This year, Gaon Connection, in its relentless efforts to amplify the voices of the rural Indians, came up with two books which were themed on rural education, and climate change. Both the books are available for a free download on Gaon Connection’s website.

From cold waves, heat waves, floods, and cyclones, the Climate Connection Report 2023 — Stories of Climate Change from Rural India, released on December 2, on Gaon Connection’s 11th anniversary, explored the diverse impacts of an adversely changing climate on the lives and livelihoods in the rural hinterland, with a sharp focus on solution stories.

The 75 stories in the book were weaved by a common narrative — that literally no aspect of rural life remained untouched by climate change.

The disruption caused by climate change in the rural areas might seem limited to agriculture, drought and rural livelihoods, its impact on the urban centres is not far from being perceptible if not already.

The e-book acts as a compendium of key events pertaining to climate change in rural India in 2023.

DOWNLOAD CLIMATE CONNECTION REPORT 2023 HERE.

With every season having been tossed around by climate change, the effect on the people is not merely in the tangible terms as the country’s culture is closely knit with the weather patterns.

Harvest festivals like Holi seem faded when the harvest is late for the farmers — something that doesn’t only have economic consequences but also impacts the collective psyche of almost a billion people. As reflected in the government’s statistics for the past few years, the rural food inflation is found to be higher than the urban areas. It is ironic that the population involved in food production has to pay a higher price to avail food.

The Climate Connection Report also sought to espouse a sense of empathy and relatedness for the ‘usual’ news stories emanating from the rural hinterland. Whenever there is damage caused to the crops due to excessive rain, drought or hail, it does alter the urban life as the food prices begin to soar. Also, failure of crops often translates into the intensification of rural-urban migration.

However, not all’s dark and gloomy in India’s villages as the book highlights a separate section on the resilience of the rural residents for an adversely changing climate.

The book has a separate section on solution stories which tell how people in rural India are responding to climate change and offers a glimmer of hope.

These scattered examples of successful stories will hopefully contribute to the much larger policy-making and help in governing the crisis.

Tales of Teachers

The second book titled ‘100 Tales of Teachers Transforming Education in Rural India’ was published on the Teacher’s Day (September 5) is dedicated to those exemplary educators who, despite a host of challenges, continue to spread light and learning in the rural areas.

The book is part of Gaon Connection’s long term project titled ‘Teacher Connection’ and celebrates 100 teachers whose work has impacted the lives of rural students. The book is available for a free download from our website.

DOWNLOAD 100 Tales of Teachers Transforming Education in Rural India HERE.

It is an attempt to celebrate nearly 9.7 million primary and secondary school teachers form the backbone of our education system, which has 1.5 million schools and 248 million students enrolled from Grade 1 to Grade 12.

The book is divided in eight broad sections — Beyond The Call of Duty, Strengthening Foundational Literacy And Numeracy, Reimagining Education, Leave No One Behind, Rural Libraries, Sports Stars Of Rural India, Out Of Syllabus and Educate Enable Empower.

The book includes sports teachers, music teachers and also those who have had a positive social impact in rural areas. These are teachers who have gone beyond their classrooms and helped children and brought about change.

The book also hails the proactive education policies of the Union government that has introduced several schemes and guidelines to help teachers. The NIPUN scheme (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) launched by the Union government in 2021 is showing remarkable results.