New Delhi: Varanasi is spreading the message of ‘Go Green’ during the festival of lights – Diwali in a unique way. From last one week, in the bid to save environment from the side effects of bursting crackers, a group of around 25 women, mostly housewives wearing dark green sarees are going door-to-door, shouting anti crackers/firecrackers slogans and distributing earthen lamps with earnest appeal for celebrating eco-friendly Diwali.
Our motive is simple, to make people aware about eco-friendly Diwali. We are distributing traditional earthen lamps that will not only keep the environment healthy but also generate employment in rural areas, says one of the members of the Green Group.
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These women are not only convincing people not to use high decibel crackers that pollutes the environment but also making sure that children of the city take an oath to celebrate eco-friendly Diwali and learn an important message of why it is important for India to take this step.
Apart from the ‘Go Green’ message, the group is also motivating people to give up the use of polythene and make the village clean and beautiful with their own efforts.
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The green group was formed 2 years ago by youths of different academic institutions to fight against social evils in the city. Since then the group has fought many issues, the recent on the list being Air Pollution. The data for August from Uttar Pradesh‘s Pollution Control Board shows that pollution in Varanasi is up by over 10 per cent compared to August last year. As per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the ultra-pollutants in Varanasi like PM 2.5 and PM 10 were recorded to be 990 and 687.9 micrograms per cubic metres respectively last year after Diwali, while the prescribed standard for PM 2.5 is 60 and PM 10 is 100.
