Massive campaign in India to create a network of Young Energy Ambassador by Vijnana Bharati
Pitch
Massive campaign on energy conservation and renewable energy in Indian schools aimed towards building a network of Energy Ambassadors
Description
Summary
Students are the best catalyst to bring about a change in the society. Building a new energy conscious generation by imparting education to school children can prove to be effective for a developing country like India in the long run. Training students to become ambassadors, termed as Urja Rakshaks, for energy conservation is the crux of this proposal.
Urja Wahini - the Energy Clubs, a National Mission is envisaged as an effort of Vijnana Bharati, to keep the momentum of the mass movement for an “Energy Self-Reliant India.” The main objective is to create energy awareness among students, teachers, and parents with the primary focus being the students in the age group of 11-14 years.
The project will be implemented in a phase-wise manner in the next 10 years. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are already completed in different parts of India where 2100 Energy Ambassadors are created in phase 1 and 4,800 in phase 2 with total energy saving of around 2,41,500 KWh achieved.
This promising model now needs to be scaled up. National Government of India has appreciated these efforts and is now supporting this initiative of Vijnana Bharati to start energy clubs all over the country.
Which proposals are included in your plan and how do they fit together?
All the proposals in some or the other way are contributing for climate change. So, instead of just linking 1 or 2 proposals, we can say that mainly the proposals saying to change the attitude and behavior of the people can be linked to this proposal.
To bring about a permanent change amongst the people, we should "Catch them Young." This is what to whole idea is about which can create a permanent impact in addressing this issue of climate change.
Explanation of the emissions scenario calculated in the Impact tab
What are the plan’s key benefits?
The key benefits of the project are listed below:
1. Institutional development- This program will bring in one of the largest stakeholders in the society to the mission of energy conservation. The schools not only constitute a vital set of stakeholder institution but also are instrumental in developing and sharing knowledge.
2. Catalyzing Local innovation- Institutions becoming knowledge platform and energy management centre's for the society will be an added advantage. These knowledge centre's will contribute to local energy innovation and encourage interest of students in energy saving and renewable energy.
3. Enormous possibility of energy saving- India has the world's largest youth population, 356 million 10-24 year-olds. Urja Rakshaks, the torch bearers of this National Mission are going to play a vital role in shaping country economy. Even if we can save 1KWh of electricity per day, we would be able to save 365 Million KWh of electricity per day and around 130 Billion KWh per year!
What are the plan’s costs?
Since this programme covers a national level activity involving 1000 educational institutions, 2000 teaching staff and 1,00,000 students, the total budget is estimated to be around Rs 2,61,00,000/- (i.e. $ 4,08,004).
Around 50% of this budgeted amount will be raised by Vijnana Bharati by getting funding from various companies, individuals, organisations etc and seeking support for remaining 50% amount from the Government of India.
What are the key challenges to enacting this plan?
India is a country with diverse culture, climatic conditions, languages etc and with different problems being faced altogether. At one side we find private schools with good infrastructure, good laboratories, smart digital classrooms while the schools in rural India have no access to electricity with very few qualified teachers to teach. So, addressing such issues is the biggest challenge in India.
Since Vijnana Bharati has got its network all over India, and many scientist members working for it voluntarily, we have started translating this study module in different major languages in India like Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali and Tamil. Also, we are now developing different modules for schools in rural and urban areas.
Timeline
The time line for this project is from August 2015 to March 2018 (i.e. around 135 weeks).
Out of these 135 weeks, 45 weeks are spared for examinations and other holidays. Hence, we expect to get around 90 weeks for conducting various activities.
The activities are also planned in such a ways which will give the students the practical knowledge and hands-on experience in learning various working principles of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. The students should learn to handle during their schooling, like solar panels, generators, LED's etc so they will understand that its not a rocket science, which will also increase the curiosity in them to learn more and adopt it.
Activity Session at Ujjain:
Teacher's Training Camp at Bhopal:
Related plans
References
[1] Energy Statistics Report 2014 published by Central Statistics Office of National Statistical Organisation functioning under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India:
Link:http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/Energy_stats_2014.pdf
[2] Energy Information Administration, Department Of Energy:
[3] Urja Wahini Phase 1 and Phase 2 completion reports
[4] News of United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World’s Population report published in The Hindu daily's Business Line supplement:
By:
Vijnana Bharati
