UGC Asks Universities, Colleges To Raise Awareness On Health Hazards Of E-Waste

UGC has issued a letter to all Higher Educational Institutes and urged them to educate students about the ill effects of the end-of-life products (e-waste). UGC, in the letter, said that there is a need to initiate sustained mechanism to create awareness in order to reduce the adverse impact on environment and health due to the polluting technologies used in the unorganized sector for recycling e-waste. 

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had initiated an awareness programme in 2015. The 'Awareness Program on Environmental hazards of Electronic Waste' was initiated through Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). 

The said program provides training, tools, content material, films, and printed material for organizing awareness program and for inventory study of quantum e-waste. 

UGC has requested all Higher Education Institutes to make use of the content available and raise awareness among students about the health hazards of e-waste, best practices for environmentally safe recycling and the related rules/regulations in the country. 

The content is available on the www.greene.gov.in website. UGC sent the letters to the Vice-Chancellors and has requested to convey the same to affiliated colleges and institutes.  ( Source: NDTV)