PUNE: “If we don’t save the environment now, we have no future at all,” said the children from Pune’s slum community. The children are associated with New Vision, an organisation working for the rights of children.

Following in the footsteps of Sweden’s 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, several organisations in Pune have come together to take ahead her ‘Fridays For Future’. Each Friday, children from the city’s slum areas are oriented on how they can make their parents aware of how they can change their lifestyle for the sake of the environment.“We have been trying to make children in the city aware of their environmental rights. Because in the end, the harm that we cause to the environment today is directly going to affect the future that our children are going to have,” said Manish Shroff of New Vision. 

“The actions that the children are encouraged to take a range from planting more trees to garbage segregation and water conservation. “It is the children who can make a positive change as far as making lifestyle changes is concerned. While the sessions, presently, are limited to the slum communities, we are trying to formulate programmes to take this campaign to the schools in the city,” Shroff said. New Vision, Tara Mobile Creches, Nirmaan, KKPKP are some of the organisations that are part of the campaign in Pune.

Govt efforts
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had announced that all schools should set up a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden (SNG) on their premises to inculcate the lifelong skill of growing own vegetables and fruits. The MHRD had also encouraged schools to form Eco-Clubs and encourage students to identify local species, which are best suited to local conditions of topography, land and climate.

Recently, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had also launched ‘One Child One Plant’ campaign for affiliated schools as part of its programme to sensitise school children about environmental issues. Under the campaign, the board has instructed every school to ask each of its students (all classes) to plant a sapling wherever convenient.