To be filed

Young Indians display acute environmental awareness

As a little girl, I hoarded those wispy polythene bags. Going shopping with mom was a treat - I got to add those plastic bags to my collection. The pretty pastel colors were probably why I was so fascinated with those bags. During the early 90’s, my school adapted the recycle-rejuvinate policy and I immersed myself in C.A.R.E (Charlesian Association for Rejuvinating Environment) I can’t remember how exactly I disposed the polythene bags, but I did. And I grew a garden with other C.A.R.E girls on the terrace of my school. (Our garden was washed out one particularly rainy night) But even now when I go to Whole Foods, I insist on using a paper bag or often, carry my own cloth bag.

I was bemused when I read this article on BBC . Anita and Shaleb Ahuja employ slum-swellers to collect discarded polythene bags from the dumps. After cleaning, these bags are molded together into thick plastic sheets which is later used to make those trendy bags pictured above.
Will women buy them? I hope so! This humble bag makes a statement on a nation’s conscience that those $1000 Prada and Louis Viutton bags can only aspire to.

Didn’t we learn in third grade geography and plastic bags threaten the flora and fauna? Birds choking to death by having their beaks and feet entrapped in plastic bags. Cows dying as result of consuming toxic plastic waste — every week Indian newspapers carry such reports.
In 2000, about eighty to hundred cows died everyday in Lucknow because of consumption of plastic bags. Early this year, there were reports of 2-25kg of plastic discovered inside bodies of dead cows in Gujarat.

By 2010, India will be world’s 3rd largest consumer of plastic and no surprises, 50% of the plastic is used for packaging purposes. In the 1996 waste mangement meeting of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, a buy-back policy was suggested to plastic manufactures but the idea was rejected. The minutes of the meeting reveal that plastic manufactures simply did not want to accept any responsibility for the waste it produced. But a decade later, there is still no effective solution for the tonnes of plastic waste produced each day.

Environmental issues have been tossed around carelessly in parliamentary debates since ovre a decade. In 1996, Himachal Pradesh became the first state to pass a “Non-Biodegradable Waste Act,” that bans the use of plastic bags in the state. Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Sikkim also have restrictions on the use of plastic. Last year, the government of Maharashtra ordered all plastic-producing units (1000 units in Maharashtra alone!) to shut plants within a month. A brilliant move but hopeless timing — 1 lakh people left jobless.

But change happens at a microlevel, in this case, maybe the Ahuja’s are the torch-bearers for this predicament. By employing slum-dwellers, the Ahuja’s are not only generating employment but doing their bit to reduce an iota of waste from the choking, congested, about-to-explode city of Delhi. This solidarity for a cause and this contribution towards humanity is exemplelary.

Hopefully, the Indian Ministry of Culture will realize the worth of their cause and grant them a well-deserved “craft” status. (The Ahuja’s run a non-profit and if their skill is recognized as a craft, it will be available to plenty government sanctions and funds)

Other References
Indian Express
Bbc
Mindfully Org