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Earth Charter in India

India with a population of one billion has almost 300 million people living in over 500 towns and cities and nearly 50% of the population below the age of 25 years.

The rapid pace of urbanization has led to increased water and air pollution, scarcity of drinking water, inadequate sanitation; open dumping of wastes and loss of forest cover – with serious consequences on the health of the people, environment and economy of the country.

Some of the challenges that India faces are:
  • The aspirations of the people raised by liberalisation in the 1980s
  • Being a child centric society…Majority of the poor looking for ways and means for their children to attain the “escape velocity”…
  • Questioning of value systems, ethics and morals
Such a situation demands immediate intervention.

Development Alternatives and the Earth Charter

Development Alternatives, an affiliate of Earth Cahrter adopted the principles through its nationwide CLEAN-India programme. 

Earth Charter as the guiding principles for CLEAN-India Initiatives It is imperative that children and youth participate actively because it affects their life today and has implications for the Future. In addition to their intellectual contribution and their ability to mobilize support, they bring in unique perspectives that need to be taken into account

Earth Charter for children:

In 2005, CLEAN-India adopted the Earth Charter principles, and developed a “Children’s Earth Charter”, with the objective of expanding the reach to 30 NGO programme partners, thousands of children and teachers from hundreds of schools across the country. The adapted version of the Earth Charter is available in English, Hindi and 7 regional languages

Development Alternatives,( www.devalt.org ),a not for profit organization is one of the world’s first social enterprises. It has pioneered the concept of making development a good business – by creating livelihoods through sustainable enterprises, bringing about a better balance among the pre requisites of Sustainable Development.

CLEAN-India, Community Led Environment Action Network (www.cleanindia.in), a Nationwide programme of Development Alternatives, is involved in motivating and empowering children and youth to act as catalysts of change in mobilizing the community to be environmentally responsible citizens. CLEAN-India emphasizes responsible citizenship and the systems approach, encouraging its members to take a cradle to cradle ownership of their surroundings

Through its extensive network of NGOs and schools spread across the country, CLEAN-India introduced the Earth Charter to bring about a change in people’s attitudes and lifestyles by involving children and youth as the prime agents of change. It enables children to grow into knowledgeable, rational decision makers for sustainable development. This army of students and citizens who in turn would help in generating awareness within their communities about various social and environmental challenges faced by modern society so that timely corrective actions could be taken.

Adoption of Earth Charter principles in schools

Goals:
  1. To promote the dissemination, endorsement and implementation of the charter
  2. To encourage the educational use of the Earth Charter in schools
Earth Charter in Delhi schools

In India, CLEAN-India introduced the Earth Charter and incorporated it in the School Education System. Delhi Government is the first government in th country to adopt the charter and  this initiative was launched by the Smt. Sheila Dikshit, Honble Chief Minister of Delhi on 20th April 2007 during the Earth Day celebration.

The Earth Charter programme was designd by CLEAN-India  and the principles are being introduced in around 1700 Delhi Schools in partnership with the Department of Environment and Forests, Delhi Government. This project presents a potentially powerful opportunity for our young people to understand and analyse the local and planetary (global) interconnectedness, learn and incorporate into their values, the true strength of our country, understanding, appreciating and caring for our natural and cultural heritage and our commitments towards upholding the respect and dignity of all our people – towards “Good” Globalisation and Sustainable living.

Activities under the programme:

  • Preparation of awareness materials, teacher training modules and other resource materials
  • Organisation of awareness programmes and training workshops
  • Organisation of events, competitions and exhibitions
  • Initiating action programmes in schools and communities
  • Sharing experiences in national and international platforms
Awareness materials and teacher training modules

Teacher training workshops
  • Asola Bhatti Wild Life sanctuary
  • Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Integrated Rural Energy Planning and Development
  • Yamuna Bio Diversity park
Action programmes in schools and communities
  • Green million by Delhi School students – more than a million trees being planted (including waste lands and towards densification of the Delhi Ridge forest) - ongoing

  • Celebrating River yamuna – Monitoring the river water quality, cleaning of the banks, awareness programmes - ongoing

  • Waste paper recycling systems in schools (Ongoing)

  • Adoption of a resettlement slum in an industrial area in Delhi (Ongoing)

  • Towards Zero Waste Schools (Solid Waste management) and Rag pickers “going to School” programme –ongoing
  • “Each one teach one” literacy programme by some schools where each student of the school teaches an under privileged child from a neighboring slum or in their neighbourhood.

Sharing experiences in national and international platforms

  • ICEE 2007
  • Earth Day2008
  • WCC 2008

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