Raigad fort. Credit: iStock
Raigad: Maharashtra’s coastal Raigad district is set to pilot a first-of-its-kind gender-inclusive, community-led district climate action planning initiative — marking a shift toward participatory climate governance rooted in local realities.
The three-year project aims to integrate gender justice, indigenous knowledge, and grassroots leadership into district-level climate planning, offering a potential model for replication across the state.
The official launch took place at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, during a two-day national seminar titled “Pathways to Gender-Responsive Local Climate Action and Justice: Localizing SDGs, Decolonizing Governance, Indigenizing Knowledge.”
The seminar marked a collaboration bridging governance, academia, and grassroots action, with TISS partnering with the Maharashtra State Climate
Action Cell, Asar Social Impact Advisors, Waatavaran Foundation, and the Policy & Development Advisory Group, with support from the University of Toronto India Foundation.
Together, the partners underscored the need to advance locally grounded, gender-responsive climate action by integrating policy, research, community knowledge systems, and cultural practice.
The seminar was presided over by Prof. M. Mariappan, Officiating Vice Chancellor, TISS, and Prof Geetanjoy Sahu, Dean of the School of Habitat Studies. The event, which was also a curtain raised for the upcoming Mumbai Climate Week scheduled for February 17-19 2026, was inaugurated by Shishir Joshi, Founder of the Mumbai Climate Week.
The Raigad Climate Action Planning project was launched by Abhijit Ghorpade, Director, SCAC.
“We have launched Maharashtra’s SAPCC 2.0, which emphasises the mainstreaming of women and youth in climate action. We are now developing district, city, and village-level climate action plans to further localise this effort. I am confident that this process, being undertaken by TISS in collaboration with its partners, will result in a truly inclusive climate action plan,” said Ghorpade.
“Women play a critical role in building resilience and shaping adaptation efforts, often drawing on deep community knowledge and care practices. Climate action planning must therefore centre community voices while also addressing structural inequalities. TISS remains deeply committed to just and inclusive approaches to such planning,” added Prof Mariappan.