I thought minimal use of plastic and composting kitchen waste were the only means for an individual to contribute to sustainability until I came across an online course on sustainability by Azim Premji University. This course opened up the whole new world to me.

It’s a well-designed course which provides an introduction to sustainability within the context of development in India. It looks through multiple dimensions including ecological and social. One cannot miss realizing how complex is the subject and even harder is its execution. Later, the course examines the actions one can take at an individual and community level. Every week one is expected to watch the video lectures. Over the weekends’ live interaction with faculty are conducted. I thoroughly enjoyed those discussions; It was amazing to see, people from various background coming together and how eager they were to know and contribute more. Got to know about a lot of initiatives happening across in different states; their progress and challenges they have been facing. Received a lot of recommendations for my readings; a few of my favorites among them are:

1. Conflicts of Interest: My Journey through India’s Green Movement by Sunita Narain
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37490081-conflicts-of-interest

2. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29362082-the-great-derangement

3. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21913812-this-changes-everything

As the part of course; there is an assignment which each participant has to complete, needless to say very well structured. It gave me an opportunity to look around my city, identify a problem and articulate an action plan for the same. The feedback on it was another valuable addition to my knowledge.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone and everyone. It broadens your understanding; makes you understand the complexity and urgency to act on it. It makes you think and definitely creates much-needed awareness, which would further make you question your actions and change you for better.

Take away :

• The course is interesting and informative with fantastic faculty
• One has to invest a couple of hours weekly for a month. And a weekend or more for the project work which is absolutely worth it.
• The fee is just one thousand

Can view the course content and enroll using the following link:

https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/University-resource-centre-upcoming-programmes.aspx