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Glimpses of CLEAN India Maneesha Gopalakrishnan Children from across the country take part in the CLEAN India movement. This article provides glimpses of the work being done by these children in different parts of India. CLEAN - Delhi I n the year 1996, Development Alternatives received a mobile environment monitoring laboratory from Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for a community outreach programme. In the same year, the organisation developed a portable water testing kit. Both these developments, coupled with the support from a group of professionals, teachers and students were instrumental in launching the first chapter of CLEAN in Delhi, the national capital. The foremost objective of the programme was to extensively monitor the quality of Delhi’s environment which was deteriorating rapidly.Since CLEAN was a new concept for schools in Delhi, a series of workshops were organised to brief Principals of many public and government schools. These were followed by more intensive theme-based orientation workshops for teachers and students. These workshops were designed to explain the role of schools in an extensive programme on environment monitoring of Delhi. Thus, CLEAN was launched in Delhi in August 1996 and the programme became popular as Delhi Environment Action Network or DEAN. Today, 25 schools are members of DEAN. Each of these schools play an important role by monitoring the quality of the local environment. To facilitate this process, the city of Delhi has been delineated into 12 zones and each school monitors the quality of the zone it is located in. Children further create awareness about the quality of environment at the community level. Achievements of DEAN Realising the rapidly deteriorating quality of water in Delhi, the first phase of the programme addressed the issue of monitoring the drinking water quality. Samples of drinking water from the municipal supply and ground water are collected by students from all over the city. A minimum distance of 2 km is maintained between two sampling points. Today, 190 water monitoring stations have been identified across Delhi and samples of water from these stations are analysed by children seasonally. The results of water quality are conveyed to the public through the local newspapers and exhibitions. The data has also been projected on maps using the Geomatic Information System (GIS). Intensive monitoring to check coliform contamination is undertaken during monsoons. DEAN Children are creating awareness on how to maintain the potability of water. As the awareness on the need to assess the water quality is growing, more and more people have started approaching the DEAN schools to analyze the water.Some of the other projects undertaken by schools are on energy conservation and campaign to reduce the use of polybags. The campaign took the form of a house to house survey, in which each child carried the message to atleast five households. In the pipeline are programmes on monitoring the quality of the river Yamuna, air quality monitoring and initiation of projects to improve the environmental quality at the school and community level. Some of the projects already identified are on vermicomposting, tree plantation, medicinal plants , recycling paper, etc. Phase I of DEAN received financial support from the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. The present phase is being supported by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Catholic Relief Services, Coca Cola - India and the Ministry of Environment & Forests.Hundreds of children have participated in the DEAN Campaign. Some of them have been inspired to undertake professional courses in the field of environment. Others have pledged to become environmentally conscious citizens. CLEAN - Meghalaya The second chapter of CLEAN was launched in Shillong by the Bethany Society in 1997. The organisation initiated the programme with the mission: "Education as if the Earth mattered". The programme revolves around three modules prioritized after assessing the most urgent needs of the North East, particularly Meghalaya. These three modules are garbage-watch, water-watch and biodiversity-watch. The thrust in the modules rests on creating environmental awareness amongst school and college students and ultimately the community. Bethany Society has involved the participation of almost a dozen schools in Shillong to undertake the activities of CLEAN. Children from these schools have started monitoring the quality of the streams that flow in the rural areas adjacent to Shillong. In collaboration with Meghalaya Environment Active Legislation, CLEAN -Meghalaya conducted a cleanup drive at the Umshyrpi river. People from different communities and age groups participated in this drive. As a part of the garbage-watch programme, students have started a project on vermicomposting. A unique project undertaken in 1998 was a massive drive to collect used batteries and dispose them in a concrete landfill site. The idea being to prevent the toxic waste from reaching the normal garbage dumping grounds and polluting the soil. In the first phase, the programme received support from the Canadian International development Agency - CIDA.
CLEAN - Faizabad Situated in the headquarters of the district Faizabad (and very close to the controversial town of Ayodhya) is an enterprising school called JB Academy. The management of the school launched the CLEAN programme in Faizabad in 1998. Since then the students of the school have been monitoring the drinking water quality at different public places. Different points of the Sarayu river have also been monitored by the children. Taking part in the activities of CLEAN has been a very unique experience for the children of this school. Some of them exhibited their work at the National Science Congress and were applauded for their work. q
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