ECaf STORIES OF AN ‘INVISIBLE’ PREJUDICE

ADDECCAN CHRONICLE quick lick or frosty bite of the ubiquitous orange, blueberry, kiwi, or strawberry popsicle may be a perfect way to beat the heat, but this is one treat you would never want to be part of. A group of three design students from the National Taiwan University of the Arts have made some popsicles that look appetising but are made from polluted river water.

These ‘100% Polluted Water Popsicles’, are flavoured with plastic waste, sewage, cigarette butts, condoms, oil spill, harmful dyes, resin, dead fish, wrappers, bottle caps et al. “The idea was to create awareness of water pollution and the importance of people having the right to access clean drinking water,” say the trio, Hong Ichen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti, on their social media page.

The trio’s quirky sense of humour and innovative idea of spreading water pollution awareness has taken the virtual space by storm. They have been featured in several exhibitions in Taipei, including the Taipei World Trade Centre’s Young Designers Exhibition 2017. The students took polluted water from 100 locations and froze the samples in MONDAY | 18 SEPTEMBER 2017 | HYDERABAD popsicle moulds. The delicious-looking deadly pops were then preserved with polyester resin to keep them from melting.

According to a study undertaken by the World Economic Forum, approximately 8 million metric tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into oceans and waterways every year. It is the equivalent of emptying a truckload of polluted waste every minute. No prizes for guessing the top three water spoilers — China, India and the US.

More than 70 per cent of their waste is discarded untreated and disposed of improperly.

Some researchers say that India pumps around 0.6 tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean every year.

However, the Indian government does not have any official data to either deny or support this figure.

Around three billion people across the world get a fifth of their protein intake from the sea and are at risk of consuming subtle and outside the level of awareness of perpetrators. There is a lack of knowledge about microaggression.”

Even the term microaggression hasn’t gained prominence in India; many are sharing their experiences about the subtle form of discrimination. A New York-based journalist Yashica Dutt has started a blog on Tumblr to document various forms of discrimination faced by the Dalits in India. On the blog, documents of Dalit discrimination, people share their stories about the discrimination they have to encounter. On the blog, a Hyderabad University PhD research scholar narrates her experience of facing microaggression. The girl wrote that a teacher told her that she was “lucky” to be a Schedule Caste (SC) as she can get access to higher education and top jobs due to the policy of reservation. The girl had to face cringe-inducing remarks from her teacher despite being a student with a good academic record and getting admission for MA and PhD programmes without availing the reserved seat.

Suryakant Waghmore, the associate professor of Sociology at IIT Bombay, said that caste and prejudice seem to have found a new vocabulary and form. Pointing to some of the matrimonial adverts which state, ‘Caste No Bar — SC/ST, Please excuse’, Prof. Waghmore opines, “Prejudice is also increasingly cast as politeness, which may seem accommodating indeed. The earlier forms of caste rudeness or privilege cannot be practised anymore due to legal checks. These are increasingly cast in newer polite forms.” He also stated that the changing nature of prejudice is not necessarily a sign of declining discrimination as the dominants resort to covert and subtle forms. plastic and other toxic waste. “It’s time we do something to control the water pollution. But the idea of the Taiwanese students is superb. It clicks because everybody loves an ice candy, but the next time you buy one, you will think of these disgustingly beautiful popsicles as well,” says Srikant Nayak, an artist and green activist from Mumbai.

So the next time you take a bite of your favourite orange ice candy, don’t forget to trash the plastic wrapper in the bin!