Small changes can create a big impact on sustainability and women upliftment

Sharing my thoughts on

Women Empowerment and COP26 for “Net Zero”- Building a clean sustainable environment, an effort also being supported by UN Women and EY

Simple solutions and interventions in Women Empowerment can make a significant improvement in reducing carbon emissions, moving towards sustainable and green energy, and improving health and well being of both children and women.

While we focus on empowering and enriching women with higher level of education, employment and engagement in this week, quick and impactful solutions lie at grass root levels.

Data and research show that more than 50% of pollution comes from residential, commercial, agriculture and vehicular emissions and waste, which basically means its individual behavior driven- which requires:

1. Grass root level education to women and even men, on what’s causing irreversible damage to our planet and their health
2. Systemic Intervention by Public – Private partnerships for reducing carbon footprint and better waste management practices
3. Infrastructure overall to move to green and sustainable energy
4. Reducing travel, developing infrastructure to make communities self-sufficient and leveraging IT
5. for simple daily needs which today can also include advanced education, medical consultations and hybrid workplace and home working models.

Exploring each of these areas in some more detail, and viewing them from India’s or any developing countries perspective:

Changing Domestic Behaviors through education and developing self-sufficient communities:

• ??Cooking Methods: Rural women resort to Plant and Animal based fuel with high level of carbon and polluting residue which not only impacts the environment but also causes irreversible lung damage leading to high incidence of chronic pulmonary disorders like COPD. Most developing countries are also reporting very high rates of respiratory illnesses. Education on moving back to older ways of cooking outside and setting up transmissible and sharable solar energy infrastructure under affordable public- private partnership would make an immediate and direct impact on moving towards COP26 objective.
• ??Managing Human Waste: Rural as well some urban areas still have weak sanitation systems, added to this is constant debate on right way of managing menstrual waste, usage of right means, managing every growing use of baby diaper, adult diapers with an ageing population- solution yet again lies in accelerated installation of incinerators which can run on solar energy and leave minor residue without polluting fumes. Incinerators again, is something which should be taken on a war footing- to minimize land, water, and air pollution, and minimize spread of infection from bio waste. It’s a must have for urban societies, schools, large establishments and so on.
• ??Eat local, encourage kitchen gardens supported by education and resources: With little guidance, women at home can be encouraged to improve quality and output of their gardens and farms, or even grow vegetables at homes in pots- with the right fertilizers and soils. The world is moving towards food shortage, while perishable food is destroyed in tones everywhere.

Setting up of micro government run nurseries across the country which provide the right blend of soil, seeds and fertilizers suited to the local climate, can help urban areas too, and take up the nutritional status of families in low-income families.

• ??Fishponds and local hatcheries:?This was often done, decades ago to help local communities have low cost and sometimes free access to fresh, nutritious local produce. Women can be educated to run these locally, helping them with financial empowerment while enhancing self sufficiency of the neighborhood. This would be a micro public- private partnership, where the state can identify mini areas of land that can be let out or leased to local women for running of these ponds or farms or hatcheries and drive food production without waste.
• ??Encourage cottage industries or small-scale industries for non-packaged food:?Packaged food like chips, biscuits, bread, nuts, savories are on the rise- high in preservatives and often loaded with fat and flavor enhancers which only take a further toll on human health while leaving non- biodegradable waste. Setting up cooking schools, where savories, baking products can be made locally by women and sold fresh in recyclable or carry your own box model- is yet again a simple idea- worth taking up and pushing forward on. A city like Mumbai already thrives on local tiffin provides and women who cater in steel boxes provided by their patrons. Thousands of rotis and Vada pav are handed over freshly made on a piece of paper or box carried from home.
• ??Public- Private partnership for managing hay and stubble post-harvest:?If simple collection mechanisms can be set up, hay and stubble which is being burnt by farmers after each harvest, impacting soil fertility and releasing immense pollutants in air, it can add to small income for the farmers, and profitably used for manufacture and selling of fodder for cattle which is scarce in some areas- and causes scarcity of milk or higher costs.

Often big problems, require us to come up with simple solutions with a strong determination to make a change. None of the above can happen overnight but can be done over the next 5 years one district, one state at a time, making definite improvements not only in financial well being of the women, their health, but addressing more than 50% factors that drive pollution.

Some of the above steps can easily be included under existing Government run programs- with improved focus and tracking of these deliverables and will not necessarily come at increased spending.