An integrated approach to development

Every day is a new beginning for hope and betterment in the village of Charampa in Orissa state, India. On an ordinary day two years ago, at the crack of dawn, Lila, a mother of three, hurried to the village well. She went to draw water for her home and for the tiny patch of land where she grows vegetables and jowar, barely producing enough for two meals a day. Today, due to erratic rainfall, the well had nearly gone dry and the land almost became infertile. Lila sighed, “My husband went to Cuttack to find work. He never returned. I have to feed the family. Without rain, what should I do? I have a ration card. We walk all the way to the fair-price shop, but there is nothing in stock or the grains are rotten!” Her eldest daughter, Mala, dropped out of school at age nine to help with the household chores and care for her younger siblings. School for Mala was humiliating—there was no closed toilet for girls.