For Indian Independence Day, 2018, One Future Collective, organised a Peace Adda in collaboration with Prajnya Trust’s Education for Peace Initiative, facilitated by Chintan Girish Modi.
The Peace Adda was an intimate gathering of professionals from different fields, excited about the idea of celebrating and understanding peace through dialogue and poetry. The sessions started with a conversation on peace and our personal understanding of peace and moved across three poems, to delve into it deeper.
The first poem made the participants explore themes of peace as flowing from an individual to the society and the idea of a state regulated being of a person. It lead to multifaceted discussions around what influences our decisions and choices, how do we respond to and absorb news, the idea of manufactured narratives – it also tapped into discussions around the surveillance state, data privacy, and its relevance and context in present day India.
This poem aided discussion around empathy for the other and for oneself as a way to peace. It discussed the theme of kindness being the key to the world moving forward.
This poem helped participants explore ideas of collaboration and community as a way to peace. It focused on discussions around the idea of being stuck in a ‘hard place’ and how growth and synergy cannot originate from such a place. An interesting example that came up was a quote by Rumi, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” and a corresponding experience of an exercise at a Seeds of Peace camp which had an open area tagged, ‘this is the field’, where people of different nationalities played games as a way to learn to work together.
Photos from the event:
Mapping and negotiating power
Uncuff India Episode 10: Dimensions of conflict and peace: visioning a utopian world
Uncuff India Episode 9: Civic space and dissent: A pathway to social justice
Earth Up! is a monthly column by Ayesha Mehrotra that intends to cover varied issues and solutions with respect to environmental sustainability in India.
Everything goes somewhere. Lost by you, found by someone else. Have you ever wondered where all your waste goes?
Let me fill you in. 90% of our waste lands up in oceans. Almost ALL of our waste is toxic for the water, soil and air because it contains chemicals which leach into the environments they land up in. I’m not here to scare you, rather engage with you in a conversation about the concept of sustainability and what really matters, INDIVIDUAL IMPACT. The biggest trigger of environmental degradation is WASTE. Every paper, foil, plastic wrapper or earbud you discard ends up going into huge landfills, spreading pollution to it’s surrounding environment. This burgeoning mountain of waste has reached levels of severe toxicity, ill-health and ecological impact.
So today, let’s talk about ways of reducing your waste on an individual level. Baby steps always lead to good and progressive targets. If we look at this situation in a micro-level scenario, it gives us a clearer idea of what our waste production looks like.
India produces an estimated amount of 1,33,760 tonnes per day (TPD) of garbage generated daily, and this is just an approximate figure given by government of the states and union territories in India. This includes an estimated 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste, of which 6,000 tonnes remain uncollected, unaccounted for, and littered. This boils down to about 3.7 kgs/capita/day in urban areas alone. If these numbers have got you thinking and you’re wondering what you can do about it, let’s discuss! Simple ways of eliminating toxic waste would be: avoiding plastic products such as plastic bags, water bottles, cutlery, and plates. These are a daily consumption in large amounts.
Plastic takes millions of years to decompose, and the first forms of plastic produced still remain in our soil throughout the world! Not so shocking, right? With recent movements and initiatives such as Plastic Free July and Beat Plastic Pollution, many people have taken pledges to eliminate all forms of plastic in their daily consumption practices, looking at the long-term perspectives and benefits of this pledge. Simple math being taken into account, we could then individually reduce an estimated 11-15 kgs per person annually! Imagine multiplying this elimination by about 70% of India’s entire population. The impact would be huge.
At a global perspective, let’s look at the facts, figures and estimates quoted with respect to plastic. Experts say that we are recovering just around 5% of the plastic bags that we produce. According to a research done by Ellen MacArthur Foundation in January, the total amount of plastic waste will be greater than the total number of fish found in our oceans by 2050. Further, this amount is predicted to increase ten times by 2020. Most of the plastic bags once used are thrown away as waste instead of being collected and recycled for later use. Very few plastic bags are recycled which is not healthy for our environment and human health in the long run. Plastic has reached even bath and beauty products in the form of micro-beads, which have toxic and environmentally hazardous effects on human and marine life. Despite pledging to recycle our plastic, most of this usually ends up in landfills and oceans, and breaks down instead of degrading in areas where they are disposed.
Photo by Dustan Woodhouse on Unsplash
There are countries that have already banned or even restricted the use of plastic bags such as China, Australia, Ireland and Bangladesh among other nations. However, Bangladesh and India have only banned those of over 5 microns. Yet, these countries still face the battle of single use plastic products as well as plastic in the form of packaging and containers. The simple solution to this would be to eliminate plastic completely, with better alternatives such as glass, paper and cloth. Despite this being a challenge for many global scale economies due to the cheap plastic consumption and liberal policy implementations on the same, a systematic removal of plastic will require massive changes with regards to production, consumption and policy.
Plastic has plagued our lives in several ways, and this has generated a major part of the solid waste our country produces. The only way we can look at reducing and eliminating this material is if we understand the requirement of removing it from our lives. The urgency is massive. We see stories and pictures of plastic almost on a daily basis through news, social media and articles highlighting massive environmental pollution across the world. Information and data available on plastic will help in further examining the issues arising in current and future scenarios, where our consumption of plastic even in the smallest of things such as wrappers and packets in products and even straws are not left behind. Each of this is contributing to a sea of plastic (literally!), where the rate of use is overpowering the rate of solutions for the same.
Hopefully, this column helps us unpack these concepts and gives us a better understanding of integrating environment with human action and impact, so we can live in a better, healthier and safer environment! Let’s all create awareness, build a base of environmental consciousness and understand the repercussions of our actions on the environment.
Ayesha Mehrotra is a Volunteer Researcher at One Future Collective.
One Future Inspire is a series of interviews with young people across countries, borders, spectrums of work and being. These people share a common quality — they inspire us. Our aim is to bring their work to the fore with the hope that it might ignite a spark in someone, somewhere.
We begin our series of interviews with Kaanchana Suppayah, an intersectional feminist, currently leading a team at work with child survivors of domestic violence at Women’s Aid Organisation in Malaysia. She and her team ensure the children’s protection and empowerment, their continued access to education, and actively adopt a rights-based approach in their work with these children.
Kaanchana Suppayah
Please tell us a little about your personal journey. What brought you to your work at WAO?
I grew up in a rather traditional family with strong patriarchal values. I vaguely remember a close relative telling my male cousins to leave their dirty plates in the sink after they had eaten so I could wash them up. I was 9 then. I guess that was when I started being sensitive about gender equality. Then, when I was 17, I experienced sexual abuse by a relative – I shared this with a family member who removed me from that situation, but could not assist me in seeking legal redress and mental health interventions because she did not know what to do. I know that was what pushed me to want to work with child survivors of violence. I aspired and continue to aspire to be that person I wish I had when I experienced the abuse.
We understand that WAO works with child survivors of domestic violence. What are the challenges you face at work? What are the resources or requirements — what do you need to work in this field?
On an organisational level, our current challenge is to educate and constantly remind the women survivors of domestic violence that their children, like their mothers, are also survivors of domestic violence, and that they are entitled to accessing our services. It is a common misconception that children who experience violence often don’t require any intervention as they would “forget” the incident. On a higher level, it is an ongoing challenge to lobby for more protective laws and policies for women and children to be passed in Malaysia, due to the politicisation of religion, among other reasons.
What is your idea of mentoring or leadership?
I definitely think that mentoring is being in a position where I am not just the mentor but the person who is being mentored. I am always learning new things and I pride myself to be someone who is not ashamed to say “Hey, I don’t know this, please guide me”. Also, attitude is everything, especially when you are coming from a position of learning, and I am always learning. My idea of effective leadership would be someone who has extensive experience and knowledge in field work, and is able to participate in the team and not just providing supervision.
Describe a day in your life.
I consider myself lucky when I’m not woken up by a phone call in the wee hours of the morning. As a Child Care Manager who oversees the overall management of the child care centre, there are usually many emergencies to respond to, ranging from situations like eg: a child is extremely sick, or is injured, to eg: perpetrator has showed up at the gate. Our day then is revolved around ensuring the children return from school, and ensuring that they are safe, and provided with adequate care. In addition to these tasks, I develop and manage all children’s programmes within WAO, and participate in external forums and conferences pertaining to issues related to child protection and child rights.
How do you think the youth will tackle or address issues of equality, equal rights, and access to education?
I believe that new strategies developed by the UN and other bodies will empower both young women and men as partners in addressing issues of equality in terms of accessing rights, and ensuring access to education.
What would you like for people to understand better about your work?
At WAO we support women, as well as children who have endured violence. We understand that children of survivors of violence ARE survivors of violence, and recognise that they too have needs that must be addressed. This will then pave the way for children to be empowered to empower their peers and adults around them.
Which country’s policies on equal access are worth learning from and why?
I’m sure you’ve heard this one before – Iceland. They have so much to look up to, but I particularly admire that both men and women there share the power as decision-makers, and that there is a high number of men advocating for gender equality.
Why should we care about equal rights?
Why shouldn’t we? A man shouldn’t be put on a pedestal just because he is a man. A white person shouldn’t be perceived as innocent of a crime just because he/she is white. A girl should be given access to quality education, just as much as a boy should. A girl survivor of rape should not be blamed for the incident because of what she wore, or how much alcohol she consumed, it is the guy/man who should have kept it in his pants and showed respect. Why are girls deliberately silenced by their families, after being sexually assaulted? How is it okay for boys to make rape jokes? How is it okay for a 40 year old man to be married to a 9 year old girl? This here is a very ugly picture and it should not be that way.
List 3 books or tell us about three people that have impacted your life.
My mother, Phoolan Devi, and Princess Diana (in that order).
What is your advice to the youth today?
You don’t need to officially join any particular movement to fight sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia, and violence. All you need to do is to be aware of your surroundings, and when you see or hear something that is not right (even a rape joke made by your friend/boss), you do something (help the victim, tell your friend/boss rape jokes perpetuate rape culture). Educate yourselves, there is so much stuff online!
Mapping and negotiating power
Uncuff India Episode 10: Dimensions of conflict and peace: visioning a utopian world
Uncuff India Episode 9: Civic space and dissent: A pathway to social justice
