#PublicTransportChallenge gets people to embrace Metro and buses

Outdoor air pollution has been termed as the fifth largest killer in India, with an average of over a million deaths linked to it each year, according to studies. With vehicles contributing significantly to air pollution, city-based NGO Hand in Hand India and its arm Hand in Hand Inclusive Development and Services have devised a challenge to promote public transport usage among Chennai’s residents.

Named the #PublicTransportChallenge2019, it requires its participants to use only public transport for an entire day — which can be the Metro, buses or share autos. “With the United Nations Environment Programme marking the World Environment Day on June 5 with the theme of ‘Beat Air Pollution’, we wanted to create a challenge that would help in cutting vehicular emissions. So, on the lines of the viral ‘ice bucket’ and ‘rice bucket’ challenges in the past, we started the Public Transport Challenge 2019. Even though the challenge is taken up for just one day, there can be a significant contribution to reducing the carbon footprint if many people take it up,” Parisutham Vedamuthu, the general manager at Hand in Hand Inclusive Development and Services, tells DT Next.

For instance, a car driven in our city emits an average of 300 g of carbon dioxide per km, while a motorcycle gives out nearly 250 gm per km. A challenge like this can help not only in throwing light on the air pollution, but also in keeping a few vehicles off the roads. Several of the city’s denizens are taking part in the challenge and filling social media with pictures of themselves in one of the public transportation modes. They can then tag at least 5 of their family members, friends or colleagues to take part in it. “We also plan to follow up with the participants who took part in the challenge to encourage their use of public transport ahead as well,” adds Parisutham.

Twenty-three-year-old Elango Krishnan, an employee at an automobile firm in the city, says he took the challenge so that he could get back to using the city buses. “I had stopped taking the bus for the past few years, since I have been using the motorcycle. The challenge allowed me to comfortably travel in the public bus, which I would not have done otherwise. I could also save some money on the fuel,” Elango says.

Another participant, Saravana Kumar Srinivasan, says he was surprised to learn that one day of keeping his motorcycle away from the roads could contribute quite a bit to the environment. “I wanted to be part of raising awareness on air pollution, so I took the bus to get wherever I needed to for the entire day. Even though the last mile connectivity was a problem while using public transport, I was happy to have cut down at least a bit of carbon emissions for the day,” he admits.

Hand in Hand India’s Vice President Sahaana Sankar hopes that the challenge goes viral. “We really want to create a dialogue on air pollution and help people be more cognizant about what they can do to make a difference — no matter how small it is,” she says.