Young mummies take up mission to make Mumbai green

Who would imagine the mundane task of waiting outside the school to pick up your kids could lead to anything more than idle gossip. Yet, for six city moms, it transformed not just their lives, but also of their wards and countless other families when they decided to form an environment-friendly group called ‘Are you reducing, reusing, recycling?’, better known as RUR, two years ago.

The group has since been organising awareness programmes in offices, colleges, including eco-kid programs in schools. It also works closely with authorities, sets up collection and compost centers in schools to recycle waste, and conducts research on natural alternatives. “The forum’s vision is to create eco-friendly families which make their waste worthwhile for the planet by adopting green good practices,” said Monisha Narke, founder member of RUR.

“At first, I decided to make my own home green,” said Narke. After knocking on the offices of the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a few contacts on how to go about recycling, Narke invested Rs700 in a vermi-compost bin to turn her household waste into manure.

Buoyed by its success, she helped form RUR, which has since moved on from green efforts in homes — like conserving light and water, recycling garbage — to convincing the supermarket chain Sahkari Bhandar to promote cloth bags and reduce its plastic usage by 70%. “We asked them to give discount of Re1 on purchases of Rs200, and a free cloth bag on purchases of over Rs500,” said Sumegha Kumbhar, another member, who gave up her visual arts job to join RUR.

Kumbhar began by asking her children to insist on a glass while having golas at stalls, steel plates at restaurants instead of plastic snack plates, turn off lights, and close taps while brushing. “I have noticed that there is a greater impact when children request an adult to go green,” she said.

There is an interesting story behind how the group got together. All the six members — Jashvi Savla, Monisha Narke, Sejal Kshirsagar, Malavika Gadiyar, Yamini Puri, and Sumegha Kumbhar — had a job till they became mothers. All have two kids, both of the same age — seven and four years old.

“Since they were all in the same class, we used to spend time waiting for them outside the school,” said Kumbhar, who left her administration job in a private firm to become a full-time mum.

Through RUR, the ladies have ensured that their collective expertise in engineering, visual arts, and administration has been put to good use.

RUR has created Mind Maps (a flow chart) which tells you how to embark on green programmes, like bringing about small changes in urban lifestyles to lead a greener life —  segregation of waste, considering the life expectancy of goods and commodities that are in daily use, etc. The group also forms human chains outside malls and near markets to raise awareness about environmental issues, the last two being outside Pali and Mahim market.

The forum has developed a pocket-sized diary titled Mumbai Green Pages, which gives information on how to adopt green solutions for homes as well as offices. RUR also works with NGOs active in the field of waste segregation and recycling.
For more information on RUR, log on to www.rur.org.in.