On September 30, 1993, an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale devastated 67 villages in the Latur and Osmanabad districts of Maharashtra, India. The death toll exceeded 8000 and over 16,000 were injured. This video critically explores the possibilities and limitations of community participation, in the 52 villages that were relocated, under the aegis of the Maharashtra Earthquake Emergency Rehabilitation Programme (MEERP). This World Bank funded project, implemented between 1993 and 1998, focused on housing, infrastructure, social, economic and community rehabilitation and the preparation of a Disaster Management Plan. It had community participation as a key modality. Tata Institute of Social Sciences was the community participation consultant, for the villages to be relocated. Through case studies of selected villages, the video examines the processes and dynamics of community participation in a pre-determined, target-driven project, for post-disaster rehabilitation.

This video, shot during the period between October 1993 and December 1994, critically examines various aspects of the reconstruction programme in the Latur and Osmanabad districts of Maharashtra, following the earthquake of September 30, 1993. Part I traces the first stage of the reconstruction programme, where donor-sponsored housing relocation schemes were undertaken. The issues explored include the validity of the decision to relocate 52 villages, the lay-out and design of the settlements and houses and the building technologies adopted. It concludes with a case study of the village Talani. The second part looks at the notion of peoples' participation in the reconstruction programme. It presents various experiments involving the use of low-cost indigenous materials, local participation in settlement design, training of local artisans, demonstration of retrofitting techniques, information-education campaigns and so on.

Drawing on the testimonies of individuals who have been infected nosocomially with HIV/AIDS, the film aims to sensitise various groups to the risks involved in transmission of HIV through blood exposures, in the Indian context. This risk has been systematically underestimated. The film critically examines various unsafe health care and cosmetic practices. It questions the low perception of risks associated with unsafe blood exposures, among health care professionals and others, which is due to the misinformation about survival of the HIV virus outside the human body. There is also misinformation about the importance of the sexual route, based on unreliable data, myths about sexual transmission and morality. But the fact is that we do not know how much HIV is being spread through sex and how much through blood. Given this scenario, the film also attempts to create awareness about safe practices.

The video explores, in depth, the perceptions of two visually challenged women, who speak of their experience of childhood, getting an education, finding employment, marriage and child rearing. In a candid account, the friends discuss the trials they face everyday in meeting the challenge of parenting their sighted children. Their children’s perception of visual disability and their aspirations for the future are also presented.

Mental Health services in India are offered by mental hospitals, psychiatric units attached to general hospitals and voluntary agencies. The video traces the history of mental health services in the country and the changing paradigms of mental illness, treatment and rehabilitation, underlying these interventions. The models and approaches adopted by various institutions are explored, in the light of the need for low-cost, appropriate and accessible interventions in the Indian context.

The programme takes up two cases of Down's syndrome, with different genetic profiles (Trisomy 21 and Translocation 14- 21) and traces the counselling process involved in each case. The aim is to highlight the counselling strategies that could be adopted to help clients to come to terms and deal with the genetic disorder. This programme would be of use to medical practitioners as well as other professionals and paraprofessionals involved in work with the mentally challenged.

This programme presents a profile of the health worker, who, in the course of her regular community visits, helps in the detection of mental disability. The slide show traces the process of genetic counseling, through case studies of Down’s syndrome. It stresses the importance of early intervention and rehabilitation. The aim is to present, for the health worker and the lay-person, the counselling process, with specific reference to Down’s syndrome.