Lighting up young lives through mid-day meals in schools

09/03/2012 0 Comments read Education, Health & Science

Pradeep and Sandeep sharing their mid-day meal at Rajkya Prathmik Vidyalaya, Ghanchiyon ki Gufa, Saraswati Nagar in Jodhpur. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Jodhpur (Rajasthan), 09.03.2012 (WFS): The clock chimes 11 am. Neetu Yadav, 10, and her classmates’ eyes turn expectantly from the blackboard to the school gates. The roar of the approaching autorickshaw carrying their mid-day meal is growing louder, and the 35 students at the government-run Rajkya Prathmik Vidyalaya, Ghanchiyon ki Gufa, Saraswati Nagar in Jodhpur, erupt into a loud cheer.

Jodhpur, located in the vast Thar desert of western Rajasthan, is the state’s second largest city, with a population of around 3.68 million, according to the 2011 Census. The city prides itself on its educational institutions and the average literacy here is 81.56 per cent – with female literacy at 73.93 per cent. Impressive figures, given that the average literacy rate in the state is 67 per cent.

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Cuisine from the arid earth

04/03/2012 1 Comment read Environment & Development, Gender, Health & Science

Chunni Bishnoi with her buffalo in Guda Bishnoiyan, 22 km south-east of Jodhpur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Guda Bishnoiyan & Khejarli villages (Rajasthan), India, 04.03.2012 (WFS/The Hindu): Traditional western Rajasthani delicacies are fast becoming a gourmet’s delight in India and abroad. In fact, no Marwari feast is complete without the ‘exotic’ Sangari, cooked as a dry vegetable or with gravy. This fruit of the versatile Khejari (Prosopis cineraria) tree, indigenous to the vast Thar Desert, has provided nutrition and nourishment to the local communities for generations.

As the sun rises on the eastern skyline, Chunni Bishnoi, 65, begins milking her three buffaloes and three cows in the outer courtyard of her `pucca house’, shaded by the thorny Khejari trees that grow thick and green in the villages of Guda Bishnoiyan, 22 km, and Khejarli, 26 km south-east of Jodhpur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

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Not quite Harry Potter, but Jodhpur’s broom-makers have tales of their own

26/09/2011 0 Comments read Gender

By Neena Bhandari

Jodhpur (Rajasthan, India), 26.09.2011 (WFS): Lifting her translucent red tie and dye cotton veil, Sunder Devi, 45, dexterously sorts moonjh (Saccharum munja). Nearby her 14-year-old daughter, Kiran, niftily assembles them into brooms. Theirs is one of the 150 families in Jodhpur’s Banjara colony, whose livelihood depends on the humble broom.

Rural women in this western Indian state of Rajasthan have been making brooms from locally available materials to suit their own needs and also for commercial sale. Every three months, Sunder Devi’s husband, Gopal Bhai, goes to Alwar and Etah in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh to buy moonjh.

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