My worst nightmare is coming to school with an oxygen cylinder: Ridhima Pandey to PM

Twelve-year-old Ridhima Pandey was hailed as one of the youngest environmental activists, when in 2019 she represented India in the protest against the lax attitude of governments towards climate change at the United Nations, along with Greta Thunberg. Ridhima is said to have been moved by the devastation that resulted during the Kedarnath floods of 2013. The floods, like most environmental disasters, was yet another warning of what climate change can do. 

Ridhima has now penned a comprehensive letter, seeking the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, to ensure that children do not have to face an environmental crisis in the future. Ridhima, who lives in Uttarakhand, wrote and shared her letter to the PM on social media. She has asked the PM to “kindly help us by making sure that an oxygen cylinder doesn’t become an essential part of the life of children, which we have to carry on our shoulders everywhere in the future.”

“I am here because I want all the global leaders to do something to stop climate change because if it’s not going to be stopped it’s going to harm our future,” she had said at the Climate Action Summit, adding “So, if we want to stop global warming we have to do something now.” On the International Day for Clean Air and Blue Skies, Ridhima Pandey has once again brought the focus back in her letter to the PM, demanding clean air for all.

She has highlighted that “air pollution in many densely populated cities like Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Mumbai, Chennai and others is very high, making it hazardous for the people living there, causing severe health issues.”

She states that she has also “read about many research studies suggesting a link between air pollution and Covid 19 related incidences and mortalities,” and found it “very worrying.”

“Every year, in many parts of India, the air becomes much polluted and it becomes very difficult to breathe after October. I worry that if a 12-year-old like me finds it hard to breathe, what it must be like for children younger to me living in cities like Delhi and others. The air pollution in Delhi becomes so hazardous that people are not even able to breathe properly – you feel choked and suffocated. I am saying this because I witnessed this situation last year in Delhi on Children’s Day,” says Ridhima.

She asserts that she is “worried that if nothing is done about this problem soon, then in the coming years we would have to carry an oxygen cylinder with us to breathe clean air and survive. How would the common man afford this? Once our teacher asked us about our worst nightmare. I told her that mine was coming to school with an oxygen cylinder because the air was becoming so polluted. This nightmare is still my biggest worry because polluted air is one of the biggest problems in our country today.”

She reminded the Prime Minister that he had “accepted Climate Change as a reality,” and thus appealed to him “‘International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’ on behalf of all the children of India, I would like to make a request to you. Please think about our future.”

This is her letter to the PM:

 

According to the India Today report, Ridhima had moved with her family from Nainital to Haridwar six years ago, and discovered a different set of challenges there such as those threatening the river Ganga in Haridwar. In 2017, she filed a case against the Indian government at the National Green Tribunal for failing to take action against climate change.

In 2019 at the UN she was a part of the group of 16 children from across the world who presented a complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. As reported by India Today, and other news media globally, it was “an eye-opener for the world” and brought back discussions on climate change. According to an IndiaSpend report, at the United Nations (UN) emergency climate summit, 16 children, including Ridhima Pandey, said they would petition the UN against five big carbon polluters in the world–Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey–for violating their rights as children by failing to adequately reduce emissions.

“It is our planet, and it is our duty to save it,” she says in this video message.

Related:

Youth Emerge Climate Leaders, Countries–Including India–Rehash Old Plans

Draft EIA: K’taka HC extends date for filing objections, restrains Centre from releasing 

Vadodara’s industries continue to pollute river and groundwater with impunity

The environmental impact of the Sardar Sarovar Dam

Vadodara’s industries continue to pollute river and groundwater with impunity