When the People’s Climate March was held on 21st September 2014 in New York City, the gesture was one of creating awareness. Over 300,000 people had showed up. In order to identify with common grounds, people got together in groups representing specific interests that they held for their communities. One such contingent was that of South Asians who were concerned about the environmental threats back home. Coming from South Asia myself, I could relate to the issue at hand. In several ways, capitalism has affected the way developing nations such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and several others react towards the environment.
One of the best campaign lines that I came across was from Damayan Immigrant workers association. The migrant workers collective with brooms in their hand, marched on saying – “We are going to clean up this mess made by first world nations.” And at many levels it might exactly be that.
Here are a few images from the event:
