Meghalaya: In a first, Nongstoin School Children spearhead Swachh Bharat mission; set example for all!

These Swachh Bharat Ambassadors from a small Meghalaya Town called Nongstoin are on a Cleanliness Mission!

'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' is an adage we were mostly taught in our Moral Science lessons but hardly ever bothered to live by it. This makes me vividly remember my schooldays in Auxilium Convent, Shillong wherein each of the 4 houses was given the responsibility of cleaning the classroom once a week and we would do so diligently, but without enthusiasm as we thought our play time was being consumed by this cleanliness drive. However, once out of the school premise, no body cared much about cleanliness, leave alone becoming Swachh Bharat Ambassadors! But today, 10 years down the line, things have changed and students are unlike what we were before.

In a small town of Meghalaya called Nongstoin situated in West Khasi Hills, students of nearly 25 schools and colleges including teachers took to the road on the afternoon of June 23rd cleaning the streets thus marking the beginning of great transformation in Nongstoin town.

This plan was mooted by the District Administration during the celebration of World Environment Day. The idea was to bring children on to the streets to have weekly cleaning drives of public parks, their own localities, roads stretches, market areas, public places etc as part of the Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) curriculum.

It may be mentioned that the last period of every Friday has been designated for cleaning purpose so that children can go home directly and wash after the task. Also, in order to deal with non complying students and also to reward the students for their good deed, teachers will give internal marks to students based on their performance in cleaning exercise. A particular zone has been earmarked for each school. Not just in Nongstoin town, the BDOs have been asked to draw up an action plan to take this initiative to each and every village.

With bamboo brooms in one hand hand polythene on another to pick up the rags, these school children are not only contributing towards a clean and healthy living but are also sensitising others in and around their area of operation about the importance of cleanliness.

Bamboo-brooms, bamboo baskets (khoh), spade and such other tools have been given to the schools by the District Administration under Chief Minister's Youth for Green Campaign scheme. For the most part of it, cleanliness drives have been reduced to mere symbolic gestures to be conducted either on World Environment Day or Independence Day or Gandhi Jayanti. But, in this case, for once, these young students are becoming agents of change.

Although slightly coaxed in the beginning by the administration, the students are expected to drive the initiative for a long time to come. The response from students has been very encouraging and promising so far. Even on June 30, students of St. Francis College, Siejlieh as well as Nongstoin Public Secondary School conducted a cleaning drive. The initiative has entered into its third week and the response has been great so far as informed by the Deputy Commissioner, Nongstoin, Mr. Arunkumar Kembhavi while adding, "Such initiatives and individuals should be celebrated".

It may be noted that in countries like Japan, most of the schools do not even have sweepers or janitors. The children do all the work including scrubbing the floors and cleaning the toilets. Our students need to understand that there is no shame in doing such work and keeping our surroundings clean.

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Instructions have been given to children to handle only dry wastes, not to touch wet wastes/hazardous wastes, be mindful of the traffic movement, not to cause disturbance to the general public etc. Vehicles have been arranged to collect the garbage and shift it to SLRM center, which is the designated place for scientific disposal of wastes.

Cleaning is one thing and creating awareness not to litter is more important than cleaning itself. Hence students have been requested to be the Swachh Bharat Ambassadors under which they will sensitise and create awareness among food stalls and road side vendors to put a dustbin for their stall users and encourage customers to put the paper plates, plastic covers, glasses etc in that bin only. Hundreds of public dustbins have already been installed in the town area.

Swachh Bharat Mission is not just a slogan, it is a way of life, and it is the mindset. With this awesome step, Nongstoin has moved closer to becoming the cleanest town in Northeast India. If these students can do it, so can we!

–Edited by Shweta Raj Kanwar with content from Deputy commissioner Nongstoin Facebook Page