31 minute read
City Image
Turn your feces into green energy, crypto
BEEVI – A PORTMANTEAU of the words bee and vision – is a rest room developed by the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea, which converts human excreta into energy. As a bonus, the rest room provides the user with a modest quantity of digital currency in return for their feces. BeeVi pumps your excreta into an underground tank, which means it uses less water straight away. Microorganisms then decompose the waste into methane, a useful energy source, which is later used to generate electricity.
Advertisement
Feces Standard Money
Karnataka to give `1 lakh to COVID affected families
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa announced financial relief of `1 lakh on June 14 to each of the below poverty line (BPL) families who lost their earning member due to COVID-19 infection. Yediyurappa said that a lot of families are in trouble due to COVID-19 and that is why this decision has been taken. He added that the policy will assist 25,000 to 30,000 such BPL families and will incur an expenditure of `250 crore to ` 300 crore.
`702 crore allotted for
work in AMC
The Government of Gujarat has allotted `702 crore for various developmental works in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation under the Swarnim Jayanti Mukhyamantri Shaheri Vikas Yojana. As per the official statement, the amount will be used for a number of infrastructure projects in Ahmedabad city, including the completion of ongoing road, water and drainage projects. It also said that approximately half of the sanctioned amount will be used for road resurfacing, storm water drainage, sewage treatment plant and water supply works.
CIDCO for development of Nhava Island
The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has issued a public notice inviting expression of interest for developing Nhava Island, Navi Mumbai. The location is close to the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link project, which aims to connect Sewree, Mumbai with Nhava Island. According to the city planning agency, the entire parcel of land can be used for tourism, cultural and social activities and can be developed as a picnic spot.
IMF proposes carbon-price floor to tackle global warming
WASHINGTON DC: Citing reason that climate change presents huge risks to the functioning of the world’s economies, the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed a carbon-price floor. In a paper published on June 11, the staff of the organisation proposed the idea of different minimum carbon-price levels for countries based on their stage of development. The proposal talks about implementing a three-tier price floor among the United States of America, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, China, and India, with prices of $75 a ton for advanced markets, $50 a ton for high income markets, and $25 a ton for low-income markets. It hopes that this could help cut global emissions by 23 per cent from baseline levels by 2030. This, in turn, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the Paris Agreement goal, which dictates keeping the temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF, remarked that focusing on a small number of large emitters would make negotiations easier and could still cover a big percentage of global emissions, thereby taking a major step towards the cuts in greenhouse gases the world needs. She added that tax is one option for achieving the price floor, however, it could also work through regulation or emissions trading. The revenues thus created could be used to compensate households for price increases and supporting businesses and workers in moving from high carbon activities to activities with low carbon intensity.
According to IMF staff, there is need for rise in global price to $75 a ton or more by 2030 if we are to limit global warming to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. Presently, the global average emissions price is $3 a ton and around four-fifths of global emissions remain unpriced.
Former Kerala health minister gets prestigious European award
TRIVANDRUM: K K Shailaja, Former Health Minister, Government of Kerala, was awarded the prestigious Central European University (CEU) Open Social Prize to honour her commitment to the public health service. The award is given to persons with exceptional distinction who serve towards the idea of an open society. The award was announced at the online 30th graduation ceremony, which was held in June 2021.
Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector of CEU, while presenting the award to ‘Shailaja Teacher’, said that this year the award is being conferred to an exceptional public servant from the developing world. He added that Shailaja and her staff of the public health service have done exceptional work during the COVID-19 pandemic and showed to the world that determined leadership, effective communication and dedicated community-based public health service can save several lives. By awarding Shailaja, the university is honouring a public servant and female leader for her contribution to public health service, he added. He mentioned that Shailaja Teacher’s example shall inspire young women to enter public service.
K K Shailaja, in her speech, asked the graduating students to keep learning and sharing knowledge with others as “we live in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world.” She added that the leaders need to rise to global challenges and find new solutions to build an inclusive and equitable society. She said that each one of them has an opportunity to step up and change the world for better by finding a leader in them.
Worst is yet to come: Draft UN report on climate change
NEW DELHI: As suggested by a landmark draft report by the United Nations Organisation (UNO)’s climate science advisors, climate change will alter life on Earth, even if the world is capable of taming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Events such as extinction of species, widespread diseases, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas, etc, are devastating climate impacts which are bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 30, the report added.
The report said that the worst is yet to come, which will affect our children’s and grandchildren’s lives more than our own. The report consists of four major takeaways which are subject to some minor changes in the coming days. Firstly, climate is already changing, even with a 1.1 degree Celsius rise in temperature. However, scientists believed that controlling the temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels would be enough to safeguard the future. This goal was also enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which has been signed by almost 200 countries. However, on current trends, we are headed towards a rise of three degrees Celsius at best. The World Meteorological Organisation last month projected that there is a 40 per cent chance that the Earth will cross the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold for at least one year by 2026. The report’s second takeaway is that the world must face this reality and prepare themselves for the onslaught. The report warned that current levels of adaptation will not be enough to respond towards future climate risks. It also added that millions of people are likely to face chronic hunger by 2050 and 130 million more could experience extreme poverty within a decade if inequality prevails. The report also warned that almost 350 million people living in urban areas will be exposed to water scarcity due to severe drought at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
The third takeaway is that the report warns about the cascading and compound impacts of climate change, along with point-of-no-return thresholds in climate system, which are known as tipping points. Almost a dozen temperature trip wires have been identified in the climate system for irreversible and catastrophic change. According to recent researches, warming of two degrees Celsius will cause the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctic, which would add enough water to lift oceans by 13 metres. The final takeaway is that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that much can be done to tackle the worst-case scenarios and prepare for the impact. The report suggests that transitioning to more plant-based diets could also help in reducing the emissions by 70 per cent by 2050. However, the report warns that simply replacing gas guzzler with a Tesla or planting billions of tress to offset businesses is not going to help. The report says, “We need transformational change operating on processes and behaviours at all levels – individual, communities, businesses, institutions and governments. We must redefine our way of life and consumption.”
The report has highlighted some of the worst fears of climate activists around the world. While most of them have been pressing for largescale economic, social and cultural changes, what must be adopted now is a personalised approach. Like the report claims, simply planting trees is not going to be helpful for the environment, or reverse the trend of climate change. What needs to be done is to make every individual aware, from the youngest to the oldest, from the richest to the poorest, of the havoc that a rise in global temperatures and sea levels can cause.
Carbis Bay Declaration signed among G7 nations to tackle the pandemic
NEW DELHI: The Group of G7 nations signed the Carbis Bay Declaration on June 14, where all the powerful nations pledged to ‘end the pandemic and prepare for our futures’ and also to ‘build back better’. After the threeday meet at Cornwall, England, a new document was delivered by the heads of Britain, the United States of America (USA), Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. All the countries vowed to ‘reinvigorate our economies’ with a funding of US $12 trillion to help those in need of recovering from COVID-19.
Other countries present at the meeting included South Korea, South Africa, Australia, along with Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations Organisation (UNO). In addition, heads of the European Union and the European Commission were also present at the event, with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining the event virtually. The G7 members agreed to the declaration which sets out commitments to prevent any future human and economic devastation similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Advisor, United Kingdom, presented the work of the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership, which is a group of international experts from various industries, government and scientific institutions. The group was established by the UK to advice the G7 nations on how to prevent, detect and respond to future pandemics.
An independent report named ‘100 Days Mission to Respond to Future Pandemic Threats’ has been published by the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership. The report contains suggestions on how governments, and other bodies, can respond quickly to future outbreaks of diseases. It suggests ways to control them in the first 100 days post identification, which is a crucial time to change its course and prevent it from turning into a pandemic. The Carbis Bay Declaration has incorporated the recommendations of the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership report and also mentions ways in which the G7 countries can prevent future pandemics. Of the new human diseases, three-quarter originate in animals and such diseases are emerging at an increasing rate. The UK has set up the Animal Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre to stop new animal-borne diseases before they put people at risk.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO), said, “As the world is gradually coming out of the pandemic and recovering from COVID-19, we welcome the Carbis Bay Health Declaration. We need to work on significant scientific and collaborative response towards the COVID-19 pandemic and find some common solutions.” The declaration calls for support from G7 nations for the Global Pandemic Radar (UK’s initiative to identify future COVID-19 variants and track new diseases in the world). The initiative will protect the domestic vaccine programs from new variants of COVID-19 by identifying them beforehand.
Such measures assure the insurability of extreme perils as was done with United States terrorism risk after September 11, 2001 and Japanese tsunami risk after March 11, 2011. The Carbis Bay Health Declaration is a major milestone for developing a pandemic resilient world and for the modelling required in support of it. Moreover, pandemic preparedness will also be vital for protecting the most vulnerable segment of the society from being affected unfairly by future pandemics. As was evident in India during the two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the poor and the informal workers were worst hit by the pandemic. Preparing for future pandemic must, therefore, incorporate the issues and challenges that the poor and informal workers will face.
Haryana constitutes Panchkula MDA
Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana, announced the constitution of the Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority (PMDA) on June 9. PMDA is being constituted to enable swift execution of the district’s integrated development plan. Khattar said during the press conference that the authority will work with the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, and the Panchkula Municipal Corporation. It will work to ensure availability of infrastructure and other key facilities to people. He also mentioned the state government’s plan to make Panchkula a major hub for industrial investment.
Andhra to provide free medical care to children
The Government of Andhra Pradesh announced on June 15 that all children will be provided free-of-cost medical care in government-run hospitals in the state. The decision was taken during a meeting held in Amaravati regarding the prevention of the possible third wave of COVID-19. According to the official statement, special arrangements are being made to provide training to the medical staff in pediatric-related issues. A decision was also taken to recruit doctors and other medical staff to treat the children.
Maharashtra accords high protection to ‘heritage trees’
MUMBAI: In an effort to protect the trees and environment, the Government of Maharashtra has approved the formation of the Maharashtra Tree Authority, which will be responsible for protecting trees across the state. During the meeting of cabinet ministers headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, an amendment to the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, was also approved. According to the new directive, trees more than 50 years of age will be considered ‘heritage trees’.
According to the amendment, heritage trees will be accorded more protection and it will be difficult for anyone to cut them. Moreover, projects which cannot proceed without felling trees will need to multiply their compensatory afforestation procedure. For example, if an infrastructure developer removes a 52-year-old plant, he/she will be required to plant 52 new plants, which should be at least 6-8 feet high during plantation. On the other hand, if the developer cannot take up afforestation in exchange of felling trees, financial compensation will be mandatory, which would also be higher than before.
The newly made Maharashtra Tree Authority will regulate the felling of trees in the state as according to the amendment, if any project needs to cut more than 200 trees, it will also need to send a proposal to the Tree Authority. In addition to this, the local tree authority, along with the Maharashtra Tree Authority, will conduct a census of all the tress, including heritage trees, every five years.
NEW DELHI: A Global Water and Climate Adaptation Centre (GWCAC) was launched at the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) to tackle global water security issues and challenges in adapting to climate change. The Centre has been launched with support from an agency of the Government of Germany, institutes of Technical University of Dresden, and RWTH Aachen University. IIT-M will host the Centre with a satellite hub at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. It was inaugurated on June 30 and has been named ‘ABCD’ (Aachen-BangkokChennai-Dresden). Moreover, a joint doctoral research programme to promote inter-disciplinary work and bring the knowledge to tackle water scarcity under global partnering institutes has also been launched.
The partners of the project share a common thought that science-based solutions and global innovations network must go together with a local and global stakeholder through dialogue. This would complement IIT Madras’ expertise on the adaptation and rehabilitation measures of coastal infrastructures. Moreover, in its own operations, the Centre aims to reduce carbon emissions through measures such as enabling internationalization, while at the same time replacing international flights through the use of digital communication tools and innovative technology. This idea has been embedded in the design of the Centre from the outset.
India ranks 120th in Sustainable Development Report 2021
NEW DELHI: The 6th edition of the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) 2021 ranked India at the 120th spot out of the total 165 countries with an overall score of 60.1. Finland topped the table with an overall score of 85.90, and was followed by Sweden with 85.61 points, Denmark with 84.86 points, Germany with 82.48 points, and Belgium with an overall score of 82.19. The rankings were published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) on June 14, which ranks all the states of United Nations Organisation (UNO) based on their performance in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report contains data on the International Spillover Index. India’s spillover score stands at 98.90 out of 100, and the country has been ranked 32 out of the total 165 countries. The action plans of any country can cause some amount of negative affect on other countries’ ability to achieve the SDG targets. A country with a higher score of spillover shows that it causes more positive spillover effects and less negative spillovers. The SDR is the first study which examines all countries on the basis of their performance against all 17 SDGs. All member countries of the UN had adopted the Agenda 2030 and SDGs in 2015. Since 2015, it is for the first time that all the countries in the Index have shown reversal in the progress of achieving the SDG goals due to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, low income developing countries have less financial resources in order to achieve the SDGs and the pandemic has worsened the situation for them. In addition to the SDR, the authors of the report have also compiled Spillover Index for all the member countries. The index measures spillovers based on the actions of countries which can be in negative or positive. The index is divided into four categories, which actively impact the SDGs of countries due to negative spillovers. The categories involve Environmental and Social spillovers embodied in trade, direct cross-border flows, international economic and financial flows, and peacekeeping and security spillovers.
Since 2012, SSDN operates and functions under the Secretary-General of the United Nations and develops the SDG Index every year. It prepares the technological and global scientific expertise to assist in finding solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the SDGs.
In India, NITI Aayog also prepares and publishes an annual SDG Index, ranking states according to their performance on various indicators such as hunger, education and healthcare. It also measures the states’ performance on climate action, access to energy and sustainable cities, among other criteria. According to the Index, Kerala (75) and Himachal Pradesh (74) have topped the table, followed by Tamil Nadu (74) and Andhra Pradesh (72). On the other hand, Assam (57), Jharkhand (56) and Bihar (52) are the worst performing states in achieving the SDG goals in the country. The report shows that Mizoram, Haryana and Uttarakhand, with an increase of 12, 10 and 8 points, have shown maximum improvement among all the states as compared to the rankings of 2019.
Although India has not been a leader in terms of achieving the SDGs, the nation’s work on individual SDGs has been phenomenal. For example, India’s share of renewable energy has increased tremendously since 2015. Moreover, with the Government of India’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles – Phase II policy, along with electric vehicle policies released by the respective state governments, the adoption of electric vehicles has also increased steadily in India. Through such schemes, a race is also underway among Indian states to be the leader in terms of the number of electric vehicles owned by the residents. These initiatives provide growth to India’s performance in the SDG Index.
Renewable energy can significantly reduce risks of climate change
TOKOYO: The 5th International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities (ICSGSC 2021) was held in Tokyo, Japan, from June 18-20, 2021. The conference addressed diverse topics related to recent trends and progress made in the field of smart grid, smart cities, green and other advanced energy systems.
For the past few years, smart grids have been one of the main topics in research and development at the academic, industry and business levels. The smart grid is envisaged to be the next generation electric grid for smart cities. It enables the smart integration of conventional power generation, renewable generation, distributed generation, energy storage, transmission, distribution and demand management. The benefits of smart grid include enhanced reliability and resilience, higher intelligence and optimized control, decentralized operation, higher operational efficiency, more efficient demand management, and better power quality. However, all these prospective transformations also bring with them numerous challenges and opportunities. Research authors were invited to submit their research papers which will be reviewed by a committee of prominent individuals who have made significant contributions in the areas of the smart cities, smart grids and energy generation. The topics covered in the researches included Power and Energy System Applications, Power Energy Management Systems and Appropriate Technology.
The event commenced with a discourse on ‘Control of PowerElectronics Based Renewable Energy Sources’ under which, how micro-grids as networks with distributed energy sources have gained significant interest over the past 20 years was discussed. The energy sources are predominantly renewable energy sources, most of which are interfaced with the network through power electronics converters. Their performance is affected by the change of parameters of passive components depending on temperature and operating conditions. The speaker for this title was Prof Om P Malik, IEEE Fellow, University of Calgary, Canada.
The title of the next speech was ‘Digital Twins Rising Role in Smart Cities Applications’. Prof Abdulrahman Al-Ali, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, spoke on this topic. Digital Twins are gaining ground and becoming increasingly popular in smart city applications such as smart energy, smart buildings, smart factories, smart transportation, smart farming, and smart healthcare. The digital twin concept is evolving as complementary to its counter physical part. While an object (thing) is stationary on the move, its operational and surrounding environmental parameters are collected by an edge computing device for local and/or cloud-based decisions. The title of the final speech for the conference was ‘The First Hybrid Electric Vehicle in the World’ and was delivered by Prof Masayuki Morimoto, IEEJ Fellow, Tokai University, Japan. During his speech, Prof Morimoto discussed how the Prius is often considered to be the oldest hybrid vehicle in the world. However, the idea of hybrid vehicles has been in the automobile industry since 1890s, according to some works of literature. He went on to urge all automobile manufacturers to quickly promote adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles if we wish to have a chance at saving our world from the catastrophic events of climate change.
The 5th International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities presented a platform for experts and researchers in the field to share their experiences in adopting newer methods of energy generation and power grids. They also got a chance to share the solutions that many of them had come up with to overcome limitations they faced while developing smart cities across the world. The conference surely promoted adoption of smart grids and green energy, both of which are critical in our fight against climate change and are the quickest methods of reducing global carbon emissions.
There is change, but more can be done Delhiites on waste management
NEWDELHI: Team Urban Update conducted a survey on ‘Adherence to Solid Waste Management Rules 2016’ to better understand waste management methods undertaken by urban local bodies (ULB) in Delhi. When asked if people are aware of the Solid Waste Management Rules (SWMR) 2016, 73.3 per cent of the respondents said yes, while 23 per cent said they are not acquainted with them. Additionally, only 30 per cent respondents said that the measures enlisted in the SWMR 2016 are being undertaken by their ULB, while 50 per cent disagreed and 20 per cent were unsure. This must make us question the role that ULBs are playing in proper implementation of the SWMR 2016. Despite over 73 per cent respondents being aware of the rules, only 30 per cent said that they are being implemented by their ULBs, which is a striking difference.
With the ever increasing population and urbanisation, waste management has emerged as a huge challenge in the country. Not only has the quantity of waste increased, the characteristics of waste have also changed tremendously with the introduction of new equipment in people’s daily lives. Scientific disposal of solid waste is the only way of minimizing its adverse impact on the environment. Local authorities are responsible for the development of infrastructure for collection, storage, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste. According to SWMR 2016, all residential welfare associations should segregate waste at source and handover recyclable material to either authorized waste pickers or recyclers. Moreover, bio-degradable waste should be processed, treated and disposed of through composting or biomethanation.
During COVID times, the quantum of healthcare waste generated has also increased. According to the National
30% 13% 10%
40%
13%
30%
57%
YES NO MAYBE 50%
Does your municipal corporation collect waste from COVID-19 positive families separately?
Does your municipal corporation under57% take measures to spread awareness on the importance of waste segregation?
Green Tribunal’s order, waste from COVID positive households and other domestic bio-hazardous waste like sanitary pads must be disposed of separately, so as to ensure protection of the environment and public health. 56.7 per cent of the respondents said that their municipal corporation does not provide the option of collecting COVID waste separately, while 30 per cent of the respondents responded positively. The survey also revealed that 50 per cent of the respondents did not believe that their municipal corporation undertook any awareness campaigns regarding responsible waste segregation and proper disposal, which is also an important stipulation in the SWMR 2016.
With a disease as transmissible as COVID-19, it is of the utmost importance that ULBs undertake widespread awareness campaigns on not just preventative measures but also on proper disposal of waste. Numerous studies have already established a sound relationship between waste and the spread of COVID-19. Keeping this in mind, both the people and the ULBs need to be very careful of how they handle waste, from its point of collection to the time it is disposed of.
Since March 2020, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued guidelines from time to time under the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules 2016, and reviewed them to ensure that COVID-19 waste is collected with utmost caution and transported to “biomedical waste treatment and disposal facilities”, specifically designed to handle biohazardous waste from hospitals, health camps, morgues, pathological and clinical laboratories, and other medical establishments and activities.
In May 2020, CPCB also launched a mobile application called COVID-19 Bio-Medical Waste Management App, to keep a tab on this fast-growing stream of waste in real time. Around 50 per cent of respondents agreed to doorstep waste collection services offered by their municipal corporations, which is a big step in the right direction for ULBs. Towards the end of the survey, the respondents were asked to mention ways which can help civic bodies perform better. One of the most widely suggested measures was the stringent implementation of guidelines by resident welfare associations, which would act as an independent check on the activities of the ULBs.
AIILSG’s contributions and innovations for COVID-19 relief, resilience building
AIILSG’s COVID-19 relief and resilience building efforts have positively impacted more than 3,00,000 under-privileged populations from 76 pre-dominantly tribal villages, and more than 63 slum units
The intensive efforts by AIILSG team in challenging field conditions would not have been possible without whole-hearted support from all of its partners - such as Grand Challenges Canada, EagleBurgmann Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), HDFC Bank CSR, MUFG Bank CSR, National Stock Exchange Foundation, TATA Rallis (Chemicals) CSR, TATA Technologies CSR, etc. Their support has been instrumental in making the below-mentioned contributions towards the cause. AIILSG’s Corporate Social Responsibility Centre established at its International Centre of EQUI-T since 2017 was the key hub in synergizing with these partnerships. Moreover, considerable credit goes to the AIILSG’s grassroots team of Shikshan Mitras and Aarogya Doots who doubled up as AIILSG’s COVID-19 Warriors. A key strength of AIILSG’s approach is building a cadre of local community para-professionals/ educators which proved to be very instrumental. This ensured that despite the COVID-19 disruptions and lockdown measures, AIILSG could continue and upscale its humble contributions as most of its Enablers of development were from the respective local areas. Many of them being women has been an instrumental factor in uprooting gender stereotypes and enabling gender equality. Another crucial niche of these humble contributions is in sync with AIILSG’s global niche to be working at scale with all types of under-privileged: indigenous forest dweller tribes, indigenous nomadic tribes, particularly vulnerable tribals groups, rural poor, urban slum dwellers, differently-abled [disabled], socially discriminated such as those from Scheduled Castes. An important COVID-19 strategy was to customize the interventions to the locations and communities as per their respective socio-economic profiles, and anthropological characteristics (especially for the indigenous forest dwellers and nomadic tribes). The entire efforts were tailor-made based on scientific needs assessment and through community-participation, building on the communityparticipatory-institutions fostered by AIILSG and synergy with the local governments. AIILSG’s sensitivity and commitment towards the
Rajiv agaRwal iaS (Retd.)
Director General, AIILSG
PRof dR MukeSh kanaSkaR
Deputy Director General, AIILSG Director, AIILSG’s Corporate Social Responsibility Centre
Shweta guPta
Executive Director, AIILSG’s International Centre of EQUI-T Corporate Social Responsibility Centre
disadvantaged populations is manifested through its International Centre of Equity and Inclusion for Transformation (ICEQUI-T). International Center of EQUI-T is the Social Innovations Lab of AIILSG which consistently strives to enable effective social transformation through innovations, field actions, research, capacity building, policy analysis and knowledge management for the cause of under-privileged populations. Moreover, considering the gravity of each set of issues faced by the disadvantaged, following sub-centres of AIILSG are formed under the aegis of AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T, namely: ♦ Centre for RMNCH+A (Centre for Reproductive Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health) ♦ Centre for Children’s Rights ♦ International Centre for Women in
Deprivation ♦ International Centre for Differently Abled ♦ Center for Rural & Tribal Development and for Empowerment of Denotified & Nomadic Tribes’ ♦ Corporate Social Responsibility Centre
Given the holistic approach AIILSG works with, the above sub-centres converge their efforts as ICEQUI-T for effective and efficient social transformation. The envisioning by the team identified relief, risk-reduction and resilience building as the key pillars of its COVID-19 strategy. The customized COVID-19 innovations developed by AIILSG have been receiving wide acclaim. These include: COVID-19 jigsaw puzzles, IEC on COVID-19 in six languages, IEC on mental health, BAL-TARFAH experiential learning, COVID-19 hygiene kits, COVID-19 resilience building through ‘Shikshan Ranjan Kendras’ in the community, tribal folk songs adapted for COVID-19 IEC including for addressing Vaccination Hesitancy, and resilience building through expansion of livelihoods portfolio. Various sub-centres (dedicated towards the cause of the underprivileged populations) of AIILSG under ICEQUI-T synergized to have a coordinated response. Their efforts converged as AIILSG at the grassroots. It was a well-coordinated effort whereby AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T team identified & clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of each sub-centre, needs for developing innovations and time-frame. A coordination mechanism of sub-centre heads was established to make it a highly systematic and efficient effort together as AIILSG. Apart from the obvious aspects related to WASH and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, AIILSG created a holistic impact as elucidated below imbibing sustainability and futuristics. The key impacts attained are as below
♦ COVID-19 resilience built for more than 3,00,000 disadvantaged populations ♦ Enabled outreach for 139 localgovernment units in terms of COVID-19 tracking, follow-up and vaccination. Many team members worked as ‘Gram Aarogya Suraksha Dal’ members and community volunteers with the local governments ♦ Built capacities of 438 community institutions (including 219 Baal Panchayats), 876 community youth volunteers ♦ Community-embedded ‘Shikshan Ranjan Kendras’ enabled continuation of teaching and learning with demonstration of positive learning outcomes for 17,000 disadvantaged children from Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu despite COVID-19 disruptions and related educational lockdowns. The focus has been on preventing learning loss and attainment of foundational literacy and numeracy skills for the children in elementary in light of COVID-19 induced school closure ♦ Bridging the Language Barrier through ‘BHASHA SETU’ which is ‘Bilingual Teaching Learning Material’ developed and adopted to bridge the language barrier for 2881 tribal children to gain learning ♦ Created newer avenues for experiential learning and vocational exposure such as AIILSG’s innovation of Baal TARFAH ♦ Resilience building characterised by further risk proofing of the livelihoods of the poor, including expanding their livelihoods portfolio (eg successfully pioneering strawberry crop cultivation with tribals in highly poverty ridden Palghar district) further enriching AIILSG’s innovative model for tribal and rural development: Transformative Actions for Rural development, Food Security and
Health ♦ With forward and backward linkages to livelihoods in disarray, AIILSG’s team played a crucial enabler role in ensuring pre-emption of this disruption or restoration as need be ♦ Nutrition and immunity: COVID-19 has highlighted importance of immunity-enablers and nutrition. The nutritional status, especially of disadvantaged children and women, has otherwise taken a big hit. AIILSG pre-empted this by furthering its MAMTA (Movement Against Malnutrition for Transformative Actions) movement to many more.
This involves enabling plantation of nutritious kitchen gardens by location-customized vegetables and herbs. This was further augmented by developing AIILSG’s innovation of herbal gardens, with 3 sub-types of it. The following text elucidates role played by each sub-institutional entity of AIILSG under its ICEQUI-T: Corporate Social Responsibility Centre
AIILSG through its Corporate Social Responsibility Center synergised with its Corporate CSR partners for COVID-19 related interventions. Centre for RMNCH+A
The horizon of the Centre for RMNCH+A (Centre for Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health) was expanded to
Centre for Children’s Rights
Community-embedded Shikshan Ranjan Kendras
Since the incidence of COVID-19 in March 2020, the community-embedded Shikshan Ranjan Kendras (CSRK) of AIILSG are the only source for continued education for the under-privileged children. Weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, the CSRK has emerged as a scalable educationdelivery model that proved to be robust, resilient, adaptable and effective during COVID-19 disruptions for the children left-behind due to school-closure & lack of access to digital-education. While respecting the COVID-19 lockdown measures, AIILSG ensured continued education and counselling of children (and their parents) through learning at doorsteps approach. A key strength of the C-SRK model whereby a Community-embedded SRK is mentored by a well-trained Shikshan Mitra from the local community proved to be a crucial factor to ensure continued education of the children in various responsive and responsible forms such as Learning-atDoorsteps, or in small batches of five or less children, ‘mobile library’ to read books adhering to COVID-19 safety norms. The COVID-19 disruptions and educational lockdowns have deepened educational inequality and learning crisis for the most marginalised children belonging to indigenous tribal
Demystifying COVID through AIILSG’s innovation of Jigsaw Puzzle
populations and rendered them most-vulnerable to risks. Most of these children have no or highly impoverished access to digital education. The ‘Community-embedded Shikshan Ranjan Kendra’ (Learning-with-Fun Centers) of AIILSG provided- 1. Last mile connectivity to the most marginalised indigenous tribal children and hard-to-reach children from indigenous Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (stigmatized as born-criminals since 1871 British colonial era, girls are subjected to physical and sexual-violence) and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (many children are firstgeneration-learners), 2. Special focus is on education of girls and differently-abled children, 3. Enabled their access to learning and education with enriched learning environment and quality teaching-learning inputs. 4. Enabled ‘resilience building’, safety and mental well-being of children, inculcated life-skills in them including safe WASH & COVID-19 Appropriate-Behaviour. 5. Strengthened capacity & up-skilling of community-educators and School Teachers in developing and/or delivering Digital Teaching-Learning Content. The field-proven CSRKs enabled continuation of education for the most marginalised 17000 children including 6232 hard-to-reach indigenous tribal children, strengthened capacities of 282 community educators, 282 local-governments, equal number of schools and 564 teachers. AIILSG’s Innovation of COVID-19 jig saw puzzles: This set of nine jigsaw puzzles has proved to be very effective is enabling the children to understand about COVID-19 in fun edu-tainment way. COVID Hygiene Kit for children: Each of the children attending the SRK was provided with a COVID-19 kit. The kit comprising washable face masks, hand gloves, soap cakes for hand wash, napkins for hand wipe and special items for raising awareness about COVID-19 and sanitizer were provided for each SRK. Children as agents of transforming the society: This is a fundamental tenet of AIILSG’s CSRK model whereby children are not viewed as merely passive recipient of benefits, but are active enablers of societal transformation with age-appropriate fun edu-tainment initiatives. AIILSG team has been utilising for more than 10 years creative media such as street theatre and puppet shows with participation of children as an effective way of social transformation. The same were COVID-19 customized, through nukkad-performances (instead of public performances) and whatsapp dissemination (wherever feasible). Baal Panchayats and youth volunteers fostered by AIILSG played very crucial part in this. AIILSG perceives this as an important effort in building a progressive and knowledgeable local leadership for future.
