Many villages in this Himalayan state have had their fortunes turned around by all-woman Gram Panchayats  Esha Roy Members of the Pachisi all women’s panchayat pose for a picture. Esha Roy/The Migration Story KUMAON, Uttarakhand:  Manju Bora of Jinkhola, a village in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region, proudly bears a double distinction: not only is she the first female Pradhan (elected chief) of the village but also heads the first all-woman Gram Panchayat there. The feisty 38-year

Pachgaon village in Maharashtra has tapped its forest to start a bamboo business, create jobs and arrest migration. The village pays taxes and is also making a neat profit. Roli Srivastava The bamboo depot in Pachgaon village in Maharashtra. Roli Srivastava/The Migration Story PACHGAON, Maharashtra:  It’s a little past 10 am and the sound of axes clacking against wood envelop the forest in Pachgaon in central India as axe-wielding villagers work in a collective rhythm, cuttin

Nagarik Sahayta Kendras, a collaboration between civil society organisations and the government, were launched to help villagers get jobs under MGNREGA and access dues. Today, they have expanded beyond their brief to play an invaluable role in rural Jharkhand Esha Roy Shivlal Oraon at  his mango orchard, planted under a government horticulture scheme, in Janho village in Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story. LATEHAR, Jharkhand: Surrounded by undulating hills in a corner of

India gives tribal villages rights over forest land and its produce but the laws have been poorly implemented. A union of villages in Maharashtra is now using them to guard their green cover and monetise the produce, which has arrested migration from villages Roli Srivastava Amita Madavi stands in the forest that her village is trying to protect from a mining project in Zendepar, Maharashtra. Roli Srivastava/The Migration Story ZENDEPAR, Maharashtra:  Amita Madavi, 38, doesn’