Ballads of Barren Lands - Drought, Heat wave and farm crisis in India

The heat wave that swept across India in 2015 severely affected its rural economy and farms. Farmers and farm workers, unable to sustain themselves and unable to find jobs locally were migrating to cities under distress. With help from MasterCard, ActionAid India responded in five states - reaching out to 26,000 people - The initiative helped create water conservation infrastructure, linked women and men to local employments available under ongoing government programmes and also helped in creating grain banks and fodder banks for food security. While these are hopeful beginnings in the limited areas we worked in, the current situation demands much more. With 2016 threatening to be a repeat of 2015, rural economy is facing a precarious future and these changes brought about by the initiative over the last year needs urgent scaling up. Produced for: MasterCard Produced by: ActionAid India Agency: Communications Resource Centre (CRC), Hyderabad