poverty
Officials Visit a Paliyan Community
The chief executive officer of the Theni District in India’s Tamil Nadu state visited a Paliyan colony on July 24, asked numerous good questions, and made some promises of help from the district government. The unusual aspect of Collector K. V. Muralidharam’s visit was that two of India’s major newspapers, The Hindu and the Times […]
Poverty in Rural Thailand
Discrimination and economic inequality against the Rural Thai by the wealthy urban elites in Thailand is a major factor in instigating protests and political turmoil in the nation, according to a recently released report. The study by the Asia Foundation focused on Isan, the region of northeastern Thailand that is populous but poor, and feels […]
Birhor Man Starves to Death
A Birhor man from Nawadih village in the Mandu Block, Ramgarh District of India’s Jharkhand state, died of starvation late on Tuesday, October 30, according to a news report last week. The 40-year-old Rajendrra Birhor left a wife, Shanti Devi, and six children. He was the sole wage earner for the family. Shanti Devi said […]
The Birhor Need to Bury their Dead
As a way of observing the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, the Telegraph sent one of its reporters into the village of Chalkari, in Jharkhand, to speak with the Birhor people. One of their major difficulties, they told him, was that they are having problems with burying their dead during […]
Fireworks Tragedy: An Update
Fifteen Yanadi workers were killed by an explosion at an illegal fireworks manufacturing facility in a Nellore suburb on December 31, 2016, exposing to the public the deplorable working conditions that they endure. The story was widely reported in the Indian press in early January 2017. A number of people from the Challa Yanadi, a […]
Rural Thai Prosperity [journal article review]
Increasing prosperity in Northeast Thailand over the past 30 years has prompted researchers to wonder how changing economic conditions have affected the Rural Thai in that region. In 1982/83 and again in 2008/09, Jonathan Rigg and Albert Salamanca did a longitudinal (or “panel”) study of two villages in Mahasarakham Province in Isan, the term often […]
Birhor Poverty in India [journal article review]
A brief journal article published last month provides a thorough description of the poverty of a Birhor community in India. While not pleasant reading, the report is important because it does summarize the conditions under which the Birhor struggle. Jai Kumar and Rajni Kant Kumar did a careful survey of the 55 Birhor families living […]
Changes in Rural Thailand
Over the past 60 years, Rural Thai villagers have changed from poor, isolated farmers to relatively prosperous suburbanites who seek jobs, conveniences, income and connections. A feature article last week in the prominent Japanese business journal Nikkei Asian Review explored the dramatic changes that anthropologist William Klausner has witnessed in his 60 years of life […]
The Plight of the Challa Yanadi
An illegal firecracker manufacturing facility in the outskirts of the Indian city of Nellore exploded on the last day of 2016, killing three Yanadi workers and seriously injuring numerous others. The explosion occurred in Porlukatta, a suburb of Nellore, according to a police official. Early news reports indicated that at least eight people sustained burns […]
Birhor Families Endure Poverty
Eight Birhor families live in deplorable, hardship conditions in a village of eastern India and the various welfare schemes of the state and federal governments are not helping. The Times of India published a brief exposé by reporter Pravin Kumar Mishra about the situation that described the village of Piyarkoli, in the Gawan Block of […]
