Inspired by Greta Thunberg, the climate change activist from Sweden who has been boycotting classes and standing outside the Swedish Parliament with the message ‘Strike for Climate Change,’ thousands of students globally have been skipping classes on 15 March with the same demand.  

At Central Park in Connaught Place in New Delhi students from  Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) came together to protest climate change. According to a recent report, seven out of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, are in India. Gurugram, a suburb in the NCR, is the most polluted city in the world.

Picture: Shrey Gupta

The protesting students, some as young as six, were from more than 25 schools. They showed up with a variety of colourful banners and catchy slogans demanding that the Government of India  make efforts to combat climate change.

Picture: Shrey Gupta

Students from senior classes held up colourful posters they had made. Slogans like, ’Fight pollution’, ‘Grow trees’,  ‘Fight climate change’, ‘No more coal’ were emblazoned across their posters. Living in one of the most polluted cities in the world, children are prone to respiratory illnesses and awareness of climate change is very high.

Picture: Shrey Gupta

Six-year-old Gaurika, a student of  Step-By-Step School in Noida, was the youngest activist present. According to a UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have only 12 years to battle climate change before its dire effects make it even harder to tackle.

Picture: Shrey Gupta

“All of us children have come to fight for our future. We need to take a stand against climate change. We have global warming and sea levels rising affecting islands the most. Over a million marine animals have died because we use plastics and dump all our waste into the ocean. To stop this, all of us have come here today to demand that the government take action against climate change and make this a pressing issue,” said 13-year-old Ram, who is part of PraTYeK, an organisation that campaigns for child rights.

Picture: Shrey Gupta

The children put up a lively street performance. A 2014 World Health Organisation (WHO) report stated that in the coming decades up to 250,000 people could die each year from factors such as malnutrition, heat stress and malaria, all of which are related to climate change.

Reporting: Rwit Ghosh

Picture: Shrey Gupta