Greata Would Love Her. This 14-Year-Old Girl Won An Award For Inventing A Solar-Powered Ironing Cart

Greata Would Love Her. This 14-Year-Old Girl Won An Award For Inventing A Solar-Powered Ironing Cart

Despite what a lot of people believe, climate change is a very real problem. Humankind has successfully poisoned the environment to a point of no return. And now, the only we thing we can do is try to not make it worse. On an international level, there are activists like Greta Thunberg who are fighting climate change tooth and nail. However, there are a few remarkable people in our country making strides to cope with this pressing issue as well. Like this 14-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu, for instance, who designed an iron-cart using solar panels to power a steam iron box rather than conventional charcoal. This is ingenious! 

Vinisha Umashankar, a 14-year-old studying in 9th grade at a private school in Tiruvannamalai, won the prestigious Children’s Climate Prize for her invention. She designed an iron-cart that use Solar Panels to heat the iron-box instead of the largely used and climatically harmful, charcoal. And despite what Trump tells you, climate change is real. 

On Wednesday, Vinisha will receive the prize of 100,000 Swedish krona (Rs 8.64 lakh approximately), diploma, and medal from the Sweden-based Children’s Climate Foundation. There will be a digital event attended by Isabella Lövin, Swedish Minister for Environment and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister, to felicitate Vinisha for her outstanding invention. 

Also Read: This 11-Year-Old Girl Walked 10 Kms To File A Complaint Against Her Father For Depriving Her Of Her Money. She’s So Brave

Speaking to Indian Express Vinisha said that she was inspired to design this solar-panel iron-cart because she saw a man in her vicinity, who irons clothes, throwing away charcoal on a regular basis. She said, “The street where I live has an ironing cart and the man uses charcoal to heat the heavy cast-iron box for ironing. His wife also irons clothes. She has ironed my clothes several times. After ironing, the burnt charcoal is spread on the ground to cool and later thrown away along with garbage. In my neighbourhood, there are six more ironing carts, which also use charcoal and throw the burnt charcoal away along with garbage. It really made me think about the number of ironing carts in India, the amount of charcoal burnt and the damage it does to the environment and Mother Nature. So, I researched for a viable solution and found that using solar power can effectively substitute the use of charcoal to heat an iron box. Making use of renewable energy is the aim of innovation.” 

Vinisha went to say that this is a very simple design addressing the problems of water and air pollution and climate change. It took her about two months to come up with the design. The engineers at National Innovation Foundation (NIF) in Gujarat built the prototype and applied for a patent, which hopefully should be granted by this year-end. Vinisha had won the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award 2019 for innovation. Now, she has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister of India’s Rashtriya Bal Shakti Puraskar 2021, the highest civilian award in India for students under the age of 18. This is just mindblowing. 

This young girl is doing more for climate change at 14 than most people do in their entire lives. Vinisha is nothing short of genius. I really hope that more youngsters are inspired by her to join the fight against climate change.

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/culture/tenth-grader-english-impress-shashi-tharoor/

Mitali Shah

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