Akash Naoghare

Jitendra, Pawan & Yogesh The stories of 3 people from 3 different states of India. Jitendra is a native of Bihar, who migrated to Delhi 6-7 years ago in the hopes of finding better employment opportunities. He had 2 acres of land in Bihar, but the land couldn't make enough to feed the growing members of the family. Owing to lack of  any kind of formal education or specialization in any particular skill set, he didnt get any job. So he started selling Papad made of Rice and Wheat. He sells 3 Papads at 20 INR. But on the day when Farmers from all the states gathered in Delhi for their demands, the same Jitendra was selling the pack of Papads at 10 INR only. Pawan hails from Ranchi, he is just 22 years old. He drives auto-rickshaw for earning his bread and butter. I met Pawan when we took an auto from Andhra Bhavan to parliament street, and we agreed on 100 bucks for 3 people. While driving to Parliament street Pawan asked us the reason for our visit to Delhi, we informed h...

Babarao is on the verge of being driven out of his home, a forested patch in this part of Vidarbha(Aamgaon, Wardha). Reason: forest conservation. The elderly man was annoyed by the approach of the forest department or authorities who feel that people are and should not be part of the ecosystem. I had an opportunity over the past few months to interact with the pastoralists – traditional herders or cattle keepers – in and around Vidarbha on the challenges they face in the context of changing climate and demographic changes, vis a vis a modern development paradigm. And each time I heard a new group, I was convinced the situation was more or less the same. All the people with whom I interacted repeated the same story “the forest department and urban people’s quest of Tiger conservation is paving way for so many socio economic problems, same forest department who doesn’t even know the actual scientific meaning of Forest or Jungle.” A Forest or a Jungle is area which is a habitat for d...

Asifa Bano and Dadaji Khobragade. When the heinous act happened to Asifa, whole nation felt it's grief. Everyone wanted to show dissent in one form or another, and it is needed to do so. We can't let such things get repeated every time.  Many people stood for her in different manner, some held protest some angered out through write ups, some made YouTube videos etc. Back in Nagpur the people from our group wanted to organize a protest, so I started talking to various groups and NGOs about their plans and stuff, as we thought it would be much better to have a inclusive protest rather than organizing many small protests throughout the city. To my surprise most of them didn't want to come together, everyone wanted to have it under the banner of their group or NGO. I was like "Are we doing it for the Asifa or just to hog some media coverage?" In another case, many news and entertainment portals wrote articles, did interviews, made some videos about the inhu...

Since 21st February students from 4 campuses of TISS(Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad, Guwahati) have boycotted the classes and all academic work. TISS is India's oldest institute of Social sciences studies. It has produced many personalities who have shaped society in a posting manner. TISS has also helped Indian Government in the planning of many so many public policies for the betterment of society through rigorous research and for same it has garnered much appreciation from everyone. Notably TISS always have representation from every caste, class and strata of the society. It has helped many students to climb the social ladder by ensuring education to every eligible person irrespective of caste, religion and economic class. In the history of more than 80 years of this diverse, free and liberal institution, this is the first time when students took such stand against the administration. TISS administration have asked students from SC, ST and OBC category to deposit the full cours...

I come from a group where people are very much sensitive about society, its various issues like inequality, injustice. Among us many are liberals, thinkers, activists, social workers, change makers (at least we proclaim ourselves to be such). We discuss about great people and their thoughts about society and injustice like Gandhi, Tagore, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Ambedkar, Savarkar, Buddha, Govind Pansare, Karl Marx, Vinoba . Still we find it very difficult to understand what does the term "injustice" actually mean ? Does it come with a tag "conditions apply" ? Can I fudge the definition of injustice as per my comfort zone ? Can I differentiate the injustice happening in Africa from the injustice happening in Asia ? Can I make a big bubble of injustice to glorify my work ? Is injustice  restricted to very few domains ? Why does each of us try to be a shining example of a true justice provider ? Is injustice an optional thing, which can be used according...