Cleanliness Drive

Sasi Krishnan (Award Leader), Sanjay Ghodawat International School, Atigre, Kolhapur, Maharashtra is sharing a report on Cleanliness Drive.

Award participants of Sanjay Ghodawat International School, Atigre have undertaken a project in the village of Hatkanangale in the Old Market Area on 29th July 2017. All the 96 Bronze and 8 Silver participants were involved in this activities, supported by 15 teachers. The project is towards the Service Section of the Award programme. The main aim was to undertake a cleanliness drive to clean the open drains and thereby prevent the spread of various communicable diseases.

Initially, the team found the task difficult, because the drains had never been cleaned after they were made. They were stinking and choked with polythene and surrounded by tall grass. But with the cooperation of Mr Santhosh Redekar, one of the Ward Members of the Hatkanangale Gram Panchayat, the team managed to take up the drive and arranged sickles and baskets to clean the garbage.

Another problem that the team came across was finding a place to throw the garbage, as there was no bin kept for the garbage! Every house threw their garbage in the open space outside their house. The IAYP team first tried to convince people not to throw litter everywhere. The next problem was pulling up grass grown inside the drains -- this procedure was quite a challenge because the filth from the drain came out along with the grass; so the team got masks and gloves for the job. Once the team started doing it they got acquainted with the task and the villagers helped by providing tools like spades, water, sickles and sticks, etc. It took nearly three hours to clean the drains. It was a satisfying job to carry out the cleanliness drive regularly. The work was appreciated by the village folk and the elected Sarpanch of the village Mrs Anuradha Anil Kadam promised to lay out the sewerage line. Click here to check more pictures...