Hello,

On January 18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued 65 lakh property cards to residents of more than 50,000 villages across India.

On the occasion, he said, “Our government through the Svamitava yojna has made the people of our villages so capable that it can completely transform Indian rural life.”

The Svamitva scheme was launched in 2020, and aimed to use drones to map inhabited rural areas in the country. The government sought to use the records thus generated to issue property cards to residents of villages, many of whom had no documents to prove ownership over their land.

But as Vaishnavi Rathore and Nolina Minj found, reporting from Delhi, Gujarat and Jharkhand, Modi’s boastful claims are not borne out by the experiences of those who live in rural India. In village after village, individuals explained that the process had been opaque and inefficient. And the records thus generated were riddled with errors – in Delhi’s Shikarpur, for instance, a living owner had been recorded as deceased.

They found, also, that the scheme has frequently failed to take into account the varied nature of land-ownership and use in the country, including by communities and families.

“Working on this story from three states gave a great insight into how national, uniform policies interact with people with such variations regionally,” Rathore said. “It was also interesting to see the different relationships that communities have with lands – something that our land policies do not reflect.”

You can read the story here.

And you can support more such in-depth and investigative journalism by signing up as a member of Scroll.

Ajay Krishnan

Senior Editor

Write a comment ...

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Show your support

Your support is crucial: India needs independent media and independent media needs you.

Recent Supporters

The unlikely success of a novel justice delivery system in Bihar

Hello,The Indian judicial system is notorious for its backlogs. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, more than 72% of cases in the country’s district courts and more than 79% in the high courts are more than a year old.Given this, an experiment in Bihar in delivering grassroots justice has seen remarkable results.The state has since 2006 set up a system of village courts, which deal with matters such as land disputes and family feuds. And though the system still faces some lingering problems, such as the influence of class and caste dynamics, data on their disposal is impressive: one 2022 study of 15 such courts found that 80% of the cases filed before them were disposed of within six weeks.Anuradha Nagaraj reports on the gram kachcheris of Bihar, and on how the state overcame legal hurdles to establish the system over several decades.

How Kerala’s trade unions have failed women

Hello,Among the things Kerala is best known for is its rich history of left movements and organisations. The state’s socialist moorings are often credited as one reason for its relatively impressive performance in fields such as health and education.But what is less known about these movements and groups, trade unions prominent among them, is the ways in which they have been exclusionary. Women, for instance, have struggled for decades to be heard and represented in them, as Johanna Deeksha found, reporting from Kerala.Denied a voice and platform, some women took matters into their own hands and launched their own movements and organisations, fighting for rights as basic as to sit while working in shops, and to use toilets in the establishments. Their battles have been far from easy, but over the years, they have notched up several small victories.“Women are failed by so many institutions, but it was especially disappointing to see that trade unions have failed them too, despite espousing values of equality,” Deeksha said. “Even in these spaces, women have to fight to be heard, for their problems to be considered and addressed.”

The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India

Hello,In many ways, the passage of the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 was a positive development. The law was aimed at regulating mental healthcare services in the country and contained several provisions to safeguard the rights of those who sought support and treatment.But when it came to the field of counselling, the law contained a flaw – it only acknowledged clinical psychologists, who work in clinical settings, and not others, usually referred to as counselling psychologists. This contributed to a longstanding lack of clarity among the wider public about the qualifications that psychologists should possess.In effect, this lack of clarity has allowed a range of unqualified and poorly trained individuals from offering counselling services. These include a rapidly increasing number of “mental health influencers”, whose tendency to offer quick-fix diagnoses and solutions on social media has left many professionals in the field uneasy.“While reporting this story I was amazed to learn about the range of strange experiences people have had in the name of counselling,” said Nolina Minj, who spoke to qualified psychologists, as well as those who have received counselling from individuals with questionable credentials. “The lack of regulation and information about requisite training for counsellors, amongst the general population, is dangerous.”She added, “If India is to take mental healthcare seriously, then it urgently needs to consolidate regulation, certification and operational protocol for all psychologists.”

The dangerous world of Tamil Nadu’s alcohol deaddiction centres

Hello,In July, the problem of alcohol addiction in Tamil Nadu made the headlines after a horrific incident in Kallakurichi district, in which 66 people died of alcohol poisoning after consuming illicit liquor.Another story from the district the following month received less attention: a 38-year-old man died, allegedly after being assaulted by members of a privately run de-addiction centre.This was not an isolated incident. A 2021 study found that between 2013 and 2016, 13 such deaths had occurred at private centres across the country. As Johanna Deeksha found, Tamil Nadu has seen some of the most disturbing cases of this nature. Speaking to individuals who had spent time at such centres in Chennai, she learnt of how they faced violent, inhuman treatment during their time as patients. And the families of those who died remain haunted by their decision to send their loved ones into the facilities.“When individuals with addiction want to get help, they have the right to a dignified and safe environment, where they will be given proper food, medication and care, ” Deeksha said. “Nobody deserves to die in their endeavour to recover from addiction, which is a disease. The government must do more to ensure the safety of people seeking help.”You can read the story here

Why lightning kills more people in India than any other natural disaster

Hello,Anyone caught in the open during a spell of rain would be likely to seek shelter under a tree. That's what a group of young men who had met for a cricket game did in Jharkhand’s Simdega district in August. But tragedy befell the group when lightning struck the tree, killing three. None of those present that day were aware that National Disaster Management Authority guidelines advise against taking shelter under trees during rains, precisely because they are prone to being struck by lightning. As Nolina Minj found, lightning causes more deaths in India than any other natural phenomenon, including floods, landslides and heatwaves. In several states, particularly in central and eastern India, frequent thunderstorms and a high incidence of lightning, combined with a lack of awareness of protective measures, kills hundreds of people every year. But the central government has not formally declared lightning strikes a natural disaster. And while some states have done so, and put policies in place to spread information about the risks and provide compensation to those who are affected, on the ground, implementation is slow. You can read the story here.

In Ladakh, a massive energy project is shrouded in mystery

Hello, On Monday night, police detained the climate activist Sonam Wangchuk along with around 150 others as they marched towards Delhi. Among the protestors’ demands are statehood for Ladakh, and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the constitution, which will guarantee the region a greater degree of autonomy. The government’s crackdown on the protestors is unsurprising given the opaque nature of development work it is planning in Ladakh. This is strikingly clear in the case of a colossal renewable energy project that will take up a total of 250 square kilometres, and will transmit electricity more than 700 km to Haryana, where it will be integrated into the national grid. As Vaishnavi Rathore and Safwat Zargar found, the government has ignored anxieties of locals over the loss of land and livelihoods, as well as warnings from environmentalists, to go ahead with the project. Details about the project and its proponents, meanwhile, remain shrouded in secrecy.Zargar recounted that reporting the story was a challenge given the region’s difficult physical terrain. “The area is at least 200 km from the nearest power centre, which is Leh city,” he said. “Getting back to contacts was not possible because of a lack of mobile connectivity or phones.” He added, “I had to get oxygen at a local health centre multiple times because it is a high-altitude area.” Rathore, meanwhile, explained that the lack of information available about the project was frustrating. “On ground, political representatives told us that the environmental impact assessment had been completed, yet it was not made public,” she said. “When we asked for this information via RTI, neither the environment ministry, nor the renewable energy ministry, nor the Solar Energy Corporation of India, had it.” You can read the story here.

Why drones are surveying Indian villages

Scroll Membership

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Common Ground, Scroll.in

In-depth reporting on the stories that bind us.

903 Followers

3 Following

How Adivasis are fighting to protect their sacred groves from destruction

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Why India has the worst amputation epidemic in the world

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The unlikely success of a novel justice delivery system in Bihar

Common Ground, Scroll.in

How Kerala’s trade unions have failed women

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India

Common Ground, Scroll.in

For Jharkhand’s Asurs, the present matters more than a mythic past

Common Ground, Scroll.in

On the Great Nicobar island, why the future is fearful

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Why India needs to rethink its love for pigeons

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The dangerous world of Tamil Nadu’s alcohol deaddiction centres

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Why lightning kills more people in India than any other natural disaster

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Daily Brief: Vinesh Phogat is winning over Haryana’s women – but is still wrestling with a tough election, and more

Common Ground, Scroll.in

In Ladakh, a massive energy project is shrouded in mystery

Common Ground, Scroll.in

A government scholarship took them abroad. But then left them in a lurch

Common Ground, Scroll.in

How the government undercut TISS over the past decade

Common Ground, Scroll.in

Why sexual harassment goes unchecked on Indian campuses

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The harrowing life of a loco pilot: No time to eat and sleep

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The hidden lives of those who protect Mumbai from floods

Common Ground, Scroll.in

How hydropower projects in Himachal sold dubious carbon credits

Common Ground, Scroll.in

The Tamil Nadu police’s brutal violence against the state’s weakest citizens

Common Ground, Scroll.in