India

07.03.2025 | On the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, SWISSAID is highlighting the importance of supporting new generations in learning about and acquiring their rights. As in India, where child marriage is forbidden, yet this sad tradition continues to affect millions of young girls. Shyamal Lohar refused this fate.

12.9.2024 | Crises, climate change and the concentration of markets are driving up food prices. In Chad, for example, a kilo of rice now costs twice as much as it did a year ago. The situation is similar in India and Myanmar. The way out of hunger is through local, sustainable agriculture.

As an expert in the fields of agroecology and gender equality, SWISSAID works in nine countries. On the ground and in close cooperation with local partners, we promote initiatives by people who are independently seeking a way out of poverty.

Targeted campaigns in the Marathwada region sensitise young people, adults and state actors against gender based violence and discrimination. Through a holistic approach, the dream of a life free of violence should finally become a reality for as many girls and women as possible.

With the Sustainable Tribal Livelihoods project, SWISSAID is improving life in small villages in India. Girjabai Baria and her family are benefiting from this: thanks to new farming methods and sources of income, their lives have taken a positive turn.

Communities in the central Indian state of Maharashtra depend on the natural resources of forests and ponds to survive. But these resources are increasingly threatened by climate change and poor natural resource management. A SWISSAID project has been working on resource reclamation by and for communities in central India.

The Baiga tribe is a community living in central India. The loss of forest areas – their main resource for centuries – as well as the climate crisis, has made them very vulnerable. In recent years, learning agroecology has allowed them to develop new means of survival in harmony with nature and adapted to climate change.

The food report published by the Sufosec Alliance on the occasion of World Food Day on 16 October 2022 shows shocking results. It highlights the dramatic increase in hunger in the world with figures and testimonies from those affected in the South. But it also gives hope and shows a way out of the hunger crisis. For example, with agroecology.

15.11.2021 | Farm-saved seeds are diverse and well adapted to local conditions – they also form the basis for healthy yet affordable nutrition. Therefore, it fulfils all the requirements for making local food systems more independent and resilient. Especially in the context of the ongoing pandemic and the global climate crisis, this sows hope.

30.4.21 Not long ago, the Corona situation in India seemed under control. In February 2021, India’s government declared that it had defeated the pandemic. Now the situation is worse than ever. SWISSAID is following the situation with great concern. Kavita Ghandi, Head of the SWISSAID office, tells us what the situation is like on the ground and what impact the pandemic is having on our projects.

India keeps on setting grim records in the fight against the coronavirus. And as if that were not enough, the country is repeatedly hit by natural disasters. People who are already living at  subsistence level are fighting for survival. SWISSAID has responded by providing emergency aid.

As a foundation for development cooperation, SWISSAID is also heavily affected by the corona virus. Faced with the crisis, each employee and each project had to reinvent themselves and often work in a hurry. On this page, you will find news from our partner countries for the months of March and April. –Translated with DeepL

25.03.2020 | The global corona crisis does not affect everyone equally. Some people are much more economically and socially affected than others. Women, who are often victims of domestic violence as well as being the sole earners of their families and in precarious employment, are especially under pressure.

Despite a large-scale school dinner programme, many school children in India suffer from vitamin and iron deficiency. In school gardens they grow the vital crops themselves and so learn about agroecological farming.

Farmers in Marathwada, India, are suffering from the drought – yet again. SWISSAID is supplying the poorest with water and food rations. For the moment, thanks to this and to our awareness-raising work with the authorities, hundreds of women can breathe a sigh of relief. But the climate crisis calls for long-term solutions.