Explaining DEAN’s objectives at the public hearing held on the second day of the DEAN Mela, Dr Ashok Khosla, President of Development Alternatives, said it was "the first major show of child power.... After almost two years of working with children we have come to the conclusion that this child power is perhaps the only way to a better future for our country." The greatest challenge before DEAN, said Dr Khosla, would be to bring within its ambit the lakhs, if not millions, of underprivileged children who do not have access to good education.

The first speaker at the public hearing was Neha Joshi of DL DAV School, Pitampura. Her subject was solid waste management. Quoting a survey carried out by the World Health Organisation, she said that 50 lakh people died every year due to diseases related to improper disposal of waste. Outlining some of the other hazards of solid waste, she said that the toxins of the garbage permeated into water through the ground and then returned to homes through bore wells. The disposal of plastic, one of the most hazardous components of solid waste, posed a major problem because it was non-biodegradable. Joshi had a solution to offer — generating greater public awareness through the media and the division of garbage into biodegradable and non-biodegradable components.

This was followed by a presentation on the greening of Delhi. The speaker was Lalita Lal from Salwan Public School. Pointing to the dangers of lopsided development priorities, Lal described Delhi as "an urban settlement ranging between a comparatively green spacious south and central parts to slums and badly planned localities." We needed to take a cue from the West which had learned the hard way that economic development cannot be the cost of the environment. The need of the hour was to strike a balance between the country’s economic priorities and ecological imperatives.

Water purification was the theme of Abhilasha Dalal, a student of Army Public School. Dalal painted a dismal picture of the country’s 13 major river systems which have played an important role in our culture. A dramatic case in point was the Yamuna which had virtually no water left, even as urban and industrial wastes made their way into it. Her solution to water pollution which she described as the "Yamdoot of the 21st century" was multi-pronged — collective action by the central and state governments, public and NGOs, relocation of heavy polluting industries away from these rivers, sewage treatment, tapping water resources upstream, constant and adequate release of water into the main rivers throughout the year and , lastly, immediate and effective population control.

An environmental problem of relatively recent origin — noise pollution — was then taken up by Priya Raghavan of Carmel Convent. Noise at the uppermost level of over 150 decibels could cause traumatic hearing loss and physiological damage inside the ear even with a single short term blast. Noise could also cause anxiety and stress. Among the suggestions she forwarded to control this menace were using quieter machines, lubrication, use of insulating materials, accoustic zoning and an end to the setting up of industries in dwelling areas.

The public hearing was notable for the interaction between the commissioners—key personalities in government and social agencies— and the children. The first four presentations were followed by a general discussion where the commissioners and the public got a chance to air their views on the environmental issues that were being debated. The first speaker in the discussion was Kamla Choudhury, chairperson of the Vikram Sarabhai Foundation and former chairperson of the National Wasteland Development Board. Her poser to the children: What was the first step they would take for solid waste management, noise pollution, air pollution and water pollution? The children were unanimous that only hands on measures would help. Said Neha Joshi: "I can start the process of solid waste management by picking up and throwing any item of garbage." Priya Raghavan had her own suggestion about noise pollution. "I would start from home by asking my friends not to make any noise."

Other points were also raised by the commissioners. Dr RC Trivedi of the Central Pollution Control Board, commenting on Abhilasha Dalal’s statement on the destruction of the self purifying quality of rivers, said that if there was no fresh water in our water bodies there was no question of self purification. He also said that students had a major role to play in creating mass awareness about environmental issues. The controversial issue of the environmental impact of dams was brought to the fore by RK Khanna, director, environmental management, of the Central Water Commission. Khanna had a word of reassurance for the numerous sceptics of dams by pointing out that the government had an environmental monitoring committee of which he was member secretary. The agenda of the committee was to monitor construction of dams, minimise environmental degradation and maximise the benefits. Hydro power generation, said Khanna, made a non-consumptive use of water and did not reduce water flow.

The subjects that came up for discussion in the second round were air quality management (by Umang Sharan of Ramjas Public School), water conservation — (Anshu Peri of Naval Public School) and energy conservation (Aditi Zutshi of Delhi Public School, RK Puram). All three had concrete suggestions to ameliorate these environmental problems. Sharan was of the opinion that the government had a major role to play in controlling air pollution by encouraging car pooling, the introduction of an efficient public transport system, taking steps to improve fuel quality and introducing electrostatic precipitators and air pollution detectors. Peri felt that proper water management systems were needed. A step in the right direction was the revival of old water harvesting structures. Zutshi’s presentation focused on the under utilisation of renewable energy sources in India. Said Zutshi in a hard hitting speech; " Why are the government’s efforts so lethargic when it comes to research into and production of non-conventional energy resources? India receives renewable energy equivalent to over 5,000 trillion kw per hour—more than the total energy consumption of the country."

The last three speakers were Hemant Merhotra of Bal Bhavan Public School, Zeeshan Ahmed of DPS Noida and Ravinder Singh of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1, Delhi Cantonment, who spoke on the greening of Delhi, plastic recycling and environmental sanitation respectively. Pointing out the decline in the green cover of Delhi, Merhotra said that each of us should take a pledge to plant as many saplings as possible, protect existing trees and create greater public awareness about the importance of greenery. This was followed by a presentation by Ahmed who spoke about the dangers of indiscriminate use of plastics. Ahmed had several suggestions to offer— research should be carried out to develop biodegradable plastics, existing plastic bags should be replaced by biodegradable ones, illegal plastic recycling units should be shut down and developed countries should not be allowed to dump plastics in India. The major question, however, was of the political will to solve the problem. "Will the government take the necessary steps or are we waiting for the Supreme Court to pass yet another judgment?" questioned Ahmed.

The last presentation was made by Singh. Forwarding some hard statistics, Singh said that on an average a person in Delhi created about 300 grams of waste a day, while the city produced 4, 000 tonnes of waste daily. Sanitation then became a monumental problem because the municipal corporation did not have adequate infrastructure to handle waste disposal. Delhi, he said, should take a cue from Surat which had reported a sharp decline in cases of enteric fever, malaria and pneumonia. Surat had shown how better sanitary conditions and an incremental increase in allocation of funds for public health could bring down health costs dramatically.

After the 10 presentations, the floor was thrown open to the commissioners and the public. A valuable suggestion came from Kamla Choudhury who said that DEAN’s reach could be extended to many other schools if each of the DEAN participants held their own public hearing with support from Development Alternatives. She also said that the government had not been able to do much in 50 years and it was, therefore, the responsibility of civil society—schools, teachers and NGOs—to pressurise the government into action on environmental issues.

RK Goel, conservator of forests, and member secretary of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, talked next about the measures the government was taking to increase the green cover of Delhi. Goel was followed by DK Biswas, chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board who asked the school children to take a pledge to take 50 community centred steps towards environment protection—saying no to plastic bags, using fountain pens instead of the less eco friendly disposable pens and refills, among others.