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<h2><a id="10715" linktype="page">Locked-down with blood on the tracks</a></h2><p></p><p>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</p><h5>May 10, 2020 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/pratishtha-pandya/">Pratishtha Pandya</a></h5><p></p>

Locked-down with blood on the tracks

<h2><a id="6294" linktype="page">‘Maybe someday they will appreciate my work’</a></h2><p>On the train from Beldanga to Kolkata, amid vendors of China-made trinkets, Sanjay Biswas tries to sell his hand-crafted wooden items, hoping passengers won&#39;t bargain too much and will allow him a small profit</p><h5>March 11, 2019 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/smita-khator">Smita Khator</a></h5><h2></h2>

‘Maybe someday they will appreciate my work’

<h2><a id="6279" linktype="page">Trying hard to dodge this bullet</a></h2><p></p><p>Rameshbhai Patel of Gujarat’s Kheda district might soon have to give up some of his land for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train. He and many others are strongly opposed to the project</p><h5>March 7, 2019 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/ratna">Ratna</a></h5><p></p>

Trying hard to dodge this bullet

<h2><a id="5840" linktype="page">Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days</a></h2><p></p><p>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</p><h5>December 28, 2018 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/urvashi-sarkar">Urvashi Sarkar</a></h5><p></p>

Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days

<h2><a id="5466" linktype="page">Travelling on the Firewood Express</a></h2><p></p><p>Left with few livelihood options, Adivasis and Dalits from villages on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh take the train to various towns to sell firewood and earn a few hundred rupees after a hard day</p><h5>October 9, 2018 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/akshay-gupta">Akshay Gupta</a></h5><p></p>

Travelling on the Firewood Express

<h2><a id="5364" linktype="page">Three labourers in a train</a></h2><p>Conversations from the packed Raipur-Dhamtari train, which carries daily wage workers along the 66-kilometre route. But the state has recently shortened the track, cutting off this narrow gauge lifeline for many<br/></p><h5>September 12, 2018 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/purusottam-thakur">Purusottam Thakur</a></h5>

Three labourers in a train

<a id="4807" linktype="page">Collecting 6,000 leaves a day for a living</a><p>Tulshi Bhagat of Murbichapada in Thane works 32 hours 15 times a month to sell leaves, besides doing farm work and house work – and hopes that educating her children will lift them out of this hard labour</p><h5>May 3, 2018 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/jyoti-shinoli">Jyoti Shinoli</a></h5>

Collecting 6,000 leaves a day for a living

<a id="2147" linktype="page">‘Captain Elder Brother’ and the whirlwind army</a><p>At 94, a forgotten hero of India’s struggle for freedom returns to the scene of his most daring exploit in the anti-British Raj uprising that saw a parallel government established in Satara, Maharashtra, in 1943</p><h5>October 30, 2016 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/p-sainath">P. Sainath</a></h5>

‘Captain Elder Brother’  and the whirlwind army

<h2><a id="1253" linktype="page">There&#39;s a slow, slow train coming...</a></h2><p></p><p>and if you’re on top of it, keep your head down</p><h5>April 13, 2016 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/ritayan-mukherjee">Ritayan Mukherjee</a></h5><p></p><h2></h2>

There's a slow, slow train coming...

<h2><a id="613" linktype="page">No ticket, will travel</a></h2><p></p><p>Andhra migrants search for work in Kerala</p><h5>June 15, 2015 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/rahul-m">Rahul M.</a></h5><p></p><h2></h2>

No ticket, will travel

<h2><a id="641" linktype="page">The mobile gatekeeper</a></h2><p></p><p>Meet Kanhaiyalal, a mobile gatekeeper, who opens and shuts 16 railway gates over a 68-kilometre journey</p><h5>February 5, 2015 | <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/authors/p-sainath">P. Sainath</a></h5><p></p>

The mobile gatekeeper

Train stories from rural India

دیہی ہندوستان سے ٹرین پر مبنی اسٹوریز

গ্রাম ভারতের রেল-গাথা

Mumbai

<p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.</span></span></p>


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


<p style="line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.</span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">PARI exists to change that.</span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.</span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.</span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

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Train stories from rural India

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