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Pic Credit: Roli Srivastava

Reportage

31 October2025

‘Missed Opportunity’: Why a polluted Indian town awaits a thermal plant’s revival

The closure of a thermal plant disrupted small businesses in Odisha’s Talcher, serving as a cautionary tale for what lies ahead for regions dependent on fossil fuels if India doesn’t start work on a post-coal future now

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Roli Srivastava

Analysis

31 October 2025

Understanding migration through public datasets

Understanding India’s migration patterns is critical but are there any systematic ways to measure and record the counts, reasons, destinations, and timing of movement to understand migration patterns? And why should citizens and governments care?

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Pic Credit: Yashita SIngh

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Video

31 October 2025

Inside Bengaluru’s Powerlooms: Migrant Lives Running on Shifts and Dust

Working up to 12 hours a day for meagre wages, labourers from Bihar, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh operate looms in Bengaluru. But behind every metre of fabric lies a story of exploitation — unsafe working conditions, long shifts, and lives spent in debt and silence.

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Miriam Rachel Mathew

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Karuna Sarasuwathi Kumarappan

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Deekshith R Pai

Pic Credit: Nidhi Jamwal

Reportage

28 October2025

‘We will develop our forest villages’: Adivasis in Odisha’s forests say no to relocation and forced migration

Tribal villages in Similipal Tiger Reserve have for decades been relocated outside the reserve to protect its wildlife, but 43 gram sabhas are opposing these evictions and demanding development

Nidhi Jamwal

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Pic Credit: NandKumar Pawar

Reportage

24 October2025

Killing fish, choking livelihoods: the scourge of plastic

Increasing plastic pollution in the sea has added to the many challenges faced by traditional fishers, forcing them to migrate from a Nature-based livelihood to daily-wage and blue-collar jobs

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Ravleen Kaur

Varsha Singh

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Jisha Elizabeth

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Podcast

24 October 2025

The Story Behind 'Homebound'

Journalist-writer Basharat Peer's op-ed in New York Times in 2020 inspired the film Homebound, which is now India's official entry to the Oscars. On this podcast he talks about his connection with the story and the families of the two friends, now immortalised on the big screen

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Roli Srivastava

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Video

24 October 2025

From migrant worker to medical student: a tribal boy from Odisha scripts history

Shubham Sabar was working at a construction site in Bengaluru when he learned he had cracked NEET exam. As he prepares to join the medical college in Odisha, the 19-year-old's family celebrates, but also worries about the years ahead without his income

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Pic Credit: Rosey Mukherjee

Reportage

14 October2025

‘Karam reminds us of who we are’: A festival helps Bengaluru’s Adivasi migrants feel at home

More than 1,000 migrant workers gather together every year in Bengaluru for a harvest festival that celebrates their Adivasi culture and helps them forget about their hardships for a while

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Rosey Mukherjee

Pic Credit: Rukmani Pujari

Reportage

10 October2025

Uncertainty awaits migrant workers in the ‘Manchester of India’

Bhiwandi’s powerloom sector, previously battered by demonetisation, GST and Covid, could take another beating from the U.S. tariffs, which is worrying migrant workers and factory owners

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Analysis

08 October 2025

The Girl on the Flyover

A chance interaction with a small child on a rainy evening has a researcher weigh in on challenges of survival and the lived reality of exclusion of migrant workers in urban India

Dr Madhusudan Nag

Dr Madhusudan Nag

Analysis

22 September 2025

The Quiet Exit of Rain-fed Farming

Rain-fed farming has traditionally escaped policy and funding attention, though it engages more than 60% of India’s farmers. In Karnataka’s Koppal, it now finds itself competing with state-backed solar farms for real estate, at a considerable social cost

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Pic credit: Bhargavi S Rao

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Pic Credit: Bansari Kamdar

Reportage

26 September 2025

Migrants return home as Diamond City loses lustre

Thousands of diamond workers have left Surat as the processing hub grapples with sanctions on Russia, falling exports, and U.S. tariffs.

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Analysis

22 September 2025

The Quiet Exit of Rain-fed Farming

Rain-fed farming has traditionally escaped policy and funding attention, though it engages more than 60% of India’s farmers. In Karnataka’s Koppal, it now finds itself competing with state-backed solar farms for real estate, at a considerable social cost

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Pic credit: Bhargavi S Rao

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Pic Credit: Bansari Kamdar

Reportage

19 September 2025

Rains, recession, automation lead to job drought at Ahmedabad’s labour nakas

Even as thousands of informal-sector workers struggle amid the construction slowdown in Gujarat, the government spent less than 20% of its labour cess funds for workers’ welfare last year

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Earth Shift

15 September 2025

AI’s hidden thirst: the water and power cost of data centres

Data centres worldwide consume vast amounts of electricity and water, potentially straining resources. With AI’s growth, the footprint is set to balloon.

Stephin Thomas

Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

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Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Pic Credit: Anuradha Nagaraj

Reportage

09 September 2025

Not so clean: Why workers are leaving India’s green energy projects

Many young migrant workers are signing up to construct renewable energy parks in India, but wage delays and lack of amenities is forcing them to quit their jobs within months

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Anuradha Nagaraj

Reportage

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Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons

Video

05 September 2025

Meet Rajasthan’s Migrant Families Who Shape Ganpati idols

Idol makers from the Mogiya community from Kumbhalgarh in Rajasthan migrate to Pune every year to sculpt idols for Ganesh Chaturthi.

Stephin Thomas

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Podcast

05 September 2025

Not so sweet: From "remedy" for workers to labour exploitation in the sugar sector

Archana Kotecha, founder and CEO of The Remedy Project discusses the ways in which global supply chains are linked with abusive working conditions

namrata raju

Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Analysis
& Data

2 3 4 5

Podcast & Videos

Analysis & Data

28 July 2025

From Gurgaon to Chicago, a global wake-up call on floods

More cities are flooding under heavy rains, but drainage, zoning,
and warning systems lag far behind.

Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

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Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Reportage

24 July 2025

Kannada gottu: Belonging in Bengaluru

Speaking the local language is asafety net for migrant workers in a linguistically-charged metropolis, but learning it in a classroom is not an option for many

Maitreyee Boruah

Maitreyee Boruah

Pic credit: Maitreyee Boruah

By Invitation

24 July 2025

Carrier of culture of weapon of politics

‘Let governments rest assured that we as a people have remained beautifully unified through all these times. It is not language that has ever divided us’

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Pic credit: Renu Desai

By Invitation

30 June 2025

The overlooked housing crisis of migrant workers

Migrant worker communities in cities occupy precarious residences, ranging from informal rentals, employer-provided rooms or squatting on vacant lands. Can cities be reimagined to provide them dignified housing?

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Photo Essay

20 June 2025

The Homecoming

A grandmother traces her grandfather’s migration journey from over a century ago to better understand her equal love for avial, payasam and litti chokha.

Pic credit: Sarayu Subramanian

Analysis & Data

16 June 2025

The everyday servitude of domestic workers

Domestic workers, largely women, go from their family to another family system to slave. There is an urgent need to regulate their wages, working hours and working conditions

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Podcast

16 June 2025

The big India melt: from heat stress to the politics of shade

As heatwaves sweep across large swathes of India, Aditya Valiathan Pillai, a doctoral researcher at King’s College London discusses Heat Action Plans of cities and the politics of shade

namrata raju

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Pic credit: T. Aruna

Reportage

03 June 2025

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In furnace-like factories, the struggle for water and wage

Workers in spinning mills suffer from headaches, dehydration, infections and worse due to intense heat, poor ventilation and a lack of cooling, with little access to health services or time off

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Pic credit: T. Aruna

Reportage

03 June 2025

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In furnace-like factories, the struggle for water and wage

Workers in spinning mills suffer from headaches, dehydration, infections and worse due to intense heat, poor ventilation and a lack of cooling, with little access to health services or time off

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Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons

Analysis

23 April 2025

India’s Urban Heat Plans Are Growing—But So Is Concrete

From green shades to cold wards, municipalities are experimenting with measures to cope with rising heat. But the long-term solution lies in more climate-sensitive urban development.

Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

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Picture courtesy: Rohit Chauhan

Reportage

11 November 2024

Exploited and abused: The alarming vulnerability of Gujarat’s migrant female workers

Tribal women working under the exploitative ‘bhagiya’ system in Gujarat are very often sexually exploited by powerful landowners and silenced by threats and gangs that force out-of-system settlements

Rohit Chauhan

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Video

10 October 2024

Playing god

In the migrant neighbourhoods of New Delhi, workers don the role of characters from the Ramayana, enthralling audiences with their performances at the annual Ramleela. Workers and their families come together for a cultural experience resonant of life back home

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Photo Essay

07 October 2024

Work and Worship

Hundreds of people migrate from rural West Bengal to Kolkata to meet the spike in demand for labour during its biggest celebration of the year: Durga Puja. Away from their families, they are integral to the festivities - from pandal decoration to making idols and transporting them

Tanmoy Bhaduri

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06 September 2024

'Climate action must be mindful of zero poverty and zero hunger goals'

Climate scientist Anjan Ray unpacks India’s clean energy goals, the impact of green energy projects on local communities and what the future holds for the country's most vulnerable.

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