Chandigarh: A week-long 'Green Diwali' campaign was launched in city schools on Monday to raise their awareness and knowledge about the ill-effects of bursting crackers during Diwali. The campaign was launched in Government Model High School, Sector 34, by school education deputy director Chanchal Singh.
The department of environment and education and Yuvsatta, an NGO, aim to inform young students of hazards of dangerous fire-crackers.
Yuvsatta co-ordinator Pramod Sharma and its medical director Dr Bhagat Singh Makkar interacted with over 1000 students of the school in the morning assembly.
Propagating the traditional way of celebrating Diwali, Sharma said, "We should promote gifts of plants, homemade sweets and rangoli instead of bursting crackers and using adulterated sweets." Makkar said, "The cracker industry employs children. By using them, we are indirectly supporting child labour. Air pollution caused by crackers causes and aggravates diseases like asthma, cancer, hearing loss, high blood pressure, sleeping disturbances and nausea."
Chanchal Singh told young students that burning crackers was like burning your parent's hard-earned money. Moreover noise, air and light pollution not only affects humans, but animals, birds, plants and environment too.
School headmaster Vinod Sharma said Diwali was the biggest festival of the country and its sanctity should not be blown away in smoke. Shildren should be strictly instructed to do away with crackers, he added.
The programme ended with an interactive green quiz on ill-effects of crackers. The winners were awarded with the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, "The Story Of My Experiments With Truth".
