Action CLEAN

Today most of our towns and cities are unable to cope with the rapid pace of urbanisation. People do not understand that it is their right to clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, proper housing, education and health. We also shun our responsibility of keeping our environment clean. It is an acceptable fact that no government can keep cities clean by mere enforcement of environmental laws. Public co-operation and participation is vital for cleaner and greener cities.

"The child is the father of man" and thus a powerful agent of education. The CLEAN-India programme realises the enormous potential hidden in the students and the youth who are capable of changing the world. The programme aims to mobilize community responsibility for environmental assessment and improvement in all major towns and cities of India. Presently CLEAN-India has a network of 35 schools in Delhi and 17 centres all over India.

Though school itself is a unit of the community, CLEAN-India is not confined to schools. The programme envisages learning for students through community service and scientific investigation. This helps the youth discover and implement lasting solutions to environmental issues in their community. It also develops life-long habits of active citizenship and environmental stewardship.

In the water quality monitoring programme, if students find the water quality to be poor they recommend simple steps to improve the water quality. This can be as simple as boiling water to using chlorine as a disinfectant. Followup action undertaken include stream cleaning in Shillong, spreading awareness to avoid bathing and washing activities near the water springs in Berinag to ensuring the school authorities regularly keep the water tanks cleaned and chlorinated in the schools.

Similarly after monitoring the air quality with the help of Pawan TARA Kit, students have been motivated to form car pools and report to the concerned authorities the numbers of polluting vehicles on roads.

CLEAN students have also spearheaded campaigns of local relevance to enthuse local communities to change their attitudes. Major issues which CLEAN students have campaigned for are the ill effects of the use of polybags and toxic colours during Holi, implications of bursting crackers during Diwali. Once the students are convinced about the issues, they actively campaign to further spread awareness in the school, neighbouring communities and even nearby schools. Whether the medium is creative street plays, public hearings, rallies, door to door signature campaigns, exhibitions, competitions, CLEAN students have been highly successful in spreading the message to more and more people. With the help of CLEAN-Delhi, Ramjas School, Delhi along with neighbourhood schools carried out a big campaign in their sector to make it a cracker free zone. This Holi, some of our schools made and sold natural Holi colours to parents and others. Making paper bags from old newspapers / notebooks, distributing them to shopkeepers and urging them to stop using polybags, is an activity which many schools undertake regularly in all CLEAN-India centres.

CLEAN students have over the years initiated various action projects in schools and are gradually extending it to the community. Many students have taken part in afforestation drives where the emphasis extends beyond the act of tree plantation. Students are taught how to take care of trees and nurture them. After planting in school they return home motivated to plant in their homes, parks and care more for the existing trees. Students also take part in drives to remove advertisements nailed into trees, remove tree guards from grown trees and to de-tile pavements close to the tree trunk.

Under the CLEAN’s solid waste management project, students among other things, have gained hands-on-experience in vermicomposting which shows them effective ways of taking care of biodegradable waste. In the process it brings alive the concepts learnt in class about decomposition in nature and how earthworms function. In many schools, the compost produced is also sold to the parents. Few schools like Shri Ram and Joseph and Mary in Delhi are now providing earthworms and helping people of nearby villages to initiate their own vermicomposting units. Clean-up drives in local parks and markets are also organised in which students very enthusiastically help in cleaning up and drive home the message that adults should not indulge in littering.

CLEAN-India is a dynamic programme, which keeps evolving with each formal or informal feedback received. Activities are included or modified as per the demands of the students or the local needs. For example in Shillong stream cleaning became a major activity, while campaigning for Yamuna was a priority in Delhi.

We can do it!

Our school is situated in a village called Burari. Villagers are rich but they are illiterate. They used to throw their garbage in front of their houses. Their places were the breeding places of mosquitos and other micro organisms. After we learnt vermicomposting from CLEAN-Delhi, we decided to spread this technique to the village. We made a pit in the village and advised villagers to throw their garbage in that pit. This way they are getting manure for their plants.

We led a rally against use of polybags in Burari village. Students spoke to the villagers and told them about the dangerous effects of polythene bags. They made paper bags and distributed it among the villagers.

There are about 20 water taps in our school. When students use this water, about half of the water is wasted. Near to these taps we made tank for the collection of this waste water and from this tank we pump water to our garden.

Vasundhara Eco Club, Joseph & Mary Public School, Delhi

The real success of the programme is visible in the seemingly simple acts like: students exchange books in a new academic session thus indirectly save paper and thereby also the trees; switching off lights before leaving their classrooms; closing a flowing tap even in public places; using natural colours during Holi, etc . The achievement of CLEAN-India is exemplified most when students opt for future studies in subjects related to environmental sciences and more so continue to be environmentally sensitive and active even in diverse fields. Most of all, the programme has proven that indeed child power can go a long way in bringing about attitudinal change in the society. After all they are our future.