Licypriya Kangujam, who is in Mumbai for a talk, says city, despite its heritage characteristics, is highly polluted
The SUKIFU kit developed with the support of IIT professor Chandan Ghosh
Licypriya Kangujam has been the subject of many headlines. A fair chunk of those refer to her as the Indian Greta Thunberg. So, earlier this month, she set the record straight, saying that even though she shared the same goal as the Swedish teen activist, she was "truly Licypriya of India". Although her passion for the environment blossomed when she was all of four years old, she never dreamt of becoming an activist; her intention was merely to create awareness about the destruction she observed.
Hailing from Manipur, she started attending various international conferences and workshops with her father KK Singh, a local activist. She accompanied him to raise funds for the Nepal Earthquake in 2015 — travelling by road to Kathmandu with relief material and food. In July 2018, she founded an organisation called The Child Movement to urge world leaders to take immediate action to save the planet. In the following year, she began a Parliament strike, and dropped out of school in Bhubaneswar for a year. It made her the centre of media attention when she sent a message to PM Narendra Modi and the MPs to pass the climate change law that allows for the control of carbon emissions and green house gases. The law hasn't been brought to fruition but Kangujam hasn't stopped her protest. She has now made her way to Mumbai for a talk at TEDxGateway this Sunday.
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Licypriya with Michael Bloomberg at the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid last year. Pic/Getty Images
"My life has changed completely," Kangujam tells us in an email interview. So far, she has travelled to 32 countries and has thousands of supporters across the globe. "I used to beg at the doors of media houses to cover the news of various activities I did. Today, they automatically come to cover my daily work," she adds. It's Kangujam's first visit to Mumbai or the 'city of heritage,' as she calls it, but she is not very impressed by her surroundings. "It is highly polluted. On the way from the airport to the city, the roads are full of plastic [waste]," she says.
Spurred on by the air pollution crises prevalent in countless metros across the globe, Kangujam has also conceptualised a SUKIFU kit (Survival Kit for the Future), inspired by designer Chiu Chih. Developed with the support of Chandan Ghosh, a professor at IIT Jammu, the kit comprises a potted plant in a clear backpack attached to tubes that funnel fresh air into a face mask. She believes that the Government of India can't control environmental issues without public support and cooperation and also brushes off Mumbai's image of a city with one of the highest living standards in the country with an analogy. "Putting cosmetics on our face can't clean the heart and mind. We need to clean our heart with love and respect for our planet and at the same time, we need to change our mindset to keep our surroundings neat and clean," she quips.
Kangujam at a climate march with schoolchildren in Luanda City, Angola
Kangujam states that the genesis of environmental problems in the city is the fact that Mumbaikars refuse to believe it is a problem. Given that Mumbai was originally composed of seven islands and other smaller landmasses she says, "The problems have emerged due to the creation of the city itself." She feels the mangroves that are disappearing need our attention and adds that the state government needs to be sincere in implementing the Coastal Regulations Zone (CRZ) rules as per the Supreme Court Order of 1991.
Another area that worries Kangujam is the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. "The existence of this green space is being threatened by illegal construction activity, encroachment by slums and quarrying which has led to the erosion of the land and have also affected the habitats of the animals," she shares. To avoid doom, the young activist says that it is imperative for Mumbaikars to listen to young voices who are fighting to save their future. It's what she will highlight on Sunday, too. "I will talk about what changes can be brought about by a little, eight-year-old girl for her country and what young people, especially children, can do to change the world."
On February 23, 10 am to 6.30 pm
At Dome @ NSCI, SVP Stadium, Lotus Colony, Worli.
Log on to insider.in
Cost Rs 1,500 (for the entire conference)
Roll of honour
. When she was seven, Kangujam received the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Children Award 2019
. Last year, she was also awarded the World Children Peace Prize by the Institute for Economics and Peace
. She is the youngest person to have addressed a United Nations conference
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