CHANGE IN RANGE

Strangled in the sticky webs of political issues and obscured by the frequent pangs of helplessness and powerlessness about the apocalypses being introduced to us day by day; the youth today often forgets that there are many other things too, which not only lie in our range but are problems only we can do something about. While understanding our rights, we often undermine our responsibilities and strengths, not only as youngsters privileged enough of being educated but also as growing adults and aware citizens.

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 On my way to any regular day at college, I could come across many issues which although, are not so radically political, too common for the need of a spotlight attention but are equally fatal and significant. The little litters around  and heaps of garbage on the corner of roads are as important an issue as increasing number and height of mounting landfills of the city which are today called ‘Mountains of Shame’. In-fact these little sights are the basis of the scenario where we have 70 acres of land in the national capital, piling up dirty garbage to a height of 50 feet leaving its threshold limit of 15 feet far behind. The stray and diseased cows  feeding on plastic and unsegregated garbage  encountered by passersby on roadsides, to my understanding, need greater attention than the debate of cow-butchering.

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In the long list of rights as a citizen, we also have the right to a clean, healthy and hygienic environment. Delhi University comprises 91 colleges, 86 departments, 16 faculties and over 4 lakh students and yet the areas surrounding the colleges are not too distinctive than the rest of the city. The strings of stationary shops huddled with students, often have a littered and disarrayed ambience. Although a hub of young population whose college curriculum entails a compulsory course on environmental studies, the colleges have still not been able to ensure at least a basic segregation of waste they generate.

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It pained me to find that such demands have no place in the queue of applications to college unions, authorities and Delhi University administration. What is more painful is the lack of initiative and local leadership in confronting such common environmental issues. It is important for us to understand that most of the menace we encounter are area specific and need different approaches and solutions. For government policies to run efficiently and to utilize all such environmental rights we have, an active approach and awareness is essential and most of the brunt, of holding authorities accountable, nudging people on plastic use, finding innovative solutions and ideas to counter unavoidable troubles etc., though we don’t realize, falls on us.

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With the intent to find and execute the solutions of all the nuisances I used to find on daily basis, I tried to initiate a campaign promulgating it as a cleanliness drive to clean the areas surrounding the college and the metro station nearby with a goal of making sure that the collected waste doesn't end up in landfills. I couldn't realize when the drive changed into a full fledged research and survey on the issue and took the shape of an organization with the support and stakeholdership of like-minded members like Pragati Pramod, Subhanshi Singh and Kankanala Srija Reddy. Today, we are a team working and giving  call to young volunteers and students for fixing things right. The idea is to change the tattered vicinity we can influence strategically, step by step, day by day and  to keep expanding our Range in the process.

                                                               

                                                                                                                                            - Ujala Mall (Founder and Director)