An hour of darkness for a brighter future

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The lights at India Gate were turned off last year for an hour

For one hour today, people across the world will stand together to save energy. With Earth Hour being celebrated today, many in the city are celebrating their commitment towards a better future. And as the world gets ready to switch off the lights for an hour, we check with city youngsters who have been working towards energy conservation on how even the smallest steps towards the cause makes a big change.

These eco-conscious youngsters believe that no major steps are needed to be a part of a green revolution or to work towards climate change, just a little awareness and a few resolves are more than enough to herald a change.
Earth Hour, started in 2007 (2009 in India), is celebrated on the last Saturday of March every year across the world and people express their commitment towards the planet by switching off their lights for one designated hour. Today, Delhi will go dark between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm.
Ruchika Khanna, a recent pass-out of Jesus and Mary College, is a regular at energy conservation events. She thinks reaching out to people through various activities makes a huge difference. “Even if it changes one person in a crowd of 100, it’s a great achievement,” says Ruchika, who recently joined the Cyclothon event organised in the capital by WWF ahead of the Earth Hour celebration that saw participation of more than 500 people.
“I have been a part of the event since the year of its inception. I was in college when it started. It motivated us so much that we took conscious steps to save energy. While leaving a classroom, we made sure we switched off the lights and fans. Individual steps became a movement in our college,” she says.
And many such small efforts have become a bigger movement. Shivangi Arora, a Class 10 student of St. Marks School, Meera Bagh, who has been a part of the school’s Eco Club, says that through the various steps taken by students of the Eco Club, their school saves a lot of energy. “Every class has a member from the Eco Club who ensures that there’s no wastage of electricity,” says Shivangi, who has won many accolades for her work towards energy conservation. Some of the steps taken by the Eco Club of her school include replacement of regular tube lights with T-8 tube lights, cutting down on air-conditioning with alternate cooling system in place among others.
To spread awareness about something as small as switching off the lights doesn’t need a law, feel youngsters. “It can only be done by creating awareness about the results that it will yield,” says Mani Makkar, a first year student of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, DU, who won the 2012 Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards for his contribution to the green movement. “But to inspire the masses about anything requires motivational leadership and regular acknowledgment and encouragement to keep them working towards the cause,” he says.
Mani rues that the authorities in India don’t quite value individual steps towards social causes. Even though he got international recognition for the steps he took for energy conservation, at the time of college admission, his achievements were brushed aside as “junk of paper” by many colleges in DU. “I hope proper measures are taken to motivate those who work for the cause in their own ways, and inspire those who don’t to wake up to what they should be doing,” he concludes.