Dear Reader,

The government has committed to making India ‘Maoist-free’ by March next year. In pursuit of that objective, it has, in recent months, launched an intense campaign to weed out the Maoists from their strongholds in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region with significant success. The operations against the insurgents, which once plagued 180 districts and has been led by the District Reserve Guard (DRG)—a unique fighting force composed of local tribal youth, including many former Maoists—seem to have turned the tide against the Maoists.

मैं भी भारत, reporting from one of the epicentres of the operations—the Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, an erstwhile insurgent stronghold—finds that the intense pressure by the security forces on the Maoists and the violent response of the insurgents have inflicted collateral damage on the local Adivasis. Between the terror of the Maoists and fear of the security forces, the situation of the Adivasis—caught in the crossfire—is complex and often untold. The story looks at both sides of the conflict.

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir faces a growing drug crisis, with around ten per cent—about 1.35 million—of its population affected by addiction. Shockingly this includes over 168,000 children between the ages of 10 and 17. Despite the alarming rise in heroin use, the region suffers from a critical shortage of de-addiction centres. Women battling addiction are particularly vulnerable, as many of the treatment facilities are located in male-dominated spaces, making it difficult for female patients to feel safe and accepted or to have their privacy secured.

In recent months, The Grooming Kashmir (TGK) De-Addiction Centre—Srinagar’s first woman-run private rehabilitation centre for women drug users—has stepped up to ensure that women have a safe space, privacy, and quality care to manage their addictions without the anxiety induced by public glare. Article 14 examines the role and specialised care that the Centre provides, highlighting why the facility serves as a template for delivering care to women in J&K and beyond.

The heat in Delhi has been so brutal this year that a heat risk index published by the think tank ‘Council on Energy, Environment and Water’ (CEEW) declared last month that 55% of the area of the city was at "very high risk." Food delivery workers—among the most common gig employees—are particularly vulnerable. They run 15-hour shifts with no breaks, little access to shelter, and limited access to water. Almost 60 per cent of them have no access to toilets, and half of them suffer from heat exhaustion.

In this video, The Migration Story follows a food delivery worker in Delhi to chronicle a day in his life—a day when the temperature hit a scorching 44 degrees Celsius. Denied basic decencies like a glass of water or access to a patch of shade, he chases targets, time, and a livelihood in extreme conditions.

Bihar, well known for its bountiful lychee harvests—producing almost 40 per cent of India’s output—is seeing a shift to a surprising alternative: mushrooms. This has been induced by climate change, ageing orchards, and declining productivity. Added to this are local factors—for instance, in Bihar’s lychee capital Muzaffarpur, fly ash from a coal-fired power plant in Kanti village has led to stunted growth and, therefore, markedly less remunerative prices—consolidating the trend from lychees to mushrooms.

However, the shift is not without its downside, as mushrooms are also susceptible to the vagaries of the climate, even as farmers take advantage of the current upside. Ground Report maps the trend.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF