Spreading the message of non-violence through toys

What do you do when your child asks for a toy? You buy it, right? Sudib Ahimsa does the opposite. He collects waste materials and creates a brand new toy. An advocate of sustainable living, 41-year-old Sudib has been teaching the concept of Ahimsa toys to children around the country for almost a decade. As part of his mission, he recently conducted his maiden workshop in Coimbatore.
“It was great working with the children here and I got a good response. In fact, the mother of one of the participants, greeted me with a customary welcome gift of Tamil Nadu,” says the IIT alumnus.
From being directionless in life at one point of time to a person who is making a huge difference in the lives of people, Subid has come a long way. “I did many odd jobs and worked at different places. But, it was my meeting with innovator and toy maker Arvind Gupta from Pune that changed my life forever. He creates toys out of waste material. I worked with him for a while and was quite inspired by him. My work is of a similar kind, albeit with my own touch. The concept of Ahimsa toys is to spread non-violence and love, and at the same time, sustainable living. Be it a straw, old calendar, books or even discarded object, all these are converted into a toy. Toys are a great medium to spread the message of waste management, self-reliance and sustainability.”
Though Sudib conducts workshops in toy making, he says that children do not really need toys. “For children, even their parents are toys. They can play with anything and anyone. So, why bombard them with so many materials in the form of toys and create waste? Even if you make toys from trash, they will be happy. They also understand everything better. My workshops focus on children as I find them more knowledgeable than adults. For, instance, take their primary quality of innocence. They learn better because of their clear mind. Children do not know about caste, colour or other prejudices like us. We bring them down by teaching all that. There should be no boundaries or barriers for children to learn. At the same time, they are also great teachers. I have picked up many techniques from them.”
Subid also employs a different method of teaching. “I allow children to learn themselves and in teams. Normal teaching kills the very ability to learn on your own, thus destroying self-confidence. We need to alter the education system for better learning and freedom.”
Subid is a strong critic of industrialization and development. “Mainstream development teaches us to compete with others and kill, thus propagating violence. If you look at human history, there is a lot of violence. Right from a mosquito to a person in an enemy nation, we have killed them. Today, violence has become a normal thing. Is that the solution to a problem? Development also creates a lot of waste. For instance, when you buy a mosquito coil or a machine, you generate waste and add to the pollution. We have abused the environment and resources so much so that it’s high time we embraced a different kind of lifestyle. Mainstream development spreads hatred. On the other hand, I spread love and convert waste to wealth. I believe that the most wasted things on the planet are our brain and time. We need to put them to good use. Ahimsa toys is a step toward that.”