When Ekta Shekhar created a 12-ft-high replica of human lungs using iron rods and HEPA (high efficiency particulate arresting) filters, and installed it in the Lalbagh area of Lucknow in 2019, she was not sure how far this small act would help in tackling one of the most pressing global issues.
“Air pollution has been the leading cause of deaths globally every year. While Delhi and Bengaluru are the top cities of concern, we wanted to gauge the impact in Lucknow. It took six days for the lungs to turn black in Delhi, 18 days in Bengaluru and 24 hours in Lucknow,” says Shekhar, the founding director of The Climate Agenda (TCA), a policy advocacy group founded in 2017.
In over a decade of climate intervention, Shekhar’s narrative has been simple. While she evaluated garbage burning, diesel consumption, uncontrolled construction activities as major causes of air pollution in states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand, she also collaborated with stakeholders to bring awareness and transition among people.
“The idea was to connect the cultural identity of the people with a climate motion and to help the policy makers understand the need of sufficient data in order to plan and execute targeted solutions of rising toxicity in the air,” says Shekhar, who installed 40 low-cost air quality monitoring devices, with an average cost of Rs 10,000 each, across 40 districts in eastern UP . Several mobile-communication campaigns were executed until 2019 which resulted in a multi-dimensional shift in data literacy.
The data generated by the devices pushed the Central government to adopt 16 UP cities into the list of non-attainment cities and put a city-centric AQI management plan in place. While developing this plan, TCA worked with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and other agencies concerned to prepare mitigation plans as per the local evidence generated by the data monitoring devices, besides initiatives like the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME), advocating for the electrification of public transport fleets and green urban mobility.
Shekhar’s journey to climate intervention actually started in 2012 while working on a project in Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh, where a strong grassroots movement and a subsequent order by the Supreme Court cancelled all the coal block allotments, saving the forest from coal mining. “I learnt two things here—women, tribal and peasant communities are the strongest agencies of climate protection and conservation practices. Every act requires energy besides responsible consumption. It is important to look for other sources of energy which have lesser impact on ecology,” says the 40-year-old resident of Varanasi.
For Shekhar, climate advocacy happened when PM Modi was fighting elections from Varanasi in 2014 and everyone watched the prime time debate on Delhi’s air pollution. But no one thought of the ambient air quality in UP, which was the most polluted zone in the country. “The chances of amplification of work were high since Varanasi was represented in Lok Sabha by the PM himself.
A volunteer-led campaign under our non-registered organisation Care4Air was initiated in 2015, which was an opportunity to divert the local interest of people and policymakers from New Delhi to cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Kanpur and Allahabad,” says Shekhar, who feels climate advocacy is an uphill battle as expanding to new regions has a set of challenges. “We haven’t taken any government support because if you take money it is difficult to point out their weaknesses,” admits Shekhar, who has volunteered to teach poor kids in nearby villages in Varanasi, did side jobs to support family, wrote articles and took small contribution from friends for items like a project standee, to make ends meet.
Shekhar is now working on Harit Safar, an initiative of TCA on climate action, sustainable urban development and reducing inequalities in UP and Bihar, as these regions demand urgent action.
