Chhavi Sachdev

In India, abortion has been legal — within certain confines — for more than 50 years.
India's abortion law is progressive, but it is also problematic, says Dr. Suchitra Dalvie, a practicing gynecologist in Mumbai, India.
So as a gynecologist, honestly, I didn't realize for many years, safe abortion rights are really at the very core of the whole fight of feminism, autonomy, agency and dismantling the patriarchy in many, many ways. At the time that I was doing my residency, which was much before social media, we had no access even sometimes to the language.

Robots that navigate sewer pipes are being used to find leaks and blockages in an ancient water system.

They’re being put to work in Pune, India, to access dangerous and noxious spots that otherwise would be checked by people.

The sewage systems are more than 100 years old and the maps have been lost or are just outdated. So the robots are being used to update the maps, which should eventually lead to less leaks and so less contamination in the water.

But the machines also replace manual work that is done by some of the poorest members of Indian society. We explore what it will mean for the

Educator Anuja Bali is on a mission to teach women in India about the dangers of indoor air pollution — what she calls a “silent killer.”
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Bali co-founded a group called Warrior Moms to mobilize women to draw attention to the issue. In two years, the group has drawn more than a thousand women from across the country, tackling the issue through grassroots education and policy interventions.
The dangers of breathing in fumes from cars, construction and burn...

In India, a bill in Parliament proposes that the age of marriage for women gets raised to 21. The current legal age for men is 21, and for women, 18. India has many illegal marital unions between children and adults, but arguments have emerged from activists and parliamentarians as to why this is a bad move. Chhavi Sachdev reports from Mumbai.

Infographic/Image courtesy: Times of India

#FreeShankar

Elephants have had a special place in India but they're sometimes treated quite appallingly. Here's the story about an African elephant living his life in solitary confinement and a youth appeal to release him into a sanctuary where he has company and freedom. Chhavi Sachdev has this story about the #FreeShankar Campaign by Youth For Animals in Delhi featuring Nikita Dewan.

As waves of COVID have hit India, lockdowns have resulted in waves of canceled weddings. Chhavi Sachdev reports from Mumbai on the toll that's taken on industries and workers who support the $70 billion wedding industry.
Second of 2 part series.
Photo courtesy Amitabh Singh, Safari Grills Delhi

Millions of Indians planning to have a large, traditional wedding in 2020 or 2021 had to drastically scale back their plans, reschedule or travel. Chhavi Sachdev reports on the pandemic's toll on couples trying to tie the knot in India.
First in a 2 part series.
Image creative commons by Kashish1711

As many wait for their first COVID-19 vaccine, Brahmadev Mandal who lives in a rural village in Bihar, India, says he has received 12. Mandal insists each shot made him feel better, so he went back for more. The World's Chhavi Sachdev reports that the news has embarrassed local health workers and has caught the attention of the police.
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This month, parents, teachers and kids in India were poised to reenter their classrooms full time. Omicron has pumped the brakes on that.

For parents like Teresa Khanna, it's a nuisance.

“It's been so long now that I really can't remember how it was when he went to physical school.”
Khanna's 10-year-old son Shreyas is in the fifth grade. His last full day in school was in March 2020...

Hundreds of millions of tonnes of food go to waste every year, much of it before it is even sold. This waste is bad for the planet, but also for farmers and consumers.

A company in India has found an solution. They collect imperfect produce that would otherwise have been left by farmers to rot and use specially designed solar dryers to remove the water.
The benefits of their system go far beyond food waste. By setting up collectives of women in rural India with the machines, they’re transforming lives.

Chhavi Sachdev announces the winners of the inaugural prize and discusses how smart ideas from individual innovators and small companies can influence the upcoming climate debate at COP26 in Glasgow. Prizes like this prove that there are clever ideas being developed to ease our pressure on the environment, but how can those ideas be harnessed and scaled up to make a big difference globally? Chhavi is joined by Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and by Juliet Davenport, founder of the green power company Good Energy, to discuss the best ways to make s

Taking inspiration from President Kennedy’s Moonshot which united people around a goal to put man on the moon and spurred the development of new technology in the 1960s, the Earthshot Prize is centred around five simple but ambitious goals for our planet. Chhavi Sachdev profiles more of the prize nominees from all around the world.

This week Chhavi concentrates on the innovators working to reduce waste, provide clean water and develop clean energy solutions for communities without access to power.

The Earthshot Prize aims to encourage simple but ambitious ideas to reverse the damage we've done to this planet. Over the next three editions of Costing the Earth, Chhavi Sachdev meets the prize nominees from all around the world.

This week Chhavi concentrates on the innovators working to protect nature on land and in the oceans and meets those striving to improve the air quality of our cities.

Humans are responsible for emitting over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year – and we all know that we need to reduce that figure to prevent devastating climate change. Listener Saugat wonders whether smart technology and artificial intelligence can help us do this more quickly?
In India, more than half the population are involved in agriculture, but the sector is plagued by inefficiency and waste. Tech start-ups have realised there’s potential for growth, and are using drones to monitor crop production and spraying, giving farmers apps which help them decide ...

For much of the world the pandemic has primarily been seen as a health crisis, accompanied by significant economic pressures. In India however, the impact on the food system has been considerable. Lockdowns and job losses have disrupted access to food in this country of 1.4 billion people.
Chhavi Sachdev, a journalist and broadcaster based in Mumbai joins Dan Saladino to report on food stories from the pandemic, from people who survived lockdown in some of the city's most densely crowded slums to home cooks who took it upon themselves to feed people in need.