From redesigning a slum to empowering rural women through agarbathi making: Top SocialStories this week

Rural development is important to empower the local communities. And many organisations and communities are coming forward to make this happen.

Residents of Ahmednagar's Sanjayanagar slum, with the help of design firm Community Design Agency created a vibrant community with shared spaces, play areas, and even room for livestock.

Meanwhile, Cycle Pure Agarbathies, one of the pioneers in the country’s fragrance industry has been working with women from rural communities to produce incense sticks for them since the 1950s.

How Sanjayanagar slum residents designed a vibrant housing community

According to the 2011 census, more than 65 million Indians live in slums, with more than 1 million living in Dharavi, in Mumbai.

While Dharavi, with its micro-industries with an estimated annual turnover of $1 billion still remains cramped and overpopulated, 300 km away, in the city of Ahmednagar, the residents of the Sanjaynagar slum have created a vibrant community with shared spaces, play areas, and even room for livestock.

The two-acre settlement looked very different four decades ago when people first moved to the area.

In the 1980s, the municipal land was primarily marshy and weed-infested. Residents were forced to wade through knee-high water to get to work and complete their daily chores. The complete lack of infrastructure and dismal living conditions forced the residents to take collective action and demand better living conditions.

Fortunately, for the residents, the fact that the government-owned the land they were on made them eligible for several government programmes.

How this agarbathi brand has been empowering rural women for seven decades

Thirty-eight-year-old Nandini Ranganath was forced to shift to Mysore from her village in Talakadu, Karnataka, for her daughter’s education. A BCom graduate, she aspired to support her family herself. She thus partnered with Cycle Pure Agarbathies to set up her own business in agarbathi making. She started her business Nandini Unit with support from her husband in a rented place. 

Under the company’s guidance, Nandini was able to shift back to her village in Talakadu after her daughter's education — where she had her own land and could manage a better workforce. The unit which started with just one machine, has 8 machines and 9 local women from her community running it now.

Today, she is one of the 1,500 women who are supported by Cycle Pure Agarbathies with their outsourcing initiatives. Since the 1950s, the agarbathi manufacturing company has been working with women from rural communities to produce incense sticks for them.

Meet the dog lover who has rescued and treated over 20k strays in Jodhpur

Jodhpur-based cyber security professional Kuldeep Khatri was a passionate dog lover since childhood. In 2014, he came across a dog that met with an accident and there was no one to help.

Kuldeep immediately went to its rescue and tried taking the dog to about 20-odd government shelters and hospitals in the city, and he could only see the lack of facilities and services offered in these places.

Kuldeep decided to help the street dogs by working in a government shelter home. He got involved in its developmental activities by arranging food and doctors. However, he was asked to leave as he was not allowed to make infrastructural changes in the government organisations.

This is when he formed Dog Home Foundation in 2021 along with Dr Kalu Ram Chowdhary and Pramod Sankhla.

Meet extraordinary activists who have been conferred the Padma Shri

For nearly seven decades, the Padma Shri, one of the highest civil honours in the country, has been conferred on Indian citizens who have made remarkable contributions in various fields, including arts, literature, education, sports, entertainment, etc.

While it is not uncommon to see people who are famous and in the spotlight be felicitated for their efforts, it is even more heartening to see people who have quietly dedicated their lives to serving people around them finally get their due. SocialStory lists some of the recipients of this honour who truly made us smile with their unassuming presence and powerful dedication to their cause.