Nisha Kumari, a 12-year-old dweller at the Indira Camp in Okhla Phase 1, Delhi, has recently turned more optimistic about the everyday menace of garbage, litter and air pollution affecting her community. Thanks to a five-day workshop held at her camp in June, the youngster, along with other children from her neighbourhood, walked past the narrow alleys of their cluster, using stencils to paint graffiti on the walls of their neighbourhood to spread awareness on throwing household waste in dustbins. Along with 30 other children, between ages 10 and 18, she has been actively shooting polluted areas with cameras and attending art workshops, where discarded plastic bottles were converted into piggy banks. Kumari is one of the participants of a weekly media club run by Lajpat Nagar-based non-profit organisation Kid Powered Media (KPM) to make children aware of environmental issues. KPM works with children in slums to identify the most salient issues brought up by them, and the ones that need attention and community engagement. The efforts of Kumari and her children has paid off, as many shopkeepers and vegetable vendors in the locality have now placed dustbins in front of their shops to discard waste. Solid waste dumps, open drains overrunning with pigs, sewers and pollution-causing local vehicles feature prominently in the innumerable photographs shot by these first-time photographers. As a result of the workshops, children have now volunteered to clean dirty compounds in the neighbourhood. KPM’s programme director Jessie Hodges, says, “We pick a theme every year and this year, the focus was on the environment and the various types of pollution affecting it. Last year, the theme was girl’s safety. Water remains a central issue in the two camps we visited. The children were deeply affected by the presence of the nallah and the stench it generates.” Part of the workshop and the media club is 17-year-old Suraj, a class XII student, who grew up in the urban slum of Jagdamba Camp in south Delhi and was roped in to teach photography. His own photographs have people queuing up for water in the wee hours of the morning. At the workshop, he taught the participants basics of handling a camera. pallavi.chattopadhyay@expressindia.com
