People's Archive of Rural India 'I didn't want others to know I had miscarried' Saline river water, intensifying climate change and poor public healthcare is playing havoc with women's health in the Sundarbans.
People's Archive of Rural India Sundarbans: Not a blade of grass grew People in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, are facing climate change – recurring cyclones, erratic rain, growing salinity, rising heat, depleting mangroves and more.
People's Archive of Rural India Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days Many women domestic workers travel every day from faraway stations on the fringes of the Sundarbans to south Kolkata. The crush of the long train journey adds to the demands of their ceaseless workdays
People's Archive of Rural India Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares. For decades, villagers from Ghoramara island in the Sundarbans have been migrating to Sagar island because the river and rain keep washing away their houses. They have received little help from the state
People's Archive of Rural India Widowed by tigers, abandoned by the state Every year, estimates indicate, around 100 men are killed by tigers in the Sundarbans. A bureaucratic maze then disallows their widows from getting compensation, forcing them to live in distress and penury
People's Archive of Rural India ‘Maach (fishing) and chaash (cultivation) brought us to Sundarbans’ Flood, famine, Partition, riots, and the promise of land and jobs drove early migrations to the Sundarbans. The settlers then battled disease, hunger and attacks by tigers, but eventually found a home
People's Archive of Rural India From river to plate: the journey of the Sundarbans tiger prawn For village women in the Sundarbans, collecting tiger prawn seedlings is unrewarding and unsavoury work – though the delicacy fetches high prices for others later along the supply chain
People's Archive of Rural India The sting of bees and the tyranny of tigers The ‘mouleys’ or honey collectors of the Sundarbans work without safeguards in dense and dangerous jungles – encountering crocodiles, tigers and the diktats of the Forest Department
People's Archive of Rural India In emergencies we are really stranded Falling ill in the Sundarbans is a gamble. With difficult terrain, only a handful of healthcare centres and few doctors, the people turn to mobile medical units or other long-distance options – usually at great cost
People's Archive of Rural India Voting in a Sundarbans village Despite the heat and distances, people of Rajat Jubilee and other villages of Gosaba block in Sundarbans came to the poll booth on April 30.
People's Archive of Rural India A right to fish, a fight to live “Why confiscate the canoes and hurt us in the stomach?"
