Gaav Samvaad is an initiative of Asar Social Impact Advisors and RSCD.250 such samvads were conducted by a team of 10 fellows and 50 paryavaran sakhis across 50 villages in 10 districts of the state (Pune, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Nandurbar, Osmanabad, Palghar, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon, Nagpur, Beed).

First, these 10 fellows underwent a series of training sessions on the issue of Gender, Climate and Leadership. The primary objective of these dialogues was to have live dialogue about village – centred Climate Gender Status in order to learn the local language of these topics with five different types of groups in the villages with whom a focus group each was conducted. 

This includes Senior citizens, Youths, Women, Members of Gram Panchayat, and representatives of deprived communities. After conducting pilot discussions in each district, a toolkit was prepared to capture these findings easily.

The toolkit consists of 9 Js which are useful in understanding the impact of climate change on people’s daily lives in an easy manner in the local context. They are जल (Water), जंगल (Forest), जमीन (Land), जैवविविधता(Biodiversity), जनावरे (Animals), ऊर्जा (Energy), जत्रा (Jatra), जनता (Peoples) and जपलेला वारसा (Heritage).

Based on this, villagers shared what they gained and what they have lost.

Most respondents across the 10 regions lamented the fact that agriculture is no longer seen as a viable livelihood by people due to unpredictable weather conditions. They associated the loss of natural farming methods with excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in farming. The soil is losing its fertility because of such practices and it has led to a reduction in farming income. Similarly, they mentioned how several traditional livelihoods such basket weaving, pottery etc which were done by indigenous communities are now near extinction as it is neither predictable nor economically viable.