Part 2: What Happened and What Didn’t—A Look into the Ministries: Environment Ministry and Sports Ministry

In a three-part series, The Edict examines the achievements of the Ministries within the Ashoka University Student Government (AUSG) so far. The goals set by the ministries at the AUSG open meeting on 23rd September 2024 are compared with the Recap Reports sent to the student body via email on 31st December 2024, AUSG Monthly Reports released on 2nd April, interviews with the Ministers, and any other emails sent to assess their accomplishments.

This is part two of the series.

Environment Ministry 

The budget for the Environment Ministry was initially Rs. 22,200  and was reduced to Rs. 16,079 during the Spring’25 budget reallocation. So far, the ministry has spent Rs. 13,438 on various events.

According to the ministry’s projected budget allocation for Spring’25, about Rs. 2000 was spent on printing “permanent posters” for disposable waste management, and Rs. 5000 was  used for advertising.

On the policy front, the ministry sent out three surveys: “food waste disposal, RH waste disposal and paper usage” as per the October-November AUSG monthly report. The ministry is also conducting other surveys on e-waste and energy consumption in Spring’25. The results of these surveys were not released to the student body, but in the email dated 30th December, the ministry wrote, “These surveys have yielded valuable insights that will inform the ministry’s efforts to improve Ashoka’s current systems”. They also promised to share the survey of the tuck shop conducted in Monsoon’24, which too was not made public. 

According to Environment Minister Arushi Malhotra (UG ’27) the ministry is “creating a policy manifesto of sorts”, which has information regarding all the surveys conducted thus far, which they plan to publish before the semester ends. Talking about the policy department, Malhotra admits that this year the goal “was just the collection of information and thinking of policies that could improve the sustainability situation on campus, nothing has been implemented so far.” 

This is due to the fact that the “policy department had to collect a lot of data about a variety of things from E-Waste Surveys to Solar Power Surveys to Water Surveys,” she adds. “They wanted the whole picture there before they did anything,” informs Malhotra.

They analysed Ashoka’s Sustainability Reports from the last three years using a “rigorous criterion”, which the ministry claimed would provide them “with a roadmap for targeted action”. 

The ministry hosted a plastic bottle collection drive, events on Waste Management, an E-Waste Policy Brief and a collaboration with MAA and PULP for Paper Trail. They launched the EVS Helpdesk, held an event to rebrand the logo of the ministry,  a ‘Sip n Paint’ event to discuss environmental issues, and hosted a no-equipment sports day.

In Spring ‘25, the ministry held an E-Waste collection drive, a Paper Collection Drive and a Plastic Bottle Collection Drive. However, the bins put for E-Waste around campus, according to an email by the ministry, were misused by students who used them to throw non-electronic waste such as cups and boxes. Malhotra tells The Edict that the ministry “[was] given prior notice but did not have a lot of time to market the E-waste bins and educate people on it because [they] were informed in the winter break and they were installed as soon as [they] came back.” 

Malhotra also adds that the E-waste bins are “a lot less effective as it is something that people stock up and then discard.” She adds how “[the ministry hasn’t] done any compliance campaign on campus, which might have led to the misuse, and also the locations.”

Talking about the Paper Collection Drive on 11th February, Malhotra says, “a lot of people have been emailing to have paper bins institutionalised.” These have been placed in RH2 and RH4, and the Ministry says in an email on 12th April, 2025 that more bins would be added soon. 

With regards to the reduction of plastic waste, Malhotra says that the “Food Village has a lot of plastic plates”, and the ministry is making an effort to contact them. She also says that the vendors, such as Subway and Blue Tokai, whose managers have been unavailable, are making it difficult to make progress on collecting data about plastic usage. However, Malhotra believes that with regards to food outlets, “mostly we as a campus are almost plastic free.”

The ministry has also not conducted several events, such as the Nature Walk, and the Environment Haat, mentioned during the budget proposal in September 2024. When asked regarding this, Malhotra said, “We wanted to focus more on understanding the sustainability of systems on campus. This is something we discussed after the core team was selected”.

Sports Ministry 

In the projected expenditure, the ministry had listed Rs. 21,000 for weekly sporting events. Only Rs. 10,543 has been used so far. 

The ministry also undertook other initiatives such as appointing a female trainer at the gym and collaborating with The Ashoka Basketball Association (ABA) to make registration more financially accessible,  aiming to promote inclusivity.

According to the AUSG’s monthly reports from January and February, a Gym committee has been working towards enhancing facilities and student experience. The report also mentioned consulting with a sports psychologist to support the well-being of student athletes and introducing initiatives to make sports accessible to students with disabilities. In April 2025, in collaboration with Jazbaa and Special Olympics Bharat, Ashoka Chapter (SOBAC), they organised SAMARAS, Ashoka’s Inclusivity Focused Sports Fest.

(Edited by Srijana Siri)