Puthandu, Prosperity & Women Farmers

 It's celebration time across the Subcontinent again. Puthandu or Chitrai Thirunal - Tamil New Year marks the movement of the sun into the moon sign/rasi of Aries in Hindu astrology. It is marked by celebrations such as Mesha Sankranti, Tamil, Bengali, Odia and Sinhala New Year, Vishu in Keralam, Baishakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam as well as Buddhist New Year/Songkran celebrations across Southeast Asia and Yunnan in China - the Water Festival.  This is a time where we all hope for peace and prosperity as always in these troubled times.

In this time of family, friends and shared celebrations I thought I'd share some successful CSR & government projects that have empowered and trained women farmers as well as rural and tribal communities and brought prosperity to previously arid and drought-dulled rural regions of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as well as poverty alleviation programmes of the Keralam government that tackled the unpaid labour burden of women and women farmers and uplifted hundreds of thousands and eliminated poverty.

Tata Capital's watershed restoration and other rural community development initiatives in Maharashtra as well as Thiruvanamala district of Tamil Nadu has benefitted many women and women farmers as shared on World Water Day on the Sunshine Millennium Facebook page.

I have mentioned in this blog the successful intervention of the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST) the CSR wing of the Tamil Nadu based MNC TVS that has done great work in 4 states more than 15 years ago and many more places now since. A pioneer of sorts in CSR in Tamil Nadu especially in their empowerment of women and women farmers as well as tribal and community development made  a huge impact in providing decent work and economic growth SDG8 to Thiruvanamalai district of Tamil Nadu among others. 

To quote Ms. Krithika Ram, my Master's classmate's project submitted in December 2011 for the National Institute for Rural Development's Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Rural Development on Corporates and Rural Development. 

SST's Vision statement reads- “To be catalysts in creating self-reliant villages by deploying the skills and resources of local governments, development agencies and the private sector to fulfill this vision.”

 The Mission statement of SST reads-”To facilitate the process of sustainable development in rural India in key areas such as economic opportunities, quality education and health care, the creation and maintenance of infrastructure and environmental and cultural conservation, through active participation of national and state governments in partnership with local communities.

holistic approach aimed at making people self-reliant through active involvement of local communities. The Namakku Naame Thittam/Village Self-Sufficiency scheme in partnership with the local community, Rural Development Department and the Trust is maiden initiative leading towards sustainable community development. 

The livelihoods of the members [NOW] consist of food processing; animal husbandry; silk weaving; flower decoration; and banana fiber making. The SHGs dedicate this achievement of theirs to SST which has been taking care of their training and has been helping them get loans from banks. 

 

Meanwhile more recently in Maharashtra's drought-prone regions the Mann Deshi Foundation's Centre for Climate Resilient Agriculture has trained women from the region with an agricultural and rural background as a ‘soil-sakhi’ or soil tester.

The soil-sakhis have reached 2,394 farmers across nine drought-prone talukas of the five districts of Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur and Pune. As per a study conducted about the programme, their intervention has led to a total reduction of 988.37 tonnes CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) emission. 

Meanwhile Farmers for Forests headed by Kruthika Ravishanker with investments from across the globe (SDG17 Partnerships for Progress and SDG13 Climate Action) is quietly transforming lives of farmers and boosting the carbon sequestration of the region by planting fruit trees which also boost incomes and reduce hunger and poverty in the formerly suicide prone belt of drought hit regions of Western India - Maharashtra especially. 

Women Farmers & the Burden of Unpaid Labour

 

Easter is a time of hope just as is the election season. As one reflects on what is needed to make women and girls rise and thrive in this the season of the Risen Son who suffered so that we could all thrive, one thing stands out. Unpaid labour drags down women and girls in general and women farmers in particular. It affects lives, health and livelihood drastically.

Being liberated from the cross of unpaid labour can ensure that women and society can thrive. 

On World Water Day (March 22), many organizations had shared how the lack of access to clean water and sanitation adds immensely to the burden of unpaid work for women. This leads to many social evils such as early marriage, child marriage and polygamy - water wives or "pani bai". 

The Cross of Unpaid Labour

According to "Unpaid Work and Women Workers: A Growing Crisis," the report published in December 2023 of a survey conducted by the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi, across Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Delhi of 2,500 women:

“Women workers continue to bear the lion’s share of domestic and care responsibilities, and to the extent that this work is shared, it is often shared not with spouses but with girl children. … are often overworked and exhausted - and bearing the mental and physical costs of such overwork. … the sheer scale at which work beyond the agreed upon informal or formal contract - i.e., unpaid work - is extracted from women workers even in paid contracts. Even more shockingly, this also applied to government works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act [MGNREGA now renamed Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB-G RAM G]."

This crisis affects women in the agricultural sector almost disproportionately high. 

Source: Presentation by Seema Kulkarni, Asian College of Journalism Climate Change Media Hub's "Climate Change Conversations," online media education session on "Reporting on Climate and Gender: A Rural Perspective." March 27, 2026.

Improving access to services will in itself reduce the burden of unpaid labour that eats into the time, health and lives of women in general and poor, rural women and women farmers and farm labourers in particular.

As the ISS report puts it, 

"time spent by women on unpaid care work is the availability and quality of publicly provisioned services, amenities and basic infrastructure. Typically poorer settlements esp in developing countries are plagued with inadequate access to proper pucca housing, drinking water, fuel, food, healthcare, creches, support for the elderly, food security, and so on. The absence of these facilities is subsidised by the drudgery of unpaid self-exploitative care work, a result of the patriarchal gender-based division of labour wherein the responsibility for care and family survival is the woman’s domain."

Thus better access to piped water, sanitation - #SDG6, affordable cooking fuel (most relevant in April 2026 in view of the fuel crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran that has affected global fuel supplies as well as the global supply chain increasing prices all around.), clean energy (decentralized solar providing electricity to informal and rural settlements ensuring security) - #SDG7, anganwadis (child care), primary health centres - #SDG3GoodHealthAndWellBeing, affordable food (functional and corruption free ration shops) - #SDG2ZeroHunger as well as support for elder care and patient care within the family will ensure women and girls can have time and space to thrive. This is true empowerment and Gender Equality (#SDG5) in our mostly patriarchal homes. 

When women and girls in general and women farmers in particular are provided access to such functional social security and safety net they thrive.  

In election season, ensuring these services to the women electorate is a better poll promise than the freebies and "biryani-alcohol" packages to male voters.  

Good Friday and Good Farmers: What April 2026 Has in Store

 We are living in troubling times. Global supply chains are being disrupted. The wars across Eurasia are sending shockwaves to Food Security across the globe. 

Farmers, especially good farmers with access to training, technology, resources, and markets enable food self-sufficiency and food security in these uncertain times. On God Friday, a day for reflection and prayer in search of peace, salvation and enlightenment, in addition to God let us reflect on good farmers, agriculturists, cowherds, and good shepherds who ensure our survival by growing and producing food and nutrition we need to exist. 

Good Farmers

Building in access to clean water, affordable and clean energy as well as training for climate resilience and market access can ensure that farmers thrive. When farmers thrive the agricultural sector and food security thrives with them boosting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a whole. 

2026 has been declared the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF) with the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization headquartered in Rome taking the lead even as governments, NGOS and institutions make it local and their own. With the theme "Empowered Women, Transforming Agrifood Systems" IYWF covers a vast mandate. 

Empowered Women Farmers Make Good Farmers

April is an eventful time with a lot of synergies with IYWF globally as well as regionally, nationally and locally especially in the Indian context.

• Easter, Elections and Census of India will shape India.
• Many regional New Years including Tamil New Year, Sinhala New Year, Bihu, all follow.
• April 21st is World Creativity and Innovation Day with the 2026 theme being "Harnessing Creativity for Global Progress."
• April 22nd is Earth Day with the theme "Our Power, Our Planet." 
• April 24th in India is both Women's Political Empowerment Day (since 1993) and National Panchayati Raj Day (since 2010) "to mark the implementation of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in 1993. It recognizes the importance of local self-governance, empowering rural communities through Panchayats."

Both in the case of  Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) and the Panchayat - the unit of self-governance in India the focus will be on the Government of India's (GOI) "SVAMITVA Scheme: Aatmanirbhar Panchayat se Samriddh evam Aatmanirbhar Bharat," promoting self-reliant villages and secure property rights.

Empowering women farmers and women political leaders of rural India makes for self reliant villages and helps secure property rights. Smallholding farmers, tribal farmers, women farmers face many challenges in securing land rights and property rights which as essential for access to farm credit, insurance and programmes. Innovation and innovative programmes and policies can ensure ease of empowering women farmers and transforming agrifood systems. 

Creative and innovative Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) programmes and policies targeting SDGs can help empower Good Farmers, especially Women Farmers and enable Food Security, self sufficiency and self-reliance in these troubled times buffeted by war, climate change and natural disasters. 

April is also the time of Legislative Assembly elections across many states of India as well as the launch of the Union Census of the over a billion citizens of India. Farmers, women farmers and empowered women farmers will be front and centre as they  are the backbone of Bharat's economy and self sufficiency (Atmanirbartha).

• The states of Assam, Keralam, Karnataka, Goa, Nagaland and Tripura and the Union Territory of  Puducherry go to polls on April 9th, 2026.
• My home state, Tamil Nadu goes to polls on April 23, 2026 along with Gujarat and Maharashtra and Phase I of polling in the state of West Bengal. 
• West Bengal Legislative Assembly's Phase II of polling is on April 29th, 2026. 

This makes for very interesting times across India with many poll promises and freebies targeting women and farmers but rarely women farmers! Maybe things will be different in the Year of the Woman Farmer. but in the end its policies and implemented programmes that empower women farmers that actually make for good farmers not just election promises. Yet the actions taken in April 2026 will shape programmes and policies for years to come, especially in India.

Stay tuned to see how these interesting D-Days of April 2026.will shape the lives of Women Farmers and programmes of CSR, SDG & ESG.

Women Farmers as Central to SDGs, CSR & ESG: April 2026 Restart Focus

 2026 has been declared the Year of the Woman Farmer. 

Across the globe and in an agrarian economy like India particularly, the agricultural sector is becoming increasingly feminized. Yet, women farmers have a tough time - with lack of access to land titles (land-holding), credit, technology, crop insurance, training and government subsidies. 

Whenever women farmers, in whichever avatar they take, have access to any and all of these -- land ownership, credit, technology, training, crop insurance and government subsidies -- they thrive and allow the agricultural sector and economy to thrive. 

Source: Presentation by Seema Kulkarni, Asian College of Journalism Climate Change Media Hub's "Climate Change Conversations," online media education session on "Reporting on Climate and Gender: A Rural Perspective." March 27, 2026.

Just like how a nation that empowers women and educates girls thrives. The agricultural sector, which is increasingly buffeted by various challenges, thrives when women farmers are empowered to be climate resilient with training, access to resources, technology, markets as well as clean water and clean energy.

SDGs, CSR, ESG Focus

By putting women farmers at the heart of programmes and projects aimed to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whether governmental or private, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) mandates of companies, it's a win-win. 

Sunshine Millennium's posts throughout April 2026, the month with Earth Day 2026 with the theme Our Power, Our Planet among others, will bring out how empowering and training women farmers bolsters the agricultural sector as well as most SDGs. 

Empowered Women the Heart of Sustainable Development: IWD2022

The theme for 2022 International Women’s Day, observed globally on March 8, is spot on: 

“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

As I was pondering over this post yesterday before I learnt about the theme, I thought up the title. Empowered women are the heart and at the heart of Sustainable Development and Gender Equality, SDG 5 is vital if the Global Goals are to be respectably reached by 2030.

#HappyWomensDay2022
Always remember #EmpoweredWomen are the heart and at the heart of #sustainabledevelopment #SDG5 #GenderEquality for #GlobalGoals.
"Gender Equality today for a #Sustainable tomorrow." - an apt theme for 2022.
Pics courtesy #EcoWithEmhttps://t.co/TvzLe187xa pic.twitter.com/cZPEDPpYaJ

— Raakhee Suryaprakash (@10sunshinegal) March 8, 2022

Every sustainable development goal (SDG) becomes effective if it is gender just. It’s a theme I regularly harp on – educated girls and empowered women are the building blocks of a sustainable community. The crucial steps needed to offset the patriarchy which is the main stumbling block to sustainable development.

 

 

Even as I sat down to write this post, I received a mail from Black by ClearTax, the platform I use to file my IT returns, citing their data analysis of investment pattern which shows that against stereotype, women are investing 12.7% more than men on average. This statistic resonates with social media trends that’s replete with examples of posts, reels, short videos and viral content of women advising women on finance and investment putting financial security at the heart of women’s empowerment.

 

From women-majority Self Help Groups, women-led and women-majority panchayat institutions to women’s financial services such as Mahila Bank (e.g., Chetna Gala Sinha, who established the women's rural banking institutions, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank) to women entrepreneurs–focused online platforms such as SHEROES, for women-by women angel investing, and initiatives such as Feminist Approach to Technology, feminist city planning and Feminist Foreign Policy being adopted by some nations can jumpstart gender equality in the micro and macro levels as well as locally and globally.

 

One of the low hanging fruits of international aid is packages for training and funding women entrepreneurs. It is as popular as educating girl children as a strategy for poverty alleviation and social upliftment through women’s empowerment. Yet access to funding and support to women-led initiatives is still unequal. Networks of women within institutions and MNCs, locally, nationally and internationally are helping close this gap, e.g., Sakhi (Accenture India), Wsquare, National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO, UK), Vital Voices, SHE Changes Climate, Lean In, Shevolve, etc. Crowdsourced maps and resources such as that of the Red Dot Foundation and the Red Elephant Foundation (the GBV Help map and the Saahas app) are equally vital is ensuring security and empowering women.

 

As mainstream media frenziedly covers the war in Ukraine ignoring and downgrading other vital issues, observances such as International Women’s Day, World Wildlife Day (March 3^rd), World Water Day (March 22^nd) will shift the narrative at least temporarily. The events of the 66^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW22) scheduled from March 14 to March 25, 2022, will also help keep the focus on gender mainstreaming and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.

 From poverty alleviation to tackling climate change and building the economy and strong institutions and international partnerships for progress all require a gender just and feminist approach.  

This #WomensDay,a glance at how #climatechange is being increasingly linked with rising sex trafficking and #prostitution in #developingcountries that are most prone to climate disasters. From my column with @TheHinduMag https://t.co/zECwE3Z65b#cartoons #comics #greenhumour pic.twitter.com/oHoM9JrGd6

— Green Humour (@thetoonguy) March 7, 2022

The 12 critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action along with Gender Just Sustainable Development are the perfect guideposts and milestones to aim for in the path to empowering women and achieving Gender Equality. They are as follows: 

• Women and the environment
• Women in power and decision making
• The Girl Child
• Women and the economy
• Human rights of women
• Education and training of women
• Violence against women
• Women and poverty
• Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
• Women and health
• Women and armed conflict
• Women and the media.

Takeaways from the ADB Healthy Oceans Forum: Innovations for WWD, Coastal & Ocean Resilience

 While participating online at the First Asian Development Bank (ADB) Healthy Oceans Tech & Finance Forum: Innovations Solutions for Asia and the Pacific I gained insights on many on paths to Coastal & Ocean Resilience, especially in Asia-Pacific. With Wetlands being a key ecosystem covered and with World Wetlands Day (WWD) being observed on February 2, 2022 with the theme 'Wetlands Action for People and Nature' it makes sense to highlight takeaways from the ADB Healthy Oceans Forum that focus on Wetlands and building coastal resilience. 

Ahead of the #ADBHealthyOceans Tech & Finance Forum on Jan 26-28, read the #OceanPanel-commissioned guide that identifies the what, why & how of a #SustainableOceanPlan for maximum delivery of benefits for people, nature & the economy.@ADBEnvironment

👉https://t.co/oibaNIAVTL pic.twitter.com/xuGxpO0Faf

— Ocean Panel (@oceanpanel) January 19, 2022

Now, ADB has committed to raise funds to restore wetlands in the Asia-Pacific. In India, Maharashtra's wetlands as well as rural connectivity is being funded by ADB projects in collaboration with the state government. Previously ADB has helped bring back beaches, restore shorelines and revitalize the coastal zone in Ullal, Karnataka, through sustainable costal protection and management. 

This project in itself and efforts to restore wetlands are big wins for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also by building in Gender Equality into the framework of the ADB Blue Loans and Blue Bonds funded Blue Future, more women entrepreneurs and women-led initiatives are being offered funding for projects to improve ocean and coastal resilience and mainstream Blue Foods and sustainable aquaculture to boost the economy and ecology.

Wetlands include marsh, swamp and mire (bog and fen). A mangrove is a tide-influenced wetland complex and are bio-diverse carbon-fixing ecosystems at the borders of land and oceans. Thus restoring wetlands and building up coastal resilience by funding and empowering farmers, SMEs and the government can ensure climate action as well as all the other Global Goals. While forests are referred to as the lungs of the planet, wetlands are called the kidneys of planet. But both are vital organs essential for the health of the planets and its inhabitants.

I covered the Plastics-Free Oceans spotlight of the ADB Healthy Oceans in the January 2022 RE-plastic blog post. I have also covered the importance of Wetlands and WWD before (2021 & February 2020) in posts blogs. Revitalizing and restoring wetlands, which are being drained and destroyed faster than forests enables sequestering lots more carbon dioxide than just in forests (SDG13). If forests are slashed for farmland, wetlands are "reclaimed" to expand cities and enable the urban sprawl. Most of the world's capitals, metros and megacities are built on wetlands. Examples span from Washington, DC to Venice to Mumbai and Chennai. Be it South America's Pantanal or South Asia's Sunderbans as well as the mangroves and wetlands along major rivers or the confluence of rivers and great urban centres, these biodiverse wetlands that are our main defense from climate catastrophes are most at risk. They are being destroyed much faster than forests. At the threshold of life on land (SDG15) and life below water (SDG14), their revitalization can revitalize the economy and empower the marginalized faster than most other efforts. The Coastal Resilience, Blue Foods and Ocean Finance streams of the ADB forum showcased many such restoration examples and experts. ADB's 5 billion dollar Healthy Oceans Action Plan launched in May 2019 is a great beginning.

Powerful #ADBHealthyOceans plenary scene setting by #photographer @jgbmejia #wetlands hero & @NatGeo explorer.
Gr8 recommendations:
Harness your talent, your voice & your story to power your action for the #environment
Looking fwd to Day2 @ADBEnvironment #SDG13 #SDG14 #SDG15 pic.twitter.com/zja5OY7SaV

— Raakhee Suryaprakash (@10sunshinegal) January 27, 2022

The Regenerative Blue Economy model powered by renewable energy (SDG 7) for Just Transition is a great path to sustainable development and climate resilience. Women-led mangrove re-planting and lake and flood-plains reclamation have had more community participation than purely government or corporate restoration projects. For People and Planet we need action for wetlands. And the designation of many wetland as Ramsar sites is a great step forward.

Sustainable Development and the Circular Economy: Hopes for 2022

 It's a new year, and as Lord Alfred Tennyson put it "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier'." Even as the Omicron variant of the pandemic that has plagued us from the beginning of this decade brings the world to its knees, hope persists that this year will be better for people and the planet and equally importantly for the planet's flora and fauna (biodiversity). Sustainable development and a circular economy approach is vital to revive the global economy battered by Covid and the Climate Crises in a sustainable manner. 

The path to sustainable development is through adopting the circular economy model and closing the wasteful Take-Make-Waste production model. In a Circular Economy, systems are regenerative and integrative. The waste of one product becomes the raw material for another to close the loop. To adopt it and make the current requires systems thinking change as well as a change the operating system of the global economy and make it less wasteful.

To allow climate action and if we are to achieve the net-zero ambitions anytime, let alone by 2050, SDG12 - responsible production and consumption - must be top priority. This allows for processes to cut their carbon emission and reduce the ecological footprint of products and industries to avoid Earth Overshoot and keep within the planetary boundaries.

You can get a fuller explanation of Circular Economy from this Systems Innovation video: 

There is an urgent need to stay within planetary boundaries of resources to avoid extinction level events and biodiversity  loss. Beyond personal carbon footprint to community, industry, regional and national footprints as building blocks to keep within planetary boundaries. Already new estimates and studies indicate that we have already passed the safe limit for chemical pollution and plastics production, consumption and waste after single use are major culprits.

This is big and bleak news. The planetary boundary for chemical pollution (aka 'novel entities') has been quantified for the first time - and it's now clear that humanity is massively transgressing levels that are safe for life on Earth. Plastics! Read on. https://t.co/OEHWdSOX23 pic.twitter.com/lAwgRG0y3G

— Kate Raworth (@KateRaworth) January 18, 2022

You can read the full Twitter thread on the planetary boundary for chemical pollution (and the plastic effect) here. Food waste co-existing with millions of hungry people is another symptom of our wasteful economic system and it has to be addressed urgently to end world hunger (SDG 2), food-related lifestyle diseases, and provide the necessary nutrition for good health and well-being (SDG 3). Ensuring SDG12 and circular economy in the agricultural-agribusiness-food sector also ensures that this major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation is put in check ensuring climate action now (SDG 13). The catchy and information filled Food Waste Song from Australian Tik-Toker and comedian Benny Davis shows the way.

There is wastefulness everywhere and the current system churns out emissions and pollution at every stage. Even as individuals and concerned consumers and citizens take action to reduce their personal carbon footprint, we hear of the sheer wastefulness from certain sectors and the super-rich and the powers-that-be. Take for example: Fast fashion trash is piling up in Chile's Atacama Desert where it is disposed and luxury brands are burning and shredding product rather then sell it cheap. They all continue to manufacture products unchecked but control supply and create artificial scarcity by wasteful methods to increase prices and the desire for the perceived "exclusive" products among their super-rich and wanna-be [rich] customers. Another example is news of airlines flying empty flights (ghost flights), emitting tons of emission without benefitting any traveler just to maintain their airport slots during the pandemic caused international flight bans. The sheer carelessness of the sector when the climate conscious are cutting down their use of flights (flygskam - flight shaming) and even giving up flying as a mode of travel. When you hear such news about ghost flights, world leaders and business leaders summit hopping in private jets, and billionaire space races, one feels flygskam aimed at the average citizen is a bit of a scam. 

This is the time of the year for the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, where the movers and shakers of the world rub shoulder and maintain the status quo by setting and shaping the world to suit their agenda. This year, for the second time consecutively because of the pandemic WEF is being held virtually thus cutting the event's carbon footprint. This crisp review of the book Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World also spreads the blame to the millions of consumers who fund the billionaire lifestyles. We are trapped and manipulated by convenience and brain-washing into choosing to make them richer exceeding our personal budgets and planetary boundaries for resources. 

Yet there is power is personal choice and collective action. Consumer and citizen power collective action all about personal choices can offset billionaire effect so act to reduce your personal carbon footprint and get others to do the same. Let us not allow what happens in Don't Look Up to become our permanent reality vis-à-vis the climate crisis. Give the Global Goals a chance to bolster the future outlook. Truly build back better. An opportunity to survive and thrive amid the existential pandemic threat. that is pressurizing us now. 

Tracking and cutting your personal carbon footprint and getting others to do it too and adopt a sustainable lifestyle can make a huge difference.

In this the second year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) buffeted by COVID and Climate Catastrophe, there is an urgent need to Invest in our Planet. Perhaps it is apt that this [Invest in Our Planet] is the theme for Earth Day 2022 (April 22).  The need for an Earthshot (named after another world-changing project - the Apollo Moon landings, nicknamed Moonshot. They helped advance mankind's technological achievements and ... help improve life for everyone).

Sustainable habits, citizen action to make communities sustainable (SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities), grassroots approach to ensure sustainable development and circular economy is the path to climate action and economic recovery (SDG 8) in our current reality (COVID-19 + Climate Change).

Composting, homesteading, buying local and direct from farms and gardens, promoting regenerative systems and agriculture, choosing energy independence through renewable energy sources, rain water harvesting and grey-water recycling for water security at family, community and city levels, building community gardens and food forests, saving the soil and seeds thus building a community of active citizens who work to bring forth climate-friendly and eco-friendly policies and politicians is a great continuum for planet- and people-friendly change. Using personal consumer, citizen and community power to invest in the planet is my hope for 2022 and beyond. It is an expressway to the global goals and achievement of sustainable development through creation of circular economies.