Chhavi Sachdev

[Podcast] According to the World Health Organisation more than 120 million couples globally want contraceptives but do not have access to them or do not like the existing options. There is clearly a need for something different, but new forms of contraception are slow to come to the market. For several decades, there have been attempts to develop a contraceptive vaccine which works very differently from long-lasting hormonal injections. A 92 year-old scientist in India is currently leading the way. Chhavi Sachdev reports form the city of Delhi.

Did you know that each neighbourhood in the skinny island city of Mumbai boasts a government-appointed area for vegetable and fruit sellers? If it is cupcake moulds, antique gewgaws, wedding bangles and all sorts of Indian trinkets that you’re looking for, other markets will come to the rescue.
Probably as a result of the expensive real estate, in addition to restaurants, pubs and clubs, the majority of ground floors across local buildings are leased out to stores. What follows is that findin...

[Podcast] When Mumbai's Ekinath Khedekar started to go blind at the age of seven, he knew he wouldn't let his disability hamper his sense of adventure — even cycling up the Himalayas to the highest mountain pass in the world.

*** Ladakh is high on most people's bucket list. A few months ago, I met someone who meant to do it on a cycle. But what made him even more extraordinary is that he's blind.

Discover gleaming lakes, beautiful palaces and colourful bazaars in the historical city of Udaipur
Udaipur is often called the ‘Venice of the East’ and while this may be a slight exaggeration, the numerous lakes and bridges certainly lend it a unique charm. Seemingly frozen in time, this historical city still has a palace with a royal family in residence. No wonder it was the backdrop for James Bond’s adventures in ‘Octopussy’ (screenings of which happen daily around the old city). There’s pl...

[Podcast] Volunteers around the world regularly get together to fix other people’s broken stuff free of charge. Reporter Nick Holland visits an event called a Repair Café in the Netherlands and links up with Chhavi Sachdev who meets a team running a similar workshop in India (Bangalore) He asks what difference this 'make do and mend’ movement can make to our disposable culture.

Photo: Bangalore Repair Cafe/Chhavi Sachdev

Photo 2 Caption: Repairing a radio with a soldering iron/BBC

Explore this vibrant city with our guide to the best things to do, see, eat and drink in Pune

Pune is used to living in the shadow of Mumbai, which is located only three hours away by car. But thanks to its massive student population and the influx of expats who’ve returned to the cooler, less polluted, and less crowded town, Pune is an exciting place to explore. History and culture abound, of course, but exciting restaurants and pubs make it even more vibrant. Here’s our list of things you c...

At 102-years-old, Man Kaur is India’s oldest competitive runner. In fact, she’s a world record holder. But for the first ninety years of her life, Man didn’t run at all. Outlook’s Chhavi Sachdev has been to meet her and to talk about her late-flowering passion.

Photo: Gurdev Singh

[Podcast] India and Pakistan have fought four wars and threatened each other with nuclear weapons for decades. Like most neighbors, they have differences — primarily in religion — but they do overlap in some areas, such as language, dress and, of course, food.

The cuisines that unite these two countries are being celebrated by one woman who has made it her mission to serve what she calls "bordered menus."

Ragini Kashyap, 30, hosts pop-up dinners around the world in an effort to showcase the underlying similarities between cultures that are separated by conflict.

Gujarat chooses to grow maize and wheat, despite being drought-prone, which leaves these crops failing and farmers hungry. But one woman’s secret mission to plant hardy millet has turned fortunes around.
PANCHIYASAAL, Gujarat – When Navali Nayak sowed her millet in 2007, she did it in secret. She held the seeds in a fold of cloth at the waist of her saree and dropped them intermittently into the furrows her husband, Magan, was ploughing, just a few feet ahead of her. He believed she was plant...

Leena Kejriwal's art installations are hiding in plain sight across India. In small towns and big cities, stark black silhouettes of little girls are spray-painted on buildings, railway station walls, the boundaries of schools and in crowded markets.

They tell the story of how every eight minutes, according to national crime statistics, a girl in India goes missing into the sex trade, into domestic slavery, into organ trafficking or by sex selection even before birth.

Read more: Brave Indian ...

Composer Sawan Dutta had scored the music for two Bollywood movies. After meetings with movie executives, long nights in the studio, these two projects would be her most high-profile work yet. And then, disaster. One film lost distribution. The other lost its mega-star talent.
The scores? Left unheard, abandoned on a hard drive.
But Dutta turned her frustration into The Metronome Song Vlog, India’s longest-running song videoblog, or vlog. Now she’s a viral internet sensation.
Dutta lives in M...

Kamala Damor, or Sister Kamala, works with women and girls in rural Gujarat to help them access their right to property and inheritance. She tells her story to Chhavi Sachdev.
MEGHRAJ, India – On Mondays, I leave home at 9 a.m. so I can be in Meghraj town by 10, when the land awareness and legal literacy center where I work, Swa Bhoomi Kendra, opens.
I call it a center, but it’s a makeshift arrangement for now. I sit with my colleague, Sister Amti, at a large table in the corridor outside a l...

[Listen]
The NHS in Britain is 70 years old and in a special programme, Health Check looks at how it has influenced other health systems around the world. India is one of the countries that has tried to set up its own primary care system - no mean feat in a country of more than a billion, where 70% of the population lives in rural areas. Health Check’s reporter Chhavi Sachdev visits a small hospital and a primary care clinic in the city of Udaipur to see how it works.

Surrogacy is reported to bring $400 million every year to the Indian economy. Doctors in even the smallest towns assist in it, but a few towns like Anand have turned it into big business. Until 2015, anyone from anywhere could fly to India, spend about $35,000 and leave with a baby. The industry was barely regulated until reports from human rights agencies started to circulate about how surrogates were being treated. Then, in 2015, the government put a stop to all international surrogacy, and India’s reproductive tourism business slowed down. But what's at stake for parents and surrogates?

[Podcast] In patriarchal societies like India, women who survive their husbands are often neglected later in life. In Bangalore, a slum community center is hoping to improve the lives of these widows by providing a space where they can come to do yoga, crafts and make friends.

My radio story on Deutsche Welle's World Link. Clink the link to listen in the embedded player or subscribe to WorldLink on your podcast app.