Married at an early age of 15, Rinku Devi of Khagaria was taking the entire responsibility of her household. Like most women of her age in the village, she accepted this as her destiny. One day she was contacted by some women who came in the CRP drive to form new SHGs in her village, she was approached to become an SHG member which required her to attend the group meeting and save Rs.10 every week.

Introduction Kodasiya Gram Panchayat is located in Lailunga block of Raigarh District. While 95% of households primarily depend on agriculture, only 5% have irrigation facilities. The villagers mainly relied on rainfall for cultivation. The farmers were facing problems due to the degradation of natural resources and low agricultural production. The water conservation approach in cultivation was in high demand. The groundwater recharge was low due to sloppy and undulating terrain and high run-off.

As many as 1660 water conservation works have been sanctioned in the district of West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, of which 1096 are in different stages of progress, according to Central Nodal Officer (CNO), Mr. Sudhaker Shukla, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development.

Augustina belonged to a low-income family, which has no agricultural lands. Her husband works as a carpenter and was the sole earning member of her family. Before her marriage, she was inspired by the work of a local voluntary organisation named as Loka Kalyan Parishad, that was working on livelihood development in her parent’s village. She got an orientation on Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), SHG formation, and Kitchen Garden from that organisation. After the orientation, she formed an SHG in her village and practiced Kitchen garden in her backyard.

Introduction Banjhimunda village is located in Kantamal block of Boudh District in Odisha. The village experiences frequent droughts and acute drinking water shortage due to its location and untimely rainfall for at least 4–6 months in a year. Frequent droughts forced people to either migrate to other places for employment or depend on forest for livelihoods. The average annual rainfall in the district is 1,510 mm but most of the rainwater received during monsoon drains away damaging agricultural fields and the main road, and it remains dry during the rest of the year.

Tamil Nadu is among the foremost states in the country to have established solid waste management (SWM) systems with collection, segregation and waste disposal facilities in all its 12,524 village panchayats. The southern state has also engaged 66,025 motivators (Thooimai Kaavalars) for door to door collection of waste, segregation into bio-degradable and non bio-degradable and safe disposal of the same.

Kismati’s family mostly depends on agriculture followed by livestock rearing, and daily wages to feed the 6-member family. Her family owns only three bighas of agricultural land. The production from this land is insufficient to attain the food security of the family. The total cereals and pulse production from her own property provides them food for only six months, and the rest of the month’s food items is purchased from outside, with the income generated through daily wages. Her family condition was so miserable that, at times, they did not have enough cash to buy food items and fulfill other basic needs. Earlier she always faced difficulties in paying school fees on time for her children.

Introduction The Mahabari Deopani area in Dooars region of West Bengal has perennial springs which are the only source of water for drinking and domestic consumption. In the last 3 years, these springs had started drying up and turned seasonal. Consequently, the homemakers had to trek upstream for about 500–700 m through sloped terrain to fetch water. Recharging of groundwater by checking run-off was found to be the only solution to rejuvenate the spring. Hence, a project to develop the upstream area for containment and slow release of run-off was undertaken by Gram Panchayat in Matiali Batabari of Matiali Development Block in Jalpaiguri District.

Participate in India’s Skill Competition, IndiaSkills 2020 and get a chance to represent India at WorldSkills Shanghai 2021 When Faruk Ahmed ran away from home at the age of 16, little did he know he would go on to represent his country one day. Scared from confronting his father about his exam result, Farukh ended up boarding a train to Bengaluru. After spending sleepless nights at shelter homes, Farukh met a steward at a baking academy. Unknown to the world of baking, he joined the house-keeping staff. With his observant eyes and mind, Farukh’s chemistry with baking thus began.

With a view to generating awareness about the importance of water conservation and the need to protect traditional water bodies, a candle light vigil was organized around the Collectorate Pond in Bhojpur district of Bihar on 3rd September, 2019.