The CLEAN-India MEET is an annual event that provides a forum for the school children to voice their concerns about the state of our environment and also spread awareness among the community and to take action on environment related initiatives.  The objectives of the Meet are:

The 6th CLEAN-India Annual Meet held during 31st Jan ’03 – 1st Feb ’03 served as a platform for the school children to interact with likeminded students from various parts of the country and take remedial actions to improve the environment thereby making the community aware. It also gave them an opportunity to learn about the environment by way of various workshops.

The 2-day Meet comprised of three major events- Workshops on environment, Presentations by CLEAN Members and Clean up drive at the ridge. Students and teachers from the member schools of Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and from 15 CLEAN-India centres (Jhansi, Bangalore, Varanasi, Ranikhet, Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow, Aurangabad, Amreli, Nagpur, Pune, Dehradun, Ahmedabad, Kurnool, Dindigul and Udaipur) actively participated in this Meet.

In keeping with the objectives of the meet, the event had the following major components:

31st January, 2003

Interactive Enrichment Workshops on different aspects of environment were conducted by eminent experts for the outstation members of CLEAN Centres.
 

1. “Making Animal Toys out of waste’’ by Ms. Bahar Dutt

The resource person with the help of slide presentation and interactive sessions with the children showed them how animals get bored in an urban environment or a zoo and how boredom in animals can be reduced with the help of toys like bird feeders, monkey puzzles, jungle gyms etc made from waste. The workshop sensitized the children to the needs of animals and made them aware of ways of reusing waste for the benefit of animals.

Ms Bahar Dutt is an animal activist and works with the Wildlife Trust of India.

2. Trees for Life by  Prof. H.Y Mohan Ram

Through beautiful slides Prof. Mohan Ram imparted valuable information about the properties of trees and their various uses. The photographs gave children a glimpse of the unique trees like the oldest tree in India, tree with the largest span, tallest tree etc.  The workshop helped the children understand the various functionalities of a tree and their importance in our lives.

Prof. Mohan Ram, a renowned botanist was professor and Head of Botany Department, Delhi University.
 

3. Creative Expressions by Mr. Rajiv Ashish

The workshop emphasized on how issues of environment can be put across to people through creative media in the form of street plays. Teachers and students actively took part in the proceedings and with the help of the resource person formulated plays representing the problems of the environment. Techniques of throwing voices, incorporating songs in a play etc were effectively brought out through this workshop.

Mr. Rajiv Ashish is an eminent theatre person who has trained many children and groups in theatre and street plays.

1st February, 2003

Presentations by CLEAN-India centres

The students from the Delhi schools presented a skit on the CLEAN programme highlighting its achievements and outreach while CLEAN centres like Jhansi, Bangalore, Pune, Udaipur, etc put across their messages for the environment through plays, skits, songs etc.

Release of “Children of the Monsoon- South Asia: State of the Environment 2002, The Youth Version”. This report brought out under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with SACEP, NORAD and Development Alternatives, has been written by the Children of the Monsoon (the Youth of South Asia) as a stimulus for action. This well illustrated report brings into fore the problems and solutions but most importantly it calls upon each one of us to act and become responsible for collective action.

”Concerns for Delhi’s Lungs”

A Talk by Mr. Ravi Aggarwal emphasized on the problems faced by the Delhi Ridge and its inhabitants. The slide presentation helped the students realize the importance of the ridge and made them appreciate the value of conserving it.

Mr. Ravi Aggarwal is the founder of Srishti, an environmental NGO.

Certificate of participation to encourage the efforts made by the students who participated in the programme in 2002 and certificate of appreciation for all the teachers for their efforts in coordinating the programme at the school level were awarded .Certificates for existing CLEAN centres and resource packs for new CLEAN-India centres were also awarded.

The Best CLEAN-Delhi School of the Year was awarded to Gyan Mandir Public School, Naraina on the basis of various criteria like Students Involvement, Teachers Involvement, Initiative of School, Consistency of Work, Quality of Work, Popularisation and Continuity of Programme.

The school received a pack a Gift Voucher of Rs. 2000/- to buy ECO Products from TARA and the  Rolling Trophy.

Clean up drive at the ridge

The highlight of the day was the clean up drive which brought the Action mode of the CLEAN programme to the fore.

The Delhi Ridge was the focus of the campaign as it constitutes the major green area of the city. The area selected was near the Mahavir Vatika, which is part of the Central Ridge. Mahavir Vatika was chosen as the assembling point from where the students armed with gloves, rakes, gunny bags and a lot of enthusiasm moved out to their designated sites on the Simon Bolivar Marg along with the D. A staff to carry out the activity of picking up all the polybags and waste that were littering a part of the Ridge.

One of the areas which was cleaned is the so called “Monkey Point”, situated at the intersection of Sardar Patel Marg and Simon Bolivar Marg. As this area is a home for many monkeys, many people frequent this place to feed them and consequently throw the poly bags in which they carry the food. As the area is inside the Ridge, and thus outside the purview of municipal Authorities cleaning, over the years the place had become a virtual heap of poly bags. Not only was this affecting the growth of trees and plants but was proving to be harmful for the monkeys  that indulged in playing and nibbling the poly bags . This area was given a face lift by the students and cleaned of polybags.  A garbage collection van from NDMC was deployed on the spot to collect the garbage and the students enthusiastically took turns to put the bags of the garbage in the van. Students actively took part in the distribution of Green Code pamphlets at the traffic intersection and in turn made the people aware of the ongoing activity and the importance of conserving the ridge.

At the end of the event every student was convinced that it is only action that can bring about a change in people’s attitudes. The students left for their homes with the determination that they will conduct similar drives around their schools and thereby involve more and more people in keeping our neighbourhood and our city clean. 

Overall, the 6th CLEAN Meet proved to be beneficial for the students and highlighted the assessment, awareness and action mode of CLEAN India programme.  q

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