GAIL takes its Hawa Badlo movement to the next level

Pollution, in particular air pollution, has become a topic of grave concern the world over. Several Indian cities now top the list of the world’s most polluted cities. As per a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, 14 out of the 15 worst polluted cities in the world are in India! What’s worse is that the WHO has found that more than two million deaths occur in India prematurely, every year, due to air pollution; this accounts for 25% of the global deaths due to poor air quality.

Vicious cycle
Air pollution and climate change are intricately connected (says a comprehensive study on climate change titled Nature Climate Change), pursuing a vicious cycle. While air pollution is one of the major factors contributing to climate change, the latter is also increasingly responsible for the growing air pollution, globally and in India.

With a situation this grim, initiatives to clean the air and reduce air pollution are critical. Creating awareness and changing mind-sets are essential today to ensure a greener and cleaner tomorrow.

As a responsible corporate, for the last three years GAIL has been creating awareness and changing mind-sets, to ensure a greener and cleaner tomorrow. Through an astutely titled mission – Hawa Badlo, it has been attempting to mobilize collective societal efforts to improve the deteriorating air quality, by encouraging sustainable and environment friendly lifestyle habits, such as using public transport, planting more trees, switching to natural gas as an alternate fuel option, etc.

With its impassioned anthem, moving visuals and various other activities to support the cause, this movement has reached more than 50 million people till date and has gained momentum with time. The new Hawa Badlo Anthem V- Mix video alone garnered over 5 million views across social media platforms.


Maturing and Moving ahead
Taking its mission to schools, GAIL initiated Hawa Badlo School Warriors, through which it sought to create awareness amongst school children and their parents about the crucial need to create a greener and healthier tomorrow. As Clean Energy Partner, GAIL also supported the Kadvi Hawa Badlo campaign, which showcased the national award winning movie, Kadvi Hawa, which is pertinently set in the context of climate change and air pollution.

With all these efforts, the winds of change are now apparent, as air pollution has become a talking point across the country. Today, people check the air quality status of their cities in the morning and stories of air pollution are making national headlines. This success in sensitizing citizens prompted GAIL to shift to the next gear, i.e. urging people to do something about the issue of air pollution through its new campaign #BringBackTheBlueSkies, which is a part of its larger mission of Hawa Badlo.


#BringBackTheBlueSkies
Encouraging people to change their habits and spreading awareness about clean and responsible living, with #BringBackTheBlueSkies, GAIL aims to ‘Turn Back time to better environments and bluer skies that we were once used to’, through perceptible action, change in lifestyle choices and behaviour towards the environment.

Like the larger Hawa Badlo initiative, the #BringBacktheBlueSkies campaign also promotes clean air through emotive storytelling and melodious music. It involves popular and established artists like Javed Ali and Harshdeep Kaur and young and dynamic stars like Sarah Hashmi and Amol Parashar. A #BringBackTheBlueSkies online photography contest was also organized asking people to click & upload the dramatic Sky lines and win exciting prizes. http://bringbackblueskies.changetheair.org/ .

During the campaign a retro-futuristic  Time Machine Art  installation was placed at DLF Mall, Saket, Delhi which created a lot of interest about the campaign amongst the people of Delhi. Through these engagements, GAIL seeks to connect with people who matter the most - the youth, as they are the ones who will drive the change for a better tomorrow.

The idea behind #BringBacktheblueskies was to create impactful content and engage and reach out to more than 20 million people in tier A & tier B cities through the campaign, with the message to collectively fight against the menace of air pollution through various digital platforms.

Larger vision
With commitment to the environment an integral aspect of its corporate value system, GAIL is firmly entrenched in its mission to deliver a better tomorrow for all its stakeholders. Ensuring that progress and environment go hand-in-hand, the company is currently India’s No. 1 natural gas company, providing its patrons with one of the cleanest fossil fuel in the form of CNG, PNG & Natural Gas.

While creating awareness about the perils of air pollution, GAIL reminds those who are ready to listen that our planet is our only home. Migrating to another less-polluted city or wearing a mask are just temporary fixes. The clarion call of the campaign is that collective effort between citizens, corporates and the government is the need of the hour. Only if everyone understands the factors leading to air pollution, joins in the efforts to control emissions and shifts towards a greener, cleaner environment will the country and planet move closer to long term sustainability.

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