Worse Than Slavery: Indian Sewer Divers

Why India Needs Climate Change Makers at Local Level: Engaging Children and Yout 

No one in India is stranger to the word climate change. Increasing climate uncertainty and extreme climate events have become a common phenomenon. Like we see unseasonal rainfall, recurring drought, disease spikes, cyclones, hailstorms and these are destroying our natural environment and posing a great challenge to humanity at large, and to our coping capacity. We are facing these shocks literally every second.  Now, incidences like Covid caught us off guard and we are not prepared for it. Hence, building back better is rapidly emerging as new normal.

Let me tell all of you, there may be no greater, growing threat facing the world’s children and their children than climate change. This mounting global crisis has the potential to undermine many of the gains we have made in child survival and development and poses even greater danger. As more extreme weather events expand, the number of emergencies and humanitarian crisis also increase, children end up paying the highest price. For example, children are more prone to vector borne diseases than adults. They face greater dangers from undernutrition and diarrheal diseases. Children will also feel these effects longer than adults, making them vital in today's decision about climate change responses. Hence, we should never undermine the slow onset of disasters and silent emergencies. We should be climate conscious but should not suffer from climate anxiety.

 

Maharashtra is India’s most climate hazard prone and vulnerable state given its large urban, tribal, slum population, socio-economic and cultural diversity, long coastline and multiple agro-climatic zones. Therefore, adaptation and mitigation strategies that can address these impacts and build future resilience to increasing climate variability need to form a vital part of the overall development strategy of the State.  Some key Impacts of climate change in the State: On accentuating the intergenerational poverty, economic deprivations and loss in the GDP of the state.

But, honestly speaking Climate change is not a new phenomenon. The universe had experienced Ice Age 18,000 years ago. Here the problem is climate changing rapidly than the natural rate. So how can we sustain and develop at the same time? The answer lies with our action at local level, building back for better future and most importantly investing in building community preparedness to face climate impact as we cannot afford to deny it anymore. At the same time, intensification of the work of changemakers and youth.

Unless we act forcefully to stem the climate crisis now, the danger will only escalate. It is a prospect so painful to imagine that many people would rather not think about it. But action must begin with knowledge and understanding of the costs of inaction. By combining state-of-the-art demographic data on the world’s child population with scientific projections on the likely impacts of climate change in the decades ahead, it requires detail look at the climate-related risks that children face. Today we have an opportunity to tackle this crisis before it’s too late. That means taking decisive action to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow, and ultimately stop, the advance of climate change. It means protecting children whose families are displaced as a result of climate change, and giving children’s needs the highest priority in our efforts to mitigate environmental impacts. It means educating children to adapt to the immediate challenges of climate change – and to understand the role that they will be called on to play. Finally, it means listening to the voices of children and young people who, for better or worse, will inherit the planet we share. No human responsibility runs deeper than the charge of every generation to care for the generation that follows it. For current and future generations of children, and for us all, the stakes could not be higher.

So, solving Climate crisis requires a coordinated effort within districts, town, states, and countries. It may not resolve immediately but we can always try to sustain and develop by building back for better and change our own action by reducing our carbon footprints.  Time to go GLOCAL. Influence global landscape with local action

As part of the ‘Six Point Plan to Protect our Children’, UNICEF calls on governments and partners to:

·      Ensure all children learn, including by closing the digital divide

·      Guarantee access to health and nutrition services and make vaccines affordable and available to every child

·      Support and protect the mental health of children and elimination of gender-based violence

·      Increased access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene considering climate uncertainty

·      Reverse the rise in child poverty and ensure recovery for all

·      And last but not the least, protect and support children and their families living through conflict, disaster, and displacement.

Hence like the famous quote we should be part of solution not pollution