Chintan won Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award for the year 2014

Chintan, a non-government organisation was conferred the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, 2014 on 15 November 2014.

The award was given for cleaning the New Delhi railway station. Chintan is a non-government organisation working with waste pickers.

The winners were chosen by an independent jury. The winner will receive 50000 US dollar.

The award was conferred by Deutsche Bank co-chair, Anshu Jain. Chintan was one of the nine shortlisted organisations among 135 in contention for the award.

The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award is presented to initiatives that utilize partnerships to improve the quality of life and the quality of the urban environment.

Why the award was given?

The Chintan Material recovery Facility (MRF) project at the New Delhi Railway station manages tonnes of unsorted garbage from the numerous trains that arrive at the railway station every day. The garbage, which would otherwise end up in landfill dumps outside the city, is sorted into organic and non-organic waste by trained workers at the center.

The jury commended this project to stress the need to better manage waste in Indian cities and to highlight the potential for self-organisation through the creation of recycling centres.
The award is associated with the Urban Age project, a worldwide investigation into the future of cities jointly initiated by Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Urban Age Award is given to the best urban initiatives in various cities across the world. In the past, projects in Istanbul, Mexico City, Cape Town, Rio de Janerio, Sao Paolo, and Mumbai have been awarded.