On the 18th of October 2020, an eight-year-old girl from Manipur, Licypriya Kangujam, was detained by the Delhi police from outside the Parliament House.
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But Why Was She Detained?
Licypriya Kangujam, also popularly known as “The Greta of India,” was briefly detained by the Delhi police while they were protesting outside the Parliament House against Air Pollution in Delhi. According to a tweet from her handle, which is managed by her parents, it was just a peaceful protest, and they were sitting outside and holding placards when a Delhi Police Jeep arrived, and the cops detained them. When asked the reason behind it, the cops explained that it was a high-security area. Thus, such activities are prohibited.
Later, another tweet from her tweeter handle said that the cops were very cooperative and treated her like their own daughter. She also mentioned that although they were initially planning to take her to the Parliament House Police Station. Later the cops decided to let her go with a warning and dropped her in front of Jantar Mantar.
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About Licypriya
Even though Licypriya has recently come under the limelight but she began her environmental activism way back in 2018, at the young age of seven years. She even dropped out of school at seven years of age as it was getting difficult to manage both at the same time.
In her short span of a career as a climate change activist, Licypriya has managed to ruffle many feathers.
Kangujam has given the honorary Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Children’s Award, a World Children Peace Prize as well as an India Peace Prize. Licypriya has also been bestowed the honor under the ‘SheInspiredUs’ campaign for Women’s Day 2020. But she declined this honor and said that she does not want this honor if the Prime Minister does not want to listen to her.
On Being Compared to Greta Thunberg
The media and people around the world have compared Licypriya to the Swedish teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg on several occasions. Some of them have even given her the title of “Greta Of India”.
But Licypriya has made it clear that she does not want to be labeled as the Greta Thunberg of India, claiming that she had begun her climate change activism career way back in July of 2018, before Thunberg. She further added that even though they both have common goals and Greta has influenced and inspired her on several occasions. But their journeys are very different. Licypriya believes that when the media labels her as the “Greta of India”, the media is not helping her raise her voice but deleting it.
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Beyond Climate Change
Earlier in September 2020, Kangujam had also raised her voice to protest the Education Ministry’s decision to conduct JEE and NEET exams even during the ongoing pandemic. She staged a protest outside the residence of Union Education Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, requesting him to postpone the exams as she believed that it was an “injustice to students”.
Lesson Learnt
It is surprising to see so much dedication from someone at such a young age. Licypriya is sacrificing her childhood as well as her education to raise her voice and spread awareness against the ongoing climate change.
The least we can do as adults is to support her in this noble cause, help her spread the message and generate awareness and take small but effective steps in our day to day lives to help reduce around us.
Tags: #AirPollution, #climate, #climatechanges, #delhi, #environment, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #Pollution
