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This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods. Every day it seems we spend more and more of our lives in front of a screen. While technology already played a large role in our daily lives pre-COVID, the pandemic has accelerated the entry of technology into many sectors, and education in particular. Practically overnight, digital technologies moved from a supplementary classroom aid to the forum through which the entirety of instruction…

This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods. Periods are not a new phenomenon. They are a regular part of most women’s adolescence and adulthood. But for millions of rural women, the onset of menstruation is associated with a significant decrease in quality of life. Lack of access to menstrual hygiene is the fifth biggest killer of women in the world each year. And for those who continue to live with…

Impact organisations across the country are working towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Samvāda: Dialogue for Impact is an initiative by IndiVillage to facilitate dialogue, ideation, networking, and collaboration between impact organisations. The first Samvāda session was initiated in August 2019 and included participants from recognised organisations such as Ashoka Changemakers, Amani Institute as well a presentation from our own CEO Smita Malipatil. The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for dialogue and learning between impact organisations as a way to cope with the increasing challenges. To support this need, Samvāda: Dialogue for Impact has decided to focus on ‘Problems and Solutions During the…

This article is part of our Rural Reset Series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods.  For the nearly half million Indians who were employed at the start of the pandemic, work looks a little different than it did a few months ago. An estimated 122 million Indians lost their jobs at the start of the national lockdown in April, primarily small traders and wage laborers. The images of the millions of migrant workers forced to endure starvation, dehydration…

This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods. In pre-independent India, in the quaint village of Naigoan, a nine-year-old girl was married off with no education to support her. Despite oppression by the British, class divisions, the roaring caste system and knee-deep gender inequality, this warrior founded with her husband, at the age of 17, the first school for girls in India. Savitribai Phule, widely considered the mother of Indian feminism,…

This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods. Introduction:  In our increasingly digital world, access to mobile technology and the internet is no longer optional. Over the last few years, broadband internet access has emerged as on-par with other public utilities such as water and electricity in its necessity to participate in the economy and society at-large. Digital payments and mobile money transactions are estimated to grow by 20% to a…

This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods.  The problem with traditional subject learning  Rural schools currently provide 21st century students with a 20th century education. The challenges of our modern world require leaders armed with the ability to think in interdisciplinary, innovative ways. The only way to address issues such as climate change, global inequality, widespread technological innovation and the prospect of future pandemics will be through analytical, well-reasoned decision-making.…

This article is part of our Rural Reset series, where we evaluate forward-looking, long-term solutions to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. Check out our LinkedIn page every Wednesday to find proposals for innovative solutions in the areas of education, gender and livelihoods. Women are the backbone of rural society. From their crucial roles as caregivers and mothers to their high levels of participation in the rural workforce, it is clear the importance of these women to the functioning of their communities. But in spite of their important contributions, rural women remain highly disadvantaged in comparison to their male counterparts. Rural women encounter numerous barriers to…

Introducing Rural Reset The world looks a little different than it did 4 months ago. The COVID-19 crisis has entirely uprooted many of the basic economic, political and social structures of society. Some systems no longer work in this “new normal.” Others weren’t working before, with the crisis shedding a new light on their inadequacies. And yet, now more than any time in recent memory, we are presented with an opportunity to think about change. At this singular moment, we find it more important than ever to adopt a long-term mindset to the issues and challenges facing the people of rural India. With that in mind, we are launching the…

Nelson Mandela rightly said that  ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ The result of quality education is not just a transfer of knowledge, but follows an overall personality growth of a child to a fully grown individual. Unfortunately, quality education is but a privilege for a vast majority of rural India. It is now a dire requirement in order to eradicate poverty and illiteracy, increase awareness, capacity, enhance standards of living, and provide a path for holistic development. This is why the United Nations classifies quality education as the foundation of Sustainable Development in their SDGs 2030. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4:…