As central government’s mammoth campaigns to stem pollution in India’s most revered river Ganga drastically fail, a marginal group of women of religious city Haridwar have taken up the cudgels to save the holy river from further degradation.
However, interestingly, this initiative has a strong Gurugram connection too.
A Gurugram-based environment protection group Haryali Welfare Society has lent its support to this self-help group of women Nari Sakti, and they have has started replacing non-biodegradable thermocol/plastic food plates and bowls (Donas) with the utensils made of green climber leaves. They have named these plates as ECO PLATES for being made of environment-friendly material.
“These women, who were hitherto selling climber leaves along the banks of Ganga to make their livelihood, are now producing food plates, bowls with the help of a machine which we have sourced from Gurugram and given them. They collect leaves from nearby jungle to produce and sell eco plates and bowls to shops selling thermocol products along the banks of Ganga,” said Vivek Kamboj (vivek@haryali.org), the founder of Haryali told Asian Community News.
Kamboj said that tones of thermocol plates and donas were being dumped in Ganga on daily basis polluting the sacred river as well as the earth.
“But these eco plates are made of leaves which get decomposed unlike products made of thermocol or plastics. We would go from one shop to another selling plastic plates and bowls to convince them to buy eco plates and bowls from us and sell further,” Kamboj said.
Renu Loda who is leading women’s self-help group Nari Sakti said that the people buying and using environment-friendly Eco Plates and Donas were not only helping the environment and save Ganga from being further polluted, they also support the livelihood of underprivileged women as well.
However, it will be a challenge for Nari Sakti and Haryali to make the people shun the use of thermocol plates and bowl and embrace eco plates and bowls as former cost about half the price of its rival products.
“If each thermocol plate costs around 30 paise, eco plate is just the double – 60 paise per unit. It will be a huge challenge for us to convince the people that they should buy eco plates and bowls to save the eco-fragile environment and Ganga, and not to worry about enhanced costing. We would be launching awareness campaigns and distribute pamphlets for this in Haridwar. We are also going to approach the restaurants serving food in plastic plates and bowls along the bank of Ganga to make them switch to eco plates and bowls,” Kamboj said.
Severely polluted with human waste and industrial contaminants, the river Ganga provides water to about 40% of India’s population across 11 states, serving an estimated population of 500 million people or more, more than any other river in the world.
Today, the Ganges is considered to be the sixth-most polluted river in the world.
A number of initiatives have been undertaken to clean the river but failed to deliver as desired results. After getting elected, India’s Prime minister Narendra Modi affirmed to work in cleaning the river and controlling pollution. Subsequently, the Namami Gange project was announced by the government in the July 2014 budget. An estimated Rs 2,958 Crores (US$460 million) have been spent till July 2016 in various efforts in cleaning up of the river.
