Youth, women take charge on Earth Day

Manu Shrivastava | New Delhi

Earth Day, observed every year on April 22, was incidentally founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson and first organised in 1970 to promote ecology and raise awareness of the growing problems of air, water and soil pollution. The day, United Nations calls 'International Mother Earth Day', aims to raise awareness for Earth’s environment. While Earth Day is commemorated year after year to highlight environmental issues such as loss of biodiversity, increasing pollution and so on, this year it's even more special.

HONOURING EARTH: The day aims to raise awareness for the planet's environment

After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the lessons that nature taught humans over the entire lockdown last year and again now, it is time the commemoration spreads beyond a day or an event and gets internalised within every individual whose very existence is synonymous with the Earth. Celebrating Earth Day could be a good starting point. It is on this occasion that programmes at schools, institutions and elsewhere are conducted to enhance awareness among children and to sensitise others. Here, let's take a look at the ingenious who have worked hard to do their bit for the Earth and for good.

Upcycling plastic waste

UPCYCLING: Rupjyoti at work

In Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, large amounts of plastic waste are generated owing to the flow of tourists. In 2004, local Rupjyoti Saikia Gogoi broke upon a ‘creative’ solution to the plastic waste problem by weaving it in traditional handlooms and creating daily use and home products such as table mats, handbags, doormats, etc. Through her enterprising venture, then-30-year-old Rupjyoti also trained women of nearby villages in the plastic weaving technique. Her unique initiative not only helped upcycle plastic waste but also facilitated thousands of women earn a livelihood.

Trained in handloom weaving, a skill known to Assamese women since childhood, Rupjyoti uses the same technique used in weaving bamboo and integrates plastic with cotton threads to weave on a traditional handloom. 

Today, patrons like Vineet Arora, Alicia, Nichole and Emili from across India, USA, Germany, UK, France, Canada, etc., visit her facility to learn about upcycling plastic and buy the upcycled products. Even Hindi Film Actor Sameera Reddy too visited her facility.

Treating drinking water

GENIUS: Gitanjali Rao

Among the issues affecting the earth is the water pollution caused by industrial effluents, sewer leakage and chemical contamination, which is also a major cause of disease, ailments and fatalities. Fifteen-year-old Gitanjali Rao started developing a portable device Tethys, which checks lead content in drinking water in 2017. Named after the Greek Titan goddess of clean water, the device is inspired by technology used to detect hazardous gas in air. 

Gitanjali says, “I think being a scientist is like being a superhero, because superheroes save people, and want to do what is best for their society – scientists do the same exact thing.” Her device, a 3D-printed box comprises a battery, Bluetooth mechanism and carbon nanotubes. Gitanjali was named ‘TIME magazine’s Kid of the Year 2020’ for her ‘exceptional use of technology to solve world problems.’

Measuring air quality, powering at a pittance

In 2017, Jhansi-based Kalyani Shrivastava was a 16-year-old studying in 12th standard at the Lokamanya Tilak Inter College in Jhansi when she built a low-cost and low-on-carbon-footprint air conditioner (AC), powered by solar energy. An environmental crusader, Kalyani’s AC manages a temperature drop of four to five degrees when used for an hour and costs only Rs 1,800. Kalyani’s AC has a thermocol ice box where air is released from a 12-volt DC fan. It doesn’t use electricity and doesn’t emit ozone-depleting chemicals, that is, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere, eliminating the pollution concerns. An affordable option for the poor, Kalyani’s desi AC is garnering a lot of interest worldwide. 

INNOVATIVE: Kalyani Srivastava (left) / Twitter

And, CFCs are not the only cause of degrading air quality. Automobiles are a primary source of air pollution in Indian cities that in turn are responsible for health ailments such as asthma, lung cancer, allergies, suppressed immunity, etc.

Chairman of RPG Enterprises Harsh Goenka endorsed Kalyani’s innovation saying, “A 16-year (old) girl from Jhansi has emerged as a saviour for heat-stricken rural people. She has invented an eco-friendly air conditioner costing just Rs. 1800, the cheapest in the world. Let’s encourage such talent!”

Prerna Khanna, a student of Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering in Delhi, developed an Android app called ‘Air Cognizer’ in 2018 that measures the Air Quality Index (AQI) in an area using a smartphone. The app developed along with two other students, Tanmay Srivastava and Kanishk Jeet, is available for a free download and is based on machine learning technology that uses image processing techniques to determine the air quality.

The application won the top spot in the contest organised in India under the Celestini Program supported by the US-based Marconi Society. The trio jointly won the cash prize of USD 1500 (Rs 1,09,500) in the contest.

"Air Cognizer is simple to use and free - and will prove to be very useful for citizens in cities like Delhi, where air pollution is particularly acute now," offered the Marconi Society.

Subjecting students to climate change lessons

TRAILBLAZER: Licypriya Kangujam

Nine-year-old Licypriya Kangujam, on her part, has taken climate issues to heart. Initially motivated by natural disasters like the earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015, Licypriya’s climate crusade started in 2018 at the age of six when she attended the Third Asia Ministerial Conference of Disaster Risks Reduction. 

Today, her attempts validate, in part, the Earth Day Network’s (EDN) Earth Day 2021 theme ‘Restore Our Earth’ selected after consultation with members of the world’s largest network in 192 countries. Interestingly, several important environmental events have happened on Earth Day since 1970, including the recent signing of the Paris Agreement, and Earth Day continues to be a momentous and unifying day every year.

After actively lobbying state governments in India to follow Italy’s move to mandate climate education in schools, Licypriya’s moves finally begun registering success. The state governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat have confirmed they will implement mandatory climate education for the 2020–21 academic year. The move also makes them the first in Asia to bring this change.

Why even Hindi Film Industry Actor Bhumi Pednekar joined hands with Licypriya to raise awareness on environment protection. “I will do whatever it takes to bring conversation to the forefront. We owe it to the next generations who will inhabit this planet. We owe it to this planet because it sustains us,” said Bhumi.

Addressing multiple problems

When COVID-19 cases were on the rise in Kerala in mid-2020, there was an increased demand of beds and mattresses in COVID care centres. Forty-six-year-old social entrepreneur Lakshmi Menon came up with the idea of making mattresses from personal protective equipment (PPE) waste after she learnt that PPE manufacturing units were facing difficulties in disposing of the factory waste. Her unique bedrolls addressed the supply shortage in her area. The bedrolls so made are hygienic, lightweight, cost effective and easier to disinfect, a necessity in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve always felt that it’s my social responsibility to find neat solutions for the problems we encounter daily,” feels Lakshmi. A significant amount of plastic waste remains uncollected and ends up in natural water bodies like seas and oceans or as waste dump on land, polluting the soil.

Ernakulam-based social worker Jessy George feels such small changes like Lakshmi’s make big impact on the environment. “It’s amazing to see how simple yet innovative solutions address pressing issues of the time. The eco-friendly mattresses are an answer to the problems of waste management and the shortage of beds in COVID centres,” adds Jessy.

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