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Shahira Naim catches up with this 13-year-old from Lucknow, who at a recent UN Summit urged the world leaders to sit up and react to climate change immediately
Like any other 13-year-old, Yugratna Srivastava enjoys listening to Hindi film music and watching films. In fact, she made it a point to watch Dil Bole Haddipa, soon after returning to Lucknow after addressing the Summit on Climate Change at the United Nations at New York recently. On September 22, this class IX student of St Fidelis College hit international headlines for speaking on behalf of world’s three billion children while addressing a summit on climate change at the United Nations headquarters in front of top leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon, US President Barack Obama and around another 100 heads of the state. The summit was held to mobilise political will ahead of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, which is expected to yield a climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which comes to an end in 2012. Returning to school on September 29 to a rousing welcome during the morning assembly she shares with other students of the school the message that she had for the decision makers of the world. "I appealed to them to come up with an action-oriented action plan when 170 heads of the state meet at Copenhagen in December for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. I urged them to come up with a more effective mechanism than the Kyoto Protocol and the instruments developed at Montreal during the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change". "I told them (the world leaders) that they have to take into account the opinion of the three billion youths. They can’t exclude us so we are ready to help them and provide full support to them to have a green planet." On the divide between the developed and developing world on the issue, Yugratna said, "Each country should do its best since environmental problems never differentiate between political or geographical boundaries." Her parents — Alok and Roshani Srivastava — were also invited to this felicitation function organised by St Fidelis School to honour one of their brightest students who had done them proud. The visibly pleased parents accepted bouquets by Principal Father Wilson Andrade. Prof Alok Srivastava, who teaches science at Government Post-Graduate College, Aliganj, admits that their only child Yugratna has brought them happiness beyond imagination by representing the world children at the United Nations. "No, I didn’t put any extra effort. It is completely her own initiative. I just remained in the background, encouraged her and stood by her in every endeavour". Mother Roshani, who accompanied her daughter during the week-long trip to the UN Headquarters, says that when Yugratna was in class VI at St Francis School in Shamli in Muzaffarnagar she had joined an NGO — Tarunmitra — involved in spreading climate change awareness among school children. The NGO has nearly 16,000 schools across India as its members. For Yugratna, the audience at the United Nations meeting may be a bit special but she was doing exactly what she has been doing as a green activist for the last several years — fervently spreading awareness about climate change and sustainable development. She is an active member of Tarumitra, an NGO active among school children. According to her mother, through a competitive examination held last year, she was selected to address the UN session in Norway. She went there to attend the International Children Conference on Environment. She has already addressed international conferences on climate change in Korea and Nairobi, besides the address at the UN that brought her instant recognition. "My daughter is also on the youth advisory board of UNEP’s youth organisation called Tunza," she added. "So electrifying was her speech at Norway that she was instantly picked up to represent the children of the world at the Summit on Climate Change at the UN," recalls Fr Robert Athickal SJ of Tarumitra. "More than 1,200 children from all over the world attended the conference. She is amazing and you just have to listen to her to feel the kind of impact she makes through her speeches," says Fr Athickal, who represents the Patna-based Tarumitra. After the accolades are over, Yugratna has to catch up with her studies. "I had to miss five papers during the half yearly examination as I had to travel for this conference". However, despite creating a niche for herself in the field of climate change, Yugratna has no plans to make a career in environment studies. "I am very fond of physics and computers and would take a combination of these for my studies in future", she confides. |
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