Bihar is India’s most flood-prone state and recurring floods, apart from displacing millions every year, also contribute to human trafficking as poor families spend several months in flood relief camps from where their children are lured into ‘jobs’. Gaon Connection met several such children and here is what they told us.

As part of an initiative by a non-governmental organisation to improve facilities pertaining to health, education and governance, women volunteers called ‘Badlaav Didis’ bring about a positive change in the rural pockets of Madhya Pradesh. Details here.

The Indian government has come up with a policy of uniting farmers into a farmers' business enterprise – a Farmer Producer Company – which is a game changer in India's agricultural entrepreneurial ecosystem. It especially protects the interest of small and marginal farmers in the country.

Using tobacco is an invitation to death – this was the message that was promoted at the day long youth festival held at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Every year nearly 15 lakh young people lose their lives to cancer and other serious health disorders directly related to tobacco use.

Villagers in cholera-hit Kashipur block of Rayagada complain that they have been forced to drink contaminated water from tubewells, open wells and ponds, which has led to the spread of the deadly bacterial disease. Government claims to be responding on a war footing.

Kadodiha, a forest village with 35 tribal families, neither has a proper approach road, nor any drinking water source except ‘chuas’, which are two to three feet deep dug out pits with stagnant water. The 21 students in the village school are also forced to drink water from ‘chuas’.

The nomadic Sikligar community that claims to have made weapons for the army of Guru Tegh Bahadur, now lives in abject poverty and its children, as young as 12 years, roam the streets of Jaipur to sharpen knives to earn a living. But customers are drying up as no one repairs knives these days.