Published Dec 31, 2023 | 9:00 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 31, 2023 | 9:00 PM
Every society has stories that need to be told and voices that need to be heard. In 2023, South First undertook numerous ground reports, amplifying the voices of the voiceless. We travelled across states during elections to bring you stories of those confined to the fringes of the mainstream but deserve to be heard. While our election-related ground reports can be found here, we have curated a list of other ground reports our team did this year.
A resigned sense of lethargy is now a constant at Thottappally, a coastal village in Kerala’s Alappuzha district. Their fight is for survival and to safeguard the environment. Citing expert opinions, the villagers pointed out that mineral-sand mining from the estuary has led to large-scale intrusion of the salty seawater into the backwaters of Kuttanad, destroying paddy cultivation in the low-lying areas.
Government schools in Telangana have a notorious reputation for lacking basic amenities. Of the five southern states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together accounted for more than 75 percent of schools lacking basic amenities. As per the report sourced from the 2022 Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) — one of the largest management information systems on school education — in Telangana, 15,107 schools out of 30,023 did not provide basic facilities to students.
Prepared from tobacco leaves and spices, Cool Lip — a transparent, less than 2 cm packet — can keep a person intoxicated for short bouts of time, varying from half an hour to two hours, depending on the age. Despite being banned in several Indian states, including Tamil Nadu, Cool Lip has become a disturbingly common presence in government schools across Chennai.
As tension gripped Gajwel town in Telangana’s Siddipet district after a mob reportedly assaulted and paraded a man for allegedly urinating near the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji on 3 July, the local police reported subsequent incidents of provocation, including stone-pelting at a mosque. While the locals said that the town had been a great example of communal harmony over the decades, both social activist Yegonda Goud and TMC president Yousufuddin said the rise of some local leaders from BJP-affiliated Hindu organisations over the years had muddied the waters.
As part of its poll promises — the Congress guarantees — Siddaramaiah-led Congress government rolled out the Shakti scheme that guarantees free bus rides for women. As South First learnt from the women we spoke to, the scheme could help not just them, but also assist their next generation.
As Andhra Pradesh braces for the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the ruling YSRCP may have an ace up its sleeve — albeit a controversial one. The 13-year-old party, led by first-time Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, has put in place an army of 10 lakh workers where the government machinery and the party cadre appear to overlap, giving him a level of control and access that has been deemed undesirable in electoral politics in a democracy by Opposition parties and activists.
Though Indaragi is located next to the State Highway-23, the people are still running around seeking a 24×7 power supply, drinking water, public transport, title deeds to their houses, and an end to the wildlife menace. For around 15 girls of Indaragi, school is a memory of good times, snatched away before they could soak in it. As time speeds on, they will be caught in the mundane duties of life and school will become a nostalgic sigh.
A drive of about 175 km from Bengaluru will take you to the deep jungles of one of India’s oldest mountain ranges, the Biligiri Rangana Betta or, simply, the BR Hills. The indigenous people inhabiting the BR Hills, the Soligas are one of India’s oldest tribes, fittingly living in hills older than the Himalayas. The Soligas, however, live too near the modern world not to be touched by it.
The rain that incessantly lashed Chennai for three days from 3 December and the accompanying howling wind drowned the voices of the less fortunate, who revealed a different face of some city residents. Even as several individuals stepped in to help those in need, some others, from the warm confines of their homes, made domestic helps, including cooks, housekeepers, and drivers face nature’s fury by forcing them to work.
