The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on September 26 launched a nationwide competition for individuals and groups to come up with ideas for making toys out of waste.
The Ministry said in a statement that it was launching the Swachh Toycathon in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “clarion call for making the toy industry environment-friendly”. Speaking at the launch of the online platform for the competition, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Manoj Joshi asked people to come up with innovative solutions to meet the demand for toys and on the other hand addressing the issue of solid waste.
Prof. Manish Jain, the principal coordinator of the Centre for Creative Learning at IIT Gandhinagar, which is the knowledge partner for the competition, gave examples of household waste items that could be converted into toys to teach children about scientific principles.
“The competition seeks entries of designs of toys and play-zones using waste and recycled material, prototypes of eco-friendly toys and packaging, and other innovative ideas rethinking the toy industry,” the statement said.
Applications would be shortlisted by November 30 and evaluated in December, the Ministry said.
