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India:
Smart Toilets That Talk Eco-sense
By Deepti Priya Mehrotra

India:
Village Voice: The Sun Shines On The Future
By Alka Pande

India:
Aila! The Cry From The Sunderbans
By Soma Mitra

India:
Life by this Lakeside is Far From Idyllic
By Shwetha George

India:
Women Living Between A Rock And a Hard Place
By Manipadma Jena

India:
The Wilting Of The Garden City
By Roshin Varghese

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Climate Change, MDGs and Gender In India

India
Green Designs By Women Architects
By Surekha Kadapa-Bose

Now you can build a home that is eco-friendly, easy to maintain, reduces energy related greenhouse gas emissions and yet costs no more than a conventional home. Energy-efficient homes is the new buzzword among those who want to reduce their carbon footprint on Planet Earth. And fuelling this eco-trend are talented women architects. Mumbaikar Shimul Javeri Kadri and Bangaloreans Chitra Vishwanath and Anupama Kundoo, who shuttle between Mumbai and Berlin, are optimistic that concrete-metal-glass monstrosities will soon make way for mud houses that are today considered the poor person's dwelling.

* 'If buildings are constructed giving attention to the direction of natural wind flow and angle of sunlight, a lot of energy can be saved.'

India
In Assam, Women As Keepers Of The Wild
By Ratna Bharali Talukdar

For Swarnalata B. Baruah, 26, the decision to join the Department of Environment and Forest, Assam, to serve as a frontline staff - a tough 24x7 job inside the deep jungles of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries - was not easy. Her husband, Babul, an employee of the Kaziranga National Park, had died in a horrific incident when an aggressive rhino attacked him inside the Park. Yet, today she is the proud member of the first batch of Women Foresters and Forest Guards. Young, energetic and equipped with the latest GPS technology, the 21 women foresters and 35 forest guards are all set to fight the threats inside the national park - from poaching to illegal fishing to encroachment of forest land.

* 'This isn't like any other profession. We are on duty 24X7 and have to be around as and when required, moving with the GPS in our hand, protecting the wildlife and ecology of the park.'

India
Renu's Zoo Story: Solar Power Keeps The Animals Comfy
By Anjali Singh

Lucknow's Prince of Wales Zoological Garden is India's first zoo to harness solar energy for its day-to-day running. Presently, the offices, the streetlights and the zoo kitchen run on solar power. Another six months and the entire establishment will depend on the eco-friendly fuel - from the water pumps to the vehicles that take visitors around to the quaint lanterns on the main gate. Who is the force behind this green switch? Renu Singh, the zoo director, whose ecologically friendly initiatives goes a long way towards ensuring a healthier environment for animals while providing visitors with an educational experience.

* 'It was a workable idea... we could cut down substantially on the electricity bills. The Lucknow zoo will now set an example of how the functional use of solar energy is possible in our daily lives.'

India
Helping Children Save Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary
By Smita Deodhar

Svelte jeans-clad Sharmila Deo and matronly Purnima Phadke are familiar figures at the 'ashramshalas', or the government-run residential schools for tribal children, in Tekavade and Terungan villages, near the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary. Armed with colourful posters, picture cards and slides, the Pune residents have been heading to this forest reserve for two years now with one mission - to instill in the local children an appreciation and protective attitude towards their verdant home. Today, thanks to their hand-on sessions the children are more aware about their own environment.

* Another expert was called in to explain the characteristics of indigenous trees but, much to his amazement, the children rattled off the local names of all the trees they saw during their nature walk, along with their diverse uses!

India
Illiterate Muslim Woman Turns A River's Fury Into Opportunity
By Bula Devi

It all began when hope was flooded out. River Kosi was in spate after the breach at Kusaha, Nepal, in August 2008. Several villages adjoining the river in Bihar were washed away. In Sirwar, Saharsa district, people who lived in mud huts placed their cots, one on top of the other, clambered on to them and held on to life. When the waters receded, the villagers discovered that they had lost all their assets. It was in these dismal circumstances that Kulsum Khatum, an illiterate Muslim woman from a backward caste, discovered leadership qualities within herself. She formed a group of 10 women, who decided to start an informal co-operative business on a small scale. Not only did this step transform their lives, it changed the face of the village.

* "If the 'sahibs' can weave dreams for their children, so can we."

India
Andhra Women Give Tips To Vidarbha Farmers
By Papri Sri Raman

Dalit ('downtrodden') women from Andhra Pradesh have sown the seeds of hope in the neighbouring farmer-suicide region of Vidarbha, in particular the village of Dorli - once so poor that the villagers put it up for sale. Feisty women farmers and landowners from Medak - as young as eight to 80 years old - talk of sustainable farming, organic feritilisers and other farming tips, to help the Dorli women to grow some grain or the other throughout the year so that there is always some crop and fodder, no matter how impoverished the farmer is. This valuable know-how is being shared with the support of the Deccan Developmental Society.

* "From the same fields I first harvest mustard, then Bengal gram and chick pea, then the millet, I work to do this throughout the year."

India
Learning Flood Management From Nadia
By Soma Mitra

It had been a decade and Pramila still cannot get over the loss her infant daughter to the floods that hit her Mahisura village in Bengal's Nadia district in 2000. Though Pramila isn't the only mother who suffered in the floods that year, she displayed extraordinary courage when she decided to channel her grief into forming the Kalyani Self Help Group (SHG), that today is part of an umbrella organisation, the Nawadeep Haritha Mahila Unnayan Samity (NHMUS), a federation of 500 SHGs that work together to device ways to tackle the dangers of floods. With assistance from SPADE, a civil society organisation, NHMUS has now formed special task forces trained in early warning and camp management comprising hundreds of women from flood-prone villages of the region.

* "Now we hardly need government officials to manage the camps. We have our own first aid material and are trained to use them. We also know how to purify water."

India
Lights On The Education Blackout
By Alka Pande

In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state where 60 per cent of school drop-outs are girls and where female literacy hovers around 43 per cent and below, frequent power cuts or even the absence of electricity prevent young women in rural areas from pursuing an education. Yet, there is a ray of hope for many now. Swedish company Ikea, keen to promote girls' education, will through Unicef, give 60,000 sturdy solar-powered lamps to state-run residential schools, such as Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV), located in the state's most remote and backward areas.

* "This will help children, especially rural girls, play, read, write and study at night as most of them after coming back from school first help their mothers in the daily chores and then get a chance to study."

India
Gulf of Mannar: Women Farm Seaweed,Draw In A Catch
By Papri Sri Raman

The Gulf of Mannar, with its 160-kilometre coast that has over 3,600 species of flora and fauna, is one of the most ecologically rich coastal regions of Asia. The livelihood needs of the people living here, however, have resulted in over-fishing and coral hunting. To arrest the rapid degradation of the ecosystem, the Tamil Nadu government, the Government of India, United Nations Development Project and the Global Environment Fund got together to set up a bioreserve and also aid the local communities with alternate sustainable occupations, including seaweed culture. Today, the 2,150 Self Help Groups and the more than 250 groups that have been empowered with the help of microfinance ventures are doing their bit to save their precious Gulf.

'Women dominate in the Village CED Committees that have been established, form the great majority of Self-Help Group members and micro-credit recipients and have clearly participated more enthusiastically.'

India
A Silk Yarn For Times Of Extreme Weather
By Ratna Bharali Talukdar

DESPITE A GROWING DEMAND, MUGA SILK - the pride of Assam - has encountered production problems as a result of climate change, more precisely the drought, threatening the survival of the unique Antheraea Assama silkworm. Known for its great sensitivity to climatic conditions and its need for humidity, this wild silkworm can only be reared in the outdoors. Women, who constitute a major workforce in the entire process of silk-rearing and reeling of raw-silk yarn, may have opted for alternative livelihoods but have kept their plantations intact, in the hope that the good times will spin back.

'If we want to save it (Muga) we will have to save the habitat. At least the food-plant areas must be free from global warming or pollution.'

India
Village Voice: The Sun Shines On The Future
By Alka Pande

The residents of the hamlet of Rampura in Jhansi district are the envy of their neighbours. Having come together to emerge from what now seems to them as the dark ages, the people now enjoy the benefits of a community-run solar project that has illuminated their homes with CFL bulbs, created electricity-run livelihood options and put a check on school-drop outs, with children enthused about new computer skills and school television. As we step into a New Year still looking for ways to control the climate crisis and yet provide for life's basics like power for the millions, solar energy is going to be the fuel of the future, or so says Rampura.

'It was like removing the cataract from the eyes of the entire village... It has changed our lives. Now I cook here while my son sits next to me and studies.'

India
Palashban's Ponds Are Lifelines
By Ajitha Menon

The rain gods have never been kind to the 2,500-odd people of Palashban village in West Bengal's Birbhum district. However, this hard working farming community has devised an indigenous water management system to deal with the severe crisis they face. After the monsoons every year, the 20-odd ponds in the village are divided - ten are reserved for agriculture and the rest are marked for household activities. Everyone abides by the division decided collectively - with the women having a big say in the ponds given to them - and only if there is an urgent need is the water shared. But while this has sustained them through trying times, it's not the perfect solution. What is needed is government intervention in the form of an irrigation project.

* "I have relatives in Kolkata. When I see how they leave the taps running while doing chores... my heart bleeds. It's such a waste of water, when in our village we scrimp and save every possible drop."

India
Bhil Women Guard Their Forests
By Subhadra Khaperde

Daheli Bai, Vesti Bai and Raija Bai are Bhil tribal women leaders of the Sondwa Block of Alirajpur district - that flanks the River Narmada in Madhya Pradesh - who have encouraged their village community to protect denuded forests; thinning soils; and drying streams. As part of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath (KMCS), these women have relied on the traditional labour pooling customs of the Bhils to conserve their forests by patrolling the forests against deforestation; and by plugging the gullies in between their hilly farms with stones to catch the loose soil and water unleashed by the monsoon.

* 'I felt very angry after all our forests were cut down to supply timber to the cities... So I got the women of our village together and started protecting these hills.'

India
An Eco-Friendly Home of Our Own
By Taru Bahl

One thing Vijaya Pushkarna, a journalist working for a national weekly, was clear about was that she wanted a home that was not the usual concrete structure of cement and steel, cast in the familiar cube/cuboid shape that marked so many houses in Chandigarh. Her search for an affordable, eco-friendly home led her to Anil Laul, an architect, who had pioneered the Sustainable Human Settlement Design in the Seventies. An all-woman team then began work using Nanakshahi bricks as their building blocks.

* The result was a beautiful, modern abode recalling a 16th century home, that was both earthquake resistant and energy efficient.

India
A Rice Gene To Tackle Floods And Feed Families
By Manipadma Jena

Too much or too little rain - erratic monsoons have spelt disaster in the coastal state of Orissa. Between 1961 to 2008, the state has been ravaged by floods 21 times and by drought, 15 times. It has also witnessed five cyclones. These statistics, when combined with the fact that of the 44 lakh hectares of land under paddy cultivation in Orissa, 10 lakh hectares are chronically flood-prone, script a story of poverty, out-migration and destitution. However, a new rice variety, Swarna Sub1 - developed by the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, and several agricultural universities in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute in Manila - can withstand water submergence for 10 to 15 days. It offers a bountiful ray of hope for flood-afflicted farmers, many of whom are women.

* "It was as though the rice plants are able to hold their breath until the water is gone."

WFS REF NO: INDI817C                                                        1,100 words

Photographs Available

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By Deepti Priya Mehrotra

In the current context of climate change, with the depletion of water resources very much a reality, the need for eco-efficient technologies has never been more important. In the area of eco-sanitation, the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation led by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak - recently named the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate - has created a unique model for ecological renewal. Its low-cost toilet systems - currently used by 15 million people in India - not only need minimal water but also trap biogas and produce bio-fertilisers. In fact, a whopping 134.4 million litres of water is saved every day thanks to these toilets.

* Women are an integral part of this toilet revolution, right from learning how to construct the two-pit toilets, to leading campaigns for health and hygiene.

WFS REF NO: INDI714C                                                        1,280 words

Photographs Available

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