COVA programme inspires schools in Hyderabad to go plastic-free

Under COVA’s Compassionate Citizenship Programme, students in Hyderabad are leading a campaign for plastic-free schools and elder care awareness. Several schools have pledged to eliminate plastic use by 2026, while students are also engaging faith leaders to spread awareness.

Hyderabad: As a part of its ‘Compassionate Citizenship Programme’, the Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA) organised a unique programme for school children on creating plastic-free schools and taking care of elders.

On the topic of Climate Crises and Care of Elders, school students in Hyderabad and districts understood the key problems to be addressed for these two critical social issues and evolved actionable points required to mitigate them, a COVA press release said.

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Students urged their respective school managements to make their schools plastic-free. A COVA press release said that some of the school managements agreed and started informing the students and parents that their schools will be plastic-free from June 2026. Motivated by this, 50 more schools in Hyderabad resolved to become plastic-free by mid-May 2026, and many more schools are likely to join this campaign, Mazhar Hussain from COVA said.

Students also met with different faith leaders, including Archbishop of Shamshabad, president of Arya Samaj, Telangana and president of Jamaat e Islami, Telangana, to spread awareness on 12 actionable points on care of elders and climate crisis, within their communities through the weekly sermons.

Some of the actionable points developed by students include respect and dignity, spending quality time, taking care, medicine, and food for elders. Some of the suggestions on climate crisis developed by students included saying no to plastics, planting and protecting trees, among others.