IEEE SNIST

India has shared the growth pattern and rapid urbanisation with some of the fastest growing regions in Asia. India will reportedly have 41% percent of its population living in cities and towns by 2030 AD. With growing poverty and slums, Indian cities have been grappling with the challenges of sustainability. India s urban population is increasing at a very fast rate, and with urban poverty being one of the major concerns. Urban poverty in India remains high, at over 25 percent; with over 80 million poor people living in the cities and towns of India. (Source: NSSO survey report). As per 2001 census report, the slum population of India in cities and towns with a population of 50,000 and above was 42.6 million, which is 22.6 per cent of the urban population of the states/Union Territories reporting slums.

The unplanned and unbridled urbanisation has resulted in less space and resources for the urban poor. Urban poor have been left behind in grabbing the growing employment opportunities as they do not have adequate education and skills. To make matters worse, the urban poor are usually the most exposed to adverse environmental conditions, and thus are the ones most affected by environmental hazards. Attempts to tackle environmental problems without addressing livelihood issues are likely to fail for the

Poverty reduction and effective environmental management are mutually dependent, and therefore poverty reduction initiative and environmental sustainability should go hand in hand. Livelihood skills are a form of security and it improves livelihood opportunities. A system of skill training for low-income urban areas will be a useful way forward in promoting employment opportunities amongst the urban poor.

With this background, TERI and Accenture have initiated Project CARE which aims at harnessing the potential of college students and Accenture workforce to promote environment awareness. The main emphasis of this program is on the low SES (socio-economic status) urban communities. As a part of the project school dropouts, unemployed people, workers who are keen to upgrade their skills will be targeted. The target population will be sensitised on local environmental issues, and will be given training on livelihood skills. The initiative would help prevent environmental degradation and create employment opportunities respectively.

The focus of the project is therefore skill development for livelihood generation, targeting low income communities in environmentally vulnerable localities. The project activities will be simultaneously conducted in 7 cities (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida). The duration of the project is one year.

The following programmes are to be conducted under project CARE:

• Initiation workshop – 1 per city
• Focus group discussion with communities – 1 per city
• Training programmes – 4 per city (2 for colleges/volunteers and 2 for communities)
• Final Workshop – 1 per city
• 3 Pilot Projects – in the community in any 3 cities (out of 7 project cities)

The key target groups of the project are college students, Accenture volunteers and communities. The specific objectives of the project are:

- Address the problems of environmental pollution and degradation in identified low-income areas

- Create awareness among the target groups and initiate action for a cleaner environment

- Harness the potential of local communities and youth in the quest for a cleaner environment through personal skill development

- Enhance the ability of the target groups to seek alternate solutions to improve the local conditions.

- Employ a participatory approach to inculcate awareness and a sense of responsibility among the people towards the environment.

- Sensitized youth capable of imparting knowledge (to underprivileged youth) on green entrepreneurship

- Communities empowered on environmental issues.

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