Guest post from Rudmila Rahman of Arohi at arohicycling @ gmail . com

On Friday Feb 25th, a group of thirty passionate women from diverse walks to life got on their bicycles and rode through Dhaka to promote bicycles as an alternative means of mobility for women in Bangladesh. They cycled more than 5 kilometers together, through the streets of Dhaka. They joined this rally organized by Arohi - Bangladesh’s first women’s cycling initiative aimed to gather a critical mass of individuals who are interested to promote cycling for women in Bangladesh in order to ride a bicycle to work, school or for recreation, with an aim to break the stigma attached to a girl on a cycle

They believe this, in turn, will promote freedom of mobility in Dhaka for women, as well as a cleaner environment. Bangladeshi women face significant barriers from family, neighbors and society in getting on a bike a riding around town in bright daylight. Freedom of mobility is seriously curtailed in Dhaka if women don't feel safe to travel independently in their own city. Over 35% of female commuters in Dhaka depend on a cycle rickshaw and as more major roads ban these rickshaws, daily mobility for women is threatened furthermore. Arohi’s tagline: “Pedaling the way to empowerment” summarizes the links that we plan to draw between cycles, mobility and empowerment.

Arohi will follow in the coming months with awareness and advocacy events with the community and local government. The organization’s long term objectives include creating broader social impact by increasing uptake of cycling on target communities of highly mobile women such as students, garments workers, NGO field workers, etc through developing a model that will encourage urban cycling and provide rental bicycles to these communities. First create the path and then motivate others to follow!

Beyond the objective of empowerment, bicycling is a clean and green way to travel in a city which has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world.  The density of airborne particulate matter can reach 463 micrograms per cubic meter- the highest level in the world. Pollution from vehicles is the main cause of smoke, smog and dust. Therefore, Arohi plans to combine the perception of cycling as an alternative to mobility through cars and public transport and work with the Dhaka City Corporation to promote cycle friendly interventions in the city for both men and women.

The response to a cycling initiative in Dhaka has been tremendous. But a major hurdle is the fact that the last time many women got on a bike was when they were 10 years old, for reasons such as social taboo, family displeasure or a lack of self-confidence. To commemorate international Women’s Day, Arohi will to host a bicycle training workshop to help interested women learn how to maneuver on two wheels in Dhaka and take the first step toward the path of empowerment.

 Reposted from The Hindu, Jan 7, 2005 written by AD Rangarajan

Here is a bright little village in Andhra Pradesh that is all solar and smoke-free — the first of its kind in the country.

Bysanivaripalle, 125 km northwest of Tirupati, has 36 families. Their main means of livelihood is sericulture. The eco-conscious residents of the electrified village went in for the first biogas plant in the region two decades ago. The officials of the Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP) did not need to put in much effort to motivate them to go solar.

Intersol, an Austrian non-governmental organisation, sponsored the provision of "Sk-14" cookers here last year. Gadhia Solar, a Valsad-based environmental body that imports, supplies and installs them, executed the job. It is the single largest cluster of cookers that Gadhia Solar has installed anywhere. A group of schoolchildren from Austria visited the village last year to witness the project.

"With 23 biogas plants and 26 solar cookers, we do not have to use a matchstick," says Sadananda Reddy, a progressive sericulturist who was honoured by the Karnataka Government recently for his top quality cocoons.

Crossposted from the Environmental Defense Fund blog

In Delhi, it’s easy to lose hope in the fight for environmental protection and climate mitigation – a thousand new cars every day; thousands of tons of garbage that make their way to the landfills coming from millions of homes, industries, and street sides; constant new construction of flyovers and widening of roads; and the sensation that it is too big for any individual, even any well-intentioned local politician to make a difference.

An overnight train ride away from Delhi, though, there exists another world. One that is full of enormous challenges in a rapidly changing climate, but also one full of Himalayan hope. The Environmental Defense Fund, in partnership with the Hunger Project and local NGOs in Uttarakhand, are giving female political and community leaders the tools they need to be able to engage in the development decisions happening every day.

One cold but warming day in mid-January, I had the honor to join Richie Ahuja to visit a leadership program, bringing together more than 100 of these female leaders from throughout the Kumaon district. Some of these women (and three generations of their family members) travelled by bus for more than 2 hours to reach this workshop, through winding mountain passes from their villages. Many of these women were Sarpanches (elected heads of villages) or members of their panchayat (an elected board of community representatives), while others were community leaders of other kinds, working with Self-Help Groups in their village.