Today India like all BRICS countries places much importance on its energy conservation policy. In the pursuit of making India’s economy energy-efficient the country has developed various missions, policies, institutions and projects. However, no one would doubt that while introducing policies at the State level is one thing, raising people’s awareness of the issue is quite another matter. Although the Energy Conservation Day has long ago become a global holiday, hardly any other country like India celebrates it with so much eclat.
So since 2001 the 14th of December has been celebrated as the National Energy Conservation day all over India. It is organized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Ministry of Power. Within the framework of the event a great variety of thematiccompetitionsare held. On this day each year a lot of Indians eagerly take part in debates, conferences, workshops and discussions. Even kids can prove themselves at the National Painting Competition which invites children between the 4th and 9th standards across the country to depict their vision of the clean and energyefficient future.
The contest is held gradually firstly at school, then at state and finally at national level. The participants are free to choose any topic proposed which sound like “Be polite, turn off the light”, “Switch off light when outside is bright”, “No excuse for energy misuse” and so on and draw a picture conveying the message.
It’s worth noting that all winners and prize winners are awarded with cash prizes up to Rs 100.000 (about $1425). Thanks to the generous gifts and, of course, to the rapidly growing energy conservation awareness amongst the youth, the competition is becoming increasingly popular over the years amongst school students. In 2017, for example, a record number of 12,26 million students took part in the competition at school level compared to the 11,4 million students in 2016 and 6 million students in 2014.
To sum up, in addition to the implementation of certain rules, regulations and policies aimed at achieving energy conservation goals the Indian government seeks to raise people’s awareness of the problem making younger generation a priority of the scheme.
