By Chandan Kumar Sahu
BERHAMPUR: Populations in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. Across the globe, borders have shut, national emergencies have been declared and restrictions in the movement of people and goods have been enforced. Amidst these challenging conditions, working to deliver positive change, promoting sustainable consumption and maintaining a sense of community is more essential than ever. Green Action Week (GAW) observed each year during the first week of October (Sept 28- Oct.4, 2020).This is a global people’s campaign to promote sustainable consumption.
On Green Action Week 2020 Youth for Social Development started with support of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and CUTS International a month long campaign on the theme “Sharing Community”. Today 2nd October 2020 on Gandhi Jayanti volunteers started aware citizens on ‘sharing community’, its multiple benefits and practices with examples in the city. Citizen’s provides with a leaflet detailing with concept, benefits and practices and signed pledge for collaborative consumption and created aware to citizens on preventive measures like maintain social distancing, use of mask and frequent hand washing using soap More than 200 people signed the pledge and aware on sharing community. This campaign will run for 1 month with various activities like public awareness camps, college/university level webinar and workshop on sharing community with local government, civil society, media and citizen of Berhampur.
This year’s campaign is positioned in the context of the pandemic, which has severe negative impact on sustainable consumption. The pandemic had resulted in tremendous increase in plastic consumption; single-use plastic has made a big comeback in India due to increased use of masks, gloves, face shields, PPE kits, sanitizer bottles etc. The plastic waste is expected to be 9.4 million tons in 2020. Since work and education had gone online, use of electronic gadgets increased tremulously, sale of laptops in the state of Kerala itself increased by 400 percent and in Rajasthan increased by 200 percent. It is estimated that India will generate 5.2 million tons of e-waste by 2021. Use of personal vehicles, due to lack of public transport and physical distancing norms, increased to more than the pre pandemic levels. There is 70-80% increase in the production and consumption of organic products, as consumers consider immunity as ammunition to fight the virus.
