Young researchers help tackle environmental issues afflicting slums

Keeda. That's how Akil Ansari referred to the tiny eight-legged, blood-sucking parasite that lives rent-free in his home in Govandi's Annabhau Sathe Nagar, until he trained his phone camera on it. "I didn't know it was called a tick," says the teenager, standing among a group of kids who have spent eight months looking up 38 creatures, from rats to centipedes and earthworms to millipedes, that inhabit the broken sewage drains of their squalid neighbourhood, posing health and safety risks.
As part of Khushiyon Ki Pathshala, an education initiative by the NGO Enrich Lives Foundation (ELF), Ansari and his friends Neha Naddaf, Shivkumar Jaiswar, and Shivani Jaiswar presented a paper on the dangers of the many broken sewers in Annabhau Sathe Nagar at a conference in Kochi last year, where they won a cheque of $500 (Rs 40,000) from STEM4Girls, a US-based non-profit that encourages the pursuit of science, technology, engineering, and math.
His team is one of three student groups guided by Global Young Researchers Academy (GYRA), which supports environmental research by young thinkers. After they were enrolled in the mentorship programme, GYRA selected three of nine projects submitted by Khushiyon Ki Pathshala (KKP), an initiative that runs nine centres between Mankhurd and Matunga with the aim of providing quality education to disadvantaged kids.
While students from Vikhroli's Ramabai Nagar are studying water wastage, those from Mankhurd’s Bheem Nagar are investigating the absence of trees in their area. "The children selected topics based on their observations of local problems, refining them to meet scientific standards," says Rashmi Balwani, founder of ELF. She highlights that the KKP students' clear problem statements stood out at the conference because "they live the problem every day."
These students have been collecting data for a year and report their findings weekly to their advisor, Dr Finosh, a senior US-based scientist. Armed with polythene bags, Rupesh Yadav and his Bheem Nagar team—comprising Aditya Mourya, Aaryan Mourya, and Geetanjali Thakur—have been collecting soil samples from the neighbourhood garden and arid pockets in the slum affected by rapid redevelopment. "Post-Covid, many of the trees in the area have disappeared due to construction. This has affected the condition of the soil too," says Yadav, whose group not only plants seeds to observe plant growth but also dips litmus paper into each sample to gauge the pH level.
Through the process, they’ve learned to use proper measurement tools, avoid errors, and understand the significance of laboratory practices and sample protection. "They’re understanding instrumental and human errors during experimentation," says Balwani. Given that flow meters are expensive, Simran and her team—Aaradhya Prajapati, Jigar Jaiswal and Sneha Mistry—have been using water bottles of various capacities to measure water wastage in their neighbourhood. By holding these makeshift flow meters under running taps, they gauge water usage. "If the flow is fast, it means water is wasted. If it's slow, it means less waste," says Prajapati. Despite their efforts to educate neighbours, many are resistant: "Why should we listen to you?" some ask the kids. "We pay money to the BMC and have the right to do as we please."