Bengaluru: This Diwali, schoolchildren were considerate towards the environment by staying away from noisy, smoky firecrackers. Instead, they celebrated the festival by buying sweets and lighting diyas.
City schools have been running awareness programmes to educate children about all this. Manju Sharma, Principal, DPS Bangalore South, said, “We had poster making competitions on Green Diwali themes and our students came up with various ideas. Also in the letter writing session done by standard four and five, children wrote letters to their parents on how they wanted to celebrate Diwali and many wrote that they wanted to stay away from fireworks.”
Her school ran a short film on how the noise and pollution affects animals and birds. They also had an informative session on the children who were made to work in cracker factories. The middle school children could relate to those young kids and many did not want to buy crackers this Diwali.
It seems like the reduced noise of crackers this year came from sensitive students who chose an alternative way to celebrate the festival. “Basically we have a team-based curriculum at school and we look at different themes each year and this year it was, 'how much do we really need? So there are so many things to look at including crackers," said Nooraine Fazal, Chief Executive, Inventure Academy.
She added that their school had conducted a unit study on crackers and the children learned about child labour at such factories. It has impacted them deeply. “The students did not want to buy crackers after learning about the way crackers were made at the factories and also their negative impact on the environment,” Nooraine added.
Also on WhatsApp groups like 'Whitefield Rising' parents were seen posting comments on how their children did not want to celebrate Diwali with firecrackers. Renukesh, principal of NBN Vidyamandir in Bannerghatta, said that the school did not force children to stay away from firecrackers this Diwali, nor did they make them sign any kind of promissory, but children have done so of their own accord.
“We do inform the children about the pollution caused by crackers, but we do not force them to ban the practice of firing crackers. However, we have seen a change in the mindset of the young in terms of celebrating this Diwali more peacefully. Years ago we did lose a student due to cracker accident and that incident had also moved many children.”
