New Delhi (The Hawk): To catalyze youth action for climate change as a build up to June 5, World Environment Day, Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Shri Bhupender Yadav launched a mobile application, called “Meri LiFE” (My life). This app is inspired by the concept of LiFE, envisioned by the Prime Minister at COP 26, which emphasizes mindful and deliberate utilization instead of mindless and wasteful consumption.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Yadav said that this app will showcase the power of citizens, especially young people in saving the environment. He also mentioned that through this app, simple actions in daily lives can have a larger climate impact. The Minister expressed his hope that the portal and app together drive a national movement for LiFE.
Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) was launched by The Prime Minister on 20 October 2022 at Kevadia, Gujarat and focuses on bringing about behaviour changes in individuals through simple easy to do actions. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal ministry for national-level coordination and implementation of Mission LiFE. As part of their implementation efforts, the Ministry has mobilized Central Ministries, State Governments, Institutions, and private organizations to align their activities with LiFE and spread awareness about the sustainable actions that individuals can undertake. In order to further catalyze pan-India advocacy and awareness about LiFE, a month-long mass mobilisation drive is currently underway and will culminate on 5 June 2023 in a mega celebration of World Environment Day.
The Ministry has developed two dedicated portals for LiFE, in order to create a structured reporting format that can track the progress being made on LiFE. The Mission LiFE Portal (missionlife-moefcc.nic.in) is open access and can be used to download the 100+ creatives, videos, and knowledge materials that have been developed by the ministry for LiFE. The Meri LiFE Portal (merilife.org) has been developed for ministries and institutions to upload event reports and capture the progress of the mass mobilisation drive.
In 10 days, more than 1,00,000 LiFE-related events have taken place across India mobilizing over 1.7 million individuals to take pro-planet actions. These include cleanliness drives, bicycle rallies, plantation drives, LiFE marathons, plastic collection drives, composting workshops, and taking a LiFE pledge. Many schools and colleges are also undertaking cultural competitions such as street plays, essays, paintings, and youth parliaments.
The launch of Meri LiFE App was done in the presence of Ms. Leena Nandan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change; Shri C.P. Goyal, Director General of Forest and Special Secretary and Dhuwarakha Sriram, Chief of GenU, Youth Development, and Partnerships, UNICEF India.
The Meri LiFE app will help in creating a structured way to track the progress being made on Mission LiFE. Upon successful sign-up, users will be guided to participate in a series of LiFE related tasks under the following 5 themes, namely, Save Energy, Save Water, Reduce Single Use Plastic, Adopt Sustainable Food Systems and Adopt Healthy Lifestyle. Through a gamified experience, the app nudges people to take the 5 for 5 challenge- take Five LiFE Actions towards June 5th. The app is available on Google Play Store.
The mass mobilization campaign will culminate on the occasion of World Environment Day 2023 on 5th June. The theme for this year is Solutions to Plastic Pollution, a topic which aligns with one of the 7 themes of Mission LiFE: “Reducing the use of single-use plastic items”.