Rani, a student of a school in Wadepuri, a remote village in Nanded district of Maharashtra, says, “There is a big Devi mandir in my village where many pilgrims come every year. This year we have planted 200 trees along the pathway to the mandir, and we will take care of the trees and celebrate their birthdays.”

Sensitivity for the environment is built in young minds, before they get used to finding plastic or waste water everywhere and before it gets normalized in their surroundings and their vision. Young minds are the most mould-able and that is the reason the habits built in from the childhood normally last long. I mean, don’t most of us tie our shoelaces as we were taught in our childhood or solve a complex maths problem as learnt in school, no matter what an AI tells us is the easiest way to do it!

Keeping this in mind, we started a project with an NGO called Reap Benefit, in Nanded Zilla Parishad public schools. The idea was simple: “Teachers and children should become sensitive about waste management and should put this sensitivity into action at their school/village level.”

Reap Benefit helped us by creating the idea of an ‘Environmental Ninja’ – a student at the school level taking various initiatives to secure his or her environment, and simultaneously setting an example for both their village as well as their parents and relatives. We now call them ‘Nanded ke Ninjas’! Let’s look at some examples:

Deepa maam, from Zilla Parishad school of Wadepuri in Loha Taluka, formed a team of 15 students, proudly called the ‘Ninja Group’, and together they transformed their school compound by planting trees and setting up proper waste management systems with separate areas for wet and dry waste. Parents initially resisted her efforts, and villagers let their animals graze in the school yard, causing chaos and dirt. She actively engaged parents, shared her vision in community groups, and worked hand-in-hand with local authorities. She even visited homes to spread awareness about keeping the school grounds clean and animal-free. 

Mohammad Noor Kasim Shaikh, a teacher at Zilla Parishad school in Chilpimpari village in Mudkhed Taluka, activated 50 environment ninjas in his school that cleaned one black spot of garbage dump in the village. They also planted Tulsi there after cleaning, to further discourage people to irresponsibly throw garbage at the same spot. Some parents questioned why students were engaging in these activities instead of focusing solely on academics. He tackled these concerns by explaining how these initiatives were woven into the academic curriculum, offering students valuable life skills and practical lessons in environmental stewardship. 

Soham, an ‘Environment Ninja’ school student from Zilla Parishad school of Martala in Loha, collected 800 waste plastic bottles from his village and repurposed a lot of loose waste into the bottles. He also took leadership in separating dry and wet food waste out of the mid-day meal scheme at this school level, and encouraging making compost out of the west waste.

These are some beautiful examples of how a public movement against waste and in the benefit of environment be built and scaled through the system.

How was this movement scaled though the system?
It’s important to note that Reap Benefit took starter and regular trainings for the teachers and the students. To talk about the environment and waste is one thing; to translate it into actions is another. The language used in most of the trainings was heavily ‘solution oriented’. It was made sure that we were not helplessly talking about the current state of affairs but swiftly tapping into the energy of those teachers and students who were motivated. Reap Benefit helped us by providing a dashboard of performance monitoring where pictures and videos of school activities and Ninjas could be uploaded. Out of a lot of 1,35,000 teachers that we have in Zilla Parishad schools, we have targeted 200 teachers in the first leg and through them we plan to scale the project, both in depth and scale. 

We have also hosted a ‘Change Makes Adda’, where students from a cluster of schools came together at one place and shared the momentum that they have created. We also hosted a Solve Con, with the aim of discussing solutions to repurpose collected waste. To our surprise, we had students come up with shopping bags made out of old frocks and t-shirts as well as Christmas trees made out of plastic bottles that one of our teachers also bought for 50 rupees! We had students who had made a sticking agent using waste thermocol and some petroleum, and students suggesting that they would hide their parents’ keys to their bikes if they intend to travel shorter distances!

All in all, these Ninjas that we have created all over the district have engaged themselves in constant conversations on environment safety, waste management and repurposing of waste. They have been competitively engaged with each other and resisting their age-old village conventions where ‘waste had become normal.’

Appreciation works!
There is no movement or motivation that lasts beyond a certain period of time, if it’s not supported by incentives. It is quite interesting to share that in rural areas, one of the biggest incentives for students, teachers and villagers alike is to receive a certificate of appreciation! And that’s what we gave them. For every waste-oriented activity that the Ninjas undertook, we celebrated them, clapped for them and made sure that they were brought into limelight and an incentive model was built over the course of six months, where anybody doing anything for waste management was appreciated and also talked about in WhatsApp groups! And it worked wonders without a doubt.

Ambassadors of Peace were named because their words and their dialogues carried the credibility that some people could trust, believe in and follow. International and national conferences on various issues are organised with these ambassadors with the aim of igniting ideas and mobilising actions. ‘Nanded ke Ninjas’ is our attempt to not only mobilise grassroots action against waste but also build environment sensitivity in the hearts of students who could then be our ambassadors for environment safety in the future.

Minal Karanwal, an IAS officer of 2019 batch (Maharashtra cadre), is CEO of Zila Panchayat, Jalgaon.