Girls Climate Parliament

 A leadership pathway for adolescent girls at the meeting point of climate, gender, and governance, turning their demands into public voice.

Youth · Governance

There is a quiet injustice at the heart of the climate crisis: the people who feel it most sharply are often the ones least asked what should be done. In rural Maharashtra, few feel it as directly, or are consulted as rarely, as adolescent girls. When water grows scarce, it is often girls who walk further to fetch it. When drought squeezes a farming household, it is frequently a daughter's schooling, health, or future that is quietly traded away.

Yet in the rooms where decisions about water, land, and climate are made, their voices are almost never present. Girls Climate Parliament exists to close that gap, to put adolescent girls at the intersection of the crises that hit them hardest, and to insist that they belong in the conversation.

The programme's first cohort brought together thirty girls of Class 8 at Nilkantheshwar High School in Chavalkheda, Jalgaon District. It took shape under the Youth Leadership Academy for Gender and Climate Action, a fellowship carried by YOGI's founder, with seed funding from Plan International.

Girls Climate Parliament was made possible with seed funding from Plan International, and in collaboration with Aapan Foundation, Aawaj Leadership Lab, and Varta Varan. On the ground, the programme was held together by YOGI member Sushil Bhalerao, a teacher at Nilkantheshwar High School, along with other YOGI members.