Editorial

Healthcare professionals trying to make a difference in rural India are a blessed lot, angels of mercy labouring away in a landscape where the odds are often stacked against them. The doctors, nurses, health workers and other support staff of Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), the protagonist of our cover story, do much more than merely a job — they are a reflection of the noble in human nature.

The Tata Trusts have been a steadfast supporter of JSS, and with good reason. The organisation’s long-running programme to provide tribal communities, and many others on the margins, with quality healthcare are a singular example of overcoming challenges that range from resources to logistics to geography. While healthcare remains the priority for JSS, this exemplary nonprofit also serves disadvantaged rural communities in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in a host of other ways: with childcare centres, farming and livelihood opportunities, even in human-animal conflict.

Cut of a similar cloth is the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education and its Sabrang network of clinics for transgender individuals, perhaps the most victimised of India’s citizens. Our feature story on Sabrang’s efforts to address the healthcare and societal needs of the country’s transgender community is an eye-opener, as is — on a more positive note — the article explaining how young badminton talent in Mizoram is reaching new heights thanks to a grassroots-to-tournaments initiative.

The feature stories spread in this edition of Horizons also includes a conservation project in Ladakh that is repairing and preserving historical artefacts that illuminate the region’s cultural legacy; and a programme to boost cotton farmers by promoting a shift to high-density planting systems.

Climate scientist and public policy maven Arunabha Ghosh, our interview personality this time, says it as he sees it when he says, “We Indians are schizophrenic,” before hitting an affirmative pitch by adding that “we have to ask our children to open their minds and imagine that a new and different world is possible”. Our ‘Opinion’ section has a band of experts suggesting solutions for the problems with multilingual education in India, and Sohini Mookherjee of J-PAL South Asia advocating for evidence-driven social development programmes.

Not least, our ‘Showcase’ segment ‘pictures’ the benefits accruing to village folks up in Uttarakhand’s hills through a community-based tourism venture. If the offbeat is your cup of travel, make a visit.

Christabelle Noronha

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