DiA Photographer of the Year 2009 – Winner Amy Sheppey: 'A beautiful street girl; not in the conventional Indian sense of the word, but she captured me'.

Welcome to this summer issue of the Development in Action magazine, in which it gives me great pleasure to announce that the winning picture of the inaugural Development in Action Photographer of the Year 2009. The iconic close up action-portrait of a young street girl fits very well with the theme of this issue, which is to look at the people who are on the receiving end of development work in India. 2nd and 3rd places go to picture 8 and picture 1 respectively. Click here to see this year’s shortlist.

Helen Patterson kicks off this issue with a fascinating look at the way rural and urban women see each other in Pondicherry and the surrounding countryside. She asks the question: ‘Are they really so different from each other?’ Read on to find out.

Lucy Wilmot, who worked at ASA in Bhopal researching Soybean farming in Madhya Pradesh, summarises her detailed investigations explaining how farmers can be affected by agricultural development. She manages to describe the complex processes and patterns, and the factors affecting them, with a clarity that gives a real insight into the challenges faced in the region.

In her touching, though matter of fact article, Amy Cumming provides a series of brief insights into the lives of some of the children in Angallakupam, where she worked with Sharana Social and Development Organisation. We get a vital glimpse of the harsh reality of some of these children’s lives as well as of the hope they embody.

And finally, as part of our ‘Voices of India’ project, Isabelle Payen rounds off this issue with a fascinating interview with Nitin from Sewa Mandir, a school for deaf, dumb and blind children in Indore.

Tom Wilmott