Based out of Giridih, a small town in Jharkhand, a leading iron & steel industrialist is taking giant steps to make everyone take actions towards a collective greener future.

DR. GUNWANT SINGH MONGIA, Chairman & Managing Director, Mongia Steel Group

Steel plants may normally be dusty and noisy, thanks to large scale use of iron ore and coal and various mechanical operations, but inside ambience of any of the Mongia Steel Group’s plants are quite soothing to your eyes, ears and other senses. One would indeed feel quite calm and relaxed at the Mongia Steel Group of Companies’ plants. And that’s because there are vast greeneries- a large number of trees and shrubs encompass the operational areas of the plants and administration offices.

But Dr. Gunwant Singh Mongia, Chairman & Managing Director, Mongia Steel Group of Companies, does not just want to stop at making his plant and factories greener.

He believes that making his plant greener or environment friendly and reducing the carbon footprint is a must. Mongia Steel group companies are doing it as per the laws and as per internal standards.

Doing the obvious but what are the other simple solutions? Planting more trees?

Dr. Mongia feels that doing the obvious is just one step in the right direction. Use of renewable sources of power, use of green technology in manufacturing, reduction of carbon emission and emission of other harmful gases, etc. are solutions that are well-researched and widely implemented.

But according to him, apart from the various environment friendly processes and technologies, we should also be concentrating on a few of the simplest solutions which include planting of more and more trees, increasing the wood covers, afforestation, and the likes. Among all these, which stands firm in his mind, is the solution of planting more and more trees.

Making Giridih a greener city

Dr. Mongia has contributed a lot to make Giridih a greener city. Under the aegis of Mongia Steel’s non-profit arm, Mongia Green Foundation, he has spent quite a significant amount of money to plant trees and shrubs at few locations in the city. This is not only just to make the city greener but also to beautify.

Not only just financing sustainability projects but bringing fundamental changes in people’s behaviour is a must

Dr. Mongia believes that sustainability practices should be a responsibility for every individual. Efforts of Governments, corporate, research institutions, and non-profit organisations are just not enough unless there is a large scale, in fact mass participation in sustainable living and practices.

Chetna – a cause marketing and physical communication campaign aiming at rural and semi-urban population – to deliver essential knowledge about sustainability

Mongia Foundation, a Section 8 for-impact and not-for-profit company promoted by Dr. Mongia is implementing a nationwide cause marketing platform christened as Chetna, starting initially in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.

Chetna will be a sustained cause marketing activation campaign organised physically at villages and small towns to deliver social messages to rural and semi-urban populace. The objective is to influence people’s behaviour at the grassroot level and thereby help them to improve their life.

How will Chetna be used to deliver the essential knowledge about sustainability?

The idea of Chetna is simple, although the scale of operation would become mammoth over a period of time. The idea involves communicating with people on the streets and at their homes at numerous villages and small towns across the country - simple communication, in local/regional languages, in the way common rural and semi-urban populace speak and consume information.

Activities involve procession of carts carrying informative banners, playing of recorded audio, promoters interacting with people, street plays, painting of wall graffiti for sustained communication, and so on.

The objective is to empower rural and semi-urban people with essential knowledge to improve their lives. The information about the dangers earth faces due to environmental issues and over-consumption of our natural resources including the flora and fauna and our individual responsibility to sustainability is very, very essential to disseminate.

Chetna will disseminate the required information to influence sustainable behaviour among the masses.

How will the objectives of Chetna be realised?

Chetna has been planned to be a collaborative platform. Mongia Foundation is in talks with and is appealing to several corporate organisations to partner with them on this.

Why is Chetna the need of the hour?

A communication engine, which goes on a continuous basis, perpetually and physically, at rural and semi-urban locations, could be just the right medicine that the country needs to influence mass behaviour.

Our collective behaviour during Covid time, whenever we are out of lockdown, establishes this hypothesis. Many people are behaving quite irresponsibly, unaware of the danger that such behaviour might bring upon ourselves.

Therefore, we need this. We need communication campaigns, physical campaigns, at the grassroot level.

For more information on Chetna

Mail to: bhaskar.ghosh@mongiagreen.org