There were several ideas behind celebrating Earth Day in a rural setting:

n To make rural people conscious of their environment.

n To facilitate interaction between the Jhansi CLEAN-India student and the students of the village.

n To facilitate an interactive learning process amongst the students.

n To let students become aware of urban, rural differences.

The Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Jhansi,
was the chief guest.

How it started

n The celebration started with an exposure visit of the village by the Jhansi school students; They also made valid suggestions on health awareness, hygiene, education, etc.

n A brief introduction on Earth Day was given.

n The CLEAN-India students from Jhansi shared their experiences on being a CLEAN-India member and the village students shared their experiences and spoke of the problems they faced.

n The students with the support of villagers came up remedial suggestions like no defecation in the open and so on.

n The BSA Jhansi, Mr.D.N. Singh, appreciated the team for their initiative and urged the students to take care of their environment.

n To make the programme more participatory a "Learn with Fun" session was organized, in which the students from Jhansi and the village grouped themselves so that there were 10 students in five groups from Jhansi and a similar grouping from the village. They were asked to pick up chits of paper which had themes like water, health, hygiene, pollution, waste etc.written on them.

n They were given 25 minutes to prepare a skit on the subject.

n Groups presented skits based on the themes selected by them.

n The skits were judged and prizes awarded to the best.

The result was a good coordinated effort between the rural and urban groups

The children and the villagers showed a lot of enthusiasm and were very excited.

The village sarpanch and the women were very happy about their children learning. CLEAN-India team proposes to form a Child Panchayat to take the work forward.

Lalbagh is a 240 acre botanical garden in the southern part of Bangalore. The garden has over 1,000 species of flora. It is now almost three years since all disposable plastic products were banned in Lalbagh. This was introduced through a directive by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in 2004. On their part the Lalbagh authorities have made an attempt to implement the ban by putting up large notices all over the park informing visitors that no plastic was allowed in the park. However, the reality is that the Indian public remains indifferent. As a result large volumes of plastic waste continue to mar much of the beauty of Lalbagh. Visitors who use the park for picnics bring in plastic and leave behind litter ever though there are bins provided for disposal.

As a part of the Earth Day celebrations a month long programme was organized by Development Alternatives and Saahas (a local NGO) in association with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the Department of Horticulture to enforce the existing directive to ensure that no plastic is brought into the park. Students from various schools and volunteers participated in the event.

All the authorities for the maintenance of the park were involved in implementing the programme. The security guards at the gates and inside the park were informed of their duties and the importance of their cooperation to make this programme a success. Hoardings were put up in different parts of the city and announcements were made over radio to create awareness among the public.

The programme kick started on the April 1, with a street play on the harmful effects of plastics by the students of CLEAN-India schools (Innisfree House School and Presidency School, RT Nagar). This was followed by a walkathon where students went around the park shouting slogans and urged visitors to help in making the park plastic free. There was extensive media coverage on the event. The street play was performed in intervals in various areas of the park. Volunteers along with the security guards checked the bags of visitors at the gates. Cloth or paper bags were provided as alternatives on small payment. The students also interacted with the vendors and asked them to cooperate to eradicate littering. NCC students participated in a week long clean up drive to remove plastics that were strewn around in the park.

The Earth Day was celebrated on April 21, where representatives from the KSPCB and Department of Horticulture participated. Students of National Public School, Rajajinagar along with students of Innisfree House School and Presidency School, RT Nagar performed a skit on the harmful effects of plastics followed by a walkathon inside the park.

To sustain the programme, Department of Horticulture in association with the KSPCB has agreed to organize a training workshop for the security guards on their role and responsibilities to ensure that no plastic is bought into the park even after the awareness programme is over.

The theme for this year was Celebrating the River, with the aim of sensitizing the young minds towards the state of river Yamuna in Delhi. Students from different schools were taken for monitoring the water quality at different locations to assess the water quality of the river. The results were alarming and it clearly highlighted the deterioration in the water quality as the river flows from Wazirabad to Okhla. Students were given an analytical feedback so as to ascertain the reasons for the deteriorating water quality in Yamuna.

The event was held on April 22, on the banks of Yamuna at Chandgiram Akraha where around 300 students from five schools of Delhi participated. The programme began with registration, then T shirts and caps were distributed to the participating schools. The students were taken on a boat ride upstream of the venue where they performed shramdaan and removed water hyacinth near the banks. The aim of the exercise was to bring the river closer to the hearts of the students and show them the state of the precious water resource of our city. The Chief Guest for the function, Shri Sandeep Dikshit, MP addressed the students, and encouraged them to work for raising the awareness on the apathy to river Yamuna and be responsible citizens by not indulging in any activities that damage our environmental resources.

Next was a musical programme by the Manzil Group, a young band of seven 7 teenagers. The band is an indigenous musical group of Delhi and their performance was a series of five songs depicting various shades of life and environment.

Bibhu Samal & Romit Sen