Meet Vinisha Umashankar, the 14-year-old inventor turning tables for India’s ‘press walas’

Vinisha Umashankar is one of India’s youngest green inventors. She isn’t just playing a part in the crusade of the younger generations to save the planet but revolutionising the future for the lakhs of people who earn their living ironing our clothes as the neighbourhood ‘press walas’.

Hailing from the city of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, Vinisha is the brain behind an eco-friendly solar ironing cart that could be the future replacement for the charcoal filled ironing setups used currently by press walas in the country.

The idea has won the international award Children’s Climate Prize as well as the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE award.

Vinisha conceived the idea a few years ago when she observed a press wala dousing the burning embers at the end of the day. She found out how the charcoal is then thrown away as it cannot be used again. At home, Vinisha researched about the use of charcoal in the informal ironing industry, the number of trees that are cut to make charcoal and its harmful effects on the lungs of those in the trade of ironing clothes.

Spurred by her parents, Vinisha got to work to design the solution she envisioned. In 2018, she completed her solar ironing cart’s design. A group of engineers at the National Innovation Foundation in Ahmedabad helped bring her idea from the drawing table to reality a year later.

Tweaked and perfected, the ironing cart has solar panels as roof and needs five hours of sun light to be full-charged to give energy to use the iron for 6 hours straight. The cart also has a USB charging point for phones. Out of the United Nations’ 15 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Vinisha’s cart fulfils 13.

While the price of the cart is not yet ascertained, Vinisha has high hopes and wants to sell it at an affordable price, not just in India but also in other countries in Asia and Africa where ample sunshine is available throughout the year.

Vinisha recently explained in an interview to a news website, “To make 1 kg of charcoal 12 fully-grown trees are cut down and it is estimated that there are 10 million ironing carts in India and each burns at least 5 kgs of charcoal every day. This simple design can address the serious problem of air and water pollution.”

Now, Vinisha’s ironing cart has been chosen for the Earthshot Prize 2021, also known as 'Eco Oscars'. The awards were started by Created by the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William back in in 2019, to honour people playing a part in sustainable development of the environment.