Empowering Communities for a Greener Future

Initiatives by Piramal Foundation to Drive Environmental Education and Village Sustainability

Table Of Contents

Green School

Create a future generation of environmentally aware citizens and harness schools as a platform to drive pro-planet behaviour change in the communities.

Overview

With climate change emerging as a major threat for future generations and environmental problems being on the rise, the need for educating young students on environmental education and inculcating environmentally responsible behaviour among them is a must. But the current situation specifically in rural schools makes it exceedingly difficult for students to develop an understanding of environmental issues and adopt pro-planet behaviours. Some of the major challenges are as follows:

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Buniyadi Shiksha Abhiyan

Significace and Goals

Limited Curriculum Integration

There are textbooks and subjects related to environmental
studies, but the depth and quality of education are not up to the mark.

Lack of Environment-Friendly Infrastructure

Many rural schools lack basic infrastructure, such as sanitation facilities, and access to drinking water, hence green infra remains a distant dream.

Inadequate Teacher Training

Teachers in rural schools may not receive adequate training in environmental education, limiting their ability to impart knowledge effectively.

Ineffective implementation of government initiative

Government initiatives like the formation of Eco-Clubs are not being implemented effectively on the ground.

Need of the hour

To enhance the level of environment education in schools through an activity- based curriculum, develop green infrastructure in schools and leveraging students to create awareness among community members on pro planet behaviours.

Interventions

Piramal Foundation with the aim of creating a generation of environmentally aware citizens, has carried out the following interventions
Green Curriculum: Introduced an activity-based curriculum on environmental education for std. 1-8. Trained teachers on delivering environment curriculum.

Green Infrastructure: Worked in coordination with the various government departments, panchayats to develop green infrastructure like rain-water harvesting structures, waste segregation system and plantations with in school and trained teachers and school management committee members on maintaining the infrastructures.

Green Action: Reactivated student led environment initiates like Eco-clubs, leveraged Eco-club funds to drive community-based projects on increasing environmental awareness among community members for students.

Scale of Work

No. of Districts

No. of Schools

No. of Beneficiaries

Impact

No. of Teachers Trained

No. of Eco Clubs Formed

Table Of Contents

Water Steward Sarpanch

Unlock Sarpanch’s ability to effectively leverage government funds to plan and implement need- based sustainability initiatives

Overview

Under the 73 rd Amendment, each gram panchayat is empowered to create the development plan for its own village. The gram panchayats receive funds under the 15 th finance commission every year. They must submit a plan called the Gram Panchayat Development Plan which contains a detailed plan for the utilization of the funds allocated to the panchayat under the 15 th Finance Commission. 60% of the funds received are reserved for water and sanitation initiatives. To guide the sarpanches on how to implement the development plan 9 themes on localized sustainable development goals (LSDGs) have been defined, two of the themes out of the nine are on the environment (Water Sufficient Village and Clean and Green Village). In spite of dedicated fund and guiding themes sarpanches struggle to drive sustainability initiatives and saturate environmental infrastructure in their villages. Some of the major reasons are:

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Buniyadi Shiksha Abhiyan

Significace and Goals

Sarpanches are not well informed

Sarpanches are unaware of the themes defined under LSDGs. They also lack knowledge on the effective utilization of funds for water and sanitation.

Need-based approach not adopted during the GPDP preparation process

GPDP preparation is supposed to be a participative process and the GPDP needs to be prepared as per the needs of the village but it is not done in a participative way and the process is seen just as a means to ensure utilization of funds.

Non-utilization of allocated funds

Many of the panchayats are not able to fully the funds they receive post approval of GPDP, and the funds are taken back.

Need of the hour

To empower sarpanches so that they develop a vision to saturate sustainability infrastructure in their village and encourage the GPDP process to be carried out in a participative manner to ensure GPDP caters to the need of the village.

Interventions

Piramal Foundation with the aim empowering sarpanches to drive sustainability
interventions, have carried out the following interventions
Jalvayu Soochna: Trained the Sarpanches on GPDP processes and GPDP themes on environment (Water Sufficient Village and Clean and Green Village).

Jalvayu Aayojan: Conducted Participatory Rural Appraisal Activities to ensure need-based interventions are taken into the GPDP, supported sarpanches prepare GPDP based on the priorities of the community.

Jalvayu Kriyanvan: Set up protocols for a community-led governance mechanism to monitor progress on implementation.

Scale of Work

No. of Districts

No. of Beneficiaries

No. of Gram Panchayats:

Impact

No. of Sarpanches Trained

No. of GPDP approved

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