Every year, World Environment Day is observed and efforts are made to help make the planet a cleaner place to live in. In Delhi, a city that is chocking on poor air quality the need to have more green spaces is vital and an initiative by the Hind Bhartiyam Foundation in association with Kavi - The Poetry-Art Project plans to do just that albeit with a twist.
On July 5 and 6, visitors to the DLF Promenade Mall, Vasant Kunj will receive recycled planters to take home to plant and nurture so that every Delhiite will be given the opportunity to create a small space either in their home or office that will contribute in a small way to make the air cleaner.
Over the past fifteen days, around 20,000 recycled planters with plants have been made by inmates of the Tihar Jail as part of a campaign titled “Let’s Regain Delhi’s Fresh Air.”
The inmates learnt to plant a sapling each, and dedicated it with a piece of poetry as an invocation to life. They were even to encouraged to name the sapling and most of the inhabitants named them after their children or of those are close to them. The named saplings that have so far been cared for by the inmates will be distributed to the public along with the poem so that those who receive it will take care of it and continue its journey.
Madhuri Balodi, co-founder of Kavi The Poetry-Art Project, speaking about the initiative said poetry has no language but has pure emotions that connect hearts. “Convicts were happy while participating and wrote beautiful poems which we are going to be distribute with the plants to showcase the other side of the people who are behind the bars,” she said.
After a workshop, Shamim Akhter, founder of Hind Bhartiyam Foundation, said, “we did our first workshop at Tihar Jail to spread a message to all - if the members of a prison can exhibit such passion in doing their bit for the earth, what is stopping free citizens of the city and the world from giving their best to the green cause.”
Students from various colleges, people from slum areas and women who are working for green cause are also participating in this campaign to curb pollution in an initiative that will hopefully last beyond just June 5.
