New Delhi environmental educator and entrepreneur Vimlendu Jha is improving India’s environment one student at a time.
March 3, 2014 — Every few months, Vimlendu Jha makes a trip to some of New Delhi’s best private schools, gathers up the students — some of whom come from the richest families in the country — and leads them into the world of waste.
Under the umbrella of Swechha, an environmental nonprofit he founded in 2000, Jha gives these kids an almost cradle-to-grave analysis of their trash. He teaches them what is in their dustbin. He helps them explore where their garbage comes from and where it will go. He shows them the people, usually poor, who dispose of their waste.
Jha charges the private schools a large amount of money for providing this educational experience for their students. He then funnels the money into providing similar programs as well as health services for the children of some of India’s poorest communities.