Hyderabad students join global strike against climate change

Swedish teen has started ‘Fridays for Future’ movement

March 16, 2019 12:39 am | Updated 09:08 am IST - Hyderabad

HYDERABAD, Telangana, 15/03/2019: Hundreds of schoolchildren take part in a climate protest in Hyderabad's KBR Park on March 15, 2019.  Students worldwide plan to skip class Friday in protest over their governments' failure to act against global warming.  Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu

HYDERABAD, Telangana, 15/03/2019: Hundreds of schoolchildren take part in a climate protest in Hyderabad's KBR Park on March 15, 2019. Students worldwide plan to skip class Friday in protest over their governments' failure to act against global warming. Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu

The worldwide ‘Fridays for Future’ movement had its ripples in Hyderabad as hundreds of schoolchildren in uniform stood outside the KBR Park gate and demanded immediate action with regard to climate change.

Call for action

The students drawn from 13 schools in Banjara Hills, Tolichowki, Purana Pul and other areas of the city danced, held placards and chanted slogans calling for action. The Hyderabad protests was somewhat different in the sense that the school teachers escorted the students to the protest site unlike in other countries where the students themselves tread the protest path.

“Birds are dying that’s why we are protesting. We have to take care of climate; only then can we have a future,” said A. Jatin, a Class IV student of Kendriya Vidyalaya who had come with his father to the protest site.

“There is a lot of pollution leading to health problems. Awareness might bring about a change,” said Muhammad Faisal, a class VIII student of Grace Model School, Sabzi Mandi area.

‘Fridays for Future’ movement started when Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg skipped class to show her sense of the futility of going to school. ‘When we do not have a future, school does not matter’, was her logic.

Note to leaders

In Hyderabad, the climate change protest dovetailed with the movement to Save KBR Park as well as with the forthcoming general elections. One of the students held aloft a placard that read: “ Ab ki Baar Climate change pe Sarkaar .”

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