Mohammad Siraj, he is founder, secretary of Pahchan Foundation, a North 24 Parganas based NGO of West Bengal, he is also the chair person of community service of Rotaract District Organization 3291. Hailing from the slums of Titagarh in West Bengal, Siraj has grown up witnessing drunk men gambling away their money and beating up their wives and children. he has realized at a very young age that there is something different in him, who desperately wants to bring a positive change and impact lives. It is said that charity begins at home, and he has been doing exactly that. Way back in 2006, he started off from being a Children’s group member of a non-governmental organization that was working for the betterment of the children and the community in my area. With effective leadership skills, he evolved to become a part of the Youth Group and then the leader of the Youth Group. This gave me a wide variety of opportunities to represent the issues of slum and street dwelling children in various national forums. he has participated in a live debate show at Lok Sabha TV on the issue of communal peace and harmony and represented West Bengal at the prestigious forum. There was no end to the difficulties, faced on the path of doing social work to transform people’s lives. He has been actively working as a volunteer and community leader with various organizations at the state and national level to address matters of children, community, hunger and ecology. he has been tirelessly working at the grass-root level to generate awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals.
SOCIAL ISSUE
When we cut down forests, we don’t think about the consequences we might have to face in the near future. The COVID-19 virus is a scathing example of what humans have to face as a consequence of disrupting nature. Transmission of diseases from animal to humans is merely an impact we are facing at present, but drought, flood, glacier burst, food and water insecurity are growing challenges for the future. I have observed some progressive, drastic changes due to environmental factors that highlight the fragility of the Himalayas and coastal areas.. Few of these are noted here. Climate Change, Forest Fires. Despite a dense forest cover, degradation is also happening continuously. Around 15 years back, I remember rainfall was predictable and agricultural production was always satisfactory. Currently, we have irregularity in rainfall, which direct impacts our livelihood. Similarly, snowfall pattern also shows similar trends and impacts some high-altitude horticultural crops. In recent years, winter is getting irregular – this year, for instance, it was not harsh due to lesser snowfall. Summer, on the other hand, is getting hotter and longer.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
To tackling the challenges of the climate emergency action is needed on different
topics and levels. According to Ripple at al. (2019) we urgently need action in the
following areas:
ENERGY: To use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use.
NATURE: To end the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2.
EDUCATION: To inform, aware and raise consciousness
FOOD: To reduce food waste.
For this initially we have taken few initiatives which are;
Bacha to banto ,where we collect extra and waste food from ceremonies and events and distribute to street and platform people immediate just after getting foods.
Insan Teri Ganga Maily hogai : A campaign in which we clean Ganga ghat every Sunday morning with more than 20 volunteers and generate awareness among local people to not through waste in river sites.
CONCERN
Our planet is entering into the greatest period of urbanization in history, as well as
stage of climate emergency due to human activities. In October 2019 more than
11,000 scientists signed an alarming report, according to which the climate
change is already much worse than previously thought and the people of the world
can expect ‘untold suffering to the climate crisis’. Cities especially coastal cities in
Asia are already facing an increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic
events such as floods, spring floods, landslides, storms, cyclones, coastal erosion,
as well as heat waves, droughts, or wildfires. In addition, climate based migration
can already be observed in many regions.
The specific effects of the climate crisis will vary among regions, and between
different generations, income groups as well as between women and men.
However, the climate emergency is rapidly presenting additional risks for those
living in already inadequate living conditions in informal urban settlements.
Although people living in urban poor communities contribute only little to the
causes of climate change, they suffer most from the consequences. These groups
are particularly vulnerable because the physical location of their communities is
often on environmentally fragile locations such as steep slopes, floodplains,
coastal shores and riverbanks.
In addition, the socio-economic characteristics of the residents, such as high levels
of poverty and illiteracy, mean that these communities have low capacities to deal
with climate impacts. Besides, the political and institutional marginalization of
these communities, stemming from non-recognition of informal settlements as
part of the larger city fabric, often results in the absence of meaningful risk￾reducing infrastructure. In addition, there are already cases of informal settlers
being at risk of eviction due to climate risk measurements by the city or national
government.
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PROJECT AAGAZ
DESCRIPTION:
Key issues are Child Rights and Ecology. The main objective of taking these issues are the area we live in mostly daily labourer who do not have enough to feed their family thus mostly children are either out of school or child labour and girls get marry at very early age ,the children who are getting education from government aided school where they are not getting the opportunity to explore themselves thus our organization are trying to fill the gap with few initiatives with children through various child-friendly activities such as through sports, Child rights awareness program, health camp, cleanliness drive ,participation in various state forums and government programs. We are trying to get them involve in various learning and experimenting experience so that they can find their own talent and platform ,Pahchan has a dream for them that they should be not at work at a very young age, they should be in school and every child should access their rights and entitlements properly. For this, Pahchan has Children Group and Youth group within the community. Ecology is one of the core issue which Pahchan focus in depth because this I high time to act for sustainable environment and this is also one of the agenda of SDGs, we are working on cleaning of Ganga every Sunday and also take part in various state and national campaign focusing on ecological rights.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
To eradicate child labour and children drop from school . To create sustainable environment and sustainability for future generation. A responsible and environmentally sound society
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
GOAL 13: Climate Action
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