At In the Field, we’re very interested in the debates around gender and work. We know that women face a number of constraints while running their businesses, and women are constantly strategizing on how to balance their domestic responsibilitie

Founders - Dreams

Apr 13th, 2021 25m 6s

In our final episode of Founders, we talk about the economics of female entrepreneurship and what it takes to make a dream come to life. Is it having a single-minded focus on the goal? Is it financial independence? Or is it the ability to say

Founders - Interruptions

Apr 6th, 2021 24m 18s

If there’s a word that’s often used to characterise women’s careers it is “interruption”. Starting a business interrupts “life” too. It’s a big disruptive interruption that challenges what many see are the natural order of things for women - g

Founders - Plans

Mar 30th, 2021 21m 24s

In the first episode of Founders we set the stage by exploring how women are positioned in the economy and in society. When we try to wrap our heads around the challenges women face to participate in the workforce, entrepreneurship can come acr

Founders - Trailer

Mar 17th, 2021 3m 21s

Have you ever thought about how women are positioned in the economy? Two stories dominate discussions about India’s female labourforce: the low rates of female labour force participation, but also the fact that women make up a significant propo

Kaalavastha - Resilience

Oct 14th, 2020 30m 24s

Across the world, there is a space where the battle against COVID -19 rages. This frontline of the pandemic is the local government, which faces an unprecedented challenge. So what’s happening at Kerala’s frontline? This is the final episode of

Kaalavastha - Fabric, Folklore and Fish

Sep 17th, 2020 30m 29s

Kerala’s economy relies heavily on things that are native and unique to it - its natural resources, its traditions and heritage. In this episode we look at efforts to build resilience into the livelihoods of the people of Kerala and at some of

Kaalavastha - Taking people along

Sep 10th, 2020 29m 58s

As Kerala today thinks about how to reduce its reliance on remittances, and on how to revive the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, agriculture is one place where many say there is huge potential. But reorienting this is no easy task.Thanks

Kaalavastha - Two Flows

Sep 3rd, 2020 32m 44s

In Kerala resilience has been a part of the conversation for quite a while before it became the word we all seem to be talking about. So, given its head start, what is Kerala doing to keep the well from going dry? In this episode, we explore ho

Kaalavastha - If a river doesn't flood, it isn't a river

Aug 27th, 2020 24m 24s

The 2018 floods were called once in a century floods - because in people’s memory, there was only flood before it that had marked so many lives, the flood of 1924. But when the state flooded again in 2019, many asked, why this was happening aga

Kaalavastha - It starts with a drought

Aug 20th, 2020 25m 58s

Kerala has been marked by devastating floods in 2018 and 2019. But the state has been experiencing the effects of climate change for much longer. Scientists talk about 2015 as a sort of turning point. In this episode, we explore where and how p

Kaalavastha - trailer

Aug 14th, 2020 5m 22s

Welcome to Kaalavastha. A word which conjures so many things in Malayalam: clouds, climate, the weather. In this 6 part series, we dive deep into God’s Own Country, past romantic ideas about rivers and mountains and the rain to find out what ki

Announcing a new miniseries on the environment and resilience

Aug 11th, 2020 2m 15s

Announcing a new series on In the Field. The story of a state, the story of the weather, and the story of a people, chronicled over six episodes. Kaalavastha drops later this week on this feed. Subscribe now to In the Field if you haven’t alrea

"We want to hear from you."

Jun 4th, 2020 20m 56s

ITF is back! In this mid-series episode we want to talk about how non-profits are dealing with the pandemic and we ask a few of our friends and colleagues about what they’ve been experiencing. Right now we have more questions than answers, but

“You get scale and pace at the price of building decision making structures and trust.”

Jul 2nd, 2019 37m 40s

The past decade has seen a proliferation of movements all over the world. Fighting for everything from racial equality, to end authoritarianism and corruption, for struggling farmers, for climate action, for net neutrality and to end sexual har

"The five-year old will say OK, let’s stop eating seafood."

Apr 5th, 2019 35m 58s

In part two of our two parter on sustainability, climate change and consumption, we’re going find out about our relationship to the things we love - Like fish, coffee, travelling. These are things that are frequently talked about in relation to

"Fishing is a hunter's job"

Mar 29th, 2019 31m 25s

In this special two-parter we’re talking about sustainability and consumption. And we’re starting with a story about fish, to understand how the twin forces, climate change and our ravaging consumption, are depleting the oceans. This is a story

"The hardship takes a toll, you know."

Feb 28th, 2019 41m 29s

Worklife in India has many elements to it, and we see the whole gamut of experiences in India from workers working with little or no welfare to more privileged workers, and increasingly all of us are working more and for longer. How do we get t

Bonus Episode: Education as a right in India

Feb 18th, 2019 14m 32s

Welcome to this very special bonus episode of In the Field. Stay tuned for our next In the Field episode, coming very soon. This episode is brought to you by Indus Action (www.indusaction.org), an organization working on a very specific tenet

"We were people who were defined by these achievements in social development."

Jan 31st, 2019 33m 59s

Development work is full of models. And a famous one originated in Kerala - it was so famous it defined the state’s identity in so many ways; it was credited for producing a literate, educated population, for empowering women and an engaged, ac

“There is history in all our aspirations.”

Apr 26th, 2018 37m 50s

The youth are a prized population, for they represent the much talked about demographic dividend and so countries are supposed to nurture and help them develop. However, most approaches are instrumentalist, and see young people as mediums for p

“You’re really not condemning the whole system, you're pinpointing where the problem is"

Apr 14th, 2018 35m 54s

In development work, there are some spaces that need big ideas and radical new thinking, and there are others that require a different form of engagement - a slower, more steady, enabling presence. In these spaces, it’s about fixing something b

"And so what we eat on our plates starts to determine the fate of the soil of our land."

Mar 22nd, 2018 36m 14s

Do we know where our food comes from? Does it come from down the road, or from a continent away? And do we really care? It’s all the same to us. Agriculture, especially food production is a topic deeply rooted in development. It’s too importan

"But you already think what they can do at best is maybe make papad."

Mar 8th, 2018 39m 11s

A recent preoccupation within the development sector is the falling female workforce participation in India. More pronounced in rural India than in urban India, nevertheless a concern given that our country has made significant strides in educa

"What you think is a position of knowledge, [is] just privilege and nothing else."

Feb 16th, 2018 28m 45s

The Indian environmental movement has had a long and fascinating history. While young India’s charismatic leaders were instrumental in instituting laws to protect nature and wildlife, powerful social movements fought to bring to light the impor