Cover Young people in South Asia are raising awareness on eco-friendliness through several measures such as street theatre (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
Young people in South Asia are raising awareness on eco-friendliness through several measures such as street theatre (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
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From embracing eco-friendly habits to leading their communities to make more sustainable choices, Great Global Cleanup Heroes’ participants are tackling the region’s pollution problem head on
According to a World Bank report on public health in December 2022, South Asia is “home to nine of the world’s ten cities with the worst air pollution, which causes an estimated two million premature deaths across the region each year”. This is compounded by issues such as water and land pollution, deforestation and other environmentally unsound practices brought about by the lack of infrastructure and awareness.
Thankfully, governments, organisations and the general public are sitting up and taking notice. One such organisation is the Earth Day Network India (EDN India)—a registered trust under the global NGO Earth Day.Org—which commemorates Earth Day (April 22) every year with its annual Great Global Cleanup Heroes (GGCH) competition that recognises South Asian eco-friendly initiatives and offers the individuals behind them mentoring programmes.
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Rumit Walia, a 26-year-old environmentalist from Maharashtra, India, is one of the many young people who have been recognised under this initiative. Having grown up in a farming family, Walia was exposed to working closely with nature from a young age, which made him realise the importance of nature conservation.
“While still at school, I founded Tears of the Earth Organization (TOE) along with two of my friends,” he tells Tatler over email. “We started small—with simple acts such as planting trees and picking up waste left behind in classrooms,” and now, more than a decade later, TOE is a full-fledged NGO that operates in more than 50 locations across India, and engages more than 5,000 volunteers to organise workshops, awareness campaigns and educational programmes. Walia says that winning the GGCH contest has given him “more faith and confidence than ever before” to carry on with his work.
Above Simple acts such as picking up waste can go a long way in saving the planet (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
Simple acts such as picking up waste can go a long way in saving the planet (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
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Even at the height of the pandemic during 2020, people participated in the GGCH competition enthusiastically from within the confines of their houses by taking easy-to-execute steps towards sustainability such as making pencils out of recycled paper, or using discarded musical instruments as flowerpots.
Some, like 2020 GGCH participant Aakriti Tamrakar, even got their community involved. Hailing from Chattisgarh, India, she mobilised 8,000 people in the village of Bilaspur to switch from disposable face masks to one made from discarded clothing.
Debapriya Dutt, senior outreach manager at EDN India, says that this competition is important because “the participants are not only doing good for the environment themselves but are also encouraging others to do the same.”
One of the ways participants have been encouraging others to be more aware and keen to clean up their surroundings is by helping them realise it’s not just good for the environment, it’s good for themselves as individuals, too. For example, “at Kashmir’s Dal Lake [in India], a popular tourist spot centred around a lake with houseboats, our rising stars Jannat (5) and Bilal (19) organised an awareness campaign to explain to the houseboat residents why it is to their benefit to keep the lake clean, both for their health and monetarily,” says Dutt.
Above Students showcase their recycled pencils made as part of the Great Global Heroes competition (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
Students showcase their recycled pencils made as part of the Great Global Heroes competition (Photo: courtesy of EDN India)
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In South Asia, a region where a substantial part of the population resides in poverty, implementing sustainable measures not only benefits the environment but also results in better living conditions for the people—and activists understand this fully.
Take, for instance, Asif Murad, a grassroot-level environment activist living in Pakistan’s Upper Chitral District. His NGO, Environmental Academy, which is based in the town of Booni, teaches villagers to embrace practices such as using biomass briquettes to heat up homes instead of coal, not just because it’s sustainable but also because it’s cheaper in the long run.
It’s clear from the initiatives of the activists and organisations that participate in GGCH just how aware they are that changing mindsets and established behaviours is not easy. Still, they work tirelessly to teach their communities to unlearn old habits and form new ones. For example, using less plastic and recycling, switching off electronic devices when not in use, using less water, throwing garbage in bins instead of littering, and more. Because when each comes to saving the planet, no step is too small.
Suchetana Mukhopadhyay is the Digital Content Manager for Tatler Hong Kong. In this role, she leads all digital editorial and branded content on Tatler Hong Kong’s website, from brainstorming story ideas with the writers to editing and publishing the articles, and from managing the overall content flow to driving search engine optimisation. She also leads the beauty content at Tatler Hong Kong and across the region, and is always looking to champion diversity through her articles. She was previously with Cedar Hong Kong and Gafencu, and freelanced for the South China Morning Post, Campaign Asia-Pacific, CNN and more. Contact her here.
