A ray hope for Neha at COP21

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


 A very interesting development took place on the 3rd day of COP21: the World Bank Group announced that it would make a  US$500 million investment to support one of India's groundwater program.  India, we must remember, is the world’s largest consumer of groundwater.

The announcement made me think of Neha - the little girl in the picture - a 6th grade school student who spends several hours out of school, drawing water for the family everyday from a small pond. The quality of water - as you can see - is horrible.

A muddy pond - the main source of water for Neha

Occupy UNEP: The new online campaign

Everyone is talking about  the video on Joseph Kony going viral these days. A few weeks ago, almost everyone also talked of Occupy Wall Street campaign. And now, here is another viral campaign that appears to be a weird combination of Kony and occupy campaigns and it can be called: Occupy UNEP Facebook Page, run by activists of 'Stop Lynas, save Malaysia' campaign.

The post  shows 27 comments. None of them has anything to say about strengthening of rural women though.

To understand what I mean, you have to visit the UNEP page once