‘Wrinkle Bhi Achha Hai’ : No ironing of uniform on Monday in ITI Berhampur

Berhampur: When the world is celebrating ‘International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day’ on Sunday and continuously searching sustainable alternatives to safeguard the health of planet earth, the ‘Scrapman of Odisha’ and Industrial Training Institute (ITI)-Berhampur Principal Rajat Kumar Panigrahi has taken a small step to achieve the goal by introducing ‘Wrinkle Bhi Achha Hai’ day for the uniform dress code of the students and staff members.

There would be no ironing of uniform every Monday from February 5. The students and all the teaching/non-teaching members would wear uniforms with wrinkles on the clothes, said Panigrahi.

“Ironing clothes is something that has become a daily habit of almost all of us because we are ‘expected’ to look neat and clean at work or schools and colleges. But is it really necessary to wear ironed clothes day in and day out throughout the year? Do you know what will happen if the entire 1.4 billion population of India decides to wear non-iron clothes for just one day a year both in terms of saving energy and reducing carbon emissions,” asked Panigrahi.

Electric clothes iron is normally rated between 500 watts and 2,000 watts. A 2,000-watt electric iron running for 15 minutes every day will consume around 0.5 kWh of electricity a day, and 15 kWh of electricity a month. Since the clothes are worn in pairs, it is two pieces of clothes that one person will be ironing for a day. It takes 5 to 7 minutes to iron one piece. This will result in the equivalent of 200 grams of CO2 emission.

In other words, the entire country will be emitting 250 million grams of CO2 a day just to iron their clothes. The majority of electricity in India comes from coal. It is estimated that one unit of electricity results in one kg of CO2 emission. “So, if we all decide not to iron our clothes for one day, we can save 250 million units of electricity in India,” he said.

“We all contribute to climate change every day. But we seldom do climate corrections. Not to iron our uniforms once a week though is a small step, it would have a great impact to make grassroots-level changes,” said Panigrahi.

“We have almost 3,500 students and 140 teaching and non-teaching staff in ITI Berhampur. The number definitely counts. We are now motivating the students and staff to accept ‘Wrinkle Bhi Achha Hai’ and follow it in their uniform dress code. We have already intimated our higher authority about this endeavour who showed us the green signal,” he said.