Atal Innovation Mission

My Name is Yasashwini Vanapalli studying 7th class in ZPH School Dharmavaram, Vizianagaram district, Andhra Pradesh. By birth I am hearing impaired, but my parents never treated me any different. They did not join me in a special school. So, I got a chance to learn many things from other children at my school. Now, I can speak a little more. I have no need of sign language. My father Ramesh Vanapalli is the ATL in-charge in our school.
I participated in NAVA BHARATH NIRMAN Innovation competition under India International Science Festival 2019 IISF held in Kolkatta, West Bengal. My innovation title is ‘Eco Products by using Dragon weed stems’. I got first prize under ‘Plastic Alternatives’ sub theme. I also received a cash award of Rs 30,000.

 

One day I went to our agriculture fields along with my father. There I found some weed plants beside the narrow path. I observed them and I was struck by an idea to use them in making a pen. I brought those sticks to our home and I made an eco-pen and gave it to my father. He felt happy after seeing it. He also explained about plastic pollution, its harmfulness and suggested to invent new alternatives for plastic. I took a pledge then to contribute more to address plastic pollution. After that, I designed different models of eco-pens, shaving brushes, shaving razers etc. Later, I shared my ideas with our classmates and formed a group. We refined our products by following different stages such as Cutting, Grading, Cleaning, Rubbing, Fitting, Applying Gum, Drying and Packing etc. We developed our project under the guidance of my father (mentor). Our ATL helped us in making pens by providing all mechanical tools.

 

 

I had a great experience in IISF 2019. I got to see lot of our Indian technologies and innovations. I met many scientists. This achievement gave me a lot of confidence leading me to do my best in creating innovations. Later, articles were published about my story and about my pens in several newspapers and Bala Mithra monthly magazine. I felt ecstatic. After that I started pen making workshops in our school and other schools. I have conducted 8 eco-pen making workshops. Now all class students and teachers in our school are using eco-pens. I also distributed around 600 eco-pens to several officials, teachers, and villagers. I want to see our eco-pens in every hand, so I want to start production in large scale. I hope that every school will be soon plastic free.

Yasashwini Vanapalli
VII CLASS
ZPH School Dharmavaram
Andhra Pradesh