Five months in a year, labourers from villages in Uttar Pradesh migrate to Kashmir where they work as daily wagers at brick kilns. Yesterday, one of them, Mukesh Kumar, was shot dead in Pulwama. Gaon Connection met his family.

Yesterday, two minor Dalit sisters were raped and killed. Their bodies were found hanging from a khair tree in a sugarcane field in their village in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. A heinous crime that is distressingly frequent in rural India. Meanwhile, the conviction rate under POSCO Act is only about 40 per cent. And, a significant chunk of the Nirbhaya funds remain unutilised by the state governments.

After World War II, many nations had learned to control the disease, which doesn’t only kill the afflicted animal, but also humans coming in their contact. To avoid infection, the infected animal is shot immediately

Vengeful snakes, snakes that drink milk, cobras with a gemstone in their hoods… There is no dearth of myths associated with snakes in a country that reports about 58,000 snakebite deaths each year. Experts bust some myths in an interview with Gaon Connection.

More than 8,000 mukhiyas are set to march to Patna on October 2 to demand redressal of their grievances, and action on their 19 demands. These village heads claim their powers and authority were being eroded by the government.

Climate experts link the heat wave in India to climate change. They stress on the need for public cooling areas, uninterrupted electricity and access to safe drinking water, especially for the vulnerable groups during the extreme heat days. Details here.

The unprecedented heatwaves that arrived early this year in the country have affected not just the health of daily wage labourers and farm workers, but has also had an impact on their economic well being. And this has a direct bearing on the GDP of the country as the rising temperatures are going to lead to a loss of working hours and productivity.

Several states in north India are in the grip of an intense heatwave, which is likely to stay for the next 2-3 days. Heat-related deaths have been reported from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Adoption of simple and cost-effective ‘Cool Roofs’ can save lives.

Despite technology that forecasts lightning strikes and mobile phone applications that pre-warn people, a large number of men and women in rural India are killed every year due to lightning. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh report the maximum casualties. Villagers continue to be ignorant about simple protective and preventive measures they can take.

Because of a delayed monsoon, a decline in kharif sowing of pulses by 93%, soybean by 93% and oilseeds by 91% in Maharashtra. An overall kharif sowing area decline across the country, too.