Inside Project Vayu: Delhi students turn kulhads and scrap wood into eco-coolers for underprivileged government school kids

Necessity is the mother of invention and when topped with creativity, it leads to greatness. While some save themselves from the heat with the help of switching on their air conditioners or turning on their coolers, others have to subsist with hand fans. Here comes the difference of affordability and accessibility, making summer a season some love and others abhor.

In order to make a difference and help out those in need, six students from Delhi's The Shri Ram School, Moulsari, made use of kulhads, scrap wood and metal to turn compassion into creativity and make cool, breathable classrooms accessible to underprivileged students in government schools.

Their initiative, Project Vaayu, merges traditional wisdom with modern design to create low-cost, sustainable coolers for government schools. “Earlier, I used to feel hot. Now, after this cooler has been installed, it feels nice. I can even focus on my studies,” said Harish, a Class 5 student from a government school in Delhi's V Block.

It was in April 2024, when Delhi was enduring temperatures close to 50 degrees Celsius. Even in air-conditioned classrooms the heat was unbearable. “We were struggling to focus despite all our privileges,” recalled project leader Amaira Kapoor. “We wondered how government school students without fans or cooling systems were coping.”

The team which includes Amaira, Kartikeya Shastri, Zoey Singh, Shayan Sethi, Jovika Nagpal, and Nevan Roy visited a nearby government school to find out. There they found students sitting in cramped concrete classrooms under tin roofs, sweating through lessons. “That visit changed everything,” said Amaira. Now, the matter was not that of heat, but that of equity and empathy.

All hands on deck

Determined to act, the students brainstormed solutions that would be:

• eco-friendly
• affordable
• less power-consuming

This is where they were reminded of the age-old practice of evaporative cooling. “When we explain it in Hindi, people immediately connect it to matkas, the clay pots that keep water cool,” Amaira noted. “That’s when they ask, ‘Why isn’t this everywhere already?’”

How do the eco-coolers work?

The coolers use recycled kulhads (clay tea cups) arranged in a wooden frame and reinforced with scrap metal. Water flows over the porous cups which absorb and slowly release it through evaporation. Thus, they naturally cool the air constantly, with the help of a small water pump, while silica gel seals prevent leakage.

These eco-coolers help reduce the temperatures by 6-10 degrees Celsius in the classroom, truly making a difference. Moreover, these coolers were assembled by these young lads in their homes and backyards, rather than in high-tech labs. Rhe sourced everything from kabadiwalas while families and volunteers joined in to help, along with a local technician. "We constructed everything ourselves,” said Zoey Singh. “It was all trial, error, and learning.”

The team also won the second prize at the 'Youth for Earth' competition, organised by the Climate Reality Project and Mobius Foundation. The cash prize with the award further helped strengthen the mission.

In September 2024, the first cooler was installed in a government primary school classroom. By May 2025, five coolers were operating across four schools, benefitting over 400 students. Data collected from these classrooms confirmed that the temperature dropped significantly, and the learning environment improved dramatically, which was affirmed by the Principal of a government school, Project Vaayu operated in.

“The cooler has brought down the temperature by a few degrees,” said Parveen, Principal at the V Block school. “Students feel happier, and a more comfortable environment encourages attendance.”

Now, not only have these students truly positively impacted and helped out others, but they have also become role models for their juniors, who are learning the importance of sustainability and community service from them.

The team’s immediate goal is to install five more coolers and reach 1,000 students. “We’ve proven this works. Now, we want to take it further,” Zoey says. They also hope to expand to other community spaces: government hospitals, animal shelters, and rural learning centres.

“We’re told young people are the future. But we can be part of the present too. Change doesn’t need perfection; it starts with a single observation, a local problem, or one school,” added Amaira.