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Jan 21, 2025 | 
villagesquare.in | Smriti Mukerji |Monika Marandi |Arushi Mishra |Shveta Jadhav
Driving down the scenic twelve-odd kilometres from temple town Puri to its neighbouring arts village Raghurajpur, one is greeted by quaint rural scenes of children scrambling up coconut trees and old temples built on the banks of ponds. As one nears Raghurajpur, its heritage art village status, following a two-year research and documentation project by INTACH in the year 2000, becomes more apparent.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
villagesquare.in | Arushi Mishra |Monika Marandi |Shveta Jadhav |Harshal Mankar
You probably loved the first feature of wedding gift ideas inspired by local Indian art and crafts, where we recommended art forms like Gond, Khovar, Madhubani and Phad, to name a few. India’s artistic legacy being myriad, we couldn’t recommend them all, so here’s a follow-up feature on religious paintings and home decor items that should cover your wedding gift shopping this season.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Kiranjit Kaur Jhunir |Shveta Jadhav
In village Bhari Panechan in Punjab, government school children from all over the state gather to participate in the annual Bal Mela. Introduced in 2010, this ‘Bal Mela’ (children’s fair) has been celebrated in various districts of Punjab every year since. More than 17 such events have been organised in which over 1500 students have taken part.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Shveta Jadhav |Nasir Yousufi
On the southern edge of the Indian subcontinent, where the Western Ghats meet the Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu, a delicate phenomenon unfolds twice every year — butterfly migration. Beyond the known migrations of birds and fishes, this lesser-known journey of butterflies weaves a captivating narrative. Of the 250 migratory butterfly species worldwide, around 60 are found in India.
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Dec 20, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Shveta Jadhav |Nasir Yousufi |Hiren Kumar Bose
Sheela Devi was just 15 when her family got her married. She had completed her schooling the previous year.She had also learned the basics of stitching at Ursuline Convent School at Dorma village in Khunti administrative block of Jharkhand. “My husband and I were asked to leave his family home and live elsewhere. We came and settled in Pakna in 1994. And the next year, I started tailoring in order to earn a living and manage my home, though I didn’t own a machine then,” recalled Sheela.
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Oct 31, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Gurvinder Singh |Jyoti Thakur |Mariaelena Figueredo |Shveta Jadhav
It is commonly called the “Ganj”. McCluskieganj is quite a mouthful. A tongue-twister as twisted as its perfect past and a tense present and future. McCluskieganj is a charming hill town perched on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand, about 65km northwest of Ranchi, and is often affectionately referred to as “Mini-England”. It bears witness to a fading legacy – that of the Anglo-Indians, once a thriving community that built the town and now stands as a mere remnant of its glorious past.
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Oct 30, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Jyoti Thakur |Mariaelena Figueredo |Shveta Jadhav
With several traditional art forms dying and those that remain unappreciated, life had become a bed of thorns for Maya Ram. He could never avail formal education owing to the financial crunch and lack of access to quality education near his village in Indergarh tehsil of Rajasthan’s Bundi district. Ram (25) learnt terracotta pottery early in his childhood – a skill passed on to children of his community through generations.
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Oct 30, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Mariaelena Figueredo |Shveta Jadhav |Nasir Yousufi
Life in the tribal Munda community in Jharkhand is synchronised with the changing rhythms of nature, the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, and not by the time on the clock. Members of the community, which lives in close harmony with nature, are often not educated and face the social evil of alcoholism. They now see education as a necessity for progress. In Chengde village of Rania block, they have found a potent means in mohalla classes.
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Oct 15, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Mariaelena Figueredo |Shveta Jadhav |Pranay Tripathi
Rina Das Baul grew up seeing her father struggle while making a living as a baul singer. Though her grandfather and father were well-known baul singers in the region, Rina, a school dropout from Paruldanga village in Birbhum district of West Bengal, never wanted to even marry one, let alone practise the art herself. Little did she know then that the vocation would bring her widespread acclaim.mRina, one of the inspiring rural women, was 13 when her father chose a baul singer groom for her.
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Oct 13, 2023 | 
villagesquare.in | Mariaelena Figueredo |Shveta Jadhav |Pranay Tripathi |Ashwini Shukla
There are a lot of aspects in which school education in urban areas is different from that in villages. For one, city schools have regular parent-teacher meetings held to help the guardians know what’s happening in the institution and how each young one is faring in studies. But in rural areas parents are not involved much in their children’s education. This gap is being bridged to some extent through the vidyalay prabandh samiti or school management committee (SMC) mechanism.
