Imagine visiting a medical facility for a common urinary tract infection, an infection treatable for years, only to be informed that the antibiotic which are usually prescribed no longer work effectively. No dramatisation, no alarmist escalation, just a quiet clinical statement that the drug cannot help. This is not the stuff of futuristic dystopias, but…
India’s teenage motherhood crisis is not just about early pregnancy – it is about how poverty, anaemia, lack of nutrition, and early marriage combine to shape the lives of both young mothers and the children they raise. Using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the article shows that millions of adolescent girls in…
However, India’s dialogue on air pollution is far more developed than a decade ago. Air quality monitors display real-time PM2.5 figures on public websites. Cities release their respective plans on clean air action. People examine the pollution index before going out. However, amidst all this progress, there has been one particular aspect of the ongoing…
This story is about Gul Panag. The woman who decided that visibility, if used correctly, is not a privilege. It is a responsibility. There is a particular kind of public figures who uses attention the way most people use money carefully with intent, and never on themselves alone. Gul Panag has been that kind of…
There is a particular kind of ambition that builds for the field, the village lane, the farmer who has never once seen his soil analysed or his crop priced fairly. Shashank Kumar has carried that ambition since 2012. It is the same year he walked away from a career in management consulting. He gave up…
Every democracy has its steady hands and its showmen. Some folks make sure the government just Works; others are happy to grab the spotlight, dressing up the daily business with big words. But, once in a while, you meet a third kind someone who quietly bridges the gap between what’s written in law and what’s…
Shanta Toofani (1929-2011) was an unusual social worker, activist and educator. She completed her schooling at the age of 34, while running a household single-handedly and bringing up seven children. Having educated herself despite all odds, she was committed to educating others, with fierce love. For several decades this tiny woman stood tall, teaching children…
A recent NITI Aayog report reveals a painful reality inside India’s government schools: millions of children still study without electricity, proper toilets, or enough teachers. For many students, especially girls, school is no longer just a place of learning, but a daily struggle for dignity, safety, and the chance to stay. Every morning, millions of…
The Scale of the Shift India is in the midst of a demographic transition. Within the next five years, for the first time in human history, the number of Indian women aged 40 -55 years will exceed the number in peak childbearing age of 20-35 years. More adult women will be in a non-reproductive phase…
The First Name on the Document Laxmi Bai is the first person in her family to have a bank account in her own name. She is 41. Before the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account was opened for her in 2016 at a banking correspondent’s stall in her village in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh, money had…
