Caring for the Planet: these children from Chennai ‘craft’ change using sustainable methods

What if children are empowered to take on the mantle of teachers, and adults are at the receiving end of knowledge transfer. What if children school their elders in the grammar of conscious living. What if children are conversant with the idioms of sustainability, source discards and transform them into desirable, eco-friendly, everyday utilitarian objects and eye-catching decor. On November 15, at the time of this article going to press, Kid’s Kraft Carnival 2025 — Edition 2 (organised by Boutique Bougainvillea and The Kraft Faktor) was under way in Velachery, demonstrating that these what-ifs can be realities. Around a dozen children in the 10 to 15 age bracket were holding sessions on a variety of art-based practices defined by sustainable processes. The children showed the attendees how to make origami-based decor, quilled wall decor, quilled jewellery, artwork on upcycled boards, clay-based art and palm-leaf decor. Various other art forms were also in attendance (crochet, macrame and decoupage among them) and all of them were viewed through the lens of sustainability and the eyes of the young ones that have mastered them through sustained practice. Some of these children have take these skillsets beyond weekend sessions to build brands that fuse sustainability with art.