Professor Asha Banu Soletti - Co-constructing Well-being in Ecologically Marginalized Tribal Landscapes in rural Maharashtra

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Asha Banu Soletti delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Co-constructing Well-being in Ecologically Marginalized Tribal Landscapes in rural Maharashtra" - Situated within the reserved forest, nearby the Thansa Lake reservoir in Maharashtra, tribal communities continue to live amidst layered ecological and social vulnerabilities despite their proximity to vital natural resources. Chronic water crisis, climate stress, precarious livelihoods, seasonal migration profoundly shape community health and well-being. Women bear disproportionate burdens of care often walking miles for water while navigating fragile household economies and disrupted support systems. The Pragati initiative emerged from the realization that health cannot be understood outside the ecological and social realities within which communities live. Moving beyond fragmented biomedical responses, the project re-envisioned community health through participatory, context-sensitive, and equity-oriented approaches grounded in lived experiences and collective resilience. This presentation is a reflection on Pragati’s evolving praxis and argues for community well-being frameworks that foreground ecological realities, structural inequities, and community agency in shaping sustainable and socially just health futures. In this co-construction process, the journeys and stories of resilience within communities become central to understanding health and well-being, while digital storytelling emerges as a meaningful approach to documenting lived realities, amplifying community voices, and fostering collective reflection and engagement. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias