My work on sustainability stresses policy and its implementation. Some of the initiatives I have worked on include sand mining, noise pollution and air pollution. Alternatives to sand mining were ordered by the Bombay High Court in 2010 in response to public interest litigation which I filed through my NGO Awaaz Foundation, working along with Dr. Shyam Asolekar, a professor of IIT who presented the alternatives to the Bombay High Court including recycling of waste materials.
The other subjects which I have concentrated on is control of noise, a lesser known environmental and public health hazard. I have also done some work against air-pollution, to find ways where data generated through the citizen science programmes can be used to create awareness and for better enforcement of policies.
I have been helping people to find out ways by which they can generate their own data and take action to engage the authorities to mitigate the problem. At the same time, I have been coordinating efforts to support policies through the legal, administrative and through partnerships with the government towards education and awareness.
Good Policies Need Good Implementation.
We have come to the point that everyone talks about the environment which is a huge change and a good change, but we have not yet come to the point where we can see implementation of policies which translate to systemic grassroot changes.
We often have very good policies, but when it comes to action on the ground there is a long road ahead of us. The good thing is young people are becoming more and more environmentally conscious and they are the ones who are going to lead the actual action on the ground, which is lagging under our current leadership.
