India's conventional way of living and jugaad are great means of sustainable living and continues to be the need of the hour.
I started my ESG fortnightly newsletter last month and I am getting different responses. Last week I get a very interesting ask to list what we can do individually and list what traditionally we are doing good. While I was planning to work on this, I saw this nice input from BetterIndia.com about some India Household Habits that can teach the world about Sustainable Living.
I am starting with some points from the Better India posts - https://www.thebetterindia.com/web-stories/indian-household-habits-that-portray-sustainable-living/ and there is another brilliant collation from 2020 sustainability heroes of India ?https://www.thebetterindia.com/245810/heroes-of-sustainability-clean-green-planet-earth-environment-forests-animals-composting-architecture-river-water-garden-india-him16/
As an individual, we have a lot to learn and implement in our day-to-day lives toward sustainability. We request all to share how you are contributing individually and share your best practices.
1. Besan turmeric ubtan as OG facewash and body scrub – it’s a cheap and age-old house remedy.
2. Use of cloth napkin instead of foil to wrap chapati.
3. Using ghee as a balm for chapped lips in winter.
4. Using datum (Neem) way before bamboo toothbrushes become a thing
5. Next two are my personal favourite – i) using worn-out/ torn clothes for dusting and mopping ii) saving millions of toilet paper rolls with one hygienic toilet habit of using water – jets in the toilet iii) Bucket bath, sun drying clothes and storing water in copper/clay utensils.
6. In olden times only half a glass of water used to be served to prevent wastage and vessels were cleaned with cooking coal ash.
7. Culinary traditions rooted in sustainability – banana-leaf & pattal-dona meals to chutney made of vegetable peels
8. In traditional cooking, there are many means of using left-out food to make a new dish – some of you may relate with milk and curd roti, fried idli, and our mothers can fill in diaries with such recipes.
9. Jugaad is our most significant aid to sustainability where we re-cycle, re-use and constantly evolve
- Alterations of stitched clothes – This is again age-old best practice where alterations are being done on large-size clothes to make them fit for smaller sizes. In the process, one blazer caters to generations and sometimes a double wrest jacket gets converted to single wrest as fashion changes. ??
- Used paint boxes being used as buckets
- Interesting to add is a toothbrush, which is used in multiple ways after its original purpose of brushing teeth is fulfilled.
-Use of plastic waste bottles for drip irrigation
-Making multi-purpose ropes from old sarees
Principal Platform Architect / CoE Lead @ Equinix | MBA
2 年Thank you for sharing this very interesting view. In recent past doing these listed activities would have raised some eyebrows with a chance of sounding not trendy. Hopefully with ESG awareness and outlook picking up in mainstream, a mindful approach towards daily actions of individuals, could certainly bring in a change in consumer habits.
Very good points...!! Every individual should keep in mind that it's okay to live in a minimalistic way, but the bigger blocker is definition of success , living standard, growth, and development in this materialistic world. We are already late in realising the fact that " hum jamane se hain, jamana hamse nahin...jani"
Director @ Maithri Aquatech Private Limited | Member of a passionate team revolutionizing Drinking/Potable Water
2 年Sanjeev Mathur Simply superb! We have been a nation with a think before you act philosophy for which we have been seen as backward and conservative people. Life has completed a full circle and India is in a leading position in most areas largely due to a sustainability DNA. Food wastage was always unpardonable as Anna ka Apmaan. Let us all collectively go back to our traditions, practices, recipes, values, ethics, self governance among others to contribute to SDGs ??