The Woven Web

By Mahek Gupta | Student of Network Capital School
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Travelling has always been a passion of mine, and the north of India was the perfect destination for me and my family. The blanket of trees that envelopes you as you enter a new world, is a paradise in itself. An escape from the cacophony and winding roads perfectly tie up to make my ideal vacation. After exploring 4 states, walking several treks, and sitting unfathomable hours in a car, there one constant theme of signs I noticed throughout these induvial journeys.

“Penalty For litter”

“Throw all litter in the allocated dustbin in your car”

“Hefty fine to those who litter”

I always thought of these signs as a way to help tourism flourish, as it is a primary source of income to several citizens up north. However, the more I learned, the more I realised the importance of keeping our environment clean. It is globally known that the amount of plastic generated every year, has severally impacted the ocean. But how much are we as individuals doing to help the marine life, the environment, global warming? Are we doing enough? , and if we are, is our community as a whole making this impact? One road towards this goal of a clean environment is to follow UNs sustainable development goals.

The concept of sustainable development was introduced in 1987 and was published by the UN. Sustainable development explores the concepts of economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. These three aspects are woven so intricately that only together, as a society, community, economy, and a country will we make a noticeable change. 

India has adopted these sustainable development goals in 2015 and have done tremendously well. The country proposed a 3-year agenda that ran through 2017-2020. Moreover, the government had an eye on a 15-year plan that already consisted of a 7-year strategy. India started Sashakt Bharat- Sabal Bharat which allowed India to lift more than 271 million people out of poverty. It improved its education, sanitation, nutrition, electricity, child health, housing and drinking water that in coherence positively impacted the people. Furthermore, Swachh Bharat- Swasth Bharat, a campaign that successful accomplished 100% rural sanitation and a noticeable reduction in child and maternal mortality rates. These outstanding results having only showed a positive journey in sustainability. But just recently, due to the pandemic 45, 308 tonnes of biomedical waste has been generated, masks, PPE kits among others have contributed to this number. Poverty has risen again and the economy has suffered a huge blow.

India is just another example, several countries today strive to be sustainable, to live a more productive and flourishing future. We as citizens of our country must take the responsibility to help in any way we can. So, how to we do so?

The first thing we all should do is make a conscious effort ourselves in any small way we can. Plastic is the most commonly used material in packaging and is there in almost everyone’s household. We should make sure that each one of us does not have one time use plastic, for anything starting from packaging to grocery shopping. Moreover, saving food, water, electricity, be it anything that is causing the depletion of natural resources should be used diligently. Once, we make this effort, it is extremely vital to bring the community together. Starting with awareness campaigns in your school, knowing about the waste management in your building, distributing cloth bags. This thread that you leave behind will weave together a community that will create a stronger impact. As time grows this beautifully woven web will benefit our community, country and the world. 

Mahek was a part of the Network Capital Summer School.

From the Network Capital School
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