Stella's Musings

My Father - the Climate Migrant

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 09:10:00 +0000

I grew up in northeastern India in a family of seven members: maa, grandmother, 3 elder siblings and a cousin.

Then there was Baba – my father who lived in Dubai and whom I only saw once in every 2 years.

In my child’s mind, he was a special guest: when Baba came home, each of us siblings got a new dress, my brother and my sister would also get something extra like a wristwatch or a pair of shoes. Baba stayed for about one and half month and during the entire time, we would eat fish almost at each meal, relatives would visit us, sometimes some neighbors would invite Baba for lunch or dinner and one of us would get to accompany him.

So, Baba would mean something special, something out of the box, but never one who we shared our daily lives with: I never went to a ‘mela ‘– village fairs that were very popular events, Baba never signed any of my school reports, never took me to Durga puja or bought me a balloon or a Jalebi; he never plucked a guava for me from the tree or taught me cycling. Basically, Baba was someone who stayed on the cover of my book but never inside it.

But when I was in grade 8, and I had just scored over 90 in a few subjects, I remember Baba telling me he was happy and proud. That year was also probably the very first time he told me a few stories, about Dubai (the Sheikhs there are so powerful they shut down all paan shops after someone spit paan juice on a Sheikh’s car), food (freshwater fish - the one Baba was used to- was very expensive and when he made fish curry , his colleagues would eat from Baba’s lunch box) and work (one of his Pakistani colleagues was so nice, Baba wanted to make him his son in-law).

For the next few years, these would be the things I would identify Baba with: he works in Dubai for a big company, he comes home in an airplane and he helps install central air conditioners – you know, the a/c system that cools down a huge building. It felt so good to tell these stories to my friends.

However, there was this one nagging question in my head: why does Baba have such rough, scaly hands with peeling skin?

Fast forward a few years and Baba had returned home for good, having quit his job. Oh, and he had no teeth. Not one. He was not even 60.

Fast forward to today. I am at the COP28, and I am sifting through reports, documents, and interviews with people on the conditions in which migrant workers work. I am learning that here most migrant workers are from poor, weather-ravaged regions of South Asian countries.

I am discovering that these workers are mostly unskilled and looking for jobs – any job. They pay a recruitment fee to get this job which they borrow from someone, and which then takes them a long time to pay back. I am also learning that their employers don’t pay them the whole wage and confiscate their passports, releasing it only once in two years or more. And I am also learning that these workers work in terrible heat, without any shade or shield and get sunburns, dehydration, high blood pressure and other ailments.

And in my mind’s eye I now see Baba – an unskilled worker from the northeastern state frequently hit by earthquakes, hailstorms and flood, toiling in the terrible heat of Dubai. I see him living in a shared accommodation that was hot and had no air conditioners (although he installed it in other buildings). I see him cooking his own meals, eating cheap food and trying to save from his meagre salary because back home, his wife was waiting for money to feed their four children and an old mother, also to repair the mud house with a thatched roof that was destructed every year from flood and storms.

I also see my father waiting for two long years before getting back his passport, missing out on Durga puja, Diwali, Holi, New Year, Birthdays, and weddings.

In fact, when my eldest sister – Baba’s first-born child - got married, my father could not be there because he had to be at the job.

When my father returned home with no teeth and no savings, it was because his body was malnourished and weakened from the poor diet and hard work and hadn’t earned enough to save. And yes, I now know the answer to my nagging question: Baba’s hands were rough, peeling because of the daily exposure to the terrible desert heat.

I always thought Baba as a stranger, as someone who did not belong to my life and my stories.

But today I realize, if anyone ever deserves to be in my story and in my life, its Baba because he sacrificed so much for us, for me and he was deprived of so much – his basic rights as a worker, access to healthcare, a good life in his final years and even a place in his own children’s lives.

N.B: I am reporting on the climate migrants and climate justice from the COP. Watch this space for those stories.

#COP28 #ClimateJustice #climatemigration #climatedisaster #migration #displacement #Dubai #UAE

The Unequal Partners: Indigenous Peoples in the COVID-19 Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:17:00 +0000

As the global combat against COVID-19 pandemic has intensified, most of the countries are now under partial or total lockdown.

. In India, for example, this is the 3rd week under a nationwide lockdown. And although the Novel Coronavirus doesn't discriminate between classes or races or communities, the lockdown does affect some more than others, especially the Indigenous Peoples who are hardly ever involved when official decisions are made. Today, I want to share a few snapshots of the way the crisis is affecting the indigenous peoples across the globe.

Assam (India)

The largest tea producing state in India - 50% of the country and 1/6 of world's total tea produce comes from here - has just lifted the lockdown to allow production in its 803 tea farms. Traditionally, harvesting in tea gardens begins on April 1 and so, this year, harvesting has been already delayed by 2 weeks. According to the farm owners, if the harvesting is delayed any longer, leaves will grow too old and unfit for consumption. So, if the lockdown continued, not only the leaves in this peak season would be wasted, but the overgrown bushes would also make production hard in next season.

But opening up of the estates has left the state's 8 million+ indigenous workers with a Cornellian Dilemna: if the lockdown continues, they would face starvation as most employers in the tea sector practice 'No work, no pay' policy, and without lockdown, the threat of a virus spread grows bigger than ever before.

An indigenous woman workers walks through a tea garden. Courtesy: Indian Chamber of Commerce

Historically, Adivasi people of the tea estates have been described among the poorest Indians who live in little or no education, high poverty, hunger, malnutrition and poor health. It doesn't take much effort to imagine how devastating the effect would be on these people if anyone gets the coronavirus. The threat is especially huge to indigenous women who are the main harvesters in any tea garden.

A union of these women had appealed to the government to continue the lockdown. But of course this has not been considered. The government has just instructed the gardens to maintain social distancing. But it would take more than an instruction. They would need masks, gloves and all the protection required to stay safe. Besides, there would have to be strict vigilance to see that the social distancing is maintained across the production areas including plucking (in the garden, its possible), weighing yard (not so easy) , in the processing unit (also hard as some tasks need more than one person to work together) and in sorting/drying.
The question is, is the govt serious enough to ensure these safety measures or will the matter be left on the indigneous people to fend for themselves - like they have always been?

Brazil

Last week, the Amazon indigenous territories witnessed its first COVID-19 death which sent shocks across the forest communities. Now, why is a single death so shocking when countries are reporting thousands of death , some in a single day?

The answer is, the indigenous people of Brazil, especially the uncontacted tribe do not have the immunity to fight against a deadly pathogen like the Novel Coronavirus and are therefore particularly vulnerable against a disease like COVID19. If we look into the history, every viral disease breakout has wiped out a sizeable population of the Amazonian people, pushing them near extinction.. And this time, as the president of Brazil stubbornly undermines the deadliness of COVID19, the indigenous people are again at great risk.

Uncontacted Indians seen from the air during a Brazilian government expedition in 2010 © G.Miranda/FUNAI/Survival

According to a press release by the Survival International protection of indigenous territories is "a matter of life and death". There are primarily two reasons behind this: 1) the govt of Brazil has continued to let Christian missionaries from outside of Amazon move freely in the uncontacted tribes territories and 2) Loggers, miners and ranchers also allowed wide access and free movement in the tribes land. Both could possibly infection the tribes with the coronavirus..

"Although the entire world now understands how dangerous new diseases can be, Brazil's President Bolsonaro is actively encouraging fundamentalist missionaries to make contact with uncontacted Amazonian tribes, who lack resistance to outside diseases. In addition, many tribes in Brazil such as the Yanomami, the Kawahiva, the Uru Eu Wau Wau, the Munduruku and the Awá, are seeing their territories invaded by goldminers, ranchers and loggers. All are home to uncontacted communities, who are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet and extremely susceptible to outside diseases," says the press release.

Update: On 17th April, a court in Brazil blocked evangelical missionaries from making contact with uncontacted tribes in the Javari Valley, home to the greatest concentration of such peoples anywhere on Earth. The judge stated in his ruling that "Uncontacted Indians are especially vulnerable... To make contact with them is hugely risky," and ordered the authorities to strictly enforce the ruling.

This is certainly a very positive development but it also puts the onus on the govt now. Unless the ruling is honored and strictly enforced, the threat of the pandemic is unlikely to wane, let alone be gone.

Papua (Indonesia)

As of today, Indonesia has over 6,760 positive COVID-19 cases including 107 in Papua. an indigenous territory. 590 people have also died so far, 6 of them in the Papua .

The 6 fatalities might not sound big but, like in the Amazon, has created high tension in Papua as the remote province has very health infrastructure which is totally incapable of handling a large number of infectious disease.

Members of the Indigenous Miyah community. Courtesy: Samdhana Institute and IUCN.org

According to a BBC report, the hospitals in Papua are already almost full with non-COVID patients. If the Coronavirus spreads, the administration won't be able to treat them.

So, the indigenous peoples are putting up check points and barricades, social distancing system to prevent a potential virus spread. But tension and fear prevails high. And in a fear-gripped land, rumors are flying: a few days ago, there was rumor of the Papuan governor getting COVID-19 and flew out to Jakarta for treatment. The government has denied that.

The fact, however, is that the indigenous peoples are vulnerable, resource-less and have little to depend on except luck to stay safe and healthy in the growing pandemic.

Nellore (India)

Amidst all the doom and gloom, there is something good happening in at least one indigenous area and I want to wrap up with that. 2 years ago couple of years ago, I had reported on Yanadi - the largest group of homeless indigenous people in India.

As millions of poor Indians struggle to find a square meal now, two charities have joined hands to provide food to the Yanadis. These are Reliance Foundation - the charitable arm of the Ambani group of industries and Association for the Rural Development - an NGO based in Nellore district which has the largest population of the Yanadi people. The food aid kit has 10 kg rice, 1 kg daal, besides salt, sugar and cooking oil.

The number of the Yanadis is of course too huge to be covered by a NGO alone. But its good to see that the most forgotten and left out people of all are not being forgotten in this pandemic. May their effort find more support!

A year of Environmental Reporting: My 2019 in 5 Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 17:38:00 +0000

I haven't blogged this year. But all through the year, I traveled, telling the stories that somehow didn't get reported or, as a colleague once said, "just fell through the crack". And while on my job, there were many powerful moments that filled me with strength and inspiration - the reason why I could go on, no matter how hard it was. Sharing today, as I say goodbye to this year, 5 of those moments. Have a look and feel free to share, if you like them.

#1. The Peatland Restorers of Philippines

Standing guard over the vast stretch of peatland in Leyte sab-a basin , Philippines, these are women of Tacloban, Palo and Leyte who have survived several disasters including the 2013 typhoon Hayan. And now they have joined hands to restore the peatland which is a crucial step towards restoring the entire ecosystem of the region.

Also considered a crucial step in fighting climate change, they have also been partnering with the government to restore the peatland. Here is my story on these awe-inspiring women and their work http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/03/island-women-take-lead-peatland-restoration/

#2. The Treepreneurs of Myanmar

This is the first story I did this year. In a remote region of Myanmar, a fishing community has come together to restore the mangrove forest that was destroyed a decade ago by the tsunami. The community has since planted millions of trees and become the only mangrove forest to be qualified for carbon trading. Here is my story - republished by the medium https://medium.com/ipsnews/sprouting-mangroves-restore-hopes-in-coastal-myanmar-a074157dce6f

#3 The Forest Vanguards of India

Korchi in India's Maharashtra state has been in the news often, but always for either an encounter between the security forces and militants, or a shutdown. This is because the village has been witnessing a raging armed militancy for quite sometime. But unknown to many, indigenous women of the village have been fighting hard and claiming back their right to forest., so they can protect it from illegal loggers. Here is my story on this: http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/08/in-the-midst-of-conflict-indias-indigenous-female-forest-dwellers-own-the-land/

#4 : The Climate Strikers of Europe

You have seen them all over the continent and beyond: young students skipping classes and walking down the streets, raising their voices and hoping to raise the consciousness of others - especially the policy makers, to take greater, urgent climate action. I spend some time with them in Belgium this year. I was touched and inspired by their passion and resolve like everyone else. Well, almost everyone. Here is my report on them https://www.mo.be/en/reportage/hope-army-belgium-s-climate-activists-marches

#5 The Unstoppables : Children of the Marshall Islands

And finally, I share this photo of children of the Marshall Islands - the most climate vulnerable country in the world - being just children. It was just a few hours after there was a huge storm, huge, scary waves and intense rain. The sky was still cloudy when I walked to the lagoon of Majuro - not too far from the secretariat building and saw this group of kids jumping into the water, without a worry in the world! Life is for living , life is now, this moment and this is what I learnt form these children - a thought I am going to carry all the way to the new year!

Happy 2020, see you there!

River Trilogy Part 1: Mighty Mekong - the Mighty Carrier of Plastic

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 21:50:00 +0000

I have marked 2018 as the year of visiting our great rivers.

And so, since January, I have visited half a dozen rivers across Asia. Among them are the 3 of the continent's mightiest rivers: Mekong, Irrawaddy and Padma. I spent a couple of days - and nights too - by each of these great rivers, travelling along them, visiting communities that live by them and experiencing the riverside life.

On this World Environment Day, I am starting to write some of my experiences. I begin with Mekong.

I visited Mekong in Can Tho of Vietnam - known as the heart of the Mekong Delta. As my flight drew closer to Ho Chi Minh City, I could see the serpentine image of the river - zigzagging through the delta. I was awestruck!

A few hours later, I was in Can Tho checking into a modest guest house right over the river. It was 31st December. Back home and everywhere else, my family and friends were partying. The wi fi did not work, so I was cut off from everybody.

Lying in the darkness of my room, I could hear the burbles of Mekong. Occasionally I could hear boats paddling away. In a few hours time, the night would end and the morning sun would rise and I was going to welcome the rising sun - the first sun of 2018 - over the Mekong. I slept with that beautiful dream.

At dawn, I was up and sitting on a fishing boat with my fellow journalist friend Dinh Tuyen who lived in Can Tho. It was still somewhat dark and yet there were several other boats around us already. We were all moving to one destination: Cai Rang -the floating farmers' market.

The market, in nature, was not very different from the other floating markets I have seen in Thailand or elsewhere. But this was bigger and of course on the wide open river. All kind farm-fresh produce -from fresh fruits (pineapple, rambutan and guava) to vegetables, fish, besides groceries etc sold in the market.

As we were cruising through the market enjoying some fresh fruits and meeting some old farmers, the sun was getting hot and the crowd of tourists was growing bigger.

For us, this was time to move out of the market area and visit some riverside villagers. However, as we started out, the boatman began to slow down and halt abruptly. He had a nagging, nasty problem: plastic bags. Every few minutes, he would pull the oars out of the water and clear it off the plastic.

And then it stuck me: floating around me were all kind of plastic trash: sandals, bags and plastic bottles of mineral water and soft drinks. The last one was clearly a contribution of the tourists.

Tuyen, who was born in the mountains of northern Vietnam, had fallen in love with the Mekong during a trip to Can Tho several years ago and decided to live here. He has been covering the Mekong Delta for years and he says, the volume of plastic trash in the river has been growing in an alarming rate.

There is a general lack of awareness, he says, about plastic pollution of a river. From fish to fruits to biscuits, everything comes in a plastic bag. Nobody bothers to discard this on the land and instead, just tosses it away in the river. "The current carries away everything (to the ocean), so nobody thinks its a big deal", Tuyen told me.

There is no organized drive yet to prevent this or to educate the communities yet, but the locals are indeed feeling the heat of the pollution, Tuyen says. The color of the water is changing and the fish catch is decreasing. But there is a much bigger damage of the plastic in the river: according to a study conducted by Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany, about 90% of the plastic in the oceans come from 10 rivers. One of them these 10 rivers is Mekong.

And just to touch base on this, there are 8.3 billion tons of plastic trash in the world that we live in today. In the ocean, its causing acidification, bleaching the corals and killing marine life.

For the next 2 days, I travelled to some islands and villages along the Mekong. Most of the people were subsistence farmers, growing fruits and catching small fishes for a living.

Life seemed so simple, peaceful and so close to the nature.

But then, wherever I turned, I saw plastics.

Even for safeguarding their fruits, they covered them with tiny plastic jackets - the same that would soon end up in the river.

Last week, the Mekong River Commission - the governing body of entire Mekong river (which flows through 5 countries), released a statement saying it was working on an initiative to go plastic- free. But this was the commission's office in Laos - faraway from the Mekong Delta.

As I took my last ride over the river, I felt sad.
It had been a dream for years to see Mekong - a river that feeds millions of people with its fish stock, besides helping nations prosper with its inland waterways and its hydelpower potential.

This river needs to clean, free of plastic and not carry plastic to the oceans.

The communities - both locals and the tourists - need a campaign to tell them of the mountains of plastic trash Mekong was creating, causing the ocean acidification.

After all, a healthy river is our biggest asset and its our responsibility to preserve its health.

Embarrassing, Unjust, Tyrannical: Women Climate Warriors on Trump Quitting Paris Agreement

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 22:39:00 +0000

The worst fear has just come true: US President Donald Trump has just announced that he will make US abandon the historic climate deal - the Paris Agreement - because 1) he thinks the agreement is bad for American economy and 2) It was something he had promised to do during his election campaign.

A snapshot of the infamous California drought that affected millions. Credit : LA Times

As expected, reactions are pouring out from all corners of the world. Here is a compilation of some of the world's most vocal Women climate leaders:

Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development
"... a U.S. pull-out reveals utter disregard for the fate of humanity in favor of continued hegemony of U.S. elites and big corporate interests. Not to mention a tyrannical refusal to accept scientific findings."

Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and Environment, India
Climate change is a global challenge. The US cannot continue to keep the world hostage. Pulling out of the Paris Agreement would mean that with 5 per cent of the world population, the US will continue to jeopardise the remaining 95 per cent. Countries need to hold the US accountable for decisions that have a global impact,” said Narain.

Rachel Smolker, BiofuelWatch USA
"I am ashamed ... hope our allies will let their voices be heard at U.S. embassies - to both isolate Donald Trump and his ilk - and apply pressure on the U.S. to step up and take responsibility for real and equitable solutions to the escalating climate catastrophe."

Angela Adrar, Climate Justice Alliance USA

"Trump's erroneous and embarrassing decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement - proves more than ever that communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis are the ones to lead us toward a renewable and regenerative future. "

Catherine Abreu, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada
“Trump may be ready to abandon the benefits associated with climate action, including improved air quality and human health, job creation in emerging industries, and international influence. Yet it is clear that American states, communities, and businesses are not willing to make the same sacrifice."

A woman and a child in the Philippines stand in what was their home once - destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan Credit: AFP-Getty

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam International
“The world’s biggest historic emitter walking away from its climate change commitments is gravely unjust, but we must respond by redoubling our efforts. Those on the frontlines of climate change demand nothing less.”

Keya Chatterjee, Executive Director, US Climate Action Network
“Trump has no mandate from the US public to weaken the Paris Agreement, and should not be making big decisions while under investigation. This cowardly failure to lead will only make us stronger as a movement as we push harder for just and equitable climate action.”

Women in Honduras set up solar panels. Credit: UNDP

But even as they lash out At Trump's decision, some leaders are already looking at the Post US Paris Agreement as glass-half- full situation. Here are some examples:

Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Europe
“Trump has cast America adrift from the global community and the reality of climate change. This should be a trigger for increased action on climate in Europe, to end fossil fuel dependency by 2030.”

Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International Executive Director
“Almost 200 countries committed to climate action in Paris and only one has decided to withdraw. This is how far out of step Trump is with the rest of the world. It is the changing of the global guard - as the US bows out, world leaders, CEOs and people across the world can and are moving forward into the future.”

Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International)
"In the face of a dangerous and failing Trump administration, and its withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Accord, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network stands in solidarity with our partners.... Women worldwide are working everyday to protect our lands, waters, climate and children’s futures - and though the challenges and injustices we face are many - women will be undeterred in our action and advocacy for a just and livable world. "
Farhana Yamin, Founder and CEO, Track 0
"President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Paris will not bring prosperity to the US. It will create further injustice for those who have contributed little to climate change" .

And Finally, a voice that speaks out the obvious truth: the fightmust and can go on

Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
"Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of Paris will not save the coal industry or fossil fuels, but instead will slow the urgent action that is needed and undermine the ability of the US to negotiate any international agreement, leaving it isolated and irrelevant. Mr. Trump may be out, but he doesn’t speak for the world. The rest of us are still in. The future demands nothing less.”

Investing in Women: Saving Wildlife the Lankan Way

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:21:00 +0000

At a time when governments worldwide are struggling to protect an ever-dwindling wildlife population, in Sri Lanka, a dramatically simple strategy seems to bring good results: pay local women incentives for having their husbands abandon the illegal business.

The roads are wide, the houses are spacious and the yards adorned with flowering bushes. There is a motorbike in each yard and a dish tv antenna on every roof - the first look of Serakkulia - a fishing village by the ocean in North west Sri Lanka - is truly impressive.

"This is the richest and most prosperous fishing village I have seen anywhere," I think.

And then I quickly learn, most of the richness and the prosperity has come through illegal fishing.

I am in Serakkulia on a media tour organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The UN agency, along with a few other national and international organizations including the IUCN, is trying to protect a highly endangered sea animal called the Dugong. The biggest threat to the Dugong are fishing nets that catch (and kill) any marine creature. Locally known as "Surukku" and "Laila" - these nets have been recently (2016), but fishermen with a strong greed for money and little regard for law or environment use them anyway. Serakkulia, I hear, was notorious for that.

But today, this is where the Dugong protectors are trying out a never-before strategy: roping in women of illegal fishers and giving them fund to turn entrepreneurs, so their husbands won't feel compelled to earn a lot of money - by hook or by crook.

Our first visit is to a house that has a signboard outside the main gate -parched on a hedge of dried coconut leaf. It reads, "Reshmi Tailors". Reshmi, I later learn, is the 5 year old daughter of Mureen Renuka - owner of the house and leader of a team of tailors. Inside the house, in one of the 3 rooms, there are 6 sewing machines. Working with those sewing machines are 8 women. Behind them, hanging on the wall, are a number of pieces they stitched: frocks, tunics, trousers. The machines - each costing about 30,000 Lankan rupee - were given by the Dugong conservation team.

Nilmini, a member of the tailoring collective is busy at work.

There are 400 fishermen in Serakkulia. While everyone is trying stopped using the banned nets, 10 have so far gone public, pledging their support to the conservation team to help save the Dugong. This means not only using the legal fishing methods but also avoiding fishing in areas that are likely to have any endangered species and also informing the authorities if they spot any illegal activities by others.

Typically, in a fisherman community, the man catches the fish while the woman cleans, guts, dry and sometimes help sell in the local market. In Serakkulia most of the catch is loaded in a truck and sold in bigger markets of Puttalam and Colombo, so a woman's job entails mending the nets and other household chores. So, at Reshmi Tailors, women are getting their first shot at turning entrepreneurs and earning some money of their own.

Renuka tells me. "There are 8 of us right now working here full time. We take orders to stitch dresses. But we also train others in tailoring," she says.

At present she earns about 25-28,000 Sri Lankan rupee ($160-$180) from tailoring. Of that, 18,000 is spent on three of her children's school fees alone. Also, as a non-farming community, they buy all their foods - oi, rice, meat, spices, fruits etc- from the market.

Mureen Renuka (left) with her fisherman husband who has given up illegal fishing and Rinjhani -a relative. Both Renuka and Rinjhani now are part of a women's tailoring collective.

So, what is the cost of adopting sustainable fishing? Sirimal Santha - Renuka's husband says that his income has been halved. Would he consider returning to illegal fishing again? No way, he says, "the risk is too high - if I get caught, I will lose my nets and also my boat for sure."

But above all, Santha says that his wife would never allow him to turn back on his pledge. "She is working very hard and I don't want to hurt her (by returning to illegal fishing). We are happy," he says. All the other women tailors - Nilmini, Upaka, Ranjani, Tamali - say that their husbands feel the same way.

Later, I meet Niluka Damayanthi and her husband Pradip Prasanna of the same village who are untangling a net in their backyard.

I ask Damayanthi if she has joined the tailoring cooperative yet. "I joined it 3 months ago and also learnt to stitch. But there is not enough work. So I stopped going there," she says.

Niluka Damayanthi with her husband Pradip Prasanna. Damayanthi - now a trained tailor, could not find enough work at the tailoring collective

So this seems to be the biggest challenge for this alternative livelihood project: low volume of orders.

Dhamshika Maharana, a local marine conservationist agrees. But he also tells me that the women here are in talks with World Vision for marketing their products to a bigger clientele. Once this deal comes through, they will take orders from the big cities and earn much more, he says.

Finally, I notice that the number of the converted fishermen is too small. But Arjan Rajasurya, local Project Manager at IUCN - tells me that they have just begun to work with the fishermen and for a beginning, the number is quite encouraging. "We wanted to see if incentivizing women would work. Now, we have got an inroad to get into the local community. For us, that's important. We can now replicate this model in other places"

As I get to leave the village, I think that across the world, big and exotic wildlife species are always targeted by illegal hunters and traders. Different countries are adopting different strategies to tackle that: employing former poachers as forest guards, giving more sophisticated weapons to the guards, tagging animals with GPS trackers and many more.

Upaka - a fisherman's wife, is working full time at the tailoring collective. She hopes that soon they will get more orders from the cities.

Now here in Sri Lanka, to save the endangered marine creatures, they are investing into women - a strategy that is simple and actually working. Could it not work elsewhere?

On Women's Day, Celebrate These 5 "Invisible" Leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 22:02:00 +0000

As a journalist who looks at an issue through a gender lens, I meet hundreds of women each year. While I see a change maker in each of them, there have been a few women who have especially inspired me with their grit and passion to turn the tide. On this International Women's Day, I wanted to salute five of those harbingers of change.

1. From Sexual Violence Victim to Anti-GBV Warrior

There was a time Ramvati Bai thought of nothing but killing herself. A widowed mother of two, the 20 something tribal woman in Bakud village of India's Madhya Pradesh state was sexually harassed and assaulted by her father-in-law for three years. Yet, when she finally gathered the courage to file a complaint, the police dismissed her, calling it a “family matter”. To make things worse, Ramvati's mother in law threw her out of the house for bad naming her father in-law. With two young children and no place to go, Ramvati thought ending her life was the only option.

But today Ramvati can be seen consoling and supporting other women victims of sexual and gender based violence. In fact, she informs such women of the existing laws against violence against women and how to seek legal justice.

According to Ramvati, it happened when she joined Narmada Mahila Sangh - a network of fellow tribal women that helps victims of domestic violence seek justice. The members of the network are trained paralegals and they in turn run workshops for other women in the villages on a range of issues from understanding existing laws and policies, to learning how to conduct a basic investigation before approaching the police. They also counsel, provide moral support and often, a sympathetic sister's shoulder to cry on.

“We want a life of dignity, free of violence,” Ramvati Bai told me when we met. “Nothing else matters more than that. You can read my story on her here.

2. From disability and abandonment to water leadership

At 58, Prema Bai - a physically challenged woman has the energy and enthusiasm of a 15 year old. In her village Mamna in Uttar Pradesh – India’s largest and most populated state - every man and woman under 50 has fled Mamna in recent weeks, because of a severe drought. Those who are left behind includes women with very young children and the elderly like Prema Bai. “They thought we were like cattle, a burden in this hard time because we only eat but yield no returns,” says Bai whose two sons and their wives also migrated to Agra — a city 255 km away — to work in a brick kiln.

They were wrong: despite being paralysed from her waist downwards, Bai is working along with her women neighbours to end the water crisis in her village. Dressed in blue that symbolizes water, Bai and her fellow women have a new name for themselves: ‘Jal Saheli’ (meaning ‘Water Friend’ in Hindi).

Among the many impressive works of these "water friends" are 1) lobbying government officials for installing hand-pumped wells and laying pipeline for running water in every village 2) ensuring every vilage has enough drinking water for the people and the cattle, 3) giving every woman - irrespective of her religion and social standing -have right to access water, 4) getting toilets for each women and so much more.

With her fellow water friends, Prema Bai is working hard to turn each drought-ravaged village into a livable place, one neighborhood at a time.

3) From an "almost" child bride to an anti-child marriage activist

Nillikanti Parvatiamma, now 16, almost became a child bride. She was only 14 then. “My parents wanted to give large amount of cash and some land as my wedding gift. They decided to marry me to a 28 year-old male relative so that the gifts would stay within our family,” says the teenager who lives in a village near Sri Shailam - a well known tourist attaraction in India's Telangana state.

But not one to watch silently her life being ruined, Parvatiamma one day ran away from her house and walked into the office of a local charity that was working in the region against child marriage. "Help me, I don't want to marry now," she cried. Luckily for her, the charity, along with local priests, activists, and local police officers, was able to convince her parents that child marriage was a crime.

Since then, Parvatiamma has been able to stop several other girls of her age from getting married off. She has a network of friends who share news on girls whose parents are planning to marry off their daughter and then spreads the news to the authorities. I was amazed to see a anti-child marriage activist of such a young age who was also quite admired in her community. If only we had a few more like her!

4. Bringing Solar Energy deep inside the Woods

Chintapakka Jambulamma never went to school. But today, she runs a women entrepreneurs' collective that uses solar energy to run a roaring bisiness of dried herbs and fruits - deep inside a forest of India. The collective, called Advitalli Tribal Women’s Co-operative Society, is perhaps the only such group where women of forest dwelling primitive tribes are turning entrepreneurs, using renewable energy.

Even a couple of years ago, Jambulamma and every other woman in her collective used to merely survive by gathering roots, herbs and fruits (known as "minor forest produce") and selling them for a few rupees. Life was all about scrapping by. In fact, the forest would often be ravaged by cyclones and sea storms, as it is close to the coast. In such cases, the women would find see all of their herbs rot and wasted because of excessive moisture and rain.

But three years ago, they bought a solar drier (cost about a million rupees (1700 dollars). The day we met, Jambulamma was giving a demonstration of how to use the solar drier to her fellow forest women.

Today, using solar energy to dry their herbs has helped the women minimize risks of damage. And they are finding new clients- including large medicine manufacturers who come to buy their produce from the collective because of its good quality.

5. From shame to dignity

I met Swapna Raj in 2012 - at a time when I was just beginning as a ground story teller. Her story as a HIV positive woman standing up for a life of dignity and independence was so powerful, I was truly moved to tears.

Swapna was infected by her former husband (now dead) who had contracted it by visiting brothels. But when he died and Swapna found out her own HIV positive status, typically, her parents in-laws threw her out of their homes. Much like Ramvati Bai of Madhya Pradesh, Swapna was had no place to go and had contemplated suicide.

But a counseling job in an NGO gave her the chance to interact with thousands of HIV positive people across the state, and she gained deep insight into challenges and possible solutions. Then, in 007, she formed the PLHIV network in Hyderabad and started to train HIV positive women in making candles and Christmas trees, beads and paper lanterns, in embroidery, making flower bouquets and garlands and above all, stitching clothes, banners and ribbons.

At the time I met Swapna, she had re-married. Her son - from her previous marriage - was going to school and had tested negative for HIV. I remember her cutting small pieces of red ribbons which would be used a few days later, at the AIDS day. Before we parted ways, she had a request: not to share her contact details, with anyone. The local media, she felt, was only interested in sensationalizing her story. "I might live only a few more years and I want to work without any distraction. I want to help as many HIV+ women I can, to live with dignity," she said.

Today on the International Women's Day, I salute that spirit of silent and invisible leadership of Swapna and all the other women in her network. They truly inspire!

In Photos: A Day With Rural India's Barefoot Radio Producers

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 21:36:00 +0000

Last summer, in a tiny town called Orccha in central India, I met Ekta, Gauri and Kausalya - three women working for a community radio station called 'Radio Bundelkhand'. The radio station, now in its 8th year, serves farmers in about a dozen villages within a radius of about 70 km.

For two days, I followed these three women as they traveled around villages, interviewing farmers, recording their stories and later, broadcasting content that they created just for these farming community. Here are 10 photographs that describe the journey I took along with these barefoot journalists and their amazing audience.

1. It was a very hot summer day with the mercury hitting almost 40 degree Celsius. We had hired a car, so the journey was relatively easier.

But on a normal day, the reporters travel in an auto rickshaw (also known as Tuk Tuk to some) from their office in Orchha to the entrance of a village. From their, its a long walk to the inside of the village.With them they carry a voice recorder, a notebook and, often a radio which they play for the entertainment of the villagers, many of whom do not have the money to buy a radio.

"We go everywhere - the field, the community pond or the backyard where people usually gather and rest during the hot afternoon. We don't expect them to leave their work and come, talk to us. So, we go them.," said Ekta the oldest of the three reporters.

And just as she had said, I saw them walking right though a village called Vaswan, to a field where they interviewed two elderly farmers the challenges they were facing: lack of water, pest attacks etc. Every interview ended with the reporters promising the farmers to address the problems in their next week's program.

3. During these interviews, I had some mixed feelings: "Men are talking about their problems and that is good. But where are the women?" I was thinking and wondering if this was yet another place where women were barred from talking to outsiders.

I was wrong! Once the three women finished talking to the men, they walked to another part of the village. Someone called them and asked them to follow. Soon, we were at the backyard of a house where, under a Neem tree, women and girls of all ages were gathering, all of them eager to talk!

4. Soon, the interviews began. Gauri - the youngest of the three radio reporters - began by talking to younger women about their opinion on the radio station and its program. Did they have any suggestions for improvement? They sure did!

"We want more news about vocational training and competitive examinations. Also, please play more 'modern' songs on the radio," the young women urged.

5. The girls soon had to give way to older women who had been waiting patiently until now. They had a lot of to say! But first, they all wanted to sing a song for other listeners of the radio station.

Here - you can listen to a folk song the women sang. It is about a woman asking her father, why did he marry her off so early and then goes on to describe the problems she has had because of this early marriage.

6. Their song over, the women turned to discussing the role of the radio in development of a farming community : "We don't have TV (because they don't have enough electricity to run a TV). There are no cinema halls. The radio is our source of entertainment, information and education. This is our media, said the women. They then discussed how the radio's program was helping them become better farmers and also smarter businesswomen.

"We now know what is the market rate of each vegetable we grow because the radio gives us that information. Earlier, retailers used to fool us into selling at a very low price, but now they can't," they said.

7. From Vaswan, they proceeded to another village called Chitawar

Here, to my utter delight and surprise, the gathering included the village's oldest women. They sat with a radio in the middle, while young women and girls surrounded them. A few feet away, there was a buffalo chewing cud with a content look on its face. '

"Here, even the buffalo listens to a radio," the women joked.

8. And then there was some more singing and some more story telling. Men joined in the conversation with their own stories.

One of them talked about the ill affect of child marriage and how the media (in this case, the radio) could and must help end that practice. Reporter Ekta recorded this. "There are still a lot of child marriages in this region, so we will definitely play this message," she said

9. And then everyone turned to me: "come, sit with us," some said. Others asked me to sing with them. "This is our radio, our program," they said again and again.

So, I grabbed the opportunity to take a picture with these women who are keeping the media of radio alive and kicking in their region!

10. By evening, we were back at Orchha - the studio of the radio. The reporters immediately got busy editing their stories and recording the voice overs. Soon, it would be dark and they would go home - traveling for a minimum one hour in a rickety bus.

But right now, each one of them - including Kausalya who was 7 months pregnant - looked as though this studio and these stories was her entire world.

Months later, I still vividly see those faces - serious, full of concentration, trying to tell a story of the ground in a powerful way. And I hear the echo of what the women said "The radio is our source of entertainment, information and education."

You can read my story on the community radio and the impact that it has been making by clicking on this link: Farmers Find their Voice Through Radio in the Badlands of India.

2015: The Year That It Was

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 18:02:00 +0000

How was 2015? Sharing here a few leaves out of my diary that's full of memories - of traveling and story-telling.

January

With Village Women who Fight Traffickers

The first trip of the year took me to the villages of Lambadi people (a Nomadic tribe) in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana. Not so long ago, these villages were a notorious hub for sale and trafficking of baby girls. But today, local women are ensuring that every girl goes to school. They also fighting against child labor and child marriage. Here you can read their inspiring story - Not Without Our Daughters: Lambada Women Fight Infanticide and Child Trafficking.

February

Telling stories of India’s Development Refugees

In February, I met men, women and children of Koya and Konda – primitive forest tribes living in India’s Eastern Ghat mountain. Soon, thousands of them will become refugees as a mega dam is coming up in their homeland. Here is the link to their story 'Development refugees' resist Indian dam

But even as uncertainty is looming large over their future, the tribal community is learning skills that will keep them food-secure even in the most adverse situation. Here you can read that story "In the Shadow of Displacement, Forest Tribes Look to Sustainable Farming"

March

Hong Kong, Women Empowerment Journalism Award

In early March, I was in Hong Kong, for the Diageo Women Empowerment Journalism Awards. I was honored to be a finalist in the Journalist of the Year category.

Also in March, on the Women's Day, Women Deliver named me one of the 15journalists worldwide to highlight women’s and girls’ health and rights.

But my personal favorite moment came when a group of tribal people I was visiting for a story invited me to dance with them. That’s the greatest honor!

April

Breaking bread with anti-slavery warriors

I was in Bellary and Hampi districts of Karnataka where the horrible sexual slavery called Devadasi (“temple slave”) is still practiced. Girls from the marginalized communities are forced to ‘marry’ a deity, then prohibited from marrying a man. But as they grow up, they are forced to have sex with men who come from more affluent and powerful class of the society.

I spent several days meeting women and girls and boys who are jointly fighting this cruel practice. Here is their very powerful story From Slavery to Self Reliance: A Story of Dalit Women in South India

The story was also nominated for a Lorenzo Natalie Awards later.

May

Hearing the Radio Women of Bundelkhand

As the merciless summer blazed on, I was in villages along river Betwa in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states. Here, I met women who use radio to fight the challenging issues in their communities: child marriage, farmers’ suicide, water, deforestation and climate change. You can read my story on them - Farmers Find their Voice Through Radio in the Badlands of India - here.

I also met tribal women who are leading a powerful ground movement against gender-based violence. Here is their story "‘Legal Friends’ Fight Gender Violence in Rural India" that personally inspired me.

June

Bhutan, training local journalists in gender-sensitive reporting

As the monsoon came, I was in the world’s happiest country – the mountain kingdom of Bhutan to conduct a 2-day media workshop with journalists from the local media. Organized by the Bhutan Media Foundation, It was a very fulfilling workshop where I shared skills and experiences with the attendees of how to tell a story in a gender-balanced and gender-sensitive way.

Once the workshop was over, the reporter in me took over and met local farmers who are helping Bhutan become the world’s first organic country by 2020. You can read this story "To build a greener economy, Bhutan wants to go organic by 2020" here

July

Singapore – Training ASEAN Youths in Climate Change Blogging

In July, I was in Singapore for the youth event ASEAN Power Shift 2015. During this 3-day event I co-conducted a training workshop with youths from 10 ASEAN countries on blogging on climate change. The participants were mostly students from high schools and colleges and their eagerness to learn gave me a lot of hope. May they become a unified voice against climate change!

Later in the month, I visited Portland (Oregon) - home of World Pulse for our annual board meeting. It was a true homecoming!

August

Stockholm – Covering the World Water Week

August brought some awesome news: the Stockholm International Water Institute has chosen me for a special Journalists Grant – one of the 5 journalists worldwide to be chosen. The grant helped me to travel to Stockholm and cover the World Water Week – an event that brought together hundreds of scientists, academics, activists and policy makers from across the world, working on water.

One of the most memorable moments during this event came when I interviewed Rajendra Singh – Indian water activists and laureate the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize.

The same month I also walked along the shore of Krishna – one of India’s biggest rivers, meeting women who took up the challenge of stopping unauthorized and unaccounted for sand mining –a multi-million dollar business, known as “sand mafia”. Here is the link to their story "Shifting Sands: How Rural Women in India Took Mining into their Own Hands".

September

Around the World in 50 Voices

In September, Kirthi Jayakumar – an Indian author, artist and gender activists published her book “Around the World in 50 Voices” – which celebrated the endeavors of 50 women change makers from around the world. I was honored to be one of them. The book is available on Amazon for you!

October

Singapore - Winning the Asian Environmental Journalism Award for the 3^rd Consecutive time

It was such a joy to hold the prestigious trophy of the Asian Environmental Journalism Award for a 3^rd straight time. This time I won the award for my blog s. It gives me immense pleasure to think that my blog has been judged as the best environmental blog in Asia for a 2^nd straight year.

Also in October, I was in Vidarbha – one of India’s most water-stressed regions where hundreds of thousands of farmers have killed themselves over repeated crop failures and unpaid debt. Here, I saw how a city of a hundred thousand people came together to solve their drinking water challenge. Read here their amazing story "In India's dry regions, crowd-funding comes to a lake's rescue".

November

Nepal - moderating for the UN and reporting malnutrition in remote tribal villages

In November I was Kathmandu, moderating a panel discussionon sanitation and gender at the 3rd Evaluation Conclave which focused on evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals. The session, organized Water and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) – a Geneva-based UN agency, discussed how to better evaluate sanitation in the SDG era.

In November, I also traveled to Melghat – a hill region of western India where a tribal community has decided to eradicate acute malnutrition – a health challenge they faced for several decades. Here is my story on this -"Acute Malnutrition: A Community Fights Back"

December

Reporting the historic Paris climate change conference

In the last month of the year, the world came together in Paris, France, more determined than ever to stop climate change. They made history on December 12, by agreeing to global warming within 2 degree Celsius. As an environmental journalist, witnessing this was an extremely emotional moment. I wrote several stories from Paris, looking at the conference through a gender lens. You can read them on Inter Press Service and Thomson Reuters Foundation.

And during December, I was thrilled and honored to be featured in this article on Internews. I was also equally honored to be interviewed by the Women News Network.

And then, just like that, the year was over! Here comes 2016. See you there!

COP21 : What can it do for Rina - a climate change refugee?

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 21:36:00 +0000

21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties or COP21 has just begun. Its THE most important climate summit of our lifetime where we expect the world to strike a climate deal - one that will be "gender responsive". On the occasion, I am running a 2-week blog campaign, connecting the dots among COP21, Climate Change and Gender

Rina Dash is an undocumented migrant worker in New Delhi. In 2008, she came here from Satkhira district of Bangladesh. There was a cyclone she says, and it destroyed her home and flooded her little farm she says. It was super cyclone Sidr, I learned - a disaster that killed over 3000 people.

After the flood water went down, nothing could be grown on the far, says Rina. So, her husband suggested that they migrate to New Delhi .

Why Delhi? "Because we heard thee was plenty of jobs."
But when they came here, her husband found a job of a rickshaw puller. Rina, when I met her, was a janitor. She was paid as a daily wager. They live in a juggi - a shack made of tarpaulin sheet.

Memories of a climate refugee: Rina shows the photos of her relatives who died in the cyclone. She requested me not to show her face as this could lead to her deportation as an illegal migrant

Across New Delhi, there are thousands of undocumented migrant workers like Rina
and her husband.Many of them are actually climate refugees. But we don't have a mechanism to count climate refugees, so they are all seen as just migrants.

In fact, every year, about 26.4 million people are forced from their homes by natural disasters, says UNHCR, And yet, climate refugees are also not counted for at the COP. The negotiators are not considering the rights to climate refugees.

Why is that so? The reason is, in today's world, the definition of a "refugee" is a person who is escaping persecution by a country.

So, for example, a person running away from Afghanistan due to Taliban conflict is a refugee. But a person running away from Afghanistan where an earthquake hit, destroyed his home, killed his family and tremors continue, is not a refugee. This is why Rina is not a refugee. She is just an illegal worker who can be caught and deported without any compensation whatsoever.

This is why, when World Refugee Day comes and the UNHCR runs a series of advertisements featuring refugees, it does not include a voice of those who lost everything in a Nepal earthquake or a Burma landslide or a Tsunami in India

A woman in a fisherman's village in India who lost her home in the Tsunami. Since then, her family has to move three times as erosion has increased and her home keeps caving in

Can COP21 change that?
Since there is no accepted or official definition for climate refugees right now, the COP21 can not directly address the plight of people like Rina.

However, it can do 2 things: 1) On the mitigation front, agree to limit the global warming under 1.5 degree Celsius, so that the climate risks will not dramatically rise. And that means, the number of disasters and climate refugees will not dramatically rise.

2) On the adaptation front, it can agree to increase more funding and easier transfer of technologies to vulnerable communities, so they can cope better with climate change.

No, these measures will help not Rina seek her rights to a better life in India. But they can help many other climate victims like Rina with a better coping mechanism after a disaster has struck.

A ray hope for Neha at COP21

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 09:20:00 +0000

A muddy pond - the main source of water for Neha

Its just liquid mud, to be honest. But during the winter and summer, that's the only water available to the girl and her family, apart from a few pots of drinkable water for which she has to travel nearly 2 km, to a larger pond. They use it to clean their cooking utensils, their clothes and to bathe. Neha's father works in a coal mine and her mother is pregnant, so the job of meeting the family's water needs lies on the girl's little shoulders.

The village where Neha lives falls in Dumka - a disstrict in Jharkhand state which is rich in minerals , but is largely impoverished. The majority of the population here belongs to various indigenous communities with low income. The district is also having lots of water challenges: rainfall has become erratic, droughts have become more common and groundwater level has dropped,

In 2013, the federal government of India launched a program to help people from low income families in 4 of India's poorest states, including Jharkhand. Neha and her neighbors are yet to get the benefit of that.

So, how can the new funding help Neha or girls like her? Here, lets read a line from the government Press Release on that:

The project will improve access and usage of piped drinking water supplied into individual homes. Women and children will benefit significantly from project intervention as they currently bear most of the burden of securing daily water supplies.

Lifting a large water pitcher and carrying it during the days of her period is especially difficult, Neha says. When we evaluate our water programs, lets also ask "did adolescent girls benefit from this?"

This means,
1. The funding can help the project to bring tap water to Neha. She no longer has to use that dirty, muddy water.

2. Also, she can go to school in time and find enough time to do her homework. Right now, all her free time goes into fetching water.

3. Neha has just started to menstruate. She told me this : "Its very difficult to lift water pitchers when I have periods. My friends in school say that I should not do this, but I have to. If I don't, who will?"
Piped water for this girl could mean less risks of heavy menstrual flow, less abdomen pain and definitely less difficulty in washing the clothes that she uses as sanitary pads.
Finally, it could mean the girl could just be a girl and do what girls of her age should do - study, play, have fun with friends.

In morning, one of Neha's friends is going to school, but Neha is still busy fetching water

$500 million can change so many lives in the 4 states of India. Of course, it will depend a lot on the smooth transfer of money, the management and the implementation of the project. But those are governance issues.

Right now, we can certainly feel happy that at COP21 one decision at least made a decision that promises a better life for so many of our people - including our little girl.

COP21: Can it help a HIV Positive Bimla?

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 19:16:00 +0000

21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties or COP21 has just begun. Its THE most important climate summit of our lifetime where we expect the world to strike a climate deal - one that will be "gender responsive". On the occasion, I am running a 2-week blog campaign, connecting the dots among COP21, Climate Change and Gender.

It's 2nd day of COP21. It's also World AIDS Day. Let me bring you the story of Bimla - a young woman from Machalipatnam - a coastal town in southern India. Barely 25 year old, Bimla is a widow and lives with HIV.

What is the connection between Bimla and COP21 or Climate Change? To understand that, you need to hear how Bimla got the virus. She was infected by her husband - a farmer who lost his farm to a cyclone in 2010 ( That cyclone - cyclone Laila, was actually one of the 60 cyclones that their state has seen in past 4 decades),
migrated to Mumbai for work where he contracted HIV, probably from a sex worker.

In 2013, the husband died of AIDS. It was only after his death that Bimla learned what killed her husband. Next, she learned that she was also HIV positive. Once her sickness was known, Bimla's parents in laws threw her out of their house. A few friends helped and gave her 500 rupees ($7) to start a business.

Today, she sells flowers outside a temple. In a good week, she makes about $10. Most of the money goes into paying the rent of a 1 room apartment where I met her. At the government hospitals, she gets free treatment (Antiretroviral Therapy) for HIV, but otherwise, she has a hand to mouth existence.

Every year, 35% of India's total population migrate within the country, most of them for work. These include farmers with no land of their own and farmers like Bimla's husband who have less than 2 acres of land and are totally dependent on rain for farming. These "seasonal migrants" leave their homes in October or November, after harvesting is over and work as contract/casual laborers for about 6 months, till the rain comes.

Sometimes, the migrants come home, spend a day or two with their families before returning again. This is how Bimla's husband passed on the virus to her.

If the world had a better mechanism to prevent climate-induced disasters and if there was enough climate finance, would not that have helped women like Bimla have a better life? Also, if we had a universal, climate-smart healthcare plan - one that could offer an integrated service of healthcare, finance for alternative livelihood and social security for all disaster victims including climate migrants and wives and children who are left behind, could it not have benefited women like Bimla?

Sure, climate change does not cause HIV/AIDS. But it has found a way to reach and victimize women who are poor, who are battered by erratic climate and have no Plan B to survive. When the first Dengue or Chikun Gunia epidemics began to break out, we were not ready to see a climate connection into it. We see that now.

Are we ready to see the connection between HIV positive women in disaster-prone zones and climate? It's high time we did that!

COP 21: Can it ease the burden of Durga?

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 21:33:00 +0000

21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties or COP21 has just begun. Its THE most important climate summit of our lifetime where we expect the world to strike a climate deal - one that will be "gender responsive". On the occasion, beginning from today, I am running a 2-week blog campaign, connecting the dots among COP21, Climate Change and Gender.

I just met Durga Rajak in Kathamndu - the capital of Nepal. She is in her early forties and runs a roadside eatery with her husband. The most popular dish in their eatery is Choila - spicy, fried duck meat served hot with flattened rice which sells for 50 Nepali rupees (about $40 cent) a plate. It's not a lot of money since a kg of meat costs 650 rupees ($6) , so, Durga always kept the expenses low by working extra hard such as buying produces from local growers and carrying things on her motorbike, instead of employing a person.

But these days, Durga is struggling. Normally, she uses Liquefied Petroleum Gas or "cooking gas". But since the end of September, cooking gas - besides petrol and diesel -has become hard to find. So, she is now using stoves that run on kerosene. Sometimes, when kerosene is unavailable, Durga uses diesel (which she buys in the black market) in her stove.

Its very risky and every time she lights the stove, Durga fears a blast.

But its a risk she must take. Only a few months ago, in April, Kathmandu was hit by a massive earthquake.At that time, Durga had to close her eatery for several weeks. She had also spent nearly a month under the open sky, on little little food and water. Today she is determined to keep her business running, come whatever may. "To be dependent on others is tough," she says.

But currently she is dependent on a number of people for her survival: the cooking gas distributors, the petrol& diesel stations and also the black marketeers. How long could she go on? She was quiet, but I could sense her answer: "as long as I can."

A thought came in my mind as I heard her story: what would have happened if Durga had a stove that ran on solar energy?
Or, a bio gas stove? Or, a rooftop solar panel that produced enough electricity to run an electric stove?

Her life would have been certainly different. To begin with, Durga would not have to worry so much about the fuel shortage. She would definitely not be spending so much money ( 250, instead of 81 Nepali rupees) to buy diesel from black marketeers. She would also not choke every time on the smoke of the stove or close her eyes, fearing a blast every time she lit a stove.

So, why could not she? Surely her country has a renewable energy mission? Well, here's her answer: "nobody told me about a solar stove or where and how I could get one". The other answer is, as a small, least developed country" Nepal doesn't have the money or the means to give every citizen access to cleaner energy.

Now, today - the first day of the COP21 - in Paris, leaders from 19 countries just pledged to create a new energy revolution by by investing more into energy research. What this actually means is that in next 5 years, there will be more money - $20 billion to be precise -for researchers to find more energy-related innovations.

Will the benefits of these innovations be for women like Durga? Or, for that matter, women in a poor country like hers'? Would these innovation help them access fuel that is cleaner, locally produced and easily accessible?

I hope it does.

Or else, it would be pointless to know that the world spent 20 billion dollar while the most disadvantaged women remained just as disadvantaged and just as dependent on fossil fuel for their survival.

Food Waste : Writing On The Wall Just Got Bigger

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 11:08:00 +0000

This week began with some exciting news :the UN just fed some world leaders trash and that it was great.

Curious?

Ok, here is how it happened: In New York, Ban-ki-Moon , the UN Secretary General, hosted for 30 of his guests - comprising presidents, prime ministers and royals - a lunch that was made of food waste.

In plain words, each dish of each course on the menu - from appetizer to dessert - was made of material that was considered waste and would have ended in a trash bin.

The salad on the lunch was made from unwanted vegetable scraps, stalks and outer leaves salvaged from the waste of big food producers.

There were burgers and fries and these were made of thrown away vegetables including ends of cucumber thrown out by pickle makers. They also used 'cow corn' - corn that are considered too hard for human consumption and so are fed to cows instead.

That is not all. The bread on the lunch table was baked from
grain mash left over from brewing and distilling process. And last but not least, the dessert - a custard - was made from outer shell of cocoa bean and the dried skin - waste materials from the coffee makers.

As I read these details, I was shocked and amazed at the same time. A series of images passed before my eyes: some of world's most powerful - and resourceful - people, who could (and usually do) have the world's finest food ever, having food made from trash and scraps. And why did they do it? To drive home the point: food waste creates more hunger, more poverty and ultimately, contributes to climate change and each one of us can do something to stop this.

This is the most courageous and loudest anti-food waste statement I have ever heard. I am a bit curious though of what kind conversation happened at that lunch.

Did they just talk the world's problems, or were there also smiles as the dishes were served?

Did any of them crack a joke and did others respond in laud laughter?

Maybe yes, or, maybe not. But here is another campaign against food waste from the world's richest city (which also has a very high rate of daily food waste) that will definitely make you smile. It's a 2014 video made by the Singapore Environmental Council which packs a serious message with a punch of humor.

The video may very well have been made for Singaporeans , but it has relevance across the world because food waste is happening in all countries and communities.

(Don't believe me? Just look around your own family members and friends at lunch/dinner and see how many ACTUALLY finish their food? ).

Food waste is an environmental problem, but it is rooted in our own behavior. So, if this problem has to solve, we have to change. That's the tough part.

The good news is, the writing on the wall is getting bolder and bigger : food waste is NOT cool, but stopping it certainly is.

So, lets be cool! Lets leave that plate of food clean. And, as the leaders are saying, lets rethink and reuse! Maybe throw a fun Sunday lunch Ban ki Moon style. That's going to be super cool too!

Indian Women Adapting to Climate Change: 10 Photos You Will Like

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:38:00 +0000

At least 80% of my stories are on rural communities. I go to faraway hills, nomad hamlets and fishing villages and, I am always searching for signs where women in these most unheard communities are using technology for a better life. What I find is always amazing: women, most of them with little or no education, are using technology to fight for their rights, health, freedom and an improved livelihood. Below are 10 photos of how women in villages are using technology to adapt to climate change.

Tracking the weather

As the climate becomes more erratic every passing day, rural communities are finding it increasingly tough to rely on their traditional knowledge of weather. So, they are now learning to monitor it. In this photo, taken in Medak district of southern India, women of a village are using a mini weather station. Here, they track the movement of wind, cloud and measure temperature and rainfall - everything that will later help them plan their farming activities.

Using mobile phone technology

Mobile phones are immensely popular in India. But these women are using mobile phones in the smartest way possible: sharing information on weather, availability of seeds, fertilizer, soil testing facilities and so on.
They collaborate with the government and corporate houses to get this information. And once the information is received, they also follow up on the action ("did you hear, there will be a storm, so pick up your ripe vegetables now"). You can read more of these women and their amazing work in my story "Tech-savvy women farmers find success with SIM cards"

Water budgeting

In the drought prone districts of India, ground water table is depleting rapidly. Finding out how much water your field has underneath the soil and choosing your crop accordingly is crucial to avoid a crop failure. And farmer Prabhavati Reddy is doing exactly that. She measures the level of groundwater before every sowing season. Then, according to the availability of water, she decides whether she should sow rice or a less water-dependent crop. You can read more of her story "And Not A Drop To Waste" that was also with winner of last year's All India Environmental Journalism Award.

Conserving water

Judicious use of water is at the center of climate change adaptation. Framer Meenamma of Nellore district is therefore using irrigation technologies like sprinklers that will help her grow more with less water. She is also harvesting the rainwater to minimize her dependence on groundwater. Meenamma and her neighbors' story was a finalist and received a special mention at the 2015 SOPA award.

Restoring degraded land

Land degradation is one of the biggest threats to our future food security. In India, of the 417 million acres of land under cultivation, a whopping 296 million acres are degraded. Across India, thousands women are now engaged in restoration of degraded land. Here is what they do: identifying and uprooting invasive, useless and water absorbing plants, tilling the barren land, applying fresh silt and soft mud on it and increasing its moisture and nutrient content until its ready for cultivation. Also, they are digging percolation tanks that will help catch the rainwater and recharge the groundwater table.In short, they are blowing life into the 'dead' land. You can read more about them in this story.

Smart farming

In the deep of the forest, women of forest tribes are using sustainable farming methods such as multi-cropping that is helping them become food secure even as they face many challenges such as deforestation and displacement due to construction of mega dams. You can read more about them in my story "In the Shadow of Displacement, Forest Tribes Look to Sustainable Farming"

Using organic pesticide

Several landless thousands of women in southern India are joining hands to start organic farming. They use bio manure and instead of chemical pesticides, they use bio pesticide which are made of Neem and other tree extracts. they also use apply oil on the bottom of yellow bottles that attract and traps crop-eating bugs. This story - "Indian Farmers Flex Collective Muscles" will tell you more.

Recycling

In this factory located in Bundelkhand - a region in north central India, village women are earning a living by making recycled paper. In this photo, they are sitting on the paper pulp to squeeze the water out. I saw them singing, sharing a joke while doing this...life should be like that!

Using renewable energy

These women make a living by collecting and selling herbs and fruits from the forests. As more and more storms and cyclone began to heat India's coastline which is not very far from their home, the women struggled to keep their herbs dry. Now they are using solar energy-run dryers where they dry they produce very quickly and sell it quickly too. Here is my story on them : "Sun Shines On Forest Women".

Communicating climate change

Finally, they are using radio to bring the issues of farmers in the open: climate change, water, crop disease, crop failure, farmers suicide. Whatever the issue is, these women discuss it bravely and share the solutions that are practicable and help the community. Click to read my story on them "Farmers Find their Voice Through Radio in the Badlands of India"

Water water everywhere: Not a farmer to spot!

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 14:25:00 +0000

I just returned from the World Water Week in Stockholm, the Swedish capital.

Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the week-long event was focusing on Water and it's intricate and crucial link to development worldwide. It was, as I learned, the 25th year of the event.

The Prime Minister of Sweden addressing the participants at the inaugural session of the World Water Week.

As you would expect in a global event like this, there were participants from different walks of development and water: scientists, finance experts, engineers, political leaders and activists and media personnel like me. There were talks of innovation, technology, finance, aid, collaboration, policy, regulation, transparency and so on. We also heard some country heads talk about some of the burning issues of our time: climate change, disasters, conflict and the migrant influx.

But there was something crucial that was missing: the voice of the farmer. And it came as a surprise - of a rather shocking nature. After all, this was an event discussing water and it's role in the world's development, especially the Sustainable Development Goals which are soon to replace the Millennium Development Goals.

Food production and food security are always the key to a sustainable world. And everyone was talking of this - except the food grower himself. Irony much?

Now, some may argue that how could a token representation - like a solo farmer - change anything.

But, even a single farmer could at least share with us his/her side of the story: the growing water stress, the growing expenses of producing food, loss of crops due to lack of or access water, the decreasing level of water and what it all means to his community. He could have told the leaders not of just the problems, but also of the solutions that the farm community thinks would work for them.

Yes, of course the experts gathered at the event had varying degree of knowledge of the farming sector and its needs. But, it's one thing to be speaking OF and FOR the farmers. It's entirely different to have the farmer speak for himself.

Today, the world population is 7.3 billion. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDSA) report “World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision” , this number will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. This means, a third more mouths to feed. This means, the world will have to increase it's food production by 60% by 2050, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.(UNFAO).

If we are to achieve this, the food growers themselves have to be included in the talks and discussions - especially one that centers around the job of sustaining this world, or in plain words, the very job of feeding ourselves.

Next year, the theme of the World Water Week will be Water for Sustainable Growth. By then, we will already be in the SDG era where 'Inclusive Growth' will be the key word. I hope we will hear the farmer's opinion and thoughts there - in his own voice.

Because without that, all these discussions are neither truly inclusive, nor honestly democratic. Also, without that, we are only pretending to be MR/MS Know-it-all. Time to stop doing that!

Youth Climate Leadership: Lets Also Mind the Sharks

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 17:16:00 +0000

A couple of weeks back, I was in Singapore's United World College of South East Asia, listening to a roomful of young men and women talking passionately about climate change. As they spoke, a sharp, almost painful, thought struck my mind: "are we serious about transformative leadership here, or, is this just another ritualistic act?"

Now, why did I think of this? A little background might help.

The youths I heard were from the ASEAN member states (If you didn't know already, these are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar) and they were here to take part in ASEAN Power Shift 2015 - a 3-day training workshop on climate change and the upcoming Paris Climate Conference (COP 21).

Youths at ASEAN Power Shift 2015. Photo credit: Young NTUC

It was a pretty diverse group:: some were graduate students in a university while others were still in junior high schools. Some already had a lot of knowledge about climate change and erratic weather, while others only had a faint idea of what it might be. And, as I found out later, only about half of them lived in cities, with 24x7 internet access while the other half lived in the provinces with little or no access to digital connectivity.

Yet here they were - bound by a common thread: concern for a fast degrading environment in their respective countries and a strong wish to set it right.

According to the organizers of the event ( 350 Singapore and Young NTUC), there was no significant youth movement from ASEAN region at the COPs and one of the core objective of ASEAN Power Shift was to build a sustained youth movement across the region, which would pressure and lobby each government to take positive climate action.

It plain words, this means, everyone expected these youths to return to their countries, build a movement locally so their governments would take notice, listen and act to stop/curb climate change.

Fantastic idea!

But then, not all ASEAN countries have are highly democratic.

In fact, some are quite notorious for jailing activists - both political and environmental - at the flimsiest of pretexts. Some are also like killing fields where activists are murdered in broad day light and their killers are never brought to justice.

So, if these youths have to take up activism, what about the challenges and risks they would face? What about the political obstacles that might spring up before them? What about the security threats that many of them are likely to face as environmental/climate activists? Are these young people aware of those risks and hurdles? If yes, is there a room for them to express their fear and concern? Is there a room where senior activists and experts can listen to those concerns and advise the youths on how to tackle them?

I remember talking about this with Chris Wright - an Australia-based climate change activist who was also there as a speaker. There has to be an open dialogue where these youths can talk freely of the suppression they might face back home," Wright said. I couldn't have agreed more!

Now, I was there to conduct a session on environmental blogging and once my presentation was over, a number of hands shot up in the air. Each one wanted to know how to move on and report/write in a hostile environment. I and my co-presenter Syaiful Rochman - an environmental activist from Indonesia, tried our best to answer these questions, but by then we were running late and we just had to close the session.

I and Syaiful with some of the youths we presented to

One of the questions that particularly shook me came from a young man from Brunei who was no older than 17/18: 'is there is absolutely no transparency and if there is a lot of risks in going out and reporting on an environmental problem, what could I do?" You could look at his face and see that he was already there in the field, surrounded by people that were hostile and ready to hurt.

ASEAN is one of the world's most climate-vulnerable regions where cyclones, haze, drought and flood claims hundreds of lives each year. The fragile region could surely benefit a lot from a youth-led climate movement, both during the COP21 and well after that.

Climate vulnerable ASEAN needs their voices, but we need to assess the youth's vulnerability as well. Credit: Young NTUC

But before that happens, we also need to do three things: 1) provide a platform where youths, especially those living in a repressive society, freely speak of their fear 2) organize open dialogues between youths and experts where these fears can be taken note of and addressed 3) finally, create a peer support group -like a safety network - that they can reach out to whenever there is a need.

Without that, even a well-intended and well-organized event like ASEAN Power Shift may not achieve its true goal or explore the youths full leadership potential. Worse still, it risks becoming a ritual that encourages youths to jump into a pool without talking of the sharks that infest the water.

Smart Sanitation: Shimla Sets an Example

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 16:03:00 +0000

A couple of days back, I read this really great news about Shimla - a hill station in the north of India: the popular tourist hub is aiming for smart sanitation by installing hundreds of E-toilets.

Now, what is E-toilet? Well, its an unmanned toilet which cleans itself, one that's based on a sensor-based technology.

Let me explain a little more. As you see in the photo below, the toilet has a locked door. Now, when you want to use it, you insert a coin to open the door. As the door opens, the toilet's sensor-based light system is automatically turns on - pretty much like the way your ATM teller machine turns on when you swipe your card.

An E-toilet. Courtesy: Eram Scientific

And, just like the ATM machine, the toilet also will direct you with audio commands. This means, you will be directed on how to use the toilet.

To conserve water, the toilets are programmed to flush 1.5 liter of water after three minutes of usage and 4.5 liters if the usage is longer. This “smart” toilet also washes the platform by itself after every five or 10 persons use the toilet. An instructional note is pasted outside the toilet to make the user familiar with the functioning of this toilet. The auto flush goes off on its own and uses just the right amount of water that is needed - not less and not more.

But why is Shimla adopting e-toilet, instead of building more of the old-style conventional toilets?

There are many reasons behind that and saving water is one of them, says the mayor of the city, Sanjay Chauhan. According to Chauhan, E-toilets require little water compared to the traditional ones. They are self-cleaning and equipped with latest technology. What's more, these toilets are portable which means, they can be installed and relocated and reinstalled anywhere.

As a popular tourist destination, Shimla receives more than 10 million tourists every year. As expected, the number of shops, malls and eateries in the city is also ever increasing. And all these means the city needs more water and more toilets than ever before.

To ignore this need could mean a number of risks: 1) forcing both the residents (including those who work in the tourism industry) and the tourists live in unhygienic conditions with stinking toilets. 2) pushing the city towards a serious water crisis, 3) a serious health crisis like an epidemic and least but not last, frustrate the tourists and see them return disappointed, vowing never to return.

Shimla in the winter

Obviously, the water-saving automated toilets promise to be a boon for the city. The problem, however, is that its not cheap. According to Mayor Chauhan, each of the toilets will cost the city half a million rupees. The Mayor's immediate plan is to build 125 toilets (some of them will also be installed inside shopping malls) and if you put together their prices, we are looking at 6.8 million rupees which does seem a bit staggering.

But then again, this will definitely be cheaper than what poor sanitation - especially a public health crisis - could actually cost the city such as a sharp decline in the tourism revenues. No wonder, the city administration is ready to bear the cost - a smart decision indeed!

But Shimla is not the only hill station in India to struggle with a growing tourism industry and with a rapidly growing demand for water and toilets. There are dozens of others. Take Darjeeling - the well known tea-producing hills station in the east, for example. The city faces acute water crisis every so often. Recently, I read this Facebook post that painted a very honest - and disturbing - image of the city's sanitation scenario: "“Offices galore, but where are the toilets?”"

Ooty, another hill station has also been reported several times to be struggling with water shortage . In fact, the name of hill cities that with a chronic challenge of water and sanitation can be quite long.

World over today, 'Smart City' is becoming a buzzword and sustainable development is fast becoming the benchmark of good governance. This is why, it will be both smart and wise on the part of all of these cities to follow the precedent Shimla has been setting, and adopt sanitation facilities that are resource-saving, convenient and user-friendly.

Yes, there is this high-cost factor. But then, cities can always partner with corporates or other funding agencies - not just at the local or national level, but also with the international ones, can't they?

Rohingya Refugees: Vulnerable on the sea, not much better on land!

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 11:51:00 +0000

You probably have been reading about them these past few days or watching them on TV - the Rohingya refugees of Myanmar who were chased out of their homeland and now floating around the ocean on boats with no food, no water and nowhere to go. Hundreds of them have already died already while death stares at hundreds of others.

Truth is, hunger and misery are also constant companions of even those Rohingyas who live on the land. I met some of them in Hyderabad city of India. Sharing here some of the images that, several months later, still haunt me!

The Rohingya refugees arrived in India from Bangladesh. For some, it has been a few weeks, while some have been here since 2012. Each one of them has a horrific story to share: beaten, tortured, forced to leave home, watching their near ones being murdered and their homes being burned down.
The lucky ones survived with no loss of limbs, but others were crippled. Nuruddin, a man in his mid-twenties, was grabbed by a group of Burmese militia who cut off his hands and left him on the street to die.

The Rohingyas first arrived at Chittagong Hill district of Bangladesh. They were in a Muslim-majority country and they spoke a language that was also similar to the local dialect. They should have been safe and comfortable there. Why, then, did they leave and journeyed into the uncertainty again? It is because they were unwanted there. These men in Hyderabad told me: "there were too many refugees already. We were cursed every day not just by the Bangladeshis but also our own people who had arrived before us.".

Although their journey from Bangladesh to Hyderabad - via the state of West Bengal - was relatively safer, some died on the way, mostly from bad health and exhaustion. Nur Muhammed, a refugee, showed me this photo of his son in law and two daughters (starting from left) who had died.

In Hyderabad, the entire Rohingya refugee community is living in a neighborhood called Babanagar. There are no refugee camps for them, so the community is forced to rent an "apartment" which is usually a dark, damp room, no bigger than a closet. In each room, 2-3 families are huddled together. Over 90% of them have already spent whatever little cash they managed to bring from home, on rent. Now, every man and woman is incredibly desperate for money and food - a fact that has made them very vulnerable to exploitation and slavery.

While the men are struggling to find a livelihood, women and children are bearing the brunt of the displacement in silence. Each of the women I met was visibly malnourished.

Many Rohingya women have tuberculosis and almost all the elderly women are suffering from some form of mental illness. Nobody is seeing a doctor because of the obvious reason: no money!

Children are no better than their mothers. They looked underfed and sad. But the saddest thing to know is that these boys and girls were not at school and would probably never be because their parents were neither citizens, nor registered refugees.

There were about 1500 Rohingyas when I met them and about a hundred of them had either received a refugee status from the UNHCR - the UN Refugee agency, or were in the process of getting it. The problem is, most of them either have no papers whatsoever to prove they were citizens of Burma, or, no money to travel to New Delhi to attend the interview that would determine their eligibility for a refugee card.

But even those with a card are finding it difficult to make a living. Salim Ali, this man in the photo, is a registered Rohingya refugee, but he can only find occasional employment as a laborer at construction sites. Language is a barrier, he says. But a bigger problem is the utter lack of trust among locals. Local Human Rights organizations warn that the desperation may actually drive the youths to a life of crime - something they are already accused of . "People call us illegal Bangladeshi migrants. They treat us with suspicion. Some of us have been called terrorists," Salim Ali told me.

Most Rohingyas ask why the government can not open a refugee camp for them. "There are refugees from so many other countries and they are all treated with respect and sympathy. But nobody gives us Rohingyas a second look. Why is it so?" they ask.

Is it not the same question refugees on those "floating coffins" asking?

Toilets: teaching is better than talking!

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 21:11:00 +0000

Sometime in April, I met Roopa, an extraordinary young woman, in a village called Nagenhalli in south-west India. She was smart, friendly, warm and very pretty. But what made me call her extraordinary is this: the woman had built a toilet, all by herself.

Roopa's toilet

Now, before I tell you how she built the toilet, let me share the 'why':

Roopa is a Dalit and her mother is a former temple sex slave. All the men from her village wanted Roopa to also become a sex slave and, as she reached puberty, they began to look at her with lust. So, one day Roopa's mother ran away to another village miles away from her own, taking along her 6 children.

But in their new village, women and girls were often sexually harassed and assaulted by men from
'higher castes'. Most of these assaults took place when girls and women went to relieve themselves in the open.
Some of these men also took nude pictures of the women. In short, Roopa escaped sexual slavery by leaving her mother's village, but now faced this new challenge of sexual violence.

After spending many months in fear, Roopa decided to have a toilet of her own. "We were always looked down upon because of our caste and my mother's profession. I thought, "if I were raped one day, nobody would even care." Roopa told me.

But building a toilet needs about 15-20,000 rupees and Roopa's mother didn't have that kind of money. Luckily, Roopa had a small job in a local NGO called Sakhi Trust and one day, she asked her boss if she could take a loan. To her surprise, not only the boss agreed to loan her the money, but also arranged a training workshop where the entire village learned how to build a toilet, brick by brick.

Roopa and her mother recall the harrowing days when they went to the bush and braved sexual violence every day.

Now this is an NGO so small, it doesn't even have an online presence. But their vision certainly shadows their size. Instead of constantly preaching the villagers to stop open defecation, the NGO teaches rural youths of water, sanitation and hygiene, including how to build a toilet.This is a wonderfully pragmatic idea that can help anyone just go, start!

This is exactly what Roopa did: she made a list of the materials that she would need and went to Hospet (the nearest town) to shop: bags of cement, 1500 bricks, sand, pvc pipes, sanitary ware like a toilet seat, iron rods and panels of tin. And once all of these at hand, she began to build her toilet, with some help from her mother and her 5 younger siblings. She explained to me a little of the process:

"We dug the ground to build a 5-feet deep septic tank with brick and mortar. About 2 feet away, we dug a shallow pit about 10 inch deep. This was for our toilet seat. First, we laid the toilet sat, then, built a small platform around it. Then we took a PVC pipe, connected one end of it to the septic tank and the other to the toilet seat. We attached another PVC pipe to the tank to let out the gas. We created a mold with iron rods and poured mortar into it to build a lid for the septic tank. Finally, we built walls around the toilet and a tin roof over it."

Roopa's neighbors, who worship these stone feet as a deity, discouraged her from building a toilet so close to the "holy place", but she ignored it. "would they protect me from rape? she asked - power to voice that comes with youth!

Once the toilet was done, Roopa also decided to have a bathroom. So, she built half a wall inside the room, separating the area with the toilet seat from the washing space. As there is no tap water at her home, a bucket is kept inside. "We carry the he water form the village bore well," she said.

It took Roopa about 2 months and 16 thousand rupees ($250) to build the toilet and the bathroom. She later received a check of 8,000 rupees ($125) from the government - subsidy amount that the government provides to help Indians have their own toilet with relative ease. The amount won't help Roopa repay the entire loan she took, yet she is happy. In her own words :"we feel safe and everyone looks at us with respect because we are the first to have an individual toilet"

A few weeks later, I met Ramvati- a young widow in Bakud - a village in central India who had survived years of sexual abuse by her father in law. Recently, she left the in-laws' place and built her own house. But she still went for open defecation which made her very vulnerable to sexual assaults. I asked her why she didn't build a toilet.

Roopa and Ramvati. One is safe and respected by her community, the other wishes she knew how to build a toilet.

"I don't have enough land to build a toilet (she meant a pit latrine) outside the house and I didn't know how to build one (with a septic tank) inside my house," she said.

I thought of Roopa and the NGO that had taught her how to build a toilet. How many young women like her would benefit in this country if a toilet-building training was made available to them?

Death by coal: our women deserve better

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Tue, 05 May 2015 14:21:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I met Minjamma, a woman in her 50s, in Kariganur neighborhood of Hospet town in southern India's Karnataka. And it was a terrible experience.

It was late afternoon and Minjamma was getting ready to cook dinner. She brought out an iron cookstove, placed that in the lane next to her home and lit it.

Within minutes, a big column of thick, brown, foul-smelling smoke rose and engulfed the whole lane. My eyes, nose and throat began to burn and water and I found myself nauseated and struggling to breathe. Before I could black out, I ran - to the end of the lane, about 500 meters from Minjamma's house. But from there, I could still see her bent over the stove, poking it and coughing loudly.

I was wondering when it would the smoke clear up, so I could return to Minjamma's home. However, soon women from every house in the neighborhood began to light their stoves. The smoke grew thicker, uglier and the air became so smelly, I clutched my chest trying hard to breathe and hoping I wouldn't just drop dead.

A few teenage girls came out of their homes and sat beside me, asking if I was ok and offered me water. Once I was able to breathe easy, my first question was what was this horrible thing burning in every cookstove. The answer came as a shock: they were burning coal.
Real coal.

"Everyone uses it here to cook a meal," said Ganga, one of the girls.

As I was talking to the girls, a man called Sharanappa appeared. He owns the neighborhood's only provision store and also its biggest house. He is also the leader of "Ambedkar Sangha" - a Dalit people's group. As the richest man and a leader of the community leader he has this aura of self-importance and when he heard I was a journalist, he gave small lecture on how his neighbors were doing something very bad, using coal while they all had access to cooking gas. "Everyone has a gas stove. But nobody uses that. Everyone is running behind free things (coal). I told them many times it's bad for health, but nobody would listen" he says.

He was almost touched by his sincerity. But about 20 minutes later, a girl drew my attention to a woman in veil, lighting a coal-stashed stove behind a house. It was none other than that "sincere" man's wife!

Later, I asked Manjula, an independent social activist who is helping the locals (they are all Dalits) get water and toilets in the area, where the coal came from and how did it become everyone's chosen cooking fuel. This is what she said:

There is a thermal power station ---miles away from this neighborhood. Trains carrying wagons full of coal on their way to Kudgi - a thermal power plant, (about 200 km) often stop at Hospet station. Sometimes they also unload the cargo here.

A group of local men then steal from that supply and sell sell it in the neighborhood for a price, usually like 5 rupees a kg.

The girls also told me the same: the coal came from the station they said and it was the men did the "collecting". It wasn't dangerous at all they said because men did all the hard job. "Women only use it for cooking," they said.

It was a bit shocking considering Hospet wasn't really a remote place. It was a municipality and a business center. Thousands of international and national tourists traveled here every week to see Hampi - a UNESCO heritage site. And here, right under everyone's nose wagons after wagons of coals was being stolen without anyone ever getting caught.

But then I thought of the illegal iron ore mining that went on here for a decade, draining the country of millions of dollars and nobody got caught. What is theft of a few wagons or even trains full of coals compared to that? NOTHING!

But, look what these seemingly petty and meaningless crime is doing: dozens of women - including Minjamma herself - are suffering from Tuberculosis. Many have died ( Manjula has a list that is quite long. Pampavathy, 40, Huligeamma, 35, Renuka, 34 - are some of the name sin that list - women who died in 2015 itself).

Many of the kids in the area are suffering from skin diseases - white flecks on hands, face and legs - apparently result of inhaling excessive smoke. This is what I learned in a few hours.

Two faces of Hampi: On the left, the famous Virupaksha Temple and on the right, a coal smoke-filled lane near the temple.

Who knows how many problems will come in light if one spends a few days in the community?

The question is, if they are suffering and dying of it, why are they still using this coal? One answer is, because its free and saves them about 500 rupees (about $9) - the cost of a cooking gas cylinder. . Besides, it seems, many don't really believe that the coal is killing them. Like millions others who use wood, they think this smoke and caughing is just a part of their everyday life - like it has been for centuries. Dodda Yariamma - one of the women there - actually told me , "the smoke just stays for about 30 minutes. after that, it burns so well, we can cook a meal very fast."

As she was talking, her toddler granddaughter sat beside her. Weeks later, I can still see the child's face - coughing, choking and a look that seemed to ask 'why is it so difficult to breathe?'.

Don't our girls and women deserve a better choice?

Clean India: There's No Glory in Being Stupid!

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 14:36:00 +0000

Last week I was in north Karnataka. One of the biggest attractions there is the dam over river Tungabhadra which provides water to several districts of north Karnataka and neighboring Andhra Pradesh. I was told that this is a must-see and they were right: the dam was truly beautiful.

But every time I crossed over one of the branch canals of the dam, I saw it littered with trash. So, there were people bathing, washing and drawing water from the canals for their other needs while also throwing their trash in! How disgusting!

I returned from the trip yesterday and saw the trash collector with her van. The woman - employed by the municipality - comes 3 times in a week and collects the trash. We have to pay her 50 rupees which is actually less than what a packet of cigarettes (about 90 rupees) or, a large bottle of Coke costs (80 rupees).

But every time the woman comes, she collects trash from only a few families in our lane. The reason? Others are not ready to pay her 50 rupees for trash disposal. And these are educated people from fairly well to do families!

So, how do they dispose their trash? Well, they go out in the evening with a bundle of trash ( a plastic bag) and throw it by the roadside. Sometimes, the trash collectors stop by and pick them up, sometimes they just rot there. Often, dogs tear them often, if they smell meat or fish.

Is it any less disturbing than seeing villagers dumping trash in a canal?

I was thinking this when an advertisement of the "Swachh India" campaign popped up on my TV screen. Launched on October 2, 2014, ( birthday of Mahatma Gandhi who believed cleanliness is godliness) by the government of India, this is a campaign that aims not just total sanitation for India, but also bring a behavioral change among Indians regarding sanitation.

Now, it has been 7 months already since its launch and I don't really see any behavioral change, at least in the urban India, regarding what's clean and what's not. The urban men still pee in the road even when there is a pay toilet nearby, women encourage their small kids pee/poop by the roadside (as if being small makes their urine/excreta any less harmful) and everyone - men, women and even kids included - spits out saliva and phlegm on the road without a second thought.

But many of these same people are always ready to criticize the government for not doing enough or mock campaigns like Clean India.

Yes, of course, the government can do a lot more to add some more teeth to the campaign. For example, the campaign can create a number of hard-hitting messages, targeted at different groups: young men (who frequently pee on road), housewives (who won't stop their kids from peeing in the open or, those refuse to pay for trash collection) elderly citizens ( who beat others in spitting cough) and children. How about holding a cleanest street contest or similar incentives?

But, honestly, the onus is ultimately on you, me, him/her and them.

Venkaiah Naidu - the minister for Urban Development whose department runs the Swach Bharat campaign said that clean India was less about toilets and more about changing one's mindset. Our ministers are famous for speaking cliches and rhetoric. But this is one cliche that we really must pay heed to: we really, really do need a change of mindset when it comes to cleanliness.

poster courtesy: Swacch Bharat Mission

We need to remember that the world doesn't begin or end with our courtyards. If you are throwing your dirty trash on the road, you are also going to walk on it. And if there's a disease spreading, you can't be immune to that either. Also, when you throw trash in a water canal, are you not also endangering your own health?

Of course we can go on playing deaf like devil may care.
Only, there is nothing very glorious about being stupid, is there?

When Thirst Beats Education

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 11:30:00 +0000

A few weeks back, I was in a village along the border of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where I met Sandhya Rani, a 10 year old. She was carrying a bamboo staff on her shoulder and , fastened to its ends, three aluminum vessels. In these vessels, she was going to carry water from a borewell for her family, along with her 7 year old sister Saundrya.

Their parents were working as migrant laborers in a city and the girls lived with their elderly grandmother.

I followed Rani from her house which was at the village' entrance to the borewell at the far end of the village. That was the only borwell in the village - the source of potable water for over 500 people.

The distance was about almost a kilometer. There was no paved road and Rani walked along a very narrow dirt trail in between paddy fields that were fenced with thorny shrubs to keep the cattle away. So Rani, besides balancing 3 water vessels on her shoulder, also balanced her steps amidst the narrow dirt trail and pinching thorny shrubs.

And this she did 4 times every day.

It was about 3 pm and Rani was in a school uniform. So, I asked her which class she was in.

3rd grade, she said. Sister Saundrya, who was now hanging on to the handle of the borewell, trying to pump water, was in first grade.

"So how was the school today?"
Her answer took me surprise: "the school starts at 5 pm. So, we will get ready now"

And then she explained, the village school ran from 10 am to 5 pm. But since she had to fetch water, Rani couldn't go to school. She did try juggling for a while by leaving the school early to get water, But finally, the girl had to choose house chores over school.

Luckily, a religious mission in their area opened an informal learning center for children like Rani who can't attend regular school. At the mission, they can attend evening classes. Here Rani and Saundrya learn maths, English and Telugu language.

This, however, can't be the same as attending a regular school that takes care of a child's overall educational needs and development.

Yet the girls were enthusiastic.

After putting down their vessels, the girls changed their clothes that were now completely wet, helped each other get ready and rushed out to 'school'.

I have seen so many other children in different parts of the country who spend hours fetching water, sometimes on their own, sometimes with accompanying parents. Some of them still struggled to be at school, while some dropped out.

Should we not, while dismissing water as a 'non-issue', think of children like Sandhya Rani who miss out on education only because of water? I think we should.

And just in case you are wondering why we should worry about a girl in a far away place not getting water or education, well, how about this: she is one of our girls, a part of our collective future!

Girls' Education: Lets Look Beyond Enrollment

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 09:42:00 +0000

I recently met Bharti, a bubbly 13 year old, at a children's shelter 110 km away from Hyderabad. She had been rescued a few of months ago, the staff at the shelter told me.

"Rescued from who and what? Traffickers? Abusive employers?" I wanted to know
The answer was, "from her own parents".

No, Bharti's parents were not abusive or trying to sell their daughter to someone. It's just that they often stopped her from going to school and took her to work in a farm instead.

Now this sounds quite trivial, doesn't it? After all, the parents are just making the girl miss a few days' school now and then, right?

Not quite.

The days that Bharti stayed away from school were also the days of final exams. And since she didn't take the exams, Bharti wasn't promoted to the next class. So, at 13 years of age, instead of 8th grade, the girl was still at 4th grade.

I asked activists who work with the local government to end child labor and promote child education in the region, to explain how the cycle of missed school -missed education worked.

And this is what they said:

Bharti's parents have no land of their own. They survive by working in the fields of others. Normally, they are hired for an entire season and promised a consolidated amount of money, like, a few thousand rupees.

For example, if they commit to sow rice saplings, they will be hired for the entire sowing season which may normally last two -three weeks. But they farmhands gather all the members in their family, get them work hard, finish the task in 7-10 days and take home the money of 2 weeks.

Of course the family finds it convenient. The employer finds it convenient too.

But its the family members ( read children) who pay the price of this arrangement of convenience. They miss school and are left behind in education.

So, why did Bharti's parents only take her out of school for a few days, if they didn't care for her education at all? Or, to rephrase it, if all they wanted is the child to work, why send her to school at all?

The answer is interesting: education is free till 8th grade. Children also get a free lunch and, for girl students, there are a number of incentives the government provides that include a monthly stipend.

The parents don't want to miss out on these government-provided incentives. So they keep the children at school.

Sometimes, it suits the government also, especially the corrupt officials who want to show, everything is alright in the state.

I remember once checking the website of the government of Chhattisgarh. I shows, 76% of girls are getting educated in Rajnandgaon - a rural district. I have visited over 50 villages in the district in past four years and everywhere I met parents who migrate each winter to places like Mumbai, Goa and Delhi, taking their children along. Is anyone counting the loss of education among these children ?

Now, what really happens when the children who miss schools every season and are left behind in the class? Here comes the most worrying part: after a few seasons, the children just lose interest in education altogether. In case of boys, this paves the way to drop out and find a job, usually as an unskilled laborer.

But for girls, it leads to marriage!

14 year old Bhumika almost got married a month ago.

She had been picking chilli and cotton for past four seasons. This made her miss school for about 2-3 months each year as her parents took up jobs not only in their own village but also villages that were far away.

Every time, after the work was over, she would get back to school but find herself among new, younger children. She would feel strange and often even her teacher would laugh at her for being the oldest student. One day, she just refused to go to school any longer. A few weeks after that, her father had her marriage arranged to a fellow farm laborer.

Luckily, a few villagers reported this to the shelter which then rescued her and enrolled her in the school.

According to many activists I have met across the country, in migration-prone areas, enrollment in a school itself doesn't guarantee girls education. To ensure education, especially in areas prone to migration, it is more important to ensure that there are no "seasonal drop outs".

"We are ignoring the whole issue of continuity. We are not focusing on these students who drop out every season for a few weeks or months. This is why we still have so many child marriages and child laborers, " Mamata Raghuveer, a veteran anti-child labor activist in Hanamkonda once told me.

I agree with Raghuveer. Do you, too?

There are no better ways to solve a social problem than letting the community to take a lead. In this story of mine, you can learn how an entire community has come together to protect their girl children from child labor and child marriage. Let me know if you have a similar community initiative. I would love to tell that story!

2014 - a Year of Traveling and Story Telling

noreply@blogger.com (Stella Paul) — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:21:00 +0000

Time flies. 2014 too flew away! But it was a kind year. It gave me opportunities to tell the stories that I CARED FOR. And it also got me the greatest of recognitions! Shared here are some of those moments and some of the stories that I told.

January: Telling the story of the forest women

The first month of 2014 took me to the Eastern Ghat mountains of India, to villages that are home to several primitive tribes including the Koyas and the Kondas whose livelihood depends on hunting and gathering herbs.

Here, in the dense forest, I met women who are turning entrepreneurs, using renewable energy. They use solar powered driers to dry their herbs and are selling the herbs to a clientele that includes large corporate houses! Here is one of their stories.

February: Inside the first ever LGBT Radio station in India

In February I traveled to Bangalore, and visited the studio of QRadio - a radio station that aired the voices of India's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. Here is the story that I wrote following the visit.

March : In the land of the rising sun!

In March the world was celebrating World Water Day. And I was among a fortunate few to be invited to attend and cover the event at the United Nations University, Tokyo. The event was a great opportunity to understand how, to achieve water security, we also must achieve energy security.

April: Across Telangana - Meeting barefoot water experts!

After returning from the World Water Day event in Tokyo, I was out in the rural districts of Telangana (Anantapur, Mahbubnagar and Adilabad), meeting farmers who have mastered the technique of water budgeting and who are setting an example of sustainable use of water.

I wrote two stories following the trip. One of them - And Not a Drop to Waste, later won the First Prize in the All India Environmental Journalism Award.

June: Nizamabad, meeting women sexually enslaved in the name of religion

In our very crooked world, a lot of horrible things are done in the name of religion. Sexually enslaving women is one of them. These women go by different names: davdasis, joginis, matamma and so son. And an overwhelming majority is from the Dalit community. Here is their story

July : I became the chair of the Community Advisory Board of World Pulse!

What is World Pulse? It's a network of women and it connects women of 190 countries through digital technology. It advocates for digital empowerment of women. It amplifies the voices of women across the globe. And it's also what I call my second home.

In July, in addition to a voting member of the World Pulses Board, I was offered the chair of its newly constituted Community Advisory Board with 5 fabulous women leaders from across the globe!

September : Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum

September, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) invited me to cover the Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum in Kuala Lumpur. So, off I went to Malaysia. It was a great opportunity to hear some of the brightest ideas in adaptation across the region and also meet a number of experts, including Salim Ul Haque of Bangladesh - a man I so admire! Here is one of the blogs I wrote from the forum.

October : South Korea, Biodiversity COP

In October, I was in Pyeong Chang - a mountain town in South Korea, covering the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (COP). Among many stories I filed during the 10-day summit was this.

October : All India Environmental Journalism Award

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, they gave me the All India Environmental Journalism Award. It came with a beautiful plaque, a certificate and a cheque of $1000. Here is the story that won me the award.

October : Asian Environmental Journalism Award

And on 30th October, I received my second straight Asian Environmental Journalism Award in Singapore. It was a very special moment to walk up there and receive the award from the minister of water resources, Singapore! Here is one of the blogs that won me the award!

November: A Dutch Fall

In November I was in the Netherlands, refreshing my skills in multimedia and water at the Radio Netherlands Training Center, courtesy the Netherlands fellowship Program. It was one of the best times I had as a journalist! And it was made special by the group of international journalists who I met there!

December: Along the coast, recalling Tsunami 2004

The Asian Tsunami happened in 2004. It was a December morning. 10 years later, I was there - traveling along the east coast, visiting people and hearing their stories of a disaster, loss, endurance and resilience. Here is one of their stories.

And then the year was over! See you in 2015!