Rajasthan Village Children Start Young To Beat Plastic Pollution

In the run up to World Environment Day, children of a Rajasthan village have resolved to keep  their village polythene free. Children from Masti Ki Paathshala, a learning centre in the state's Agar village, have not just pledged to never use polythene again, but are encouraging others to discard it completely.

The children, aged between 10-16 years, have also pledged to pick up all the polythene around and are looking for ways to recycle it.

Gautam Khandelwal, founder of Masti Ki Pathshala, said, "We are going house-to-house requesting people not to use polythene."

"Our children are making 2,500 paper bags every day and supplying them free of cost to the shops in the village," he added.

Children are also leading a signature campaign to beat plastic pollution and will present that letter to the sarpanch of the village on World Environment Day on June 5.

"If sarpanch doesn't act, we will approach higher authorities," said Mr Khandelwal, determined to work towards the cause.

The children from the learning centre have also come up with other unique initiatives and are volunteering to stitch cloth bags for free if they are provided with cloth. They are also trying to replace plastic plates by hand-made plates made from the leaves of trees. Apart from this, they are also setting up water holes around the village so that birds have sufficient water to drink during summers.

"We are also exploring if we can supply earthen cups to shops for selling tea instead of the plastic cups they use," Mr Khandelwal said.

"In the coming monsoon season, we are planning planting fruit bearing trees on either sides of the road from the village to the nearby town of Pratapgarh, which is a 9 km stretch," he added.

Through sustained efforts and co-operation from the local community and the government authorities, the group hopes to make a big change to the environment.