Organising a week- long collection drive, involving school, college/students and residents associations, sensitising rag-pickers to ecological hazards, identifying bulk consumers, and holding competitions for children were some of the proposals that emerged at a workshop on e-waste awareness held here on Tuesday.
The workshop organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Puducherry, and the NASSCOM Foundation and Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology has decided to target 33 colleges, 50 government schools and 15 private schools to create awareness of e-waste management.
Besides organising events such as painting, essay and photography competitions with e-waste as key subject, participants decided to involve at least two students from schools in activities related to e-waste management.
Speaking at the inaugural, consultant e-waste management, Ashish Chaturvedi said managing e-waste is a major challenge faced by all developed and developing countries. The best way to tackle the situation is to educate the younger generation about hazards of e-waste to bring in a culture of proper disposal of used electronic items. Director, Department of Science, Technology and Environment, M. Dwarakanath said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has included Puducherry among other nine States to carry out a massive awareness programme on e-waste. It is important to educate the public on the hazards of e-waste to bring on board various stakeholders for evolving proper disposal mechanism.
