Dear Reader,

As India advances toward a renewable energy future, the transition away from coal is revealsing deep social and economic fractures. In Talcher, Odisha, the closure of an NTPC thermal power plant — once the region’s economic anchor — has disrupted livelihoods and upended a community built around its operations. Over 120 small traders who had long served the plant’s workforce were left adrift, with little warning or compensation. While NTPC employees were redeployed elsewhere, shopkeepers and service providers bore the brunt of the closure, exposing the uneven costs of decarbonisation.

Talcher’s experience underscores a critical lesson that the energy transition must be designed not only for efficiency and sustainability, but also for equity. As residents wait for a new plant expected by 2027, their endurance reflects both resilience and neglect. The Migration Story argues that a truly just transition must include every worker and entrepreneur whose lives have been bound to the coal economy.

A national initiative to provide clean, potable tap water nationwide through the Jal Jeevan Mission had unintended consequences for the residents of Sajwani village in Barwani district, Madhya Pradesh. In the third week of October, around 200 villagers began showing symptoms of diarrhoea after consuming water from the newly installed tap pipeline, which supplies water to 1,161 households in the village. A meticulous Ground Report investigation has revealed how systemic failures at multiple levels contributed to this crisis. The Ahmedabad-based contractor responsible for laying these pipelines —in Barwani and Dhar— had previously been reprimanded several times for poor workmanship and was eventually blacklisted.

Despite this, the local administration continued to rely on the same contractor. The company reportedly used low-quality plastic pipes that suffered from frequent leakages and defective valves. Crucially, the grantee also discovered that a Bhopal-based institute — falsely cited by the contractor as having certified the quality of the plastic materials — denied issuing any such certification.

This meant that falsified quality reports were submitted to the district authorities in Barwani and Dhar. Despite these revelations, officials did not act with the urgency and stringency required against the contractor. For the residents who now depend on this tap water, such administrative negligence poses not just an inconvenience but a potential threat to their health and lives.

In the once-thriving fishing village of Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram, life was long set by the tides. For generations, fishers ventured into the Arabian Sea, returning with boats heavy with catch. Today, that rhythm is fading. Rising tides and violent storms have swallowed the shore, sweeping away homes, nets, and livelihoods. The way of life that sustained generations is weakening—along with the size and frequency of their catch.

Amid this uncertainty, a glimmer of hope emerged—the long-promised Pozhiyoor Harbour, inaugurated in February, which promises to be Kerala’s second-largest fishing hub. Yet progress has been painfully slow, and livelihoods cannot wait. Hence, many families have migrated to Vizhinjam to find work at its harbour, while others have drifted to cities and the Gulf, trading their nets for construction tools and domestic work. Pozhiyoor, Keraleeyam Masika says, now stands suspended between promise and loss—a community watching the sea reclaim its land even as it dreams of a harbour that might one day anchor its future.

Abujhmarh lies deep within Chhattisgarh’s forests. For generations, the Gond and Maria tribes have called this rugged land home, living in sync with the forest that shelters and sustains them. Cut off from roads, schools, and healthcare, they have survived on age-old traditions, their lives shaped by the rhythms of the land and the challenges of isolation. However, unfortunately, the land has also been long marked by bloody conflict and neglect. Yet, its people endure with dignity and courage.

Last week, मैं भी भारत had reported the surrender of over 200 Maoists, a rare glimmer of change in this region long defined by struggles. As the grantee journeys deeper into the forests, they bring stories that have rarely reached the larger world — of communities holding on to hope, of generations striving to preserve their culture, and of a people who, despite decades of hardship, are not averse to being connected to the larger world.

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

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF