A ban on plastics has been on the anvil for a long time, but this is for the first time that the government has come so close to implementing it. The new law came in force on August 1. A lot has been already talked about the cause of ban and punishments. But, still while crossing interiors of the city, streets and lanes, plastic usage is clearly visible. At many places down the city, heaps of plastic garbage is marking question on the management.

So, In search of the pioneers who can take initiative to bring community level participation, UT came across very interesting social activist who is working earnestly in Udaipur to eradicate plastics and providing its substitute.

This social activist is Mr. Manish Jain who has spent the past eleven years as Coordinator of Shikshantar in Udaipur. In Shikshantar they aim to provoke, challenge and dismantle factory-schooling and construct and connect new open learning communities.

Shikshantar has named their idea against plastics as” Zero Waste”. They have aimed at REFUSE i.e. If you don’t want plastic say NO to it.

They are having team of 10 people, who stitch bags from clothes donated by Udaipurites. They sell these bags for 1 rupee. Places where they have already done distribution are fateh sagar, nimach mata, fatehpura and to several shop owners.

Main bottleneck they are facing in this activity is to get clothes. They need more clothes to carry on this activity on larger scale. One strategy they look upon is to invite people at their place and show them how they use their given cloth, so that people can get inspire.

Recently, they organized a big event at nimach mata where they distributed free paper bags and ladoos to 5,000 people. Moreover, they have selected 20 people for patrolling, aiming to built  citizen Task force, which will keep a check on plastic usage and will report to concerned authority on violating the rules.

Mr. Manish says, we have been free riders as citizens for so long. Actually, we are exploiting resources which we should preserve for our future generation. But in doing so there should be no fear based system imposed on public. Media should come up with new ideas. Ultimate mission should be developing consciousness and wisdom.

“The leatherback turtle can keep itself warm in cold water, dive over 1000 meters below sea level, travel thousands of miles and gulp down a Portuguese man-of-war but is threatened by the inert plastic shopping bag” – Mrosovsky, N. 1987

Contact Shikshantar

Manish Jain

Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development 83 Adinath Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 313004 INDIA Tel: 91-294-245-1303