UNEP: In India’s Bihar state, one campaigner takes on plastic pollution

Activism works. That is the key takeaway for one Scout and Guides leader in eastern India’s Bihar State.

Rituraj, who goes by one name, is an active campaigner for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-led Tide Turners Challenge, a global youth movement that fights plastic pollution. This year, the 33-year-old emerged as one of the campaign’s leading lights, single-handedly encouraging 50,000 young people to join a drive to rid their neighbourhoods of single-use plastics. Not only that, Rituraj has also won government backing to set up programmes to raise awareness of plastic pollution in every school in Bihar, which is home to 123 million people.

“I strongly feel that transformation can only happen when we get the youth and community to collaborate on finding solutions,” he said. “We need to ensure that our society rids itself of single-use plastic products so that we can free beautiful Mother Earth from this plastic menace.”

While Bihar State is landlocked, large amounts of plastic waste contaminate its rivers – principally the Ganges, which courses through 400km of Bihar – and ends up in the ocean. Plastic pollution is also an eyesore and health hazard, with toxic fumes released during routine burning of rubbish aggravating air pollution. Single-use plastics are a major contributor to this pollution.

The problem is not unique to India, however. Humanity produces 300 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, of which about 8 million tonnes ends up in the ocean. In the last 50 years, plastic production has increased more than 22 times. Yet in 2015, only an estimated 9 per cent of plastics were recycled.

Scout leader Rituraj, who goes by one name, has led a campaign against single-use plastics in India’s Bihar state.
Scout leader Rituraj, who goes by one name, has led a campaign against single-use plastics in India’s Bihar state. Photo: Rituraj
Along with organizing clean-up drives, Rituraj has lobbied governments to join the fight against plastic. In April, he petitioned top government officials in Bihar and to his surprise, just two months later, the state banned the production and distribution of a range of single-use plastic products, including cutlery, water pouches and flags. Social media was abuzz with the news and many senior government officials lauded the efforts of Scouts and Guides in helping to bring about change.

“Rituraj is a great example of how local youth activism can drive nature-positive change,” says Gayatri Raghwa, UNEP’s Tide Turners Challenge coordinator in India.

During celebrations marking 75 years of Indian independence, Rituraj spoke about Tide Turners in Bihar. Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav praised the initiative. The message got back to Bihar state officials and in October they endorsed Rituraj’s plan to have 15 anti-plastic campaigners in every school (Rituraj calls them “plastic warriors”).

“Rituraj has brought about a qualitative change in the thinking and behaviour of people through his single-use plastics eradication campaign,” said Samar Bahadur Singh, District Education Officer in Vaishali. “Congratulations to him for being instrumental in forming ‘plastic warrior’ teams in schools.”

We need to ensure that our society rids itself of single-use plastic products so that we can free beautiful Mother Earth from this plastic menace.

Rituraj, Scout leader
Clean-up of the Ganges

Rituraj and his Scouts and Guides are supporting the government’s National Mission for Clean Ganga and UNEP’s 2019 CounterMEASURE initiative. The latter aims to identify where and how land-based plastic is leaking into waterways, such as rivers and canals, that drain into the sea.

A recent UNEP report, From Pollution to Solution, says that globally there has been a surge in local activism and government actions on single-use plastics, plastics recycling and community clean-ups. It points out, however, that “the current situation is a mixture of widely varying business practices and national regulatory and voluntary arrangements.”

The report says that about 7 billion of the estimated 9.2 billion tons of plastic produced between 1950 and 2017 became waste. Three-quarters of that total went to landfills, became part of uncontrolled waste streams, or was dumped in the environment, including at sea.

That plastic, the report notes, eventually breaks down into microplastics which can enter the food chain. Microplastics act as vectors for pathogenic organisms harmful to humans, fish and aquaculture stocks, says the report. When ingested, they can cause changes in gene and protein expression, inflammation, disruption of feeding behaviour, decreases in growth and changes in brain development.

India’s youth take on plastic pollution
The Tide Turners’ programme, funded by the United Kingdom, has so far trained over 470,000 young people in 32 countries on the importance of self-knowledge and behaviour change, and community outreach and awareness-raising. As part of the challenge, participants had to prove they have helped to bring about concrete change, for example, by influencing policy or restoring biodiversity through clean-ups.

A recent report on the impact of the programme in India concluded that there is considerable demand among students and young professionals for digital education programmes, with over 150,000 participants enrolling in the Tide Turners Challenge in 2021. The analysis showed how leaders from remote areas of India are willing to learn, collaborate and innovate if given the right guidance and resources. “Another takeaway is the importance of including those from less privileged backgrounds and limited access to resources,” the report said.

Many of participants in the Tide Turners Challenge have been Scouts. “Scouting is all about taking local action and mobilizing your community on local issues for global impact,” says Cynthia Marguez, Director of World Initiatives under the World Organization of the Scout Movement. “Congratulations to Rituraj and his Scouts and Guides for being exemplary active citizens in leading positive change, going beyond in coordinating efforts with young people, community actors and local governments in healing our planet.”

Rituraj said he has been inspired by the transformative power of the Tide Turners programme. “I have always been concerned about environmental and social causes and that is the main reason I joined the Scouts movement,” said Bihar. “The Tide Turners programme provided me with the opportunity to fight for a cause that is so dear to my heart.”