Delhi Environment Action Network (DEAN) orientation workshop
Aditi Haldar

on September 6, Development Alternatives organised an orientation workshop under its Delhi Environment Action Network (DEAN)programme. The programme aims at awakening and sensitising the community to the dangers confronting the environment and hopes to arouse a sense of responsibility and sensitivity among people to face various local environmental issues and take up appropriate actions. The main role players of the programme are children. DEAN is in operation in 11 schools in Delhi.

Students and teachers from  four schools—Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj,  Mother’s International, Naval Public School and Sadhu Vaswani School — attended the workshop, which is only a part of the DEAN programme. The objective of the workshop was to train the ‘core team’ of the programme consisting of two teachers and four students from class VIII to XII. The core team in turn  would then go  on to train more students once they go back to their respective schools. This helps them to build a strong motivated group in the school to carry on the programme throughout the year.

Teachers and students were given training in various aspects at the workshop:

In the recently organised orientation workshop many schools who wanted to participate in the programme were invited to get the training. Some old DEAN schools also came as their new teacher coordinator for the present year wanted to receive training. The new schools interacted with the old DEAN team and could get valuable practical tips on how to carry out the programme in a better way.

The workshop received an enthusiastic response from both students and teachers. Many felt that the DEAN programme could go a long way in raising environmental awareness. Said Maria Mathai, a teacher at Naval Public School: “ Such workshops help in creating a sense of environmental responsibility in our students. In a context where everybody is quite hopeless about the environmental situation, our students feel they are doing something worthwhile. After all even one drop can create an ocean. The environmental awareness that is generated at this workshop filters down to families and localities.”

For  schools that have not yet enrolled for the DEAN programme, the workshop was an eyeopener. Rachna Gupta, a teacher from Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, described it as “very motivating” but went on to add that, “It is very difficult to move things at the top level. We can motivate our students to have a greater understanding of their environment but unless the authorities are shaken up nothing will happen.”

Abhishekh Swamy, a student of class X in Naval Public School, was  upbeat about the workshop. Said Swamy: “We apply the principles of conservation learnt through DEAN in our daily lives. For instance, many of us use cycles instead of cars when we go for tuition.”

The DEAN programme is a part of Development Alternatives’ national level Community Level Environment Action Network (CLEAN) programme which began in August 1996. There will be CLEAN regional centres at the metros of the country along with the CLEAN monitoring centres with their field stations at the district level. Recently the CLEAN programme has been launched in Meghalaya where it is known as Meghalaya Environment Action Network (MEAN) programme.   q   

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