Dwishojoyee is a young environmental activist from Patna, Bihar and the founder of The Soft Movement: an initiative that promotes sustainable practices by replacing plastic bags and distributing free recycled newspaper bags to the local vendors. She currently resides in Delhi and is one of the Ashoka young changemakers for 2022.
Kindness for this 18 year old stands at the crossroads of being responsible and changing daily habits of people around her. Her mission of making the world kinder through environmental action speaks volumes of how far she has come in this .
The changemaking journey for Dwishojoyee traces its roots back to when she was 4 years old. A curious daughter of an activist father questioned him why this soap is called lifebuoy (misreading it as “boy”) and not lifehuman? That was the day she decided to become a voyager for volunteering throughout her life. Dwishojoye’s activism stems from both her parents- her mother and father’s efforts have impacted her to change many lives.
She started her activism work at the age of 10 as she began teaching underprivileged kids at her parent’s organisation, Kahaanighar. She continues to teach them through storytelling on weekends. This experience made her come closer to the world of social work and taught her the importance of the same.
As she excelled in social work through the years, Banerjee kept on adding more feathers to her cap. She has received the YLAC fellowship (2021), Ashoka Young Changemaker Fellowship(2022), and Global changemaker fellowship(2022). She also got selected as UNLEASH talent, Hindu businessline award nominee. She is a young campaigner with Save the Children INDIA. She has also worked with UNICEF, Yuva, Voices of Youth and World Economic Forum among others. Her Instagram handle @ateenwithasign is an important station for her to spread awareness and connect to more people for the cause.
Her brainchild initiative “The Soft Movement” is a behavioral approach to changing daily habits for saving the environment. The Soft Movement is a root impact organisation, their Paperbag Project focuses on reducing the usage of polythene bags and distributing paper bags to the vendors. Dwishojoyee named it as the “soft” movement because she reckons the value of activism having a ground level impact on everyone through soft and subtle but permanent changes.
She proudly reminisces that her 30 member team has successfully replaced 18000+ plastic bags from 17 cities across the country. The young changemaker aims to escalate this number with each effort.
Dwishojoyee Banerjee is another addition to the list of amazing and inspiring change makers who want to bring a mindset change in people. She dreams of a more sustainable, greener and healthier environment for the forthcoming generations and her effort are substantially successful in achieving that dream.
Here’s to more environmental heroes like Dwishojoyee and her dedication to bring a change, one paper bag at a time!
Support Dwishojoyee in her efforts to make the world more sustainable, you can reach out to her on her Instagram handle @ateenwithasign or email.
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