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8th CLEAN-India Annual
Meet D evelopment Alternatives launched its Community Led Environment Action Network (CLEAN-India) programme in 1996. The programme emphasizes environment education among school children as a means of promoting awareness among the citizens. Currently, CLEAN-India is anchored by more than 1000 students from 30 schools in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon. Similar endeavours are also being carried out by 28 more CLEAN-India centres, ranging from Ranikhet in North to Nagercoil in South through various NGOs and schools.The CLEAN-India Meet is a forum for CLEAN-India members across the country to interact and voice their concerns about the state of environment in their respective towns/cities. It is an opportunity for them to showcase their activities and the remedial actions taken by them to improve the quality of the environment. The purpose of the meet is to provide students with a platform to spread their message to the community about scientific solutions to environmental problems. The 8th Annual CLEAN-India Meet was held on 5th February, 2005 in New Delhi. Over 300 students, teachers and NGO coordinators from Delhi, Nagpur, Jaipur, Aurangabad, Jhansi, Gwalior, Sagar, Indore, Lucknow, Bangalore, Pudukottai, Dindigul, and Nagercoil participated in the meet. Dr. Alexander Spachis, Minister Counsellor, Delegation of European Commission to India was the Chief Guest for the day. The theme of this year’s CLEAN-India meet was Community Action. Thirteen of the CLEAN-India centres, including Delhi, presented and shared their initiatives and success in community action for environmental conservation. The day previous to the meet (4th Feb, 2004) was earmarked for exposure visits to environmental action initiatives taken up under the CLEAN-India programme in various communities and schools of Delhi.
On the 4th of February 2004, the CLEAN-India Meet was inaugurated at Sanskriti School, one of the pioneer schools in the sphere of environmental action. Member students of the school’s Eco-club along with the Eco-Club in-charge, Ms. Nita Ganguly, explained to the visitors the various environmental initiatives taken up by the school. These included the following:
The National Coordinator of CLEAN-India, Col. V. Katju, spoke on the need of the partners to move from assessment and awareness initiatives to community action. There was a presentation and demonstration of city farming (growing vegetables using household waste) by Dr. R.R. Deshpande of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Aurangabad. This was followed by a visit to Uppal’s Orchid, an eco-friendly hotel that has taken various environmental initiatives in the field of energy conservation, waste management and water conservation.
Next was the visit to C-9 block Vasant Kunj, where the residents set up a vermi-composting pit, with technical support from DA. The participants discussed with the RWA members the various hurdles they faced in the implementation of a solid waste management system in the community and how these were overcome. At the end of the day, Dr. Ashok Khosla, President, Development Alternatives, addressed the participants of the meet and made a presentation on Ecosystem services and what CLEAN-India could do in preserving and enhancing these services. On 5th February 2005, students from the various CLEAN-India centres set up exhibits of the various environment-friendly initiatives taken up by them at the community level. These included paper recycling, tree plantation, vermi-composting, medicinal plants and their use, water harvesting and purification, etc. A Placard making competition on the theme of paper recycling was organised. This was followed by the formation of a Human chain. A Clay Modelling competition was also held, in which children made beautiful idols of Lord Ganesha. The idea was to promote eco-friendly idol immersion. Dr. Spachis spoke of CLEAN-India as an initiative to empower people to become active agents of sustainable development, promote an understanding among communities for changing their attitudes towards environmental issues and advocate partnerships for a safer future. He saw the growing network as an opportunity for children to explore their planet and take stock of the state of their inheritance. Dr. H.Y. Mohan Ram, an eminent professor from Delhi Univrsity, made a presentation on trees and medicinal herbs. Mr. B. Sengupta, Member Secretary CPCB, openly appreciated the efforts of Development Alternatives in assessing and managing the air and water quality of the city. Mr. George C Varughese, Vice President, Development Alternatives spoke of CLEAN-India as a novel idea and a model programme, a fact well acknowledged by the European Commission. CLEAN-Gwalior, CLEAN- Dindigul and CLEAN-Aurangabad were awarded the best CLEAN-Central, South and West Zone centre trophies, respectively for their concerted efforts in the field of Environment Community Action. Salwan School (Morning) was awarded the best CLEAN- Delhi school trophy for the year 2004-05. The stall on vermi-composting by CLEAN- Bangalore was declared the best stall at the exhibition. q |
