En‘light’ened kids pitch for green Deepavali with peers

Last Deepavali, nine-year-old Naisha Rajani, was watching the children from her apartment lighting up the noisy thousand-wallahs. Startled by the loud noise of the crackers, a pigeon which was sitting on her window pane lost balance and fell to its death. This incident affected the Class 5 student that she vowed never burst crackers. “I felt so bad that I decided to spread awareness among my friends. I made charts talking about the ecological problems caused by these crackers and how they affect animals. I started talking about it to my classmates. My best friend Nikita too said she would not burst crackers and help me with my campaign,” said Naisha.

Palak, Naisha’s mother, said her daughter has been pitching the concept of eco-friendly Deepavali to other families living in their apartment complex. “Some of them have agreed to celebrate the festival without crackers. Her school was quite supportive and they even gave her a platform to address the younger children who are more attracted to crackers,” said the doting mother. 

Jai Aswani, a Class 9 student and marathoner from Sindhi Model School, and his brother have been running a campaign against crackers for the past five years. “My group has been very encouraging. During my runs, I spread the message. In addition, we have been campaigning on Sundays at Besant Nagar,” he said, adding that not everybody is supportive. Preet, who tags along with his elder brother, said, “Many of my close friends have stopped bursting crackers. Now I want to make sure that other too say no to fireworks this Deepavali.”

Varsha, their mother, said that it was an awareness talk that got her children celebrating Deepavali without crackers. “When my sons said that they did not want to burst crackers, I told them that if they encouraged their friends to follow the same, I would give them a gift. They immediately set about making charts and going door-to-door in our apartment complex. We have convinced over 3,000 people to celebrate without fireworks,” she said, proudly.