PRADAN and partners collaborate to launch a women-centric campaign to reach out to more than 400 million people

New Delhi, March 18, 2023: FES, MetaMeta, AidEnvironment, PRADAN and many other partners have launched a campaign to raise mass awareness on the transformative changes women are bringing in the remotest parts of India and beyond, on this Women's Day month. The campaign aims to reach out to 400 plus million people, to raise awareness on women's leadership in farming, safe food, regenerative agriculture and related issues which have an impact on people and the planet.

The campaign, which will be seen in social media from (Women's Day) March 7, 2023 to May 14, 2023 salutes and recognizes those marginalized women who have been bringing change in India, through regenerative farming. Almost one million women in the country have been trained and empowered to change the face of agriculture in the last two years. The campaign highlights women breaking stereotypical kitchen centered and childcare roles attached to a woman, and their significant contribution in making Indian agriculture chemical free and regenerative.

These women, specially from the remote districts of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal are silently, but relentlessly making the entire food system undergo a shift from processes unleashed by the Green Revolution of 1965 and put an end to poisonous chemicals in food and oils and save the landscape from becoming barren and infertile.

Speaking on the occasion, Nityananda Dhal, who leads the Regenerative Agriculture initiative at PRADAN, said, "PRADAN as an organization has worked to empower people and make them self-reliant. Our initiative with the women farmers in the last two years have generated huge benefits not only to these women farmers but also to the larger sections of the society by providing them chemical-free food. We feel regenerative agriculture will drive the next wave of agricultural growth in the country. The government too has come forward to support this kind of agriculture, as it focuses on organic agriculture leading to healthier soil and crops."

"At PRADAN, we are celebrating the contribution of all those women who have toiled to enrich the natural resources for future generations, worked towards making the land resilient to climate challenges and most importantly created a healthy-food eco-system for all. Farm products like vegetables and indigenous paddy have been cultivated using this technique. And more and more women farmers are joining these processes today," Nityananda Dhal further added.

Avijit Choudhury, resource mobilization and communications lead of PRADAN said, "We have taken a 360-degree social media campaign approach, where we aim to reach out to 400 million people across the country. We want to leverage digital channels and bring the issue to all sections of society both in urban as well as rural India. Women, in urban India today, play a significant role in decision making as consumers, hence, we are also aiming to reach out to more and more women through this campaign to sensitize them on the importance of consuming food that is free from chemical inputs. We are also aiming to reach out to other civil society organizations, partners, academia and research institutions through this campaign to strengthen the discourse on regenerative agriculture."

The campaign talks about how marginalized women farmers are making this shift possible and removing obstacles they were facing in life. The key focus of the campaign will cover areas like "Sensitive farming practices for a cooler and greener earth"; "Today's food makes one's tomorrow ? how healthy food and environment will ensure a good and healthy life"; "Super Women who are mitigating impacts of climate change and how these women farmers are breaking the glass ceiling".

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