It is the students who have taken a step ahead of their elders not only to protect their future, but also the future of the subsequent generations.
Students all over the country are skipping their classes to support the global protest against climate change. It all started in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old environmental activist started skipping classes on Friday to protest outside Sweden’s parliament. She received attention after criticizing leaders all over the world and holding them responsible for the climate change. Moreover, millions of youths worldwide inspired by her, started demanding action on climate crisis from their respective governments.
On March 15, a similar protest/school strike took place in India as well, where students from multiple cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Udaipur and Gurugram skipped their schools on Friday. The protest was not limited just to the metro cities, students from small cities and villages like Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Udaipur in Rajasthan and several villages in Bihar also raised their voices against the climate crisis.
Climate change has become a grave concern for all the countries because it has already started displaying its negative impact on mankind, wildlife, forests, etc. There have been several initiatives undertaken by the United Nations and other international organizations, but the results are not appealing. One such initiative is carbon trading, wherein each nation is allotted a certain amount of carbon credits – beyond which they are not allowed to produce carbon emissions. But in an era where economic development is given priority over climate change, nations have identified flaws in the system and emitted more carbon than the credit allotted to them.
In such a scenario where the governments are not paying adequate attention to the climate change and its impacts, and elders being the least bothered to talk about such issues due to involvement in their daily life chores, Indian students have taken the lead to demand action against the changing climatic conditions. There are several demands that the students made:
- Education on climate change and its impacts on the environment to the adults
- End the usage of fossil fuels
- Preserve the wildlife and forest covers
- Destroy patriarchy, not the planet!
The question that arises is, with India already suffering from multiple developmental issues, does climate change really matter? The answer lies in the list of incidents of climate disasters that have occurred in the past few years. Several disasters have occurred in India in the last few years with the major ones being:
- Uttarakhand flash floods where 5000 plus people died
- Kashmir floods in 2014 where 500 plus people died
- Tamil Nadu floods in 2015 where 400 plus people died
- Heatwave in 2015 where 2000 plus people died (Heatwave was extreme in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha)
- Kerala floods in 2018 where 400 plus people died
Year after year the number of disasters is increasing in India – which is not only taking people’s lives, but also taking a heavy toll on the economy. Thus, it becomes imperative for India and all the nations across the world to consider the fact that it’s high time they took stock of the climate change. And the school children protesting against climate change should serve as an eye-opener for both the adults and the government to prioritize climate over economic development.