The slippery road to maternal health in UP
and • Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh

205. The slippery road to maternal health in UP

Expectant mothers in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur and Varanasi districts are at risk from anaemia, poor nutrition and inadequate healthcare. The fallout from the pandemic has added to the harm

March 30, 2022 | Parth M.N.

204. In Kheri: changing sides for health

The open border policy of India and Nepal has allowed their citizens to move freely between the two territories. In UP's Kheri district, it has helped people go across for cheaper and better healthcare

February 24, 2022 | Parth M.N.

203. ‘We could have really used the compensation’

Without a death certificate, a Covid test result or proof of hospitalisation, Shanti Devi's case is ineligible for UP government's ex gratia assistance. But her family in Varanasi district needs the money the most

February 10, 2022 | Parth M.N.

202. In UP: ‘We kept looking for a hospital bed'

Even a year after her husband's death from Covid-19, the cost of the pandemic weighs heavily on Anita Singh. In Uttar Pradesh, the crisis of public healthcare has left many like her poorer, and in debt

February 5, 2022 | Parth M.N.

‘People like us are never treated well’
and • Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

201. ‘People like us are never treated well’

In Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi and Chandauli districts, discrimination of marginalised communities affects their access to healthcare. For Lakshima and Salimun, the pandemic has brought on even more hardship

January 31, 2022 | Parth M.N.
In Coimbatore: death, disease and divinity
and • Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

200. In Coimbatore: death, disease and divinity

Plague has receded into the shadows of Coimbatore city’s history. Yet temples built seeking a cure from that deadly disease still attract greater crowds than the newly arrived shrine for ‘Corona Devi’

January 11, 2022 | Kavitha Muralidharan

The Mumbai guard who never knew security
, and • Mumbai, Maharashtra

199. The Mumbai guard who never knew security

The security guard on the ground in a building reaching the sky in the big city could not go back to his village to meet his wife and newborn baby. He waited, he pleaded, he planned, he tried – until it was too late

December 14, 2021 | Aakanksha

198. 'We will be kicked out and no one will care'

In Beed district, a Pardhi family suffered assault, rape, killing, and had to flee their home. Living in constant fear of displacement, the stigmatised community is struggling to survive in the pandemic's aftermath

November 12, 2021 | Parth M. N.

197. Petrol price hikes fuel Sidhi salesmen’s struggles

In Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district, feriwalas who go to villages on motorbikes to sell sarees, sheets and other items say they survived the lockdowns but the rising cost of petrol is decimating their business

November 9, 2021 | Anil Kumar Tiwari

196. Phalai's forgotten alphabets, fraying uniforms

With their residential schools still closed, and online classes beyond their reach, the few skills that Adivasi children in remote villages of Maharashtra’s Nandurbar have learnt in classrooms are slipping away

November 2, 2021 | Jyoti Shinoli

195. In Beed: 'It got easier to threaten and harass me'

In Maharashtra’s Beed district, a rape survivor was forced to return to her village and face harassment and social boycott – amidst the pandemic, income losses and a long fight for justice

October 29, 2021 | Parth M. N.

194. Varanasi weavers: facing a string of setbacks

It's been hard days for powerloom weavers in the city's Bazardiha cluster – with lockdowns and monsoon flooding. But it’s the UP government’s review of their electricity subsidy that has them the most worried

October 28, 2021 | Samiksha

193. 'The possibility of a third wave is frightening'

Rama Gandewad and his family survived two waves of Covid-19 in a crematorium in Maharashtra's Osmanabad city. But they live in fear of going through it again

October 22, 2021 | Parth M. N.

192. In Haveri, Ratnavva's life of hopes and seeds

Caught in a cycle of debt and poverty, Ratnavva Harijan, an expert hand-pollinator in Karnataka's Haveri district, is doing everything she can to educate her children – including taking on casteist customs

October 20, 2021 | S. Senthalir

Performing the snake goddess in Sundarbans
• South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

191. Performing the snake goddess in Sundarbans

Farmers and labourers from Rajat Jubilee village in West Bengal come together to perform the Manasa pala gaan, a traditional musical play dedicated to the snake goddess – and keep rural theatre alive

October 18, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee

190. Dhakis for Durga: without skipping a drumbeat

The drums of Agartala’s dhakis are already pounding, with Durga Puja beginning on October 11. At other times, these drummers ply cycle rickshaws, or work as vendors, farmers, plumbers and electricians

October 8, 2021 | Sayandeep Roy

189. In Marathwada: forlorn farmers, fatal fears

In an already sinking economy, Covid-19, unseasonal rains and crop losses have pushed Marathwada's farmers further into debt. Driven by anxiety and despair, many have taken their own lives

October 6, 2021 | Parth M. N.


188. 'He became irritable, would snap at us’

Covid-19’s impact on livelihoods has unsettled many children and young adults like Krishna Gawade in Beed district. Trying to cope with anxiety and depression, they are struggling alone with their mental health

September 17, 2021 | Parth M. N.

187. Taking a high road from Jharkhand to Ladakh

Migrant labourers from Jharkhand and other states, who arrived in Ladakh when the second Covid-19 wave began to subside, have been building roads at altitudes of over 10,000 feet in extremely harsh conditions

September 16, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee

In Osmanabad: crop insurance, no assurance
and • Osmanabad, Maharashtra

186. In Osmanabad: crop insurance, no assurance

Unseasonal rains, changing weather patterns and the Covid-19 pandemic have increased the risks of farmers in Marathwada, but the government-backed crop insurance scheme has hardly given them succour

September 8, 2021 | Parth M. N.

185. In Mumbai: auctioned cabs, anguished drivers

Over 40 cabs lying unattended for long during the lockdowns were auctioned off by Mumbai airport authorities in June. But many of the drivers were in their villages, and are devastated by this action

September 3, 2021 | Aakanksha

184. In Ladakh: a shot in the arm at 11,000 feet

Health workers in Leh rise above the natural landscape, harsh weather conditions, poor telecommunication networks, and a lack of proper healthcare facilities in battling the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic

August 30, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee

183. 'We didn’t know our situation could get worse'

In Maharashtra's Beed district, the Misal, Waghamare and Bhutadmal families – who were surviving in a struggling rural economy as it is – are now hit hard by the pandemic-induced recession

August. 26, 2021 | Parth M. N.

182. In Osmanabad: dodging and ducking the virus

Sportspeople like Rushikesh Ghadge from rural Maharashtra are staring at an uncertain future now – the pandemic has been pushing players out of wrestling rings and kho-kho courts in Osmanabad district

August 17, 2021 | Parth M.N.

181. In Kolhapur: wrestlers’ diets, weighty problems

Maharashtra’s famed wrestlers, particularly those in Kolhapur, a great centre of this sporting discipline, have been devastated by Covid-19, two floods, cancelled tournaments, falling income and poor diets

August 14, 2021 | Sanket Jain

180. Mumbai fishermen: no shelter from this storm

In recent years, fishermen who set sail from south Mumbai’s Sassoon Dock have weathered cyclones, falling fish catch, poor sales – but the impact of the lockdowns since March 2020 has proved to be the hardest

August 13, 2021 | Shraddha Agarwal

179. Koli women: fish, friendship and fighting spirit

Lockdown losses, major surgeries, jobless husbands and other struggles have hit Vandana Koli and Gayatri Patil, who sell fish at Mumbai's Colaba market. But the two find comfort in their close friendship of decades

August 11, 2021 | Shraddha Agarwal

178. Beed's child brides: cutting cane, crushing hopes

The pandemic is making an already difficult situation worse for teenagers like Rekha in Maharashtra's Beed district. Rising poverty, school closures and other factors are forcing girls into early marriage

August 10, 2021 | Parth M. N.

177. In Beed, waiting for a pandemic paradigm shift

Though praised as ‘fighters and heroes’ for their role in managing Covid-19, Maharashtra’s frontline workers feel ignored and insecure – they have been fighting for job security and financial stability

August 6, 2021 | Parth M. N.

176. 'We don't want to go back to the city'

Pushed to return home after the sudden lockdown last year, migrant workers in Beed district are still grappling with loss and trauma. Many are settling for less work and lesser pay

August 2, 2021 | Parth M. N.

175. Trans artists in Madurai: bullied, isolated, broke

Harassed, shunned by family, losing livelihoods – trans folk in Tamil Nadu are seeing the worst of times

July 29, 2021 | Reporting: S. Senthalir | Photographs: M. Palani Kumar

174. 'We have been pleading for a bridge in Sautada'

Covid-19 has heightened the physical isolation of Beed district's Sautada village, where people risk their lives crossing the river to access everything from markets to hospitals

July 28, 2021 | Parth M. N.

173. In Madurai: the trauma of trans folk artists

While the pandemic has devastated many folk artists across Tamil Nadu, trans women performers have been among the worst hit – with barely any work or income, and no access to aid or state benefits

July 27, 2021 | Reporting: S. Senthalir | Photographs: M. Palani Kumar

172. 'In a week it was all over. The tests failed us'

Misdiagnosis, delayed testing, disbelief, underreporting – all may have masked the real number of Covid casualties in Uttar Pradesh during the second surge, as is evident from the experiences of these five families

July 26, 2021 | Rana Tiwari

171. Eating less, earning little, enduring more

For Maharashtra's Masanjogi and Pardhi nomadic communities, a steep income drop during the lockdowns has meant cutting back on food – and without ration cards, they cannot even access subsidised grains

July 15, 2021 | Jyoti Shinoli

170. Delhi's lastline workers: burning in silence

Cremation workers Harinder and Pappu worked non-stop at Nigam Bodh crematorium during the second Covid wave in Delhi – risking their lives with no protection or insurance, and waiting for a pay hike

July 13, 2021 | Amir Malik

169. 'I waited for five days to get remdesivir'

A shortage of remdesivir in Maharashtra's Beed district forced Ravi Bobde, a farmer, to move his Covid-positive parents elsewhere. Others have gone into debt buying the antiviral drug on the black market

July 9, 2021 | Parth M. N.

168. Ichalkaranji torans: gelatine, gods, greetings

At 70, Muralidhar Jawahire of Maharashtra’s Ichalkaranji town still painstakingly makes paper-bamboo torans – decorative door hangings – and retains a sense of pride in a craft no one wants to learn anymore

July 8, 2021 | Sanket Jain

In Tuljapur, the price of priesthood
• Osmanabad , Maharashtra

167. In Tuljapur, the price of priesthood

The closure of Tulja Bhavani temple due to Covid-19 has caused losses to many in Osmanabad's Tuljapur town. But the priests and residents are willing to wait until it is safe for the devotees to return

July 6, 2021 | Parth M. N.

Out of focus: Gateway of India photographers
and • South Mumbai, Maharashtra

166. Out of focus: Gateway of India photographers

Many photographers who have for decades created images and memories for visitors at this popular Mumbai monument have been shuttered out – first by the spread of selfies, and now due to the lockdowns

July 2, 2021 | Aakanksha

165. Quiet blows the kombu in Madurai

Kombu artistes in Tamil Nadu are struggling without any income from temple festivals and public events during the Covid-19 lockdowns. But their worries are more about the declining art

June 29, 2021 | M. Palani Kumar

164. Beed hospitals: falling short of staff and care

Patients in Beed's understaffed government hospitals have been struggling without proper medical treatment after the second wave of Covid-19 peaked in the district

June 26, 2021 | Parth M. N.

163. 'We exhausted our savings to pay the hospital'

Poor public infrastructure, unaffordable private medical care and limited access to the state health insurance scheme are pushing Covid patients and their families into long-term debt in Marathwada

June 23, 2021 | Parth M. N.

162. 'We don’t trust government hospitals’

Ajay Kumar Saw, a clothes seller in Jharkhand’s Asarhia village, spent Rs. 1.5 lakh on Covid-19 care at a private clinic and is now in debt. A story co-authored by a video editor who lives in the same village

June 21, 2021 | Subuhi Jiwani and Haiyul Rahman Ansari

161. Karagattam artistes: on a bad stage in Madurai

Tamil Nadu's Karagattam performers, who depend on the art form for a living, are struggling without work and income – and they're anxious that the pandemic will end their dream of educating their children

June 16, 2021 | M. Palani Kumar

‘I am not a marriageable woman’
, , and • Muzaffarpur, Bihar

160. 'I am not a marriageable woman’

Sex workers in the Chaturbhuj Sthan brothel of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, who often go through pregnancies at an early age to please their ‘permanent’ clients, were badly hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns

June 15, 2021 | Jigyasa Mishra

Medical help on thin ice for Dal Lake mohallas
and • Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir

159. Medical help on thin ice for Dal Lake mohallas

For families living on islands in Srinagar's Dal Lake, most of them farmers, labourers and in the tourism trade, a single and usually shut PHC means they must rely on local chemists who double up as 'doctors'

June 10, 2021 | Adil Rashid

158. Waiting for a shot in the arm in Beed

A shortage of vaccines and their unequal distribution are hindering many from getting inoculated in Maharashtra's Beed district before the imminent third wave of Covid-19

June 7, 2021 | Parth M. N.

157. Covid and the calligraphers of a qabristan

Business is booming – and breaking the hearts of those in the trade of calligraphic inscription and engraving on gravestones in Al-Jadeed, one of New Delhi’s largest cemeteries

June 5, 2021 | Amir Malik

156. 'The dead aren’t aware of the funerals they get’

The pandemic has compelled that funerals take place, physically and socially, in ways not seen before. They are now more about logistics than loss. PARI reports on these from Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district

May 29, 2021 | Parth M. N.

155. UP: ‘Nothing can be done, duty has to be done’

The rising Covid-19 death toll among UP teachers on compulsory duty during the panchayat polls also draws attention to the exploitative ‘shiksha mitra’ system. PARI tracks three ‘mitras’ who lost their lives

May 27, 2021 | Jigyasa Mishra

154. Pardhis: positive, isolating in huts and broke

At this Adivasis settlement in Pune district, Covid positive persons are isolating in straw huts, with no electricity or water, and sparse rations. Masking, ventilation, oximeters and more have no meaning here

May 26, 2021 | Jyoti Shinoli

153. The king and the lone wheel of a tractor

He abhorred those pests getting adept in the dark arts of unity. A poem for the present times

May 24, 2021 | Joshua Bodhinetra

Counting the dead and lessons unlearned
and • Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

152. Counting the dead and lessons unlearned

Why were the classrooms deserted, the playgrounds on fire? A poem for teachers lost

May 22, 2021 | Pratishtha Pandya

151. Rural reporters: losing lives without a voice

Journalists in Maharashtra are dying of Covid-19 even as they've been demanding frontline-worker status. Without easy access to vaccines and good healthcare, reporters in rural areas are at greater risk

May 21, 2021 | Parth M. N.

150. UP panchayats: teacher death toll hits 1,621

Why was the UP government okay with holding the panchayat polls in April, which have now unleashed a catastrophe that keeps growing? PARI brings you an update

MAY 18, 2021 | P. Sainath

149. In Marathwada: ‘I didn’t think he would die’

The sudden deaths of Prabhakar Survase and Shivaji Kate, their families believe, were due to a shortage of oxygen supply in the Covid hospitals of Beed and Osmanabad – districts with limited health resources

May 17, 2021 | Parth M.N.

148. Seeking Covid-care in Kalyan: debt unto death

The family of Gopal Gupta, a vegetable vendor in Kalyan near Mumbai, who tested Covid positive in March, spent nearly Rs. 5 lakhs on private healthcare – and still lost him later in a public hospital in the city

May 15, 2021 | Aakanksha

In Palghar, the price of a pandemic
and • Palghar, Maharashtra

147. In Palghar, the price of a pandemic

Chaos reigns outside a state-run hospital in rural Maharashtra, with families – many from Adivasi communities – seeking beds or grieving a loss in a district ill-equipped to handle Covid’s onslaught

May 13, 2021 | Shraddha Agarwal

The King and his palace on pyre
and • New Delhi, Delhi

146. The King and his palace on pyre

As outrage pours in at the Centre's relentless work on the lavish Central Vista project amidst the pandemic, a poet recalls an old tale

May 12, 2021 | Poem and Text: Sayani Rakshit | Painting: Labani Jangi

145. In Tamil Nadu: taming TB in the time of Covid

Fighting tuberculosis – India’s worst infectious disease killer for decades – always daunting, becomes even harder during the Covid pandemic, as the lives of three women ‘TB warriors” in Tamil Nadu show us

May 11, 2021 | Kavitha Muralidharan

UP panchayats: for whom the polls toll
and • Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

144. UP panchayats: for whom the polls toll

Over 700 schoolteachers working as polling officials in the Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections have died of Covid-19 and more are in danger, with 8 lakh new cases reported in just 30 days around the polls

May 10, 2021 | Jigyasa Mishra

143. In Bihar: 'I got married during corona'

In Bihar's villages, during the lockdown last year, teenage girls were married off to young male migrant workers who returned home. Many are now pregnant and anxious about what comes next

May 7, 2021 | Kavitha Iyer

Bharat is burning, Dharmaraja!
, and • Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh

142. Bharat is burning, Dharmaraja!

Epic characters tumble out gasping for air, but are pushed into an inferno by godlike guardians

May 5, 2021 | Anshu Malviya
‘With strangers was the journey too…’
and • Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

141. 'With strangers was the journey too…’

The country is ablaze with a thousand bonfires of human lives. A poem about the pandemic

May 3, 2021 | Poem and Text: Gokul G. K. | Painting: Antara Raman

140. Five drops of crimson…farewell to the white

This is poetry that pierces, paintings that perforate – and a story of the pandemic

April 29, 2021 | Joshua Bodhinetra

139. 'I can’t do video editing in the village’

Haiyul Rahman Ansari came to Mumbai from rural Jharkhand 10 years ago to work as a video editor. But in the past year he's had to pack up and go home twice after losing jobs to the Covid-19 lockdowns

April 23, 2021 | Subuhi Jiwani

138. In Maldah: 'Nobody leaves out of choice'

With no industrial activity and low wages in agriculture, men from Bhagabanpur in Maldah district go to work in faraway places like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, just to survive and send money home

April 19, 2021 | Parth M.N.

137. Waiting yet again in a last long line

A lifetime spent standing in queues – then one more at the very end. A poem on the Covid-19 crisis

April 19, 2021 | Pratishtha Pandya

Trying to get onto that train somehow
and • Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

136. Trying to get onto that train somehow

Mohammed Shamim is returning to his UP village unable to handle wage loss twice in this pandemic year – like others in a second wave of migrants. Many in his north Mumbai slum colony have already left

April 17, 2021 | Kavitha Iyer

135. Forbes, India and Pandora’s Pandemic Box

In a year GDP contracted 7.7 per cent, and as we brace for another round of ‘reverse’ migrations, and as the farmers wait unheeded at the gates of Delhi, Indian billionaires reached record levels of wealth

April 16, 2021 | P. Sainath

134. 'How do I earn, what do I eat?'

In Marathwada, women living on their own, like Azubi Ladaph and Jehedabi Sayed, struggle to earn an income. Along with social exclusion, the pandemic and discrimination are making it harder for them

April 15, 2021 | Ira Deulgaonkar

133. Bihar’s ‘lady’ doctors: overworked, shouted at

For the few female gynaecologists working in Bihar's Kishanganj district, the day is long, medical supplies are short, and handling their patients' multiple pregnancies and contraception reluctance is an uphill task

April 7, 2021 | Anubha Bhonsle

132. In Nandurbar’s hilly hamlets: a vaccine too far

For Adivasis in remote hamlets of Maharashtra's Dhadgaon tract, Covid vaccination centres are inaccessible due to poor connectivity and costs, and even elders with severe illnesses are still waiting

April 5, 2021 | Jyoti Shinoli

131. 'Our office and sleeping area are the same'

Shortage of space and lack of facilities compel health workers in a primary health centre in Bihar’s Darbhanga district to sleep in the office, on ward beds, and sometimes even on the floor

March 26, 2021 | Jigyasa Mishra

130. 'For us there is always a lockdown – and work’

Stigma, poor pay, discrimination, arduous hours of live-saving work – nurses have been among those at highest risk during the pandemic. PARI interacts with some of these real frontline warriors in Chennai

March 4, 2021 | Kavitha Muralidharan

129. Kids with disabilities – a fracture in learning

In farm families in Maharashtra's Ahmadnagar district, without the option of online classes for students with intellectual disabilities, the children have gone downhill and their parents' anxiety is growing

February 18, 2021 | Jyoti Shinoli

128. In Almora, moving mountains for childbirth

Last year, Rano Singh of Uttarakhand’s Almora district gave birth on the road, halfway uphill to a hospital, in a region where the terrain and expenses compel many in the mountain hamlets to deliver at home

February 11, 2021 | Jigyasa Mishra

127. Peruvemba: struggling to retain its rhythm

With no sales in the Covid-19 lockdown, and difficulty in procuring rawhide for their bespoke percussion instruments, the Kadachi Kollan craftspeople in Kerala’s Peruvemba village are missing a steady income

January 19, 2021 | K.A. Shaji

126. 'I can only survive, I can’t live my life’

A 27-year-old migrant worker from Bihar in Mumbai speaks of how hard it was to make the journey home during the lockdown, and the inevitable grip of the city on his present and future

January 7, 2021 | Chaitra Yadavar

125. 'It was as if the entire country was walking’

Months after walking home 800 kilometres in terrible conditions, migrant labourers in Maharashtra’s Gondia district recall their journey on foot from Telangana during the April-June period of the lockdown

January 5, 2021 | Jaideep Hardikar

In the Sundarbans, a tiger-shadowed wedding
• South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

124. In the Sundarbans, a tiger-shadowed wedding

Priyanka Mondal recently got married in the Sundarbans' Rajat Jubilee village amid memories of her father, Arjun Mondal, whose death in a tiger attack in 2019 has left his family struggling with sorrow and finances

January 4, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee

Hoping against hope in Kamathipura
• Central Mumbai, Maharashtra

123. Hoping against hope in Kamathipura

Sex workers in Kamathipura have been struggling to give their children a life of dignity. Here is a poem inspired by two stories about the realities faced by these women caught in a pandemic of misery

December 28, 2020 | Pratishtha Pandya

Online classes, offline class divisions
• Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

122. Online classes, offline class divisions

Students living in the Ambujwadi slum in north Mumbai are struggling with online classes for months, while also working to support their families after their parents' income was hit by the lockdown and its aftermath

December 24, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli

Such a long journey, over and over again
and • Central Mumbai, Maharashtra

121. Such a long journey, over and over again

When Vikram, 15, ran away from home in August, his mother, a sex worker in Kamathipura, brought him back again – he has run away before, tried odd jobs, got into fights – all in a desperate effort to build a life

December 19, 2020 | Aakanksha

120. Lallan Paswan: trying to pull on in Kolkata

Despite the government's attempts to restrict hand-pulled rickshaws, lockdown losses, and bare earnings, Lallan Paswan continues to do this arduous work to support his family in Bihar’s East Champaran district

December 17, 2020 | Puja Bhattacharjee

119. And you thought it’s only about farmers?

The new farm laws disable the right to legal recourse of all citizens, not just farmers – to an extent unseen since the 1975-77 Emergency. The farmers at Delhi’s gates are fighting for the rights of us all

December 10, 2020 | P. Sainath

118. The conjuring: making your brother disappear

Street magicians Gulab and Shahzad Shaikh perform magic tricks and a disappearing act in West Bengal's Nadia district – but the one thing they can’t make disappear is hunger

December 9, 2020 | Soumyabrata Roy

117. Learning lessons from an un-amputated spirit

Last year, gangrene cost Pratibha Hilim all four limbs. But this Adivasi teacher in Palghar, Maharashtra, has continued undaunted, teaching students who have little chance of an ‘online education’, at her own home

December 3, 2020 | Shraddha Agarwal

116. Palghar protests: 'We won't back down today'

On November 26, farmers from Adivasi communities gathered for a rasta roka in Maharashtra's Palghar district, in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Haryana-Delhi, and with their own 21-demand charter

November 28, 2020 | Shraddha Agarwal

115. Labouring to a Degree in the fields of Bidar

Dalits and Adivasis with hard-earned and loan-funded BTech, BEd, MBA, LLB and other degrees have lost their pre-lockdown jobs and are now doing MGNREGA work in northeastern Karnataka’s Bidar district

November 24, 2020 | Tamanna Naseer

114. School 2020: mapping futures in the lockdown

In parts of Odisha and Jharkhand, learning during the pandemic throws up surprising lessons for everyone

November 14, 2020 | PARI Education Team
'Everyone knows what happens here to girls'
and • Central Mumbai, Maharashtra

113. 'Everyone knows what happens here to girls'

Soni came home to find that her five-year-old child had been sexually abused, though she and other sex workers in Mumbai's Kamathipura have tried to keep their kids safe while coping with lockdown-hit incomes

November 8, 2020 | Aakanksha
In Kashmir, no migrants to reap rice harvest
and • Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir

112. In Kashmir, no migrants to reap rice harvest

It's been a tough paddy harvest in Central Kashmir. Skilled migrant workers, who charge less than local labourers, were driven out by the lockdowns, and farmers here are thinking of giving up on the crop

October 29, 2020 | Muzamil Bhat

111. The down but not out dhakis of the Durga Puja

The traditional drummers of rural Bengal are having a hard time in Kolkata this season

October 26, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

Maa Durga marching as migrant labourer
• Nadia and Kolkata, West Bengal

110. Maa Durga marching as migrant labourer

A Durga Puja pandal in Behala, Kolkata, has the goddess in a unique avatar

October 26, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

109. Burying 1,100 bodies and loads of prejudice

With a lot of stigma and hostility disrupting several Covid-19 funerals, in Tamil Nadu a voluntary group has helped hundreds of families conduct the rites regardless of religion or caste

October 22, 2020 | Kavitha Muralidharan

One nation, no ration card
and • Darbhanga, Bihar

108. One nation, no ration card

Rukhsana Khatoon, a domestic worker in Delhi, has tried for years to get a ration card in her husband's village in Bihar – and is now desperate for it with her family in a downward spiral due to the lockdown

October 20, 2020 | Sanskriti Talwar

The slowly disappearing students of Sundarbans
• South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

107. The slowly disappearing students of Sundarbans

The odds are stacked against schooling in villages here – recurring cyclones, growing salinity that hits farming and fishing, the lockdown – all add to drop-out rates, early marriages and students seeking work

October 10, 2020 | Sovan Daniary

Lockdown lays waste to Kalu Das's scrap work
and • South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

106. Lockdown lays waste to Kalu Das's scrap work

Some weeks ago, Kalu Das – who travels from his village to Kolkata to collect items for recycling – resumed his rounds. But business is bleak, profits are tiny, his wife has lost her job, and the family is struggling

October 7, 2020 | Puja Bhattacharjee

Rocking the boat in Srinagar’s Dal Lake
and • Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir

105. Rocking the boat in Srinagar’s Dal Lake

For the Dal Lake economy, the Covid-19 lockdown during tourist season came right after last year's Article 370 shutdown, and it has left shikarawalas, houseboat owners and shopkeepers with heavy losses and no work

October 3, 2020 | Adil Rashid

No stitch in time for Bengaluru tailors
and • Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal

104. No stitch in time for Bengaluru tailors

With no income in the lockdown, Abdul Sattar and other embroiderers in Bengaluru were desperate to return to their West Bengal village. Now, with no work in the village, Sattar is desperate to come back to the city

September 30, 2020 | Smitha Tumuluru

Ashok Taare: denied leave, departs permanently
and • Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

103. Ashok Taare: denied leave, departs permanently

Despite Covid-19 symptoms, Ashok Taare, a sanitation worker in Mumbai, was forced to work without safety gear or leave. His family ran around for help, and months after his death on May 30, await compensation

September 29, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli
'To repair a watch is like mending time itself'
and • Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

102. 'To repair a watch is like mending time itself'

Watch menders at Visakhapatnam's Jagdamba Junction have seen work vanish due to digital timepieces and use-and-discard parts. And now, after lockdown curbs, they are trying to make up for lost time

September 24, 2020 | Amrutha Kosuru

101. UP Covid-19 survivors test positive for stigma

In UP, Covid-19 survivors, including returning migrants, struggle with costly treatment, dirty quarantine centres, social stigma, even religious discrimination. Many long to go back to their host towns

September 1, 2020 | Jigyasa Mishra

100. 'We don’t have a home to stay at home’

For this group of nomadic pastoralist Dhangar families in Maharashtra, the lockdown brought a drop in sales of sheep, restricted access to village grounds, and depleted rations – but they have tried to move on

August 28, 2020 | Shraddha Agarwal

99. Vizag potters: idols of clay, immersion in debt

The artisans in this AP city usually earn the most during the festival season – starting with Ganesh Chaturthi today. But they have not received a single bulk order for Ganesh idols and other products so far this year

August 22, 2020 | Amrutha Kosuru

98. Mumbai's homeless: 'Our masks floated away'

Meena and her family, living on a pavement, are among the city’s many homeless persons, with bare incomes and little access to healthcare or state schemes – and now struggling with the monsoon and the pandemic

August 21, 2020 | Aakanksha

97. Lockdown hits Kolkata children’s hospital

Hamstrung by lockdown logistics, with just 40 per cent staff reporting due to the social stigma affecting healthcare workers, and despite financial problems, the Institute of Child Health soldiers on

August 18, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

A melting pot of lockdown losses
and • West Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi

96. A melting pot of lockdown losses

The Ganpati festival starting this week, then Durga Puja and Diwali, were peak seasons for potters in Delhi's Uttam Nagar. Now, they are looking at a period of poor sales, as are potters in Kachchh and West Bengal

August 17, 2020 | Srishti Verma

95. ASHAs: labouring through the lockdown

In Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district, ASHA workers have been working overtime to monitor the spread of Covid-19 despite poor safety gear and delayed payments – along with their usual load as frontline health workers

August 13, 2020 | Ira Deulgaonkar

94. In UP: ‘Half Karnataka and half Andhra’

Birendra Singh and Ramdekali, who ran a paani-puri stall in AP, returned home to UP during the lockdown. They are now in debt, anxious about their kids' education, and unsure about how to proceed

August 12, 2020 | Riya Behl

93. 'We didn’t bleed him enough’

A major problem in this Covid crisis is not about how soon we can return to normal. For hundreds of millions of poor Indians, the ‘normal’ was the problem. And the new normal is often the old normal on steroids

August 10, 2020 | P. Sainath

92. Coping with a deadly virus – a social one, too

The home-hospital-quarantine-home journeys of Covid-19 patients are not always the same for people from different communities. PARI traces the stories of of two families in Maharashtra's Marathwada region

August 8, 2020 | Parth M.N.

91. 'If we don’t work, who'll produce the harvest?'

With kharif cultivation of paddy underway, labourers are back in the fields of Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh. They know about Covid-19 precautions, but say they can't afford to not work

August 8, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur
Running after ration cards in a maze in MP
and • Umaria, Madhya Pradesh

90. Running after ration cards in a maze in MP

Dashrath Singh, a farmer and labourer in Umaria district, has been unable to procure a ration card despite multiple attempts and expenses. His is one of MP’s many BPL families caught in a tangle of forms and offices

August 6, 2020 | Akanksha Kumar

In the Sundarbans, taken by a storm
, and • South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

89. In the Sundarbans, taken by a storm

Many have left their villages in the Sundarbans in recent years after floods and cyclones have taken away their land, homes and livelihoods – Amphan, in the midst of the lockdown, was the fourth in two decades

August 1, 2020 | Sovan Daniary

88. Labourers’ lives: migrating feet, settled grief

So who is that migrant – the person the media discovered on March 25? An agonisingly perceptive look at that question through the prism of a childhood and lived experience in Mumbai

July 27, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli
'What should my family do?'
and • Palghar, Maharashtra

87. 'What should my family do?'

In the Adivasi cluster of Boranda village, Vanita Bhoir and her family, who migrate to work in the brick kilns of Maharashtra, have run out of work options, food and money – and are running low on hope too

July 21, 2020 | Mamata Pared

86. In Palghar: ‘two less stomachs to feed’

The lockdown saw demand for labour shrink for the Katkaris, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. That may have pushed Mangal Wagh to kill her own daughter and herself

July 20, 2020 | Parth M.N.

85. Seeing ‘the world through touch’ in a pandemic

Vimal and Naresh Thackeray, both visually impaired, used to sell handkerchiefs on Mumbai’s local trains. The lockdown left them, and many others, with no income, little government support and great uncertainty

July 10, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli

84. Sitting idol in locked-down Kumartuli

Business has come to a standstill in Kumartuli, Kolkata’s historic potters’ colony, with almost no demand for Maa Durga idols and other statues. Artisans, vendors and labourers are looking at a season of huge losses

July 09, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

83. With rhyme and reason – rap song for migrants

In Kalahandi district, Duleshwar Tandi – ‘Rapper Dule Rocker’ – a tuition teacher, construction worker and occasional migrant, expresses anguish through this song at the plight of migrants in the lockdown

July 04, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur
Locked down AP farmers going bananas
and • Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

82. Locked down AP farmers going bananas

Banana farmers in Anantapur district were expecting a good price after a robust rabi harvest this year. Instead, some bad weather and then the lockdown have left them with huge losses and debt

July 01, 2020 | G. Ram Mohan

81. Schoolkids: digital divide to digital partition

What does the rush to ‘online education’ look like on the ground in a poor Adivasi area like Talasari in Maharashtra’s Palghar district? PARI explores how that further spurs already serious inequalities

June 29, 2020 | Parth M.N.

80. Songs of love for the migrant away from home

Muktabai Ubhe of Khadakwadi hamlet in Mulshi taluka, Pune, sings nine ovi about a wife’s love and longing for her husband, who has gone away in search of work

June 26, 2020 | Namita Waikar and PARI GSP Team

79. Memories of pox, plague, and pandemics in TN

From Tamil writer Cho Dharman, an invaluable oral history of how villages over centuries engaged with viruses, plagues and epidemics – relating that to the current Covid-19 pandemic and life under lockdown

June 25, 2020 | Aparna Karthikeyan

78. Lockdown has hit UP women hard – literally

The lockdown has seen a rise in domestic violence in a country where it was anyway endemic. PARI listens to women at the receiving end in Mahoba, Lucknow and Chitrakoot districts of Uttar Pradesh

June 23, 2020 | Jigyasa Mishra
Lockdown forces Eeswar to climb trees again
and • Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

77. Lockdown forces Eeswar to climb trees again

With only 10-15 days of sales this year due to the lockdown, and fewer customers buying ice apples, vendors in Visakhapatnam have lost out on a chunk of their income from selling the popular summer fruit

June 22, 2020 | Amrutha Kosuru

76. Karnataka silk route: cocoon farmers in crisis

At Asia’s largest cocoon market in Ramanagara, Karnataka, a lockdown-driven steep fall in prices and disruption of the demand-supply chain has badly hit weavers, reelers and, particularly, silkworm farmers

June 21, 2020 | Tamanna Naseer

75. Under the over in a time of cyclone and corona

Despite Cyclone Amphan, no income due to the lockdown and Covid fears, Sarita Sardar preferred to evade hostile cops and poor shelter facilities, and returned to her home under Kolkata’s Gariahat flyover

June 18, 2020 | Puja Bhattacharjee

74. Dealing with dissonance, restoring harmony

Several hereditary harmonium repairmen – now a very rare occupation – from Jabalpur, MP, were trapped in Renapur, Maharashtra, for over two months due to the lockdown. They tell PARI how they coped

June 15, 2020 | Ira Deulgaonkar

73. Feet of clay: Chhattisgarh's potters, locked down

In Dhamtari town, potters missed their peak summer sales season due the lockdown, when making and selling pots became difficult. Despite markets now opening in Chhattisgarh, they are facing an uncertain year.

June 15, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

72. I am a labourer, not a liability

The mass exodus of millions of migrant labourers following the March 25 lockdown continues to fire the imagination of poets and painters. This poem rebukes our many hypocrisies in dealing with workers

June 15, 2020 | Anjum Ismail
Off guard: Nepal migrants in locked down AP
, and • West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh

71. Off guard: Nepal migrants in locked down AP

With no income during the lockdown, Suresh Bahadur, a security guard in AP's Bhimavaram town, struggled with depleting supplies, sickness and uncertainty about returning home – across the border, to Nepal

June 11, 2020 | Riya Behl

70. Another brick in Telangana's lockdown wall

Kuni Tamalia and other kiln workers in Telangana’s Sangareddy district continued their arduous work in the lockdown. But with kids to care for and Covid fears, they were anxious to board a Shramik Special for Odisha

June 11, 2020 | Varsha Bhargavi

69. The migrant and the moral economy of the elite

The lockdown has revealed the brutality of India's chronic disregard for the rights of migrant labourers – millions who don't need our passing concern, but full justice, says this article, first published in India Today

June 8, 2020 | P. Sainath

68. 'Stay and do nothing or go back to do nothing?'

A day after migrant construction workers Amoda and Rajesh reached their new workplace in Bengaluru, the lockdown began – leaving them with no wages and nowhere to go. A PARI report by high school students

June 8, 2020 | Asba Zainab Shareef and Sidh Kavedia

67. Cash crops, Covid and the cost of unsold cotton

Huge quantities of cash crops lie unsold across India – like cotton in Maharashtra. A hunger crisis looms, yet farmers in Vidarbha a plan to sow cotton, not food crops, once again this kharif season

June 5, 2020 | Jaideep Hardikar

66. No fireworks, but alcohol adds fuel to the virus

Like many Arunthathiyar women in TN’s Virudhunagar, Devi Kankaraj works at a fireworks factory in Sivakasi. The lockdown left her with no income, depleting rations, piling debt and an alcoholic husband

June 04, 2020 | S. Senthalir
When the water chased people like a mad bull
• South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

65. When the water chased people like a mad bull

In the Sundarbans in West Bengal, Cyclone Amphan came atop the Covid-19 lockdown. PARI visited the region and found widespread destruction of trees, houses and utilities – and of people’s already-frayed livelihoods

June 03, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Iron in the migrants’ soul
• Aurangabad, Maharashtra

64. Iron in the migrants’ soul

The tragedy of the 16 migrant labourers run over by a train near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, on May 8, still haunts us. This moving poem and compelling painting remind us of that dreadful incident

May 31, 2020 | Gokul G. K.

63. Rising dust, itchy skin, sweat-soaked masks

How do you adhere to distancing norms if you are labourers at a procurement centre – like these men in Telangana’s Nalgonda district – who need close teamwork to handle 213 kilograms of paddy a minute?

May 30, 2020 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha

'These women won't let anyone go hungry'
• Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

62. 'These women won't let anyone go hungry'

In lockdown time, Kerala’s 400-plus ‘Kudumbashree Hotels’, give cheap but wholesome meals to people low on income – students, medical attendants, security guards, drivers of ambulances and many others

May 28, 2020 | Gokul G. K.

61. Homeward bound through the centre of India

Many of the millions who’ve hit the highways under the lockdown are going to thousands of villages in northern and eastern states. A huge number of them pass through the city of Nagpur, centre of India

May 27, 2020 | Sudarshan Sakharkar

60. Who will carry the palanquins of the rich now?

Several state governments have suspended labour laws and extended working hours, and the situation of migrant labourers has worsened. An interview with PARI's Founder Editor P. Sainath, from the Firstpost

May 27, 2020 | Parth M.N.

'We went from a handful to nothing’
and • Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir

59. 'We went from a handful to nothing’

Migrant workers in Jammu, like the Chandra family from Chhattisgarh, were left with no work when the lockdown began. They got by with rations given by nearby buildings, and are now slowly finding work again

MAY 26, 2020 | Rounak Bhat

58. Amphan meets lockdown in struggling Kolkata

The cyclonic storm that savaged West Bengal on May 20 left Kolkata struggling to clear up – because the labourers needed to do that had mostly left the city for their villages long ago due to the lockdown

MAY 25, 2020 | The PARI Team

57. Hit with cancer, Covid-19 and without shelter

Geeta and Satendar Singh came to Mumbai from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district for Geeta’s cancer treatment. Living on the footpath near Tata Memorial Hospital, both have tested positive for Covid-19

May 25, 2020 | Aakanksha

56. The photographer writes – for better or verse

When the lockdown enhances the suffering of human beings you’ve grown up knowing and caring about for decades, says this photographer, it forces you to express yourself in poetry, beyond the lens

May 24, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

55. Panvel to MP: Four days and nights on a scooter

Countless migrants have tried to reach home during the lockdown using any transport they could. One family journeyed 1,200 kilometres from Panvel in Maharashtra to Reva district in MP on a two-wheeler

May 23, 2020 | Parth M.N.

54. Lockdown leads to makeshift market in Tehatta

People in ‘hotspots’ have adapted to lockdown-driven closures of the bazaars they depend on. In West Bengal’s Nadia district, vendors have created a temporary market selling vegetables and other fresh produce

May 22, 2020 | Soumyabrata Roy

53. 'We don’t fear coronavirus or the heat now’

When their wages stopped and then food ran out, workers from Gaya, Bihar, employed in restaurants in Varanasi, made their slow way home – while others from the district remain stranded in faraway Tamil Nadu

May 22, 2020 | Rituparna Palit

52. 'What's the use of this ration card?'

When even their paltry income stopped due to the Covid-19 lockdown, and their BPL ration cards were rejected at PDS outlets, April was the cruelest month for Gayabai Chavan and others in Pune

May 19, 2020 | Jitendra Maid

51. You can’t lockdown this mother of all smiles

In those huge lines of migrants walking determinedly along the Mumbai-Nashik highway in Maharashtra, the image of this extraordinary mother sparked the imagination of the artist

May 18, 2020 | Labani Jangi

50. The long march of the locked-down migrants

This haunting song by Aadesh Ravi, Hyderabad-based composer, lyric writer and singer, is surely one of the most powerful cries that’s emerged about the lockdown-driven migrations across India

May 16, 2020 | Aadesh Ravi

49. Ironed out of an income in Vada this lockdown

For families in Vada town of Palghar district who make a living by ironing clothes, the Covid-19 lockdown has reduced daily incomes to a trickle. Many are struggling to procure rations and seeking other work

May 15, 2020 | Shraddha Agarwal

48. Jamlo's last journey along a locked-down road

A 12-year-old Adivasi girl from Chhattisgarh, working in the chilli fields of Telangana, died on April 18 after walking for three days with other labourers desperately trying to return home. PARI visits her village

May 14, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur and Kamlesh Painkra

47. Locked down in Telangana — a basket case

The Covid-19 lockdown has halted the basket trade in Telangana’s Kangal village. For now, basket makers of the Yerukuka ST community are relying on some agricultural work, and rice from the PDS and relief packages

May 13, 2020 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha
Locked-down schoolgirls: no basic needs, period
, , and • Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh

46. Locked-down schoolgirls: no basic needs, period

With schools shut, girls from poor families in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district have lost access to free sanitary napkins and are turning to risky options. In UP alone, the numbers of such girls runs to millions

May 12, 2020 | Jigyasa Mishra

45. Old lady and nephew on lockdown highway

The scenes of migrant labourers walking hundreds of kilometres from their workplaces to reach their homes, continue to haunt us. One image, though, gave this artist a sense of hope and humanity

May 11, 2020 | Labani Jangi

Locked-down with blood on the tracks
• Aurangabad, Maharashtra

44. Locked-down with blood on the tracks

The 16 labourers – 8 of them Gond Adivasis – run over by a goods train on May 8 near Aurangabad district in Maharashtra were all in their 20s and 30s, and from Umaria and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh

May 10, 2020 | Pratishtha Pandya

43. Seeking lockdown relief in Rachenahalli

Work has stopped for the migrant daily wage-earners of a slum colony in north Bengaluru, savings have run out, food is scarce – but they still have rent to pay, children to feed, and hunger that has to be quelled

May 9, 2020 | Sweta Daga

MP weavers hanging by a Chanderi thread
• Ashoknagar, Madhya Pradesh

42. MP weavers hanging by a Chanderi thread

The Covid-19 lockdown has brought the centuries-old Chanderi fabric trade in MP's Chanderi town to a standstill. Many weavers like Suresh Koli are in a fix due to no demand, unpaid dues and depleting resources

May 7, 2020 | Mohit M. Rao

41. The migrant march of red ants under lockdown

How long can one watch hungry migrant labourers stranded half-way from their villages when there is Chinese-Thai dinner waiting to be prepared at home? A poem that tears into indifference and inequality

May 6, 2020 | Pratishtha Pandya

40. MFI loans: fear and loathing in lockdown times

The poor have seen earnings plummet with Covid-19 and the lockdown. But no matter how high the distress, micro finance institutions in Marathwada continue to harass their helpless clients for loan instalments

May 4, 2020 | Parth M.N

39. In lockdown, this is no country for old men

A repairman, a weaver and a ropemaker – a Muslim, an Adivasi, and a Dalit, highly-skilled craftsmen – in Belagavi, Karnataka and Kolhapur, Maharashtra. All of them elderly and without work under the lockdown

May 4, 2020 | Sanket Jain

38. Locked-down on Labour Day: no work, no pay

A new documentary film in which the migrant labourers who make up most of the workforce on Bengaluru’s metro rail project explain their situation in Covid-19 lockdown time

May 1, 2020 | Yashashwini and Ekta

37. Dola Ram’s long and locked-down road home

Construction worker Dola Ram lost his son just after he reached his village in Rajasthan – with poor medical attention in lockdown time. Now, like other migrant labourers, he is grappling with debt and uncertainty

April 30, 2020 | Drishti Agarwal and Preema Dhurve

36. Kachchh camel herders: lockdown last straw?

What happens if you are nomadic pastoralists with huge herds of animals far away from home when the Covid-19 lockdown was enforced? The Fakirani Jats of Gujarat’s Kachchh district tell their story

April 28, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

35. Locked into the kilns, brick by brick

Thousands of migrant workers from Odisha are stranded at Telangana's brick kilns – exploitative worksites made more difficult with the lockdown – and are running out of rations and desperate to return home

April 27, 2020 | Varsha Bhargavi

AP fishermen: between lockdown and deep sea
and • Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

34. AP fishermen: between lockdown and deep sea

Fishermen in Visakhapatnam make their best profits in the two weeks before the annual April 15-June 14 ban on fishing during the breeding season. This year, that crucial period has come during the lockdown

April 26, 2020 | Amrutha Kosuru

33. Vanavil: rainbow in the storms of lockdown life

A small school in Nagapattinam has become the centre of nutrition for over 1,000 poor families in the Adivasi hamlets of that Tamil Nadu district. And its efforts are not restricted to just students

April 23, 2020 | Kavitha Muralidharan

32. Vidarbha’s pastoralists paying a pandemic price

The Nanda Gaolis and other dairy farmers in eastern Maharashtra are facing losses from the drop in demand for milk and broken supply chains, besides grappling with animal health problems and fodder shortages

April 22, 2020 | Jaideep Hardikar and Chetana Borkar

31. 'Even the boats must be missing their men’

The Covid-19 lockdown has battered the livelihoods of the Nishad boatmen of Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh. Many in the community, like Sushma Devi, a pregnant mother and widow, don’t even have ration cards

April 20, 2020 | Jigyasa Mishra

30. ASHAs: fighting a pandemic with no protection

ASHA workers in Haryana’s Sonipat district have been pushed to the frontlines of the fight against Covid-19 in a later-than-last-minute attempt to control a pandemic – with no safety gear and very little training

April 18, 2020 | Pallavi Prasad

29. Walking 104 kilometres without a break

Brick-kiln workers in Thane and Palghar, most of them Adivasi agricultural labourers, have been forced by the Covid-19 lockdown to return home with barely any income until the arrival of monsoon

April 17, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli

28. Washing their hands of hope in Citizen Nagar

The Covid-19 lockdown has come as the proverbial last straw on the backs of the already suffering community of Ahmedabad’s Citizen Nagar colony, heightening hunger and sharpening existing health risks

April 16, 2020 | Pratishtha Pandya
Bags on their heads, fear in their hearts
• Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

27. Bags on their heads, fear in their hearts

The Covid-19 lockdown-driven distress migrations have touched poets and artists alike. Here's a response

April 16, 2020 | Gokul G. K.
Wilting mahua, wasted baskets, silent haats
, and • Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh

26. Wilting mahua, wasted baskets, silent haats

The Covid-19 lockdown has shredded the fragile economy of the Kamars, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group in Chhattisgarh, who depend on a trickle of income from weaving baskets and selling mahua flowers

April 15, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

25. Lockdown burden on little shoulders in Latur

With their parents out of work or at reduced wages, school students from distressed families in Marathwada's Latur are having to sell vegetables on the streets despite the risky Covid-19 lockdown scenario

April 12, 2020 | Ira Deulgaonkar
'Now the melons are on the verge of rotting'
and • Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu

24. 'Now the melons are on the verge of rotting'

The Covid-19 lockdown has left watermelon farmers in Tamil Nadu’s Chengalpattu district in a fix. With few buyers and transporters, many are being forced to let their fruit rot or accept terribly low prices

April 11, 2020 | Sibi Arasu

23. 'Some are eating only one meal a day now'

The Covid-19 lockdown has left many daily wage workers in Bengaluru without an income or fall-back options

April 10, 2020 | Sweta Daga

22. Watermelon farmers: left with no juice

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, watermelon cultivation in Telangana was risky, with high inputs and falling rates – and now, with the lockdown, farmers, labourers and traders are facing a bleak season

April 9, 2020 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha

21. Barbers in lockdown: a hair’s breadth from ruin

In Latur district of Marathwada, the lockdown has severely hit barbers – they rely entirely on daily earnings, and for them the idea of physical distancing from their clients is unthinkable

April 8, 2020 | Ira Deulgaonkar

20. Hunger on the table, city under lockdown

The promise of free rations does not assure food on the table during the Covid-19 lockdown for domestic workers and municipal staff, many of them migrants, living in Pune's Kothrud neighbourhood

April 8 , 2020 | Jitendra Maid

19. Locking down craft: handmade, hung out to dry

Craftspeople all over the country have been hit hard by the Covid-19 lockdown. PARI speaks to weavers, dyers, toymakers and village artists from north, south, east, west and central India to gauge the fallout

April 7, 2020 | Priti David

18. The lady and the lamp – a poem for April 5

The nine-minute lights-off, lamps-on event of April 5 impacted different people in diverse ways. This was how one poet in Ahmedabad responded to it…

April 6, 2020 | Pratishtha Pandya

17. AP cops elevate Covid-19 messaging to art form

In Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, police rope in a mythological sorcerer in the battle against the coronavirus

April 6, 2020 | Rahul M.
Sundarbans: Mousani eats better in lockdown
• South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

16. Sundarbans: Mousani eats better in lockdown

A small, remote island in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, which has endured many disasters, is relying on its own resources to make it through the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown

April 5, 2020 | Abhijit Chakraborty

15. In Tamil Nadu: playing Parai on lockdown, live!

Parai artists Manimaran and Magizhini are tapping into social media to continue performing under lockdown, and spreading awareness about Covid-19 through talks and recorded videos

April 4, 2020 | Kavitha Muralidharan

14. Anantapur lockdown diary: March 19-April 3

Corona consciousness is growing very slowly in the city and district of Anantapur in the Rayalaseema region

April 3, 2020 | Rahul M.

13. Ladakhis stuck in Covid-19 test limbo in Iran

As many as 254 Indian pilgrims from Ladakh, most of them elderly, have been stranded for over a month in the city of Qom in Iran, sparking tension at home

April 2, 2020 | Stanzin Saldon

12. And miles to go before they sleep – or eat

The Covid-19 lockdown has left migrant Adivasi brick kiln workers in Maharashtra's Palghar district with little money and food – and an ultimatum from their village to return, where only uncertainty awaits them

April 1, 2020 | Mamata Pared

11. Pardhis in lockdown – begging the question

Some Phanse Pardhi Adivasis in rural Maharashtra, especially older ones in their late 70s, depend on begging to be able to eat at all. What happens now, when they cannot enter the villages that feed them?

April 1, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli

10. Where country roads don’t take you home

With the COVID-19 driven lockdown, Chenakonda Balasami and other pastoralists in Telangana, on the road for months, are finding it difficult to access food and new grazing grounds – or return to their villages

March 31, 2020 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha

9. Still cutting cane amidst corona and curfew

For the lakhs of labourers hired by the sugar factories of western Maharashtra, social distancing is a distant dream. Many in Sangli district are still chopping cane in unhygienic conditions despite the fear of Covid-19

March 30, 2020 | Parth M.N.

8. Locked down with cancer on Mumbai footpaths

With their money running out and little food and water available, cancer patients living on footpaths near the Tata Memorial Hospital are caught in the lockdown, with no way home

March 30, 2020 | Aakanksha

7. Corona refugees on a 538-kilometre journey

Some reporters in rural Chhattisgarh are trying hard to cover people migrating in distress

March 30, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

6. In Chhattisgarh: barricades as social distancing

Across parts of the Bastar region, people are setting up barricades denying entry to ‘outsiders’ – and restricting the access of even migrants returning to their own villages

March 30, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

5. Sanitation workers – the wages of ingratitude

Sanitation workers in Chennai are walking long distances to work during the lockdown, or journeying on garbage lorries. Taking leave for a day during this period invites penalties, even sacking

March 29, 2020 | M. Palani Kumar

4. 'Soaps won’t save us if we die of hunger first'

Most of the Adivasi families of Kavatepada in Palghar district survive on daily wage labour at construction sites. That work has stopped with the Covid-19 lockdown, and they are fast running out of money and rations

March 28, 2020 | Shraddha Agarwal

3. What we should do about Covid-19

The government’s ‘package’ responding to the crisis is a blend of callousness and cluelessness

March 27, 2020 | P. Sainath

2. Tuljapur's temple economy goes into viral mode

In Marathwada's Tuljapur, shopkeepers, vendors and others whose livelihoods depend on the famous temple in town, are struggling with no sales after the March 17 lockdown measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19

March 24, 2020 | Medha Kale

Essential services, expendable lives
and • Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

1. Essential services, expendable lives

That’s the story of Mumbai’s safai karamcharis on the frontlines of the battle against Covid-19. Wages delayed, and with little protective gear, they’re still clearing garbage even in the toxic air of the Mahul area.

March 23, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli