Roles of Youth in making the cities clean
Would it help if I keep on refraining from getting an extra plastic bag at my local grocery store? Is me
keeping the chocolate wrapper in my pocket till I find a dustbin a way out of this mess? With
thoughts like these, I spend hours debating in my head, questioning if any of it is worth it,
questioning if the mountain’s too high to be climbable, and questioning if we’re trying to fight an issue
with no right answer. With sights of disordered heaps of garbage, stinging corners, and plastics flying
around, for a moment it feels unattainable: the idea of a cleaner city.
Growing up in one of the biggest cities of Nepal, I’ve experienced different eras and can confidently
say it is growing faster than ever. With the increase in the trend of urbanization, the population here
has increased by around 150,000 in just over a decade directly meaning to increase in pollution.
Young people constitute a large part of the population and we will have to live longer with the
consequences of current environmental decisions than our elders. Future generations will also be
affected by these decisions we make. While on the one hand dirty city impacts our daily lifestyle, it
also affects the entire surrounding biological home. Even though many rules, laws, and conventions
have been made in the way for protecting the environment, there is no effective implementation.
And, this is where we youth can have a leading role.
Youth being fit and energetic could use their physical strength to volunteer in cleanliness campaigns,
but our generation is beyond this. Yes, it always has to start with first-cleaning-the-city, however
rather than volunteering at a cleaning camp, using time, energy, and resources to find a much better
sustainable solution is what I find wise. From cities like Indore, we’ve witnessed the power of
systems rather than goals. Therefore, We, the youth could work on breaking the chain and creating
new norms. Norms like segregating waste products at the home level, norms like managing your
garbage everywhere you go, norms like sweeping streets on weekends, and norms like buying
sustainable products. As per statistics, 58 % of us want to start up our own brands, and this could be
taken as an advantage to start new environmental trends like sustainable packaging, recycling,
reusing, and refurbishing.
Claiming the change youth action can bring, it is also crucial for us to understand the importance of
creating a better future generation. When you create a system for the newer generation to clean up
after themselves, you’ll grow up to see all of it being normalized and done with bare energy. This is
why responsible parenting is also one of our responsibilities for a cleaner & sustainable city.
We can tackle the biggest problem our society faces if we start to care less about sharing posts on
social media and instead focus on the tiniest actions we could do to actually help. Solving isn’t easy
but if all the people who’re trying to do this come together under a shared vision, a shared goal, and
a shared identity, creating these systems is not only possible, it is inevitable.
It doesn't matter if you’re a student or a scientist, whether you live in Banke or Butwal, this is a
community for everyone. It could start as a small youth initiative from a tiny corner in the city and
someday could spread across all. And you know how we’re getting there? One piece at a time. So, I
guess I’ll keep carrying my tote bag to the shops, keep collecting my litter and keep being optimistic.
Class XII-D-Science-Day-Diya Bhusal