Sarita Arya is a Fellow at Youth Leaders for Clear Air Fellowship by Clean Air Fund in the collaboration with Pravah.
Here, Sarita is sharing her story of being a part of this prestigious fellowship and designing and executing her unique Social Action Project to address Delhi’s acute air pollution problem.
Her efforts are actively bringing substantive changes in the lives of the residents of Delhi and empowering them to take meaningful action towards a cleaner, greener Delhi.
Go on and read how her story inspires you(th) to take action because the time is now!
How did you come to know about the fellowship? What inspired you to take it up?
I came to know about this fellowship through a WhatsApp group which posts notifications about different fellowships and internships.
I wanted to work for my community for the betterment of it and this fellowship had the potential to provide me with the opportunity for the same so I decided to opt for this fellowship.
What is the most pressing concern with respect to Air Pollution in Delhi?
The most pressing concern with respect to air pollution is vehicular emission and burning paddy/plastic openly.
What problems does your project solve? Briefly describe your efforts to address the issue.
My social action project is planning to help people gain the ability to ask the right questions to the right authorities and take the ownership to tackle the challenges faced by a community. Also, I am working on creating more awareness of air pollution so the knowledge of my community people will be increased which will help them keep a safer environment.
What is your project directly addressing?
It is around making the citizens take ownership to solve the problems of their community.
What motivates you to work towards the long term sustainability of the environment?
There is a need to work towards the sanitation and cleanliness of the community. And the opportunities and tools that were provided to me by the fellowship team motivate me to work hard and achieve the long term sustainability of the environment.
What impact have you affected or plan to achieve?
The president of our community started paying attention to our demands and needs. Our requests and needs have been catered to in a maximum of 2-3 days. I am grateful that my little effort leads to this.
What challenges did you face during the journey? How did you overcome them?
Making people of the community around air pollution was challenging and making them a part of the change too. But it was tackled by the correct advocacy and productive sessions around the cause.
What are the skills and values that you acquired during the fellowship?
I could explore relationship building and get experience in social work and community work. And during the process, my communication skills also got improved.
How do you plan to sustain your project further?
I am planning to continue to support my community and help the people by giving advice and even sometimes can pay an offline visit for the cause.
How can people reading this contribute to your project or cause?
Use public transport as and when possible, prohibit burning plastic, maintain cleanliness and spread awareness for the same and save electricity.
How can others follow in your footsteps towards sustainability?
People should get motivated by my work and hence take action by their own selves rather than expecting others to take care of their needs. Problems are never-ending hence taking ownership of your own community is the need of the hour.
Anything else would you like to say to people who’ll be reading your story?
One should always learn to take ownership of the problems in the community and take action themselves.
We at Young Influx would like to take this opportunity to thank Sarita for taking a leap of faith and sharing her impeccable story with us. We appreciate her efforts and are pleased to bring out her story to a climate-conscious audience.
And hello, dear readers, we welcome you to explore our platform. Give yourself a chance to be illuminated by a varied range of stories of other young people. Read more such stories here!
