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"

US Presidential Debates: Why hearing a Hummingbird could help

Obama vs Romney: Both have got it wrong on Syria.  (photo courtesy: Reuters)

So, the second round of US presidential debates is over. Now there's only one round to go. According to CNN, this one will be a 'cliffhanger'. And this suddenly makes me  wish the pundits in both Barak Obama and Mitt Romney camp had heard Hummingbird.

First thing's first: Hummingbird isn't a bird, but a pro-democracy woman activist and blogger from Syria. As a  minority Kurd, she runs twice the risk of being persecuted by Bashar Assad government (which hates all Kurdis) and therefore she uses this alias 'Hummingbird'.

Follow me on Twitter

But why am I thinking of Hummingbird? Well, firstly because, the final presidential debate will be fought on the ground of US foreign policy and in all likeliness,  Syria is going to rule the debate. And secondly, Hummingbird, who was recently in the US and spoke at 18 events across the country about her country, feels that none of the candidates has got it right on Syria, or what her people really want.

First, here's what she thinks of the current president: the policy of US on Syria, under Obama's leadership: Obama's policy has been sketchy, weak and absolutely ineffective in either stopping the bloodbath, or the shipments of arms from Russia and China. 'Obama has just not shown enough courage to stop Russia and China. Its either this, or maybe that he just doesn't care enough,' she says.

Now, if Obama's policy is weak, Mitt Romney, the challenger, has got a horribly wrong one.

On October 8, hours before Hummingbird was interviewed by CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on her Newsroom International (the interview lasted only 3 minutes which in itself indicates the little seriousness the US media has been attaching to Syria). Romney had also spoken on Syria, attacking Obama for not doing enough on Syria. But,  when Hummingbird heard that Romney was in favor of a military intervention, she shouted, 'No! Syrians will never favor that..'

So, what is it that Syrians really want? According to Hummingbird, whose family lives in northern Syria and is displaced since the uprising started, there are five specific actions that US needs to take:

3 weeks of silence = 3 weeks of speaking out

Its been a while - 3 weeks to be precise - since I wrote anything. And that's because, I had been speaking, at the World Pulse Live tour that went on for slightly over 3 weeks (17th-9th) It is a tour organized by World Pulse - the US-based, world's largest women's media group. And the tour is for the three toppers of their Voice of the Future correspondent program. As one of those lucky three, I was there, participating at the 4 city (New York, Washington DC, Portland and Atlanta), 18 events tour, talking about the need and effectiveness of connecting grass root women through digital technology. Shared here are some of the highlights of what I would always remember as an epic tour!
Follow me on Twitter

It happened on 8th of October. Suzanne Malveaux of Newsroom International interviewed me and my fellow World Pulse correspondent from Syria. Among other things (Infanticide, my work and my experience as an unwanted girl child), Suzanne asked me how digital technology could help stop killing of girl children in India. My answer was, by helping women quickly seek help when they were in a crisis situation, and also share their experiences directly with the global audience.  The same day, The Epoch Times also interviewed us and published this article later.

Failed States, Just Give Women A Chance!

Thanks to World Pulse - the largest network of women, I now have a colleague in each of the 187 countries. So anything happens anywhere in the world and I can actually have someone to connect it to! And that's what I am doing now, linking the Failed State Index to my colleagues in - the failed states!

Early this week, I started reading the Failed State Index 2012 – an annual, globally recognized and accepted report prepared by the Washington DC- based organization Fund for Peace that ranks countries of the world according to their stability and capacity.

Topping the list of the failed states, for the fifth straight time, is Somalia. According to J J Messner, editor of the report, if this was a championship, Somalia would be called a legend. But since it’s not, the rank only indicates how bad the state of affairs is in the country where chaos and conflicts rule. Things are almost equally bad in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has gotten the dubious 2nd place. Also sharing the space in the top 10 bracket is Zimbabwe.

Now, I have read this report a couple of times in earlier and just took them as what they were: a compilation of facts. But this year as I was reading it, a series of faces flashed before my eyes; women who are young, energetic, forever challenging, forever questioning everything that is wrong and, what’s more, also working to set them right.

These women come from these failed states, but are anything but a representative of failure. And here’s the reason why I thought of them: they are women of our very own World Pulse change-makers’ fraternity.

Coming up in the US: a fall of rising voices

Last November I was selected, along with 30 other women, as a Voice of our Future correspndent by World Pulse - a women's media house based in Portland, Oregon. Eight months later, I am holding in my hand an itenerary for the Live speaking tour of the US - an annual series of public engagement events that is organized by the same World Pulse. So, come September second week,  and I will be there - in New York, Atlanta, Washington DC and Portland. Joining me will be two other Voice of our Future correspondents  from Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria. Together, we are going to tell our hyperlocal stories of the grassroot doers and changes to the American audience, this time in person.

How happy am I? 'Elated' probably would be the right word to describe the feelings. 

One year ago, after leaving Video Volunteers, a community media organization based in Goa, India, I had shifted to Hyderabad with nothing but a dream: to write stories that I actually cared for; stories that would highlight environment and how it affected women, especially those from the marginalized segments of the society. With no job and this seemingly impossible dream , I was starting a new leaf of life, one that was full of risks: rejection, frustration and even starvation.

And that's when I and World Pulse collided. Two things happened very quickly:

IWD: An ode to the women in my life

Its International Women's Day and I am here to salute the women who have touched my life in more than one way, shaping and reshaping, until I became who I am today: a person who believes in God, good and the just.

I salute my mother  Renuka who first gave birth to me and then, when, at 12 month's age I was sick and my relatives said there was no point in saving a girl child, my mother ran wild, found an old doctor with good skills but little resources. He performed a crude surgery on me that defeated death. And thus, she gave me my life twice. 

Ma gave me more. She taught me about mother earth, the need of nature conservation and how to nurture plants. She told me two things: 1) "never, ever give up your economic independence" and, 2)"all humans are same, respect them irrespective of their caste or religion." Thank you Ma, for teaching me to be a human.

Lullaby to the unborn girl child, by Ramachandran

I salute my best friend Amruthavalli who lost her father at an early age and was enslaved by her own uncle. Starting there, she is today a senior journalist with the ETV media group.

Like mother, like child

Shared here is my latest article published in World Pulse -the global women's media group that earlier selected me as a 'Voices of Our Future' Correspondent 2012. You can read the original article here

Last week, Kamala, my 65 year old neighbor, was hospitalized after she had sudden dizziness and showed signs of amnesia. An MRI scan revealed that Kamala had 4 blood clots on the left side of her brain. This surprised everyone around Kamala; nobody could recall her having a fall or a collision – the normal cause of a head injury. The doctors however had a different explanation: Kamala had acute anemia. A widow with no land or other valuable assets, Kamala was earlier a daily wage earner in a village for 20 years. For those twenty years, her daily diet was just a plate of rice and a spoon of yoghurt. With extremely low nutrition level, Kamala soon developed anemia and has been suffering from it since then. 

Kamala represents the vast population of Indian women - over 53% to be precise, who are malnourished and suffer from related ailments such as low blood pressure and anemia.

 India must eradicate malnutrition in its vast female population to save its vast population of malnourished children

This shocking fact was revealed when the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released the India Human Development Report 2011, 3 months ago. According to the report, 55.3% of women aged 15-49 years suffer from anemia. In some northern Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the percentage is nearly 60%. As feared by many, there are more malnourished and anemic women in marginalized communities than in other groups.

Poor nutrition and health in women has resulted in poor health in infants. The Human Development Report states, ‘A staggering 21.5% of babies in India are born with low birth weight, a problem that begins in the womb.’ Little wonder that India now has the largest number of malnourished children in the world.

Inspiration in the land of despair - A story re-told

The following is my article that has just been published in World Pulse - an action media powered by women of 185 countries. The article is my 2nd assignment as a Voice of the Future Correspondent - an honor I received in Nov'2011 by World Pulse. You can also read it here. Why am I sharing this here? Because, it is not everyday that you get to hear that a landless and tribal woman, despite being caught in between the frying pan and burning pyre (the Maoists and the Army), is trying to do pull a community out of poverty, discrimination and injustice. 

Me and my muse: with Sukhantibai, the barefoot soldier who fights social injustice with the weapons she has: strong will and honesty.

November’2005. In Handitola- a remote village in central India, people were faced with a horrific situation: a young Dalit (a marginalized community) man had hung himself and the body was on the verge of decomposing. But nobody dared go near him. They all had their reasons: for some, the boy was an ‘untouchable’, while others were plain scared. Then, a woman of 50 came up, with a sickle in her hand. She stood upon a stool, and, as the whole village stared in fear and awe, cut the rope and lowered the body. Next week, in a meeting in which they had to decide who would be their ‘Sarpanch’ - the head of the village council, everyone voted for this woman – the most courageous one among them. And that is how Sukhantibai - a Gond (a primitive tribe) woman, became the ‘Sarpanch’.

In The Line Of Fire

7 years later, I am meeting Sukhantibai today. I have traveled for 3 days to reach her village in Rajnandgan – one of the 78 districts identified by the government of India as ‘Maoist affected,’ meaning places that have borne maximum brunt of the Government vs Maoists (communists) armed conflict.

On my way, I have been feeling the suspicious glare of several people, and, since I reached the district, my mobile phone has gone off the network.

CCMP Fellowship and VoF Correspondent: My Reasons to Smile

Last week had been a little too hectic: writing stories, meeting deadlines, research, networking and all the while juggling with the 7-hours' of daily power cuts.

So today I just wanted to sit idle a bit and share with you a few smiles, on becoming a Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP)Fellow and also on being a Voice of the Future Correspondent.

First, the CCMP Fellowship. It's a joint initiative between the International Institute for Environment and Development, Internews and Panos London to improve media coverage of climate change. The fellowship enables journalists to attend and report on the UN climate change negotiations. This year, 18 journalists have been selected to cover the UN summit in Durban, South Africa and I am one of them.