World Environment Day – June 5, 2022

As you probably know, June 5th is World Environment Day. And starting from June 5th, MAKAAM is launching a nationwide campaign to highlight the issues and challenges faced by women farmers, in terms of climate change and its impact.

Lately, World Environment Day is being celebrated merely in terms of tree plantation. Quite literally, we are missing the woods for the trees! There are deeper issues of marginalisation, structural violence and inequality that must be addressed, especially in the case of women farmers and forest produce workers.

World Environment Day should NOT be limited to just tree plantation. This is an opportunity for us to attempt to change the tone of the conversation and explore some of the most urgent impacts of climate change on women farmers.

Join us in our campaign to visiblise the consequences of climate change on women farmers working in fields and forests!

The Campaign:

We are running our campaign on two levels simultaneously:

1. Grassroots/Community level engagement

2. Social media engagement

At the local/community level, several of our state chapters shall be conducting a postcard campaign (Hindi and English postcard matter in attachment) with women farmers writing postcards addressed to the President of India and several other officials. They shall also hand over a memorandum (Hindi and English memorandum in the attachment) of their demands to officials at the local, district and state level.

Join the coordinated action from 5th June to 5th July 2022, by organising events wherever you are, submitting the memorandum and sending postcards addressed to the Prime Minister, Minister of Tribal Affairs at state and national levels!

Although this is a national campaign, we recognise that there are many local and regional issues that must also be incorporated in the campaign. So, feel free to modify your demands in your postcards and memoranda as per your local concerns, and help us amplify the voices and demands of women farmers.

We also have a dedicated social media campaign that will be working in tandem with the local level campaign:

• Twitter storm:

Join us on June 5th for a Twitter storm from 6.30 pm to 8 pm using the hashtags #ParyavaranAurMahilaKisan or #WomenFarmers4Environment, don’t forget to tag our Twitter handle @MahilaKisan so we can retweet you.

• MAKAAM’s filter on Instagram and Facebook:

We have designed a special filter for World Environment Day. Click a selfie using our filter or use it with an existing photo to show your support. Here are the links to open the filter on Instagram and Facebook:

• Link to Instagram filter: https://www.instagram.com/ar/747672113079769/
• Link to Facebook filter: https://www.facebook.com/fbcameraeffects/tryit/747672113079769/

Or else, you could simply look up the filter using the keyword “MAKAAM” in the filters/effects gallery on your apps.

Tag us in your campaign related activities:

• Share your campaign related photos and videos on your social media handles and tag us to get reposted.
• MAKAAM state chapters could send us their photos and videos directly, along with English subtitles, and we will share them directly from our handle.

Panel discussion (1st week of July)

Do keep an eye out for our live panel discussion in the first week of July that will conclude our month-long campaign and will form the basis of further action plans.

Overall Campaign schedule:

• Launch of campaign through Twitter storm on 5th June, 6.30 pm to 8 pm.
• Coordinated Action – postcard campaign + memorandum from 5th to 10th June
• Documentation of campaign (ongoing) – photos, videos, posters, social media filters.
• Online Panel discussion (1st week of July): live broadcast on social media.

Don’t forget to tag our social media handles:

• Instagram: @mahilakisan (https://www.instagram.com/mahilakisan/)
• Twitter: @MahilaKisan (https://twitter.com/MahilaKisan)
• Facebook: @MahilaKisanAdhikaarManch (https://www.facebook.com/MahilaKisanAdhikaarManch/)