Tamil Nadu

sembedu farm-topsoil
April 27, 2023
Missing topsoil: Cost of a wedding in Tamil Nadu

In Sembedu village of Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur district, a wedding in the family can cost a farmer their land and livelihood. A family typically spends INR 3–5 lakh on a…

a man and a woman working in a field--farming and alcoholism
March 30, 2023
No itch, no alcohol: The gains of Tamil Nadu’s organic farmers

In 2016, my husband and I moved to Sembedu, a village in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur district where I had previously worked as a social sector fellow. We set up an…

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August 17, 2021
The language of profit

Raju is a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh who has been working in Madurai as a belt-walla (belt seller) for the last five years. He is one of the fifteen…

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August 3, 2021
Swimming with loan sharks

During the first wave of COVID-19, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued instructions to all financial institutions stating that they should not force people to repay their debts. As…

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April 15, 2021
Six houses for 23 families

Kallar is an Adivasi village settlement located in the Anaimalai Hills, also known as the Elephant Mountains of Tamil Nadu. The Kaadars are one of the five Adivasi communities living…

Peetagarai outside a temple
January 27, 2021
Looking for greener pastures

For the Toda people living in the upper Nilgiri plateau in Tamil Nadu, the growing forest cover—a cause for celebration anywhere else in the world—is not good news. As traditional…

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May 20, 2020
Hanging by a thread

The garment industry in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu employs nearly 4,00,000 workers from across different regions of the country. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has hit the garment…

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July 23, 2019
New cultures of worship

I was observing Pongal revelries in a village named Damkothapalli, where concrete roads are only now making their way. Sam Venkat, one of the villagers asked me to accompany him…