GENRE: Solutions

This article is part of our special series on Delhi Elections 2020 Jatin Kumar, 11, a Class 6 student at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in South Delhi's Madangir was an introvert who was hesitant to approach the teacher. Now he is a confident young student who volunteers to take part in school activities. He credits this change to the "Happiness Curriculum", under which 100,000 students in Delhi schools, from nursery to class 8, participate, learning through inspirational stories and meditation classes. A Curriculum for Happiness for school children was the brainchild of the Dalai Lama, which he launched on July 2, 2018. The…

Picture this. You could sell your paper waste for the highest market rate; contact local scrap dealers and sell your discarded plastic containers, unused bags and slippers and even buy compost at dirt cheap rates. All online. Waste management and recycling in the city just got easier with the launch of India’s first web portal-cum-mobile application for waste trading, called Madras Waste Exchange . On December 3 2019, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Commissioner, G Prakash inaugurated the website that is developed under the Smart City Mission. Three weeks after the launch, Citizen Matters Chennai spoke to Azhagu Pandiaraja M P,…

Using discarded refrigerators as pots, a group of high-school children of Ullal in Mangalore now grow organic farm produce to meet their daily vegetable requirements. Once lying discarded on the streets, the ‘thermally insulated’ compartments of unused refrigerators act as eco-friendly pots for growing a variety of vegetables on the ‘rooftop garden’ of Sayyed Madani Urdu Higher Primary School (SMUHGPS), located in Halekote within the Ullal City Municipality. Over the last two years, the students of this co-educational school, along with the management, have sown and tended to almost 10 varieties of vegetation and have successfully harvested paddy for consumption.…

A sea of vehicles struggles to move forward from Pallavaram signal to the Airport flyover on a Friday morning. Vehicles move inch by inch, literally, taking more than twenty minutes to cover a kilometre. In a rush to reach their destinations on time, two-wheeler riders take the easy route -- they simply take over the pedestrian space, while four-wheelers often jump red signals. In all this chaos, there's little room for even ambulances to find a clear corridor. In short, Grand Southern Trunk (GST Road), the spacious two-lane highway that connects the suburbs such as Tambaram and Pallavaram to the…

A citizen-led, local initiative in Kotturpuram is creating ripples of inspiration across Chennai. Determined to make their surroundings better, the children and youngsters at Kotturpuram Housing Board cleaned the litter in the area and decorated the walls with colourful murals.  A week ago, the passageway at Block H of Kotturpuram Housing Board resembled a mini dump yard with bags full of domestic waste strewn all around. The stench was so unbearable that locals would cover their noses while passing the area. Today, the locality is the talk of the town, with officials from the Corporation and Slum Development Board visiting the…

The big money plans for waste treatment remain on paper. But a small community-oriented scheme for waste treatment, which was a small part of that big plan, is showing promise. Trash to cash is not just a cliché for this diverse group of poor women in Shillong. Earning a livelihood as waste pickers earlier, these women have banded together as a self-help group to sift and convert bio degradable waste dumped at a nearby landfill into saleable compost. Shillong, as most of Meghalaya today, faces an ugly garbage crisis that threatens to wipe out her claim as the queen of…

With India's mammoth generation of 26000 tons of plastic waste daily, Indian cities are struggling to manage their plastic waste, with single use plastic (SUP) posing a major challenge. So much so that the Modi government's big decision to ban SUP from October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, was shelved as the market was not ready to take such a toll without proper alternatives to plastic in place. However, the government's recent Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) campaign, which aims at large scale collection and recycling of plastic waste, is being actively pursued by state governments. The campaign involves concepts like plogging, cleanups…

With all the buzz around sustainability, climate change and plastic pollution, it is good to see businesses around the world including PepsiCo and Nestle starting to talk about eco-friendly choices. Everyday, news reports highlight the innovative strategies of businesses to combat plastic pollution. For decades, we have been polluting our environment with plastic disposables, obsessed with the use-and-throw culture. Now we read about many inventions to replace plastic disposables with other types of disposables that are environment-friendly, labelled as pro-earth, biodegradable, compostable, food-grade etc. But are we going in the right direction by replacing one kind of disposable with another…

We often hear about encroachments and solid waste sounding the death knell for water bodies in Chennai. Villivakkam Lake is no exception; it shares the same plight as any other water body in the city. However, it is set to change. Corporation officials say that the transformation of this 36.5 acre lake will be revolutionary -- replete with state-of-the art recreation facilities such as walkway, gym, children's play area, library, food and play courts, open air theatre and a multipurpose lawn. Greater Chennai Corporation will adopt Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)’s natural process of treating wastewater and use it for…

Two days ago, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted that the number of traffic wardens in the city would be increased from 390 to 2500. He requested citizens to get in touch with their nearest traffic police stations to apply to be a warden. Traffic wardens are volunteers from diverse backgrounds who support the police in traffic management, especially as the city’s increasing vehicle numbers have put pressure on the latter. The wardens are part of the Traffic Warden Organisation (TWO) of Bengaluru City Police. Traffic wardens need to be on duty only 16 hours a month, but can do…