16 years old medical aspirant wins Swachh Bharat's green award

A 16 year old AIPMT aspirant in the city bagged the ‘OLX Ideathon 2015’ award, constituted under the Swachh Bharat Mission, for his eco-friendly idea of converting vegetable waste into manure. Jeswant Gembali, a native of Jeypore town in Odisha received the award from tennis star Sania Mirza for floating his innovative idea in ‘My Country My Idea campaign’ contest. “I floated the idea of recycling of vegetable waste into eco friendly manure. The idea struck me while I was moving in a vegetable market in Mahaveer nagar area in Kota”, Gembali said.

The youth was awarded a Kindle Tab by Sania Mirza in a function in Gurgaon on September 17. Gembali, who is currently taking coaching for AIPMT entrance exam in the city, said that his idea talked about how vegetable vendors can collect the waste from the market at the end of the sales, and convert them into manure. This manure can in turn be sold by the vendors, thus providing them extra income, he said. The little genius has also penned five books in English, apart from participating in various national level activities.

Around 30,000 students from class 8 to 12 from across the country sent their entries to the contest, with 550 ideas presented online by the students in Swachh Bharat website. The jury comprised of noted film maker Sudhir Misra, environment expert Sunita Narain, OLX CEO Ervinpreet Singh Anand and tennis star Sania Mirza. A jubilant Gembali also expressed joy over getting the award from his favourite sports star Sania Mirza. “It was an amazing moment for me when Tennis star Sania Mirza appreciated my clean India Idea. She said that the idea can be a game changer”, the winner added.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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