However, the reality is that the poor and the marginalised have their own agenda - an agenda for progress.

Long-excluded from modern advancements, technology such as electronic media, mobile phones and travel by non-resident migrants, have kindled a hunger for a better life. The challenge therefore, for development practitioners, lies in integrating the two, to reflect the scale and urgency of coping with climate risks, while being fully aware that financial security is the prime concern of rural households.

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences," said Winston Churchill in a separate scenario. With a vast population in India, whose livelihoods are dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry, wetlands and fisheries - all highly vulnerable to climate change, the consequences can be formidable.

Faced with phenomena of low risk awareness and low capacity in communities to cope with environmental stress and climate variability in semi-arid Bundelkhand, Development Alternatives has charged itself with the complexity of bringing about behavioural change in the communities.

Behavioural change can be troublesome. Each of us is painfully conscious how difficult it is to drop a habit. The change being advocated, calls for not just dropping old habits, but also adopting new ones, one by one, until the entire behaviour pattern is reinforced.

DA is, therefore, following the risk communication approach that engages end users in an active dialogue process during the formation and implementation of the strategy. This is being done through the Shubh Kal campaign – the uniqueness lying in the use of climate risk methods for the communication of desirable adaptation options. These measures are expected to lead to an understanding of climate change and preparedness. The medium used for dialogue include mobilisation exercises, envisioning approaches with first-time rural women entrepreneurs, the community radio - Radio Bundelkhand, wall paintings in strategic village locations, interactive folk theatre, narrowcast of radio programmes and focus group discussions - all in the local languages - Bundeli and Hindi.

Crafted for different vulnerable groups within the communities - women, farmers and building artisans, the coping strategy aims to equip them to have and exercise the ability to respond to climate risks through adaptation and mitigation practices. Individual households are being facilitated to make choices, choices that are doable such as using sprinkler irrigation methods instead of diesel-pumped heavily irrigated fields or building proficiencies - to manage renewable energy enterprises instead of making dung-cakes.

Step-by-step, the behaviour change is being influenced. Already there are encouraging signs of change, more so amongst farmers in Tikamgarh district who are seeing the result of the green agri-practices they have adopted. The state government has acknowledged masons skilled in eco-habitat practices as the change agents and has made them master trainers for a host of masons across Madhya Pradesh.

On this Environment Day, the world has set its focus on the theme ‘Forests: Nature at Your Service’ highlighting the intrinsic link between quality of life and the health of forests and forest ecosystems. World Environment Day 2011 will emphasise how individual actions can have an exponential impact. Says Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, "India is …increasingly at the forefront of some of the ‘green shoots’ of a Green Economy that are emerging across the globe." And, yes, India has been chosen to host WED 2011.

The Shubh Kal initiative is one such ‘green shoot’ - an alternative response for providing a better tomorrow for rural populations. Building capacities to adapt is complex, but it is far less complex than the consequences of doing nothing. q