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CLEAN-Jhansi : A Blooming Endeavour Manuja Shukla cleanjhansi@yahoo.co.in C lean, it seems, has become a forgetful term for a paradoxically clean
modern society. Man, in his pursuit for development, has gradually become greedy and selfish. He has exploited the wealth of nature for his own personal greed and in turn left the poor environment all littered and spoiled by the waste produced. Unfortunately, in this course of action he had forgotten that the environment is that what supports the life systems and its resources. In fact, it is high time that man should repay and conserve his environment for his own growth and development, be in harmony with nature and not oppose its processes and cycles and realize that this is essential for the very existence of the human race. CLEAN-India, the Community Led Environment Action Network is one such effort by Development Alternatives to create an environmental awareness movement in schools and gradually reach out to the society through its young ambassadors. It aims at helping people protect their environment through motivation, propagating change in consumption pattern and providing eco friendly concepts, and technical assistance. CLEAN believes that the growing human minds are the ones that could be molded to form individuals who understand the responsibility of conserving nature and grow with it and not grow at its cost. CLEAN-Jhansi is a blooming endeavour that commenced with just one school, Christ the King College, in the year 2000 and has at present taken seven schools in its fold as members of our programme. And, as a zonal head-quarter, we intend to expand it to ten schools this year. The city has been divided into six zones and each school has been allotted a specific zone for carrying out the CLEAN drive. CLEAN-Jhansi carries out seasonal water and air monitoring during summers, monsoons and winters. In an effort to convey our message to the society, the students work vigorously on community based activities like plantation in vacant places where there are no trees, anti – polybag campaigns, distributing paper bags to shop keepers and also communicating the hazardous impact of poly bags on the environment. In fact, the students make paper bags on a regular basis in their S.U.P.W. classes and distribute / propagate them in the market. The teachers trained in the CLEAN orientation workshop make a major contribution to make this programme sustainable by incorporating CLEAN in their syllabus. Till date, the member students have carried on two rallies against the usage of polybags, which was extensively supported by the local cable and print media. The creative slogans were a definite sign of the enthusiasm of the participants for the cause. In an effort to intensify the impact against polybags, students from all member schools had gathered on Earth Day’2003 for a clean up drive. With all traffic coming to a standstill and passers-by enquiring about the whole programme and some of them even joining hands, it was a major success. Next morning, the city headlines were all about CLEAN and the students' brigade promising a better tomorrow. Students also campaigned for eco friendly idols on durga puja festival and insisted on their parents and friends to buy only clay idols. They had even promoted such clay idols made by women self help groups in villages. CLEAN had also organised an interactive session with parents of the students on parent – teacher meet in one of the schools to form a parents – eco club. Anti –cracker campaign was another success where the students displayed anti-cracker badges on their shirts to express that they won’t be bursting crackers on Diwali. A special session of assembly was organised where the students took the pledge of not bursting crackers. Under the banner of CLEAN, an effort is made to take our member students for various excursions and educational trips. The visit to a Water Treatment Plant was one such learning experience for the kids. They were surprised to see what all was being done to ensure safe, continuous supply of clean water to homes (though the magnitude of problem still faced at the consumer end is another story to be dealt with separately). Every member school takes keen interest on a visit to TARAgram. They are all excited to see the hand made paper unit and to realize that they themselves can recycle paper in there own school. The Jal TARA filter is yet another attraction that is equally applicable for schools. Our major transition towards community activities is slowly gaining visibility. The students of St. Francis Convent, Jhansi had made a number of posters before the closure of school for summer vacations, and pasted them at many visible places in the city, depicting environmental and eco friendly concepts. The students are all enthusiastic and motivated to carry on the mission and message forward. Recently, all CLEAN students had actively participated in a clean up drive of a local lake. There are many tasks lying ahead with big plans. Changing the ground situation and motivating minds is a big challenge to be faced by such small brigades. Miles to go before I sleep....... q |
