Getting neighbourly

Do not be surprised if you spot members of your eco-club outside the school gates and around the neighbourhood. They are perhaps at work. Doing their bit for promoting environmental awareness in the community.

More and more eco-clubs are now venturing out of the school premises to share information and learn about environmental issues. So, while a few are just getting familiar with environmental concerns in the community, others have identified issues on which they want to work.

The beginning

The first step is to identify and visit your school's neighbourhood. Students can go around in the locality and talk to people about the use of resources like water and electricity. One can proceed in an organised manner by doing an informal survey of the locality. Later, the teacher can facilitate a discussion on the information collected from the visit and identify key issues on which the club can work or support the community. This is an important step as it helps in identifying issues of common concern. Otherwise one may end up spending time on activities that neither interest nor relate to the community.

In the village

Students of Government Senior Secondary School, Boormajra, Ropar, Punjab, skipped the first step as most of them were from the village. The children knew that the village pond was filthy and people were using it as a dump. So, they cleaned up the pond and started an awareness campaign in the village not to pollute it. After this success they cleaned up an old well and did some plantation alongside. Now they are campaigning for a polythene -free Boormajra.

In the city

Students of Delhi Public School, Rohini (New Delhi) have also been active on the community front. They have adopted a rural settlement nearby and have been campaigning for general cleanliness and sanitation issues. Similarly, students from St. Joseph’s, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, have been working in nearby slums to educate children and women about health and hygiene issues.

Get support

A number of NGOs are supporting schools in taking up community environmental projects. Delhi-based NGO TERI has a programme called CAMPS (Community Adoption and Monitoring Programme for Schools).

It involves communities and the students from adjoining schools to improve the local environmental conditions. The first step is the ‘community walk about’ in which children explore the neighbourhood. They then conduct a ‘community orientation programme’ in which people from the community and students discuss issues and try to figure out solutions. For more information contact: www.teri.res.in/teriin/camps/about.htm

Nadukuppam High School near Auroville, Tamil Nadu, is being supported by Auroville’s Pitchandikulam Bio Resource Centre to take the initiative of studying the biodiversity of the local area.

Students have collected information about nearby ponds, lakes, plants and animals from village elders and other people. In local village meetings, the students share the information with everyone. Each child speaks about the species, he/she has collected infromation on. In fact, the involvement of the school in community environmental issues is perhaps the best way to relate the environment syllabus with real life issues. Even NCERT has put community work ‘exemplar activities’ in its environment education syllabus.

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