Kerala links student scholarships with practical waste-management work
EcoSense has awarded ₹1,500 scholarships and certificates to 45,880 students across 986 local bodies after hands-on environmental activities.
Kerala's EcoSense programme is distributing ₹1,500 scholarships and certificates to 45,880 students across 986 local self-government institutions. The official release says about five lakh students from nearly 9,000 schools took part, against a programme aim of 50,000 scholarship recipients.
Students were assessed through practical activities involving waste segregation, reuse, resource conservation and local waste challenges. The programme operates within the wider Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 framework.
Why it matters
The programme tests whether environmental education can be linked to practical behaviour and community participation at statewide scale rather than remaining a classroom-only exercise.
SCULTRA point of view
Participation is notable, but the stronger public-value test is whether students and schools sustain measurable improvements in segregation, waste reduction and local processing after scholarships are awarded.
Limitations
The figures are programme-reported and describe participation and awards, not audited waste outcomes, long-term behaviour change, selection equity, total programme cost or comparison with schools outside the initiative.
Source: Press Information Bureau / Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 14 September 2026, 5:26 PM IST.