Abu Dhabi About 10,000 students in the Indian city of Varanasi will make 500,000 paper bags to minimise the plastic bag menace, inspired by a campaign being run by an Abu Dhabi-based boy.
The Paper Bag Campaign at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT ) at Benaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh was launched last month, after a group of students came to know about the anti-plastic bag campaign run by Abdul Muqeet, who has won several awards, including the Abu Dhabi Award in 2011.
“A group of students of our institute’s Green Club happened to see a video of a boy who put in tremendous efforts making paper bags all by himself. This was how we came to know about Abdul Muqeet and his campaign,” Prateek Hundekar, a Ceramic Engineering student and Convenor of Technex’15, a prestigious annual techno-management festival at the IIT-BHU, told Gulf News.
The paper bag campaign is run as part of Technex, one of the oldest festival among IITs in India, which will be held early next year in its 76th year, he said over the phone from Varanasi on Tuesday.
“We are proud to say that Abdul Muqeet is the Brand Ambassador of this campaign. We chose him because… if a boy so young could make such a huge impact on the society in environmental conservation, I’m sure nobody would ever be able to find an excuse to be ignorant and not contribute towards the welfare of our environment. Having Abdul Muqeet take part in our campaign definitely makes us stronger and inspired,” Hundekar said.
Thirteen-year old Abdul Muqeet, an eighth grader at the Abu Dhabi Indian School, will be flying to Varanasi on Thursday evening to attend an event as part of the campaign.
“I feel extremely happy and proud because I heard that to reach IIT, one has to be very intelligent. I am delighted that somehow I am associated with such a prestigious institution and it will spread the message and awareness to masses against plastic bags,” he told Gulf News on Tuesday.
Hundekar said more than 2,000 IIT students will gather at the campus on Saturday, November 8, and make around 10,000 paper bags within two hours. “We have invited Limca books of records as the event may set a record regarding number of participants and paper bags to be made.”
Since the campaign was launched the students have already made 4,000 bags. “When schoolchildren in the city are also involved, we are confident to reach the target of 500,000 bags,” Hundekar said. All these bags will be distributed to shops in the city, asking them to avoid using plastic bags, he said.
“We students at IIT come from all over the country to a place like Varanasi, which is densely populated and has numerous issues regarding waste management and sanitation. We as an institute believe that we are responsible for civilising the city and ameliorating the damage to the environment done especially since it is the ‘holy city’ of India and is a major tourist spot,” the convenor said.
Abdul Muqeet has made more than 7,000 paper bags since he launched his campaign in 2010. He has conducted more than 150 workshops in schools, colleges and several institutions, and attended prestigious international conferences.
