host: welcome to "global 3000." this week we head to china. growth, infrastrtructure, prosperity -- china wants it all, and to boost its green credentials, too. in india, garbage is clogging the streets of many cities. could it be turned into a valuable resource? and in brazil we meet some women who have escaped a deadly danger -- their own partners. a society that values all its members equally -- surely that

would be the ideal form of community. but when it comes to gender equality, most societies around the world are lagging. hierarchy, power, and property define the role of women. they are often treated as objects, especially in armed conflict. and as baby machines. traditions like bride prices or dowries turn women i into good. and often leave them economically dependent on their husbands. such structures are breeding grounds for domestic violence and femicide. 11,000 women murdered in asia, 11,000 in africa, and 6000 in north and south america. those are just the official numbers of women killed by their intimate partners in 2017. numerous countries in latin america have adopted special femicide laws calling for tough sentences for the gender-related killing of women. in 2015, so did brazil. reporter: a maximum-security prison in a remote region of the

state of alagoas, in northeast brazil. the director has given us permission to interview men who have killed their wives or girlfriends. it's a crime that's increasing at an alarming rate in brazil. an average of five women are murdered by their partners here every day. the circumstances vary, but there's a pattern. jealousy is often cited as the motive. offenders blame their victims, who they view as their p proper. >> my partner, who i i was together with, who i loved and respected, cheated on me. and then i killed her. >> i said i wouldn't kill her. i'd just teach her to respect a man. she tried to run. i was holding a weapon and grabbed her by the hair. a shot went off. the bullet entered the back off her head and came out ththe otr side.

porter: wowomen in ruralal regis arare particulararly at ris. anailde e lima lives i in parain bril's's noreast.. she leftft her violentnt husbd nine years a ago. ain in theheir village, ononly daring t to visit her r own isod hohouse with onene of her chil. but shshhas no other choe. t she has no oth c choic she lives s off this l land. anailde: i if my ex-husbsband s here and attttacks me, thehent leasast my childreren can rept whwhat happened.d. reporterer: left out i in thra, with a problem deeplply entrencd leasasin this society.can rept but t anailde refuses to be a vict. anailde: i led w with a brutall and violenent peon, anand wanted to leaveve him so my c children wowouldn't get u used to it. reporter: but there's no simple waout.t. her father is also a violent man who beat his wife and childrdr. now he's a bad influence on anailde's 14-year-old son.

i also n notice it at t home ifs supposeded to clean upup after eaeating. hehe refuses, because my fatar sasays, "it's not men's work. dot t do it,y boboy. where are the women,our sister or youmothther?" porter: they are fighthting back. every year on inteternational wowojoin forors to march.om thta what b began as a dedemonstran for the e rights of wowomen fas and famimily businesseses has n into a fulscviolen.rest fofor i it's anotherer step toward challeining a ma-domominat ciety. anailde: this march anans a lot toto us. we have e to put up wiwith so , the e olence, ththe machismomo. it affects the e entire famil. i've sufuffered alone e for so . now, i canan express mysyself. but t many women are still suffering in silence reporterer: this is ststill an ununusual event,t, which not l womemen are able o or willingo take parart in.

but ththings are chahanging hen the coununtryside. in brazil's cities, things a not ch b better behindnd the scenes. the number of domestic killings of women in são paulo also rose rapidly. we meet jéssica. she's a successful model, educated, rich, beautiful, and yet she, too, ended up with a violent man and almost paid with her life. jéssica: no abusive relationship begins with someone being punched in the face. at first, he'll draw you in and seduce youou. he's extremely manipulative. he undermines your protective barriers and destroys your self-esteem. he keeps you away from people you like. in the end, you relinquish your own judgment entirely. i was more afraid of losing him than of dying. reporter: jéssica wants others to benefit from her experiences. she's backing a project set up by two judges to train the staff of beauty salons to spot the signs of domestic violence.

jéssica: we are here because this is our temple. here, we c can express our rag. we women often say more to each other than to our parents. reporter: jéssssica's story is familiar to many here. they have experienced similar things themselves, or have seen their customers suffering. josie: i've learned here that you can tell by the clients' behavior if something is wrong. they're emotionally confused and are very sad. they seem destroyed on the inside. mario: men in brazil confuse machismo with masculinity. they aren't workining to chane idideas of masculinity. sons don't talk to their fathers about what it means to be a man. masculinity ends u up being ony about rituals and stereotypes. reporter: stereotypes that are being reinforced by the bolsonaro government. tatiane: these are dark days for us right now. we're totally going backwards. we still have one of the best laws on protecting women.

but it's hard to watch how the government is woworking on turng back time. rererter: that's also why y ths is thehe bigge mararch tt paraiba has s ever seen. on anaildede's banner, a a calr anan end to murdrder and viole. the e women shout,t, "we won'te up, , ow us respect," and "machio o kills ery y sing day." host: violence and repression don't exist here, say many women in nagorno-karabakh. they're well-educated and have a big say in the political and economic life of the enclave in the southern caucasus mountains. how did that happen? nagorno-karabakh has been the subject of a decades-long conflict between armenia and azerbaijan. as a result, most of its men become soldiers to defend the borders of the self-proclaimed republic. and the absence of men has opened up new opportunities for women.

repopoer: this w was once th frontle e in the conflict betwtween armenia a and azerij. e e groundn ththe diuted region of nagorno-kakarabakh s still full o of unexplodeded m. lilit amirkhanyan is in ararge a t team that rememoves them. lilit: it's s a great hononor fe to r our c country of f mines,o make i it usable agagain. as the f first fale e teameader i'm a role model, showing that women n hahave a career r in prprofessions like this. reporter: nagorno-karabakh in the southern caucasus has a population of just 150,000. the capitatal, stepanakeker, projojects a moderern image, ao

the mimilitary remainsns a domt but t thforce hehere.n display a and it's's primarily a a mae dodomain. elsewhere, w women are fococusn carving out t a new kind o of e for the reregion. kakarine zakharyryan comes frorm togh, a a village in the southf nagorno-kakarabakh. afafter years woworking for i. mpananies in moscocow, she's nw trying to o promote toururism ir hometown. she's espepecially keen n to fr a sense ofof local pridede. rine: my idea was to explain p people here t that is festival andnd everything we ae doing here to o change theirir .

they have to feel happines th have e to he a fufull life, living here. they live in t this autiful nature and don't see. rertrter: buevenen herin thehe during t the separatisist wain e 1990's, she wain m moscow caring for her r newborn chchild. kari: i was soy y about not ing a man be here. i had a son at that titime, a vy littlele son. i i was a motherer and i said,y am i not a man to bebe here iny motherlaland?" reporter: since then, women have made it into key positions here. depuputy foreign m minister ae aleksanynyan had origiginaly pbut when the war broke o, , she coululdn'teave.. instead shshe studied enenglisd german, anand after gradaduat, bebegan her polilitical careere.

armine: the only guy we had in our group was in thehe army mot ofof the time, a and most guyn osose daysere e fighng, nonot studying. so that geneneration didn'n't ry get a propoper educationon, wht comes to thehe male segmenent oe population. but femaleles were the, studying and trngng to become s someonen that sense. that's why when there wewere vacancies,s, they were e easily filllled by women.n. porter: the men tended to make . even today, all young mehahave sererve f two y yea. near these marching cadets, younsoldldiersre pacacki up for their r deployment t to the frfront. we were only allowed to film two ofhem polishing ththeir oes. wowomen, too, cacan become offf. bubut the army i itsf, a cenenl institution in this de fac stat rememains a male e doin. har gaspararyan is a nururse assigngned to the yoyoung sold.

she shshows us the a air filte whichas s redud respspirory infections in the barracks gohar: everyry year we get 4 40w conscripts. i take care e of them likeke a 20 of thmotherer. boys reporter: : these young g men ha ratherradiditial take on women in thehe military. armaman: i don't think that won should serve in the army. hoholand is a job for men.he reporter: out in the minefield, the break is over, and lilit amirkhanyan's team continues to ow t that women cecertnly cann reporter: out in the minefield, the rve their country. lilit none of the e men in the g grous a problem wiwith woman a as a susupeisor, she says. lililit: women h have the sameme rights a as men. inin fact, womenen manage to k and d take care of t theirome.

so men shohodn't talk about things thedodon't understatan. scrimination against women i deeply anchohored in armeniaian societety. repoporter: women n are fightinr their r place in society in gorno-karabach. but until thteterritors conflilict is resolvlved, theyl face morore obstacles s than antiquated genender roles. announuncer: repressssion ad scriminati a are parof l life for many womomen around the wor. on o n new facook k chanl, dww women, youou'll find stotories t those taking a stand, anand inspiring others to do the same. dw wom gives a voice to the women of our world. host: the indian city of bangalore once boasted hundreds of lakes and many spacious, leafy parks. today, bangalore i is known asn i.t. h hub, the sililicon vallf india.

in thehe space of 20 years, is populationon rose from f fie million to 1 12 million. the remainining lakes are e cld wiwith sewage anand toxic wastse siside effects o of pid growo. but not t all residentnts ae wiwilling to putut up with th. reporter: in the heart of bangalore, garbage is festering everywhere. this neighboborhood is literaly drowowning in it.. illegal dumping sites are more than just an eyesore. residents complain of a foul odor all day long. several cases of dengue have been reported in the area. bangalore municipality has hired so-called marshals to crack down on those littering or dumping trash. the marshal makes the offender pick up the bag he just threw away. umesh: this guy is throwing his waste here. he hasn't separated it. this isn't a dumping ground.

the garbage truck went to his house but he missed it because he woke up too late. he has to be fined. reporter: it's 200 rupees, just under three euros, for dumping household trash. the city's infrastructure is failing to cope with the unchecked development and growth. once known as the "garden city," bangalore now has a new nickname -- "garbage city." some have had enough. every morning, padmashree balaram inspects the trash pick-up in her neighborhood of koramangala. residents are meant to put their kitchen waste in a green bin without liners. it's then dumped directly into the truck. the chemistry teacher takes it upon herself to educate residents. padmashree: no newspaper.

>> we can't put plastic in the wet waste, so that is the only problem i'm facing. i line it with paper, with newspaper. padmashree: but you should not because it has ink, you know, it has lead. so, you should not. it's very dangerous to have ink because it will compost alongg with your food, and then we will eat the same vegetables. reporter: not everyone follows the rules. here, all the trash has gone into one bin. padmashreeee: it boils my bloo, really, because the amount of effort we have put in. and it's not rocket science. just separate it. how hard is that? reporter: entrepreneur som narayan encounters new dumping sites daily. som: there you go, there's other spotot there. ththere have beeeen organizats that work onon clearing ththose tetes, paiing g themp, makakin it clean, but then again it reappears after 15 days.

repoporter: the enenvironmenll engineerer has come up with hs own solution to reduce the city's waste. he's joined forces with padmashree balaram to set up a biogas facility. som: i think they are following instructions very well. padmashree: yeah, i think so. hopefully it should continue. reporter: the organic waste from padmashree balaram's neighborhood, which would normally go to a landfill, is instead brought here as a raw material. the trash has to come in well sorted.. otherwise, it means higher operational costs and less biogas. today, her efforts pay off. padmashree: 3% is good, ok. som: this is nearly 100%, right? there's about 5% to 10% that needs to be stripped out, like the flowers and all that which has s very high lignin conten, but i would rate this extremely good. i mean, this is now good enough for biogas. reporter: the facility processes about 600 kilograms of local kitchen waste a day, turning it into slurry.

the actual plant is further away, built in refurbished shipping containers on land provided by the local authorities. there's also a business model. the raw biogas is purified here and then stored in a tank. the resulting gas, brand-named carbonlites, is sold. som: what we're producing as an end product here is about 92% to 94% of methane, which means it's much better than natural gas, it can didisplace any fossil l fuee it lpgpg, petrol, or diesel. so at the end of the day, we are creating a clean renewable energy right here in koramangala. reporter: the biggest buyer is a neighboring restaurant. the gas is piped in from just 200 meters away. the restaurant is hugely popular. the kitchen uses about 70 kilograms of biogas a day, which is also cheaper than conventional cooking gas.

aarish: with them, it's directly piped, so there's absolutely no wastage, and we don't have to stock cylinders, we don't have to waste space. it's cost effective, it's convenient, we're doing something for the environment. reporter: the bulk of bangalore's waste is driven 40 to 50 kilomemeters outsidede e tyty. there e no official dumps within theity anymore for the 5000 tons of garbage bangalore generates every single day. but even designated landfills like this one are a major hazard. som: landfill is no fancy place. it's the mosost unscientifificy ofof handling yoyour waste. it attracts flies, rodents, causes diseases, causes groundwawater pollutioion, cres leachate, agagain, which i s entetering into your groundwer, damagingng your grououndwatr soururce, creating metethane, ts again, addining to your ghgg

emissionons. rereporter: som narayayan has sd up his operations to help keep d makeke his businesess viabl. about 13 t tons of food d waste arrive at this plant north o f bangalale every y from i. parks and corporate campuses. about 17 jobs have been created here at the biogas plant. unlike the facility in the city, it also compresses the gas. it's then bottled into cylinders that can be shipped to customers across bangalore. som: our ultimate dream is to have this across india with entrepreneurs coming in to this business, running their own micro units. it's a win-win for the country as well as creating more jobs and creating energy security. reporter: som narayan has already expanded into two more states. he plans to continue growing. the waste-to-fuel business model

could be a viable way for far more indian cities to clean up their act. host: even breathing can kill. according to the w.h.o., seven million die every year due to air pollution. fine particulate matter emitted by traffic and industry affects the health of 90% of people worldwide. now china, the world's biggest polluter, is taking action. its growing middle class wants cleaner air. reporter: we're a three-hour drive outside beijing, and despite appearances, environmental activist zhang junfeng knows that all is not well. the river is almost dry. for the last two decades, he's been recording the dwindling aquatic life of this region. zhang: everything is focused on china's growth, on making us economically comompetitive. but we are usingng up our natul resources. and really, no one knows how things can continue.

reporter: polluted groundwater and air have become commonplace in and around china's big cities. everyone has got used do monitoring air quality on a dadaily basis. zhang: the air is good here in the mountains. really freshsh, in fact. but as soon as i get closer to beijing, things deteriorate. i start to feel really unwell. reporter: this was the scene in beijing four years ago. the footage was taken at midday, but it could be night. china is the biggest air polluter in the world. for a long time, the country relied only on coal. but no new coal-powered stations are being built anymore. coal consumption has flatlined since 2013. tom: over the last five years or so there have been a lot of improvements in beijing's air quality and the air quality across northern china. that's been as a result of a lot

of government measures to clamp down on the burning of coal in households, to switch out coal heating with gas heating, and also stricter emission standards on industry. reporter: the emission levels sf many industrial plants are now being tested in real-time and posted online. ma jun collects these huge amounts of data. with this app, anyone can see who is exceeding the norms. ma: and through these efforts, some of the largest plants, some of the state-ownwned enterpris, started responding to the -- bowed to the people's pressure and started to openly address their violations. repoporter: china has traditionally been seen as the world's fafactory floor, and hs the emissionons to show for i. that's why ma jun wants to ensure international consumer goods companies like dell, adidas, and h&m keep tabs on the environmental records of their suppliers.

ma: first question is always like, "we have a gre policy, but in china, sorry, i just don't know who is polluting and who is not." and i still remember the first meeting where we were able to tell them that, "look, we have some data." reporter: steel and cement production are huge sources of pollution. as china's economy has grown, its infrastructure has also expanded. in the last three years, the coununtry has useded more cemt than thehe u.s. did inin thente 20th century. and china'bubuildingoomm continues.s. tom: basicalally, any trenendn teterms of indusustry or the pr sector herere, ultimately, any trends in coal consumption, are of importance to the whole world. reporter: and these trends can be positive. china has become a world leader in solar power, for example. no other country invests as much money in renewables as beijiji.

solar power is n now cheaper tn grid electricicity in much of e country. back in the mountains near beijing, zhang junfeng is confident that china is moving in the right direction. at the moment, co2 emissions per capita in china are less than half what they are in the u.u. and he wants it to stay that way. zhang: people are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental problems here and responding accordinglyly. many have understood that environmental protection is, ultimately, in their own best interest. reporter: but some still see growing prosperity and environmental protection as being at odds with one another. with his photos, zhang junfeng wants to show just what an asset our natural surroundings are. host: that's all from "global 3000" ththis week. t we alwayays lookorward tohe. so write to us at global3000@dw.com, or visit our

facebook page, dw women. see you soon. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: tododay on "earth focus," coral reefs are home to 1/4 of all fish and marine life. but now, due to rising ocean temperatures, coral reefs are in great peril. around the world, dedicated people are working together to save the c corals, coming up on "earth focus." coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. while they cover less than 2% of the ocean floor, reefs provide livelihoods, food, and shoreline protection, as well as g