workers from an urban setting seeking work in the villages. At stations along the way are labour contractors, waiting to pick up workers on the cheap. P Sainath reports.

"This is the first year I sowed wheat on an acre of land because of availability of water in the bund along my farm," informs a three-acre farmer Vasanta Kolhe in Hatgaon village, Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. His income will see a little improvement this year, thanks to a bund that students built. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Using a deviously devised method, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is claiming that 75 per cent of Vidarbha farmer suicides are not due to indebtedness at all. Meanwhile, the toll has crossed 250 this year and is rising. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

A systematic, participatory effort to map and understand the need for sanitation in Sangli's slums has helped Shelter Associates bring about a change in the mindset of civic officials and residents alike. Its director, Pratima Joshi believes this is a model that can be replicated in many other cities. Rasika Dhavse reports.

Maharashtra's sugar cooperatives helped raise hundreds of thousands of farmers out of high-risk choices, and brought a measure of economic security to the sugar belt. But over the years, big farmers have hijacked the original premise of the cooperative movement, and the region's prosperous past is now fading. Gagandeep Kaur reports.

Scrutiny of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act shows that the progressive promises of its wording are likely to be belied. Partly this is because of fundamental flaws in its structure, but it is also partly because it reinforces the standard World Bank pattern of reforms, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

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.

In Vidarbha, where an average one cotton farmer ends his life every six hours, Mangalabai and Kamalabai are mothers who singularly stand out. After the death of their husbands, they learned every thing and are raising their family with unnoticed resilience, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

A pilot privatisation effort in Mumbai's K East ward ignores the lessons from other such efforts, both in India and elsewhere. Worse still, proponents of privatisation show little regard for public particiaption, and reject other options at the outset. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

As the fresh sowing season starts, beleaguered cotton farmers, already steeped in debt, are being forced to opt for the more-expensive Bt (genetically modified) cotton. Inputs dealers in Vidarbha say that there is hardly any non-Bt hybrid variety available in the market this year. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Mann Deshi Udyogini, formed by a rural women's cooperative bank in association with HSBC Bank, is a business school aims to empower rural women with knowledge of how to run small enterprises. Gagandeep Kaur reports.

A audit of the Maharashtra government's post-flood disaster relief expenditure of the last two years has thrown up plenty of instances of misuse of funds. The audit has also gone into the causes of floods turning out to be disasters. Himanshu Upadhyaya has more.

Once again, India's financial capital reels under the rains of the monsoon. City residents are told that the government is too poor to tackle its infrastructure deficit. But not only is that not true, the costs of coping with such damage are very much higher than that of providing the proper infrastructure, writes Darryl D'Monte.

Prakash Kardaley's personal integrity and unflinching courage to uncover the wrongs in society were an inspiration to his colleagues. Equally, the RTI law for him was a weapon; he insisted that ordinary citizens were the warriors who had to wield it. Rasika Dhavse pays tribute to the senior journalist who passed away on 15 July.

A self-styled Remaking of Mumbai Federation (ROMF) has spun out a Rs.60,000 crore plan for redeveloping the city, which includes housing the urban poor in skyscrapers. Experiences show that this does not work for the poor, notwithstanding redevelopment's own merits. Darryl D'Monte scrunitises ROMF's proposal.

The Maharashtra government claims that a huge transformation is taking place in Vidarbha; the milk collection has risen 37 per cent. Distressed farmers, who were given the 'princely' cows as relief, feel otherwise. Jaideep Hardikar does a reality check.

Four years, three men, one family. The tragedy unleashed by the agrarian crisis on the family of Deshmukhs in Katyar village of Vidarbha isn’t vanishing. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Are the pressures which make male farmers commit suicide the same for women farmers as well? Socially, legally, with respect to property rights, and given their family positions, women are placed in situations strikingly different from those of men. Aparna Pallavi reports.

Hundreds of farming families are making a beeline to Karanja from surrounding districts in the hope of a better education for their children. Although this has brought financial as well as a other problems, these families feel they have little choice. Aparna Pallavi reports.

Rising health costs are proving disastrous for Vidarbha's farmers already under severe distress. Debt due to spiraling medical expenditures is worse than the illness itself for many, and the state government's health infrastructure is not helping, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

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.

In September, the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation invited expressions of interest from private companies to build the canals for the Nira Deoghar dam on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis. Everything about the process so far indicates the decision is not a well-thought out one, notes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

The recent Urban Age conference in Mumbai brought much needed focus on the difficulties plaguing cities around the world. Several speakers observed that a democratic deficit is now evident in many of them, and tackling this is key to building a strong future for urban areas. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Vidarbha farmers are shifting to soybean and oilseeds as substitute, harangued by dipping cotton prices, highly volatile markets and withdrawal of government support. Jaideep Hardikar reports on the trend, the risks and the other alternatives for the farmers.

Since 1994, the Socio Economic Development Trust has succeeded in drawing some 11,000 dropouts in 220 villages of Maharashtra back to school through unique village-level children's organisations called Bal Panchayats. Aparna Pallavi reports.

A village in rural Chandrapur, Maharashtra, plays match-maker for love-lorn couples marrying out of their castes, at 40 marriages and counting. Jaideep Hardikar finds out that behind the positive force of the village are a group of committed people.

Over 400 children from 36 schools in Pune participated in the two-day event on 'Children - Disasters and Sustainable Futures' on 4-5 January this year. They gathered knowledge about disasters and how to best manage in such situations, ensuring minimum loss of life and property. Rasika Dhavse reports.

The challenge of educating street and railway children is more than an education problem - it is a holistic problem of moulding and supporting their entire lives. Aparna Pallavi reports on the efforts of CNI-SSI in Nagpur.

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.

Contrary to its own knowledge, the Salt Departmnt has been contending that the lands that belong to salt manufacturers along the Konkan coast are government lands, and that the claimants are mere lessees with a license to manufacture salt. P Venu reports.

For a miniscule community of East-Bengali origin living in in Maharashtra, it has been a long struggle for the right to learn in their mother tongue. The community has won some victories recently, and much more remains to be done. Aparna Pallavi reports.

In India's business capital, the NGO Sanmitra is helping HIV positive women re-enter the mainstream workforce, thereby ensuring them a life of independence and dignity. Sumita Thapar has more.

Shreekrishna Kalamb's life and musings as a poet-farmer symbolise the agrarian crisis that is wrecking havoc in the Vidarbha countryside. Kalamb ended his life last month, and his grieving daughter now hopes to publish the collection. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

The coastal village of Velneshwar in Maharashtra is home to a unique well that doubles up as a rainwater storage tank. Shree Padre finds out more about this novel dual-purpose structure.

Land acquisition from Vidarbha farmers for irrigation projects is become a case of cure worse than the disease. The new projects are being commissioned over the prime minister's relief package. Jaideep Hardikar digs deeper.

A group of carefree and well-off youngsters run into the crisis-stricken region of Vidarbha. They witness the stark reality of farmers who see hope only in death. Exploring this is Summer 2007, a feature film scheduled for release on 13 June.

A recent television advertisement has had a terrific impact and shaken people's conscience, making aspirant baby killers feel guilty of the crime they intend to commit. This is Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) and it has the potential to usher in a revolution, writes Surekha Sule.

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.

Maharashtra's RTI activists recently attended and recorded hearings at the state's Information Commission and identified why pendency of disposals is building up: Information Commissioners were not hearing cases for not more than two hours per day. Shailesh Gandhi has more.

An appeal in the environment appellate authority that ought to have been a clear case of evidence and cross evidence has instead thrown up something new - a case of a project being upheld despite the objections to it being true. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Shivangaon, a village near Nagpur produces a staggering Rs.25-29 crores worth of milk each year. Government-led land acquisition here for a new cargo hub is hurting the local economy, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

Maharashtra's Vilasrao Deshmukh-government is asking the private sector not to go about acquiring land for projects if the farmers are opposed. Shivangaon is the hypocritical face of the state government itself. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

The ruling son-of-the-soil party in the city council is putting the finishing touches to a plan to erect a huge Ferris wheel-like structure at Land's End. Whether any real Mumbaikars want this, or can afford it, is very doubtful, says Darryl D'Monte.

Consent for relocation given by Jamni village in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra was obtained under duress. Villagers protest against the manner in which the gram sabha had proceeded. Aparna Pallavi investigates.

A recent ruling by the Bombay High Court on a case of sexual harassment against a private sector company offers encouragement for women are afraid to talk about the problem. Kalpana Sharma has more.

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.