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Young people are already driving change, but to sustain and scale it, Environmental Education needs to focus on the right mindsets, mentorship, and meaningful engagement.
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With 65 percent of India's population below the age of 35, cultivating youth as dynamic agents of change can leverage the demographic dividend for reaping the sustainability dividend. This necessitates equipping young people with the right knowledge, mindsets, values, and opportunities to act.
As World Environment Day 2025 inches closer, aiming to end plastic pollution, there is a growing recognition that cities and their youth are the key to forging sustainable futures. Rapid, unplanned urbanisation, unchecked consumption, and inadequate waste management systems have made India’s urban centres the epicentre of the plastic menace. There is transformative potential within these cities: if shaped and guided through education, the abilities of young people can lead to a shift towards a circular economy.
With 65 percent of India's population below the age of 35, cultivating youth as dynamic agents of change can leverage the demographic dividend for reaping the sustainability dividend. This necessitates equipping young people with the right knowledge, mindsets, values, and opportunities to act.
Environmental education (EE) is a regular subject in the Indian formal school curricula. In 2003, the Supreme Court made it mandatory at all levels of education, including schools, colleges, universities, and technical institutions, resulting in over 300 million students receiving EE training across 1.3 million schools.
Despite policy mandates, EE remains constrained due to curriculum limitations, gaps in teacher training, and inadequate infrastructure and resources.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), through the National Curriculum Framework (NCF, 2005), has since assumed a key role in designing the EE curricula, ensuring its integration across subjects—such as science, social science, and languages. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 reiterated the relevance of EE as a compulsory subject, establishing it as. part of a holistic, experiential, hands-on learning, which should integrate ecological principles, resource management, and sustainability into the curriculum.
However, despite policy mandates, EE remains constrained due to curriculum limitations, gaps in teacher training, and inadequate infrastructure and resources.
First, while environmental topics are included in curricula, the quality varies widely across states and institutions. In many cases, EE is perceived as having limited academic value. It is often allocated insufficient time, lacks, and fails to build relevant analytical or problem-solving skills.
Second, many teachers lack the training and resources to deliver EE effectively, resulting in superficial coverage of important topics.
Third, key concepts such as the circular economy and sustainable urban living are inadequately addressed. Moreover, urban youth often lack hands-on opportunities to connect with their immediate environment. Without access to field-based learning or community projects, students may understand the facts about pollution but lack the opportunities or skills to take action.
Despite these gaps, young people across Indian cities are actively working to end plastic pollution and support the circular economy. Most schools and colleges have eco clubs—typically established under government schemes such as the National Green Corps or state-level initiatives. These clubs increasingly focus on plastic pollution, encouraging students to reduce single-use plastics, promote recycling, and lead community clean-up drives.
Studies also highlight how the Indian youth effectively utilises social media and digital platforms to raise awareness, mobilise action, and influence attitudes toward plastic pollution and sustainable consumption.
Several civil society organisations also support youth-led action outside classrooms. For example:
Smile Foundation’s ‘Waste No More’ campaign—in partnership with PepsiCo India—has reached over 200,000 students in 200+ schools across 50 cities. Students participate in plastic waste management competitions, recycled craft creation, and awareness campaigns, fostering both behaviour change and innovation.
Reap Benefit, a Bangalore-based NGO, runs the ‘Solve Ninjas’ programme. It empowers youth to tackle local plastic waste challenges through low-cost solutions, climate data collection, and collaboration with city authorities.
YuWaah (Generation Unlimited) and UNICEF support youth climate leaders in urban India through campaigns such as ‘Green Rising’ and Mission Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), encouraging zero-waste practices and advocacy for sustainable urban living.
The SOCEO Changemakers programme in West Bengal mobilised 45,000 students to educate their communities about plastic waste management, reaching over 300,000 people with messages on responsible waste disposal and recycling practices.
Studies also highlight how the Indian youth effectively utilises social media and digital platforms to raise awareness, mobilise action, and influence attitudes toward plastic pollution and sustainable consumption. Some are influencing policy by demanding stronger regulations and incentives for circular economy practices.
Entrepreneurship is another arena of youth action:
1. ‘Econscious’, a youth-led initiative, recycles plastic waste into durable products such as park benches, dustbins, planters, and eco-friendly gift items.
2. ‘TGP Bioplastics’ addresses the challenge of single-use plastic by developing compostable plastics made from corn starch.
Educational institutions, urban local bodies (ULBs), and civil society must collaborate to further empower and amplify youth action against plastic pollution, especially in cities.
Key steps include:
Expanding hands-on and community-based opportunities in environmental education, such as neighbourhood awareness campaigns, plastic collection drives, and civic engagement activities.
Integrating circular economy principles in the curricula.
Offering the youth skill-building workshops in upcycling, composting, and sustainable product design to develop entrepreneurial thinking and practical skills.
Using social media campaigns to share success stories, spread awareness, and mobilise their peers for collective action.
Creating digital toolkits and accessible resources to help youth start and grow their own anti-plastic ventures.
Collaborating with NGOs and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) to facilitate mentorship, resources, and platforms for youth action in cities.
Motivating the youth with badges or certificates will build a sense of achievement and leadership.
Showcasing eco-entrepreneurs and their innovations in the mainstream media to inspire wider action.
Including youth in policy dialogues with municipal authorities to influence waste management policies and push for stricter plastic bans.
These initiatives must be backed by reform in broader policy ecosystems—including strengthened plastic regulation frameworks, bridging enforcement gaps, and effectively implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Corporate stakeholders must also be encouraged to invest in youth-led circular economy solutions through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and innovation incubators. Linking school-based actions with urban planning bodies, waste management authorities, and environmental regulatory agencies can ensure that young people’s efforts are not isolated but meaningfully integrated into macro strategies.
The fight against plastic pollution is not just a technical battle, it requires cultural and behavioural shifts. Education, at the intersection of learning and innovation, has a unique opportunity to lead this change.
These steps allow the youth to become agents of change, improving plastic waste management and promoting sustainable development in urban and rural areas.
The fight against plastic pollution is not just a technical battle, it requires cultural and behavioural shifts. Education, at the intersection of learning and innovation, has a unique opportunity to lead this change. With the right support and opportunities, India's youth can turn the country’s linear waste narrative into one of circular potential.
Arpan Tulsyan is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy, Observer Research Foundation.
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Arpan Tulsyan is a Senior Fellow at ORF’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy (CNED). With 16 years of experience in development research and policy advocacy, Arpan ...
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