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CLEAN-India and
Community Action
Col. V Katju
C LEAN-India
programme has assumed primacy in the activities of
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A Community
Vermicomposting Initiative by CLEAN-Delhi Students |
Development Alternatives due to its far reaching impact on the lives
of people in both the urban and rural environment. Its uniqueness,
sustainability and interaction with all the strands of our society,
has made it conducive to synergies with various aspects of
environment mitigation programmes. Due to the very fact that school
children are utilized as engines of change, it has significant
outcomes by way of assessing the state of environment, creating
awareness and then taking appropriate improvement actions. In the
process, the children, our future citizens, learn at an early stage
to think, apply their minds and solve environmental problems. They
get involved in scientific research and after finding solutions,
interact with all segments of the society-communities, scientific
institutions, civic agencies, legislators, government officials and
the corporate sector. A feeling of responsibility, joint effort and
collective action is generated, building momentum and leading to a
movement against environment degradation.
Community Action
Community action to ensure that nature’s bounty is not degraded,
leads to sustainable development, environmental conservation and
enables opportunities for livelihoods for the weaker sections of the
society. This, however, is more easier said than done. Attitudes and
mind-sets that have been ingrained from generation to generation
need fundamental change. NIMBYS or Not in My Backyard Syndrome
persists where we see or care for things just only beyond our
nose. Our house should be clean and we do not mind throwing garbage
outside our window in front of our neighbour’s premises. We continue
to expect somebody to clean up our mess. We litter and we throw,
spit and create dirt all around us. We do not wish to put in our
effort and our time, with a slogan to others to "please carry on the
good work and we are with you." Quite a large number believe in
status-quo and strongly oppose any activity that they erroneously
perceive as unfruitful. This negative reaction is due to their
ignorance and wrong perceptions, leading to a non-cooperation and
hindrance to any initiative in the right direction. Hence, it is
essential that awareness is created about the urgency of corrective
action.
Children have a very powerful voice which the elders cannot help but
listen. Once they are convinced about a cause they devise ingenuous
methods to convey their concerns. We may not listen to others but
when our own children caution us, we pause and ponder and often feel
embarrassed for our wrong actions against Mother Nature. Do we
segregate our waste, do we waste precious water and electricity, do
we litter, do we say NO to polybags, do we fix our vehicles if they
are belching out obnoxious fumes, do we devote just a little of our
time to improve the environment — all these thoughts hit us hard on
the face when our children convey them to us. Still, we shy away
from our responsibilities as stakeholders in our respective
communities.
The
CLEAN-India programme lays considerable stress on community action.
After familiarization with the tools, the children are required to
liaise with the communities and ascertain the needs that are locale
specific. Nothing is forced or suggested. The communities,
themselves, are encouraged to come out with their problems that need
to be addressed.
What
all Communities can do?
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Prevent pollution |
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Minimize waste |
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Use water, energy
and other resources efficiently |
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Manage the use of
natural resources prudently |
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Support
environmental education and training |
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Support local action
and community participation |
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Promote practices,
methods and technologies that reduce negative impacts on the
environment. |
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There are unlimited powers within a community that wants to
contribute to sustainable environment-improvement actions,
without depending too much on external funding. What is needed
is motivation and leadership with existing resources. While most
environment solutions are problem-specific, there are some
useful approaches that communities can take to solve them. In
order to achieve success in the long term, the activities must
invariably take roots in the hearts and minds of the people for
making reasonable and responsible environmental choices. These
can only emanate when awareness is created. Secondly, it is
important that there should be a close partnership with the
government and local civic agencies.
For
community action to start, it is important to establish a
network encompassing school children, NGOs, community based
organizations, scientific institutions. Residents Welfare and
Market Associations, business group and associations, civic
agencies of the municipality, government officials, legislators,
parent eco-clubs, senior citizens, media, etc. Such a network
will fructify only with a positive attitude of cooperation and
never with confrontation. Once an assessment is made, the next
logical step is creating awareness, which in turn would lead to
improvement actions. These may involve : |
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Water monitoring,
conservation and purification — On detection of impurities and
contamination, remedial actions can be taken at the household
level and Jal (Water) Boards could be notified in case of
municipal and ground water supply. Water conservation measures
could be instituted by preventing waste, recycling and
recharging. On a larger scale, for example, switching over of 15
litres cisterns (for toilets) to 5 litres capacity will result
in huge savings of precious drinking water. |
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Air pollution is a
major problem in towns and cities in which the government has to
play a major role due to its serious impact on health and
consequently its economic repercussions. The normal tendency is
to accord priority to employment for those employed in the
transport sector. Governments are hesitant to remove polluting
vehicles from the road, especially three-wheelers. Where
compressed natural gas has been introduced, the old vehicles
(using petrol) are shifted to nearby towns where they pollute
with gay abandon. Malpractices like mixing kerosene with petrol
/ diesel result in heavy toxic emissions. In such situations,
communities have to be mobilised to force the local authorities
to take drastic action. It is better to lay off a few people and
provide them with alternative means of livelihood than play with
the health of the population at large, including children who
are the most affected of the lot. |
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Solid Waste
Management is the need of the hour. About 60% of domestic
biodegradable waste can be utilised for making compost. This
would prevent dumping of huge quantities of waste at sites that
may be termed as landfills but are hardly worth their name. The
resultant savings in manpower and transportation could be
utilised to encourage and subsidise communities in their solid
waste management initiatives. |
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Paper consumption in
India is estimated to be 5 kgs per capita which amounts to 5
million tons of paper per year. To make one ton of paper, 17
full grown trees are cut. Hence, we deplete our green cover by
85 million trees every year. For this, the country logs 80
hectares of forest every 30 minutes. We are totally unaware of
the costs in terms of green cover of such depletion due to
manufacture of paper. Although the above statistics are mind
boggling, we hardly give a thought to recycling paper at the
local level, excessive packaging, using paper instead of cloth
for handkerchiefs and napkins, using e-mail for correspondence,
etc. Besides the above remedial measures, community action is
desirable for large scale tree plantation. Planting of trees,
nurturing and protecting them when they are young is equally
important. Communities should be encouraged to adopt trees and
ensure their well-being. Knowledge of indigenous trees and those
with medicinal value would help in protecting floral
bio-diversity and give impetus to the knowledge and practices of
our traditional medical systems. |
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Campaigns against
environment degrading practices assume great importance.
However, it is essential that sustainable alternatives are
indicated. For example, a campaign against use of polybags
should suggest the use of jute bags of various sizes that could
be made readily available to the consumer. Strict enforcement is
also required. Similarly, during festivals like Holi, Diwali and
Durga Puja / Ganesh Chaturthi, the reason for curbing
environment degrading activities should be highlighted and
alternatives like eco-friendly colours, lighting diyas
(or clay lamps) instead of fire crackers and worshipping
non-painted clay idols and their immersion should be suggested. |
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Getting Started
When developing an action plan to address environmental
issues in your community, there are a few principles to keep
in mind. The following structures offer a few ideas that
your community organization could adapt to its own situation
when mobilizing to take action. Each situation will require
a unique approach. While each situation will also require a
unique set of resources, one resource will always be needed
— the human resource. With good people you can accomplish
just about anything. The only limitation is the imagination
and collective energy of the people in your organization.
The reason community organizations achieve significant
environmental results is that they draw upon the creativity
and energy of their own members and of the greater
community.
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Choose one
objective as a first priority, after consultation with those
concerned |
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Carry out
research regarding what can be done with regard to this
objective |
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Seek input and
advice from other members of the community |
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Define a set of
actions that will work in your particular area |
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Establish
mechanisms to ensure the recommended actions are carried out |
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Ensure effective
internal communication and monitor implementation |
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Evaluate what is
working and what is not |
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Encourage
additional actions |
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Identify a new
objective and repeat the process |
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Source: "Taking Action", A
UNEP Publication |
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Conclusion
Community action is the final culmination of environment friendly
practices.
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CLEAN
crusaders |
It also encourages initiatives like public hearing and
advocacy. The subject of environment is assuming greater and greater
importance each day of our lives. The sustainable use of nature’s
bounty will have a significant effect on the lives of the future
generation. We owe to them a legacy that would not deny them their
fundamental rights to clean water to drink, clean air to breathe and
green surroundings to explore, away from the filth and quagmire that
is being created. For all this to happen, a concerted effort has to
made without waiting for someone else to do the job. Clean
environment is everyone’s concern and collective action is the only
answer to prevent its degradation before the damage is beyond
repair. q
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To Discover What You can do for Environment Protection and
Improvement
Visit:
www.cleanindia.org |
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Winner of the Youth Incubator Award
by Global Junior Challenge 2002, Rome |
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