A craft workshop for Santal women in Purulia: Determined to overcome poverty – West Bengal

This is the first time we have ventured out of traditional art/craft, but there is a connection because the skills necessary for this craft are traditional and the primary material, familiar.  We plan to revisit these villages in a few months to monitor progress.

Water is a huge problem in one of the villages. One tube well services the entire village – and let us not even talk of the so-called toilets made by the government. […]

The trainers were Santal women and even they, having gotten conditioned to their more developed surrounds in Birbhum and Barddhaman, from where they hail, were unable to live in the toilet-less villages of their Purulia sisters and also observed their poverty.

Source: courtesy Ratnaboli Bose, Daricha Foundation (by email, 5 October 2018)

“Cover Your Country” by PARI: Rural people speak about their lives through photos, narratives, film, and audio materials >>

Video | “I saw women working 90 per cent of the time. They did backbreaking jobs for which you need an erect spine,” says P. Sainath in Visible Work, Invisible Women: Bricks, coal and stone | RuralIndiaOnline.org >>

In Marginalised but not Defeated, Tarun Kanti Bose (a seasoned public interest journalist) asserts that “the mainstream development paradigm is being questioned and new rainbows of collective, community reassertions are happening across the tribal belt in India. More so, in most cases, led by brave, empowered and resilient women.” | Learn more: https://countercurrents.org/2023/05/book-review-marginalised-but-not-defeated >>

“In less than 200 years, photography has gone from an expensive, complex process to an ordinary part of everyday life. From selfies to satellites, most of the technology we use and spaces we inhabit rely on cameras. […] While photographic documentation can aid in shaping history, it can also be a window into the horrors of the past.” – Read more or listen to Butterfly Effect 9 – The Camera on CBC Radio Spark 26 May 2023 >>

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Tribal customs, homes and ornaments in South India: Videos and photographs by Vicky Lakshmanan

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