2015: The Year That It Was

 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 blogs. 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!