00:00 In Delhi, Jharna Khatun is opening up for the day.
00:07 She is proud to have her own Material Recovery Facility or MRF.
00:11 Just a few years ago, she was working on the streets as a waste picker, in all kinds of
00:16 weather.
00:17 So now, she is especially happy to have her own business.
00:23 The benefit of running an MRF is that it protects me from the rain and harsh conditions outdoors.
00:29 Work goes on even in hot weather and during the rainy season.
00:34 But, to start her MRF, she had much to learn.
00:39 How to separate the waste, who would take it for recycling and under what conditions.
00:44 How to negotiate with business partners.
00:47 Chintan taught her the ropes, the environmental NGO fights for sustainability and social justice,
00:53 by helping people escape precarious employment.
00:57 A new job has changed Jharna Khatun's life.
01:04 I feel the difference.
01:05 Before I had to ask my husband for money and had to be very cautious while spending every
01:10 cent.
01:11 Now the way I work, earn, save and spend has been transformed.
01:20 Jharna Khatun makes around 10,000 rupees per month, roughly 110 euros.
01:26 She is just one of close to 50 former waste pickers now earning their living this way.
01:31 This means she and her colleagues are part of the green economy.
01:36 Environmental protection, the sustainable use of resources and renewable energies, all
01:40 these areas promise new employment opportunities.
01:44 And experts expect that India will need more workers to fill these jobs in the future.
01:54 We have estimated that currently the workforce engaged in the wind and the solar sector is
02:01 around 1 million and additional job capacity will be added off or out for 3.5 million by
02:08 2050.
02:11 After Mahendran MV finished his engineering degree, he earned an extra qualification in
02:16 the field of energy management.
02:18 Today he is working as a consultant at a big hospital in Delhi, whose power consumption
02:23 is far too high.
02:25 At the chiller plant, he arranges for various modifications which should save the hospital
02:30 lots of energy in the long run.
02:35 The main energy phase stage happens in a chiller plant either due to inefficient equipment or
02:41 due to inefficient operation.
02:42 Here there were five number of chillers that the client had.
02:47 Now some of them were working really inefficiently.
02:50 Out of the five, we changed three chillers and we had put three new chillers here.
02:58 In the area of building energy management, the need for skilled workers is already great.
03:03 Data analysis and artificial intelligence should help make structures greener, but specific
03:09 training is required.
03:13 Aarti Rajput works for Delhi's Department of Forests.
03:17 She earned her qualifications during a state-funded training programme at NGO, the World Wildlife
03:23 Fund.
03:24 Today, she is mapping an area in Delhi's famous Lodhi Gardens.
03:28 Later, this should help to determine the best habitat for certain plant and animal species.
03:34 But her new knowledge is useful in other areas too.
03:39 I have used the remote sensing tool.
03:43 In the dense patch of forest area, where the roads were going, where the water resources
03:49 are already allocated and where are the planning things like where the water resources can
03:56 get easy access to the fire incident if it happens.
04:01 Many projects come due to development projects in Delhi.
04:05 So I have to check that if it is coming into the forest area or not.
04:10 For Aarti Rajput, the extra training has paid off.
04:15 G. Arundran was her training officer at the time.
04:18 He tells us that such programmes help more than two-thirds of the participants find a
04:23 new job afterwards.
04:29 Most have gone into research, many into reputed organisations.
04:34 Like TERI and WWF has joined in various projects.
04:38 Then various research institutes have joined and forest departments.
04:43 That is the major place where these guys go.
04:46 And bird watchers joined protected areas as guides.
04:51 New sources of energy bring with them new challenges for the labour market.
04:55 So workers who are prepared to keep learning new things don't need to worry about their
05:01 jobs.
05:02 There should be plenty for them to do in the future.
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