DELHI | Through the Lens of Gender
Shreya went through panic attacks after being sexually harassed by men in Delhi, India?s national capital which is also known as the country?s most unsafe city for women. Her fear led her to look for empowerment, which she finally found. But that didn?t mean she was now safer than other women in the city.
PUNJAB’S ‘CANCEROUS’ GROWTH
Harsimranjit Singh spent much of his youth looking after his father, who had cancer. Fazilka, where he lives, is one of the 11 districts that comprise Punjab state's "cancer belt," the Malwa region. In the nearby Ferozepur district, Kuldeep Singh had to quit farming as his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
WHERE’S HOME | Being Tribal and Displaced
Kartam Kosa, a tribal man from Chhattisgarh state, and his family fled their home in 2005, when fighting between Maoist insurgents and a civilian militia, Salwa Judum, intensified. About 55,000 tribal people left their ancestral homes and found refuge in the forests of neighbouring states.
PAVITRA | An Addict is Reborn
It was out of curiosity that Pavitra tasted alcohol for the first time when he was at school. His adventure soon turned into drug abuse, addiction.... and even crime. The story of Pavitra, who lives in Punjab state's Sri Muktsar Sahib district, may resemble the stories of nearly four million people in the state who abuse substances.
SHOW ME THE WAY HOME
A young Rohingya man, Ali Johar, fled persecution in Myanmar?s Rakhine state and later made his way to India, as he had heard that Indian people and their government were kind-hearted. Did he, and his fellow refugees, experience that kindness?
SUBMERGED | A Result of Uttarakhand’s Development Projects
Sucheta Tomar, a farmer and housewife in Uttarakhand state's Lohari village, is one of the many residents who lost their ancestral homes due to a hydropower project by the state government. Their home submerged in flood water, Sucheta and her husband now live in a classroom of an abandoned school.
MOUNTAINS TO DUST | Illegal Mining in Rajasthan State
Radheshyam Shukhlawas, a farmer-turned-activist, lives in Rajasthan state?s Shukhlawas village in Kotputli district. People in his village and surrounding areas are dying one after another, as unregulated mines are causing particle pollution leading to lung diseases like silicosis…
TILL DEBT DO US PART
Deep in debt, Gurjeet Kaur’s father lost hope, and interest, in life. Kaur’s brother, who inherited the debt, followed suit. Like Kaur, thousands of women in the agricultural state of Punjab have similar stories to tell, as farming is becoming increasingly unsustainable and more and more farmers are finding themselves…
DELHI BOUND
Munna Singh, 19, a second-generation migrant worker, is a full-time supplier of water bottles and a part-time dog walker in the slums of Govindpuri, Delhi. As he is working hard to make ends meet for his family, his life resembles that of millions of interstate migrant workers in India’s capital. Here’s a day in his life.
SHATTERED DREAMS | Being Jobless in Haryana
Sunil Kumar, 22 and Neeraj Jangra, 24, are two of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed youth in the predominantly agricultural state of Haryana who have dreams tied to their ability to earn a living. Those dreams may be shattered if they continue to remain jobless, as agriculture is now largely unsustainable…
THE CASTE AND ITS COST
Jaihind, Ramesh and Baburam live in Uttar Pradesh state, which reported 12,714 cases of atrocities against #dalits in 2020, the highest in India, as per the government data. The three men, from the state’s Mahoba district, tell us what discrimination and violence look like despite legal protections they have had, on paper, for decades.
DIGGING FOR HOPE | A Farmer’s Suffering Due to Water Shortage
Sudhir Yadav is a farmer who lives in one of the 78 sub-districts of Haryana state where the groundwater is depleting faster than it can replenish. Yet, like other farmers, he had no option but to keep digging deeper and deeper into the ground in search of water for irrigation until he learned the hard way.
WOMEN SUFFER THE MOST | Rajasthan State’s Water Crisis
Few kilometres from the India-Pakistan border, people in Barmer district of the western state of Rajasthan face extreme water shortage. In scorching heat, women in this desert area spend several hours fetching water from the nearest wells. On an average, they walk about 2.5 kms to reach a water source and make many rounds each day.
LIFE IN CUSTODY | Judicial Killings in Uttar Pradesh
Police in Uttar Pradesh state arrest, on average, more than 300,000 residents each year, out of which tens of thousands end up in judicial #custody as accused. On paper, the State assumes responsibility for a person that it takes into custody, but, in reality, police and jail authorities blatantly rob detainees…
POVERTY TRAP | When Hard Work Isn’t Enough
The story of Satish Kumar, a young man who lives in a small village in Uttar Pradesh state’s Chandauli district, shows how tens of millions of people in India are trapped in the cycle of poverty, with no fault of their own. Through the story he shares in this visual, open letter, Kumar points to a critical, but unaddressed…
STRUGGLES OF TRADITIONAL FISHERMEN
Dhanushkodi is a southeast Indian coastal town abandoned during a deadly cyclone in 1964. But this ghost town awakens at dawn to the call and response songs of fishermen dragging at their fishing nets at the shore practicing the centuries-old shore seine fishing method.
This video was produced by the participants of the 'Video Literacy Workshop for Coastal Communities' alongside UNESCO, Wildlife Institute of India, Surbhi foundation and others with Newsreel Asia as a publishing and training partner.
RAHIMA | Lives Without Healthcare
Sheeraz Ali's eight-year-old daughter, Rahima, fell ill with a "mysterious" viral fever, which spread like a wild fire among children in Uttar Pradesh state's Firozabad district in August 2021. In a letter to the district administration, Ali pours out his heart as he narrates what happened after Rahima's sickness.
PORTER | Life of A Daily- Wage Worker
As railway stations now have fairly modern infrastructure and travellers use wheel trollies, the demand for porters has gone down in recent years. COVID-19 restrictions have further brought their earnings down. This first episode of a series of short films, with no dialogues …
WHY DON’T FISHERMEN USE LIFE JACKETS
Fisherman M. Lakshmi Nivash asks his fellow fishermen why they are not using life jackets while fishing. What they explain goes against the notion that fishermen don't like to use such gear.
This video was produced by the participants of the 'Video Literacy Workshop for Coastal Communities' alongside UNESCO, Wildlife Institute of India, Surbhi foundation and others with Newsreel Asia as a publishing and training partner.
SEA MEDOW STRUGGLES
Raj Kumar Rana, a Dalit Sarpanch from Nurpur Village in Punjab, has been committed to the development of his community. Despite his earnest efforts, state-level party politics have significantly hindered his progress. The Panchayati Raj system, designed to empower local communities and promote responsive governance, faces challenges when state politics intrude. In the case of Sarpanch Rana, his firm stance leads to unforeseen consequences for him and his family.