Teenage Indian trash-tackling brothers win children’s prize

THE HAGUE: Indian brothers Vihaan and Nav Agarwal won a prestigious children’s prize on Saturday for a project they launched that aims to reduce waste and pollution and plant trees in their home city of New Delhi.

Vihaan, 17, and his 14-year-old brother, Nav, were handed the International Children’s Peace Prize by Indian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi at a ceremony in The Hague, Netherlands.

They said they plan to use the prize and the recognition it brings to expand their network across India and beyond.

“Our thought process is that we need to get the whole world zero waste. And that means not only India, not only going to every single city, every town, every village, but to actually share this message with the whole world,” Vihaan said during in an interview a day before the award ceremony.

‘ONE STEP GREENER:’ The brothers said that growing up in Delhi affected the asthmatic Vihaan’s health, and curtailed the boys’ ability to play outdoors and indulge their love of nature.

The spark of inspiration for their “One Step Greener” initiative came ater the collapse of the Ghazipur landfill site in 2017, which killed two people and led to a spike in pollution.

One third of Delhi’s air pollution is caused by burning waste in landfill sites.

“The thought process in our mind was like, our waste shouldn’t go there, our waste shouldn’t become fodder for this fire,” said Vihaan.

The brothers began at home, separating out recyclables from their rubbish until they had such a mountain of trash that their grandfather told them either they or the waste had to leave.

But recyclers said they wouldn’t pick up such a small quantity, so the boys used a Whatsapp group in their neighbourhood to get enough together to make it worthwhile.

‘MAKE A DIFFERENCE:’ The scheme grew from there. Starting with 15 homes in 2018, when they were aged 14 and 11, they now have 1,500 homes involved along with offices and schools, fiting the running of the initiative in around their school work. “It’s one thing to preach, but it’s another to actually provide a solution and that’s what we are trying to do through our work,” said Vihaan.

The initiative operates in Delhi and a neighbouring city with plans to expand to Kolkata, while there has also been international interest. “Our main goal is to keep on maximising and expanding our efforts,” added Nav.

They are also educating people in India about recycling, reaching an estimated 50,000 young people through social media as well as a curriculum in English and Hindi.

Vihaan said the success of One Step Greener should serve as a lesson for world leaders tackling climate change and pollution. “You have to be practical and think of solutions that are easy for people,” he said.

“As we saw with One Step … when we did a door to door pickup, it was exceptionally easy for people to just leave their waste outside. So you have to find these solutions, and there are plenty of young people who are finding these solutions all over the world. You have to encourage them.”

The award includes a study and care grant for the brothers and a fund of 100,000 euros, half of which goes to their project. The other half is invested by prize organiser Kidsrights in other projects to support children’s rights.

Kidsrights founder Marc Dullaert urged governments to do more to reduce pollution.

“All children have an inherent right to life and to health,” he said. “How are more than 90% of children in the world breathing toxic air?”

Previous winners of the prize include include Pakistani education advocate Malala Yousafzai and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

SMOG CHOKES NEW DELHI: Sky obscured by thick, gray smog. Monuments and high-rise buildings swallowed by a blanket of haze. People struggling to breathe. In the Indian capital, it is that time of the year again.

The city’s air quality index fell into the “very poor” category on Sunday, according to SAFAR, India’s main environmental monitoring agency, and in many areas levels of the deadly particulate mater reached around six times the global safety threshold. Nasa satellite imagery also showed most of India’s northern plains covered by thick haze.

Among the many Indian cities gasping for breath, New Delhi tops the list every year. The crisis deepens particularly in the winter when the burning of crop residues in neighboring states coincides with cooler temperatures that trap deadly smoke. That smoke travels to New Delhi, leading to a surge in pollution in the city of more than 20 million people and exacerbating what is already a public health crisis.

The New Delhi government on Saturday ordered the closing of schools for a week and construction sites for four days beginning on Monday. Government offices were also told to shit to work from home for a week to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. The capital’s top elected leader, Arvind Kejriwal, said a complete lockdown of the city was likely but the decision would be taken ater consultation with the federal government.