Re-viewing Mumbai—Convent of Jesus and Mary (Fort)


11th August 2011

For the students of Fort Convent as well as the GreenLine team, today was a day of many discoveries. Fort Convent being among the most renowned schools in the city, we were eager to meet the students and discuss with them the issues of waste management and waste minimization.

The very first thing that struck us during the session was that the concerns and perceptions of these students from ‘Old Bombay’ are quite different from those of students in other parts of the city. Since the Fort area is largely clean and well-maintained, we realized that waste is not an obvious, glaring problem and so, the issue may often go unnoticed.

For their part, the students were extremely open to the idea that although we may not see where our waste goes, we are responsible for its safe disposal. The children quickly understood that all of us are producers of waste, and that to reduce it, we need to make lifestyle choices that are healthy for ourselves and for the environment.

The session concluded with the teachers, too, expressing their interest in making environmental projects a part of the marking and evaluation system in the school. We came away from the session with the certainty that many of these students will lead the way in adopting and advocating greener living habits.

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