We Made it Happen: CLEAN-India
From Assessment to Awareness to Action

 Romit Sen                            rsen@devalt.org

The biggest challenge that the world faces today is how we all can live comfortably without causing any harm to the environment and the natural resources. We may go on producing bumper agricultural produce but if the productivity of our land resources is getting depleted, it is not sustainable development.

        Our ever-growing population, with its ever-increasing needs, is considered the prime culprit for the present state of the environment. To an extent, this is a bitter reality that we are realising. If we carry on like this, then our future is bound to be very bleak.  Today, there are people who care for the environment as they are becoming more and more aware about the consequences if we do not bring a change in our attitude.

        We can rebuild or shape our future by choosing the right policies, right alternatives and developing proper institutional mechanisms. It is also important that we bring about a sense of collective responsibility in the people.  The best way is to make the future generations realise the need for environmental conservation.

        With the mission to nurture and groom young sensitive minds of India, DA embarked upon the CLEAN-India programme (Community Led Environment Action Network) in 1996. Now a nation-wide programme, CLEAN-India works with school children and communities to create environmental awareness and undertake environment improvement actions. The underlying realisation is that “each one of us is responsible for the current state of environment in the country, and we can not wait for someone else to solve it “.

        The “CLEAN - India” programme creates a sense of responsibility in every individual. The approach the programme adopts is to provide opportunities to students and communities to understand and learn more about the quality of the environment and use their findings to create or demand solutions. The role of children is to trigger the process by acting as a catalyst. They are, however, joined by the elders in its implementation.

        At the beginning, our aim was to make the people aware of the state of the environment. We started assessing our environmental resources. Water and air quality was monitored in the cities where we were operational and thus, we had the information about the state of our resources.   We did not confine ourselves to making the people simply aware of the resources but at the same time, we enlarged our scope of work by working towards increasing the green cover of our cities. We also promoted the celebration of festivals in an eco-friendly way.

        The CLEAN-India Programme has completed three years now. As it was conceived, the programme had to move from an assessment stage to an awareness stage and then had to show tangible action on the ground, since it is not possible to attempt the goal of saving the environment without real action on the ground.

        The past year has witnessed various environmental improvement actions being conducted at the community level by all the CLEAN-India centres. City farming and vermi-composting has been initiated in all CLEAN  towns and cities. Paper recycling propagated by CLEAN-India has received strong support from state governments. Massive tree plantation drives have resulted in an increase in the green cover in many cities. Besides, plantation, the  use of medicinal herbs is being promoted on a large scale by setting up herbal corners in schools and communities. Massive campaigns to promote eco-friendly celebration of festivals have resulted in changes in both government policies and individual practices.  The following table summarises the action programmes conducted across the country under the CLEAN-India programme:

                CLEAN-India is progressing towards achieving the aim of “CLEAN” communities. We have tried to change the attitude and the mindset of the people. Some of the experiences have borne fruitful results though some have not met the desired expectations. However, we are optimistic and will carry on with our mission and vision of making our surroundings clean. q

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