Musician Swanand Kirkire calls for youth awareness, ahead of song launch to mark World Environment Day

National Award-winning lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who has penned the song “Hawa aane de” — that talks about the effects of air pollution — said the young generation should be made aware of these issues in schools.

“I have seen in Mumbai, especially in areas where I have lived, pollution from crackers has noticeably gone down. Schools have started educating children that it is uncool to burn crackers. So, children have automatically started saying that they will take care of air pollution and will stop burning crackers.”

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“I feel it’s the correct age to talk to children and create awareness about air pollution to bring about a change in the future,” Kirkire told IANS.

Kirkire said elders should set an example by leading a good lifestyle.

“At the policy level, many changes need to be made. Elders should do a lot of things. I feel if someone smokes and a kid says, ‘Papa, don’t smoke’, it makes a lot of difference,” he added.

Bhamla Foundation (a Mumbai-based NGO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment has been undertaking initiatives in line with the United Nations environment theme for this year, “Beat Air Pollution”. Their latest has been a song launch featuring artists from across the Hindi film and music industry to mark World Environment Day on June 5.

The song features Akshay Kumar, Rajkumar Rao, Vicky Kaushal, Kapil Sharma, Shiamak Davar and has been sung by music industry veterans like Shaan, Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shiamak Davar and Kapil Sharma.

The song has been choreographed by the celebrated dancer Shiamak Davar who also features in the video.